Nothing to lose vs Everything to gain. Big beasts in ermine do battle over Europe

My Week

At the Institute of Directors conference on Tuesday, two lords of the political jungle squared off over Europe. They should have sold tickets for Lawson vs Mandelson; in fact, they had.

Lord Lawson told guests at the Royal Albert Hall of the European Union’s “contempt for democracy” – of a project driven by political aims, not economic ones – and berated Lord Mandelson for his “lack of self-confidence” in the UK.

Lord Mandelson acknowledged the “integration fatigue” felt in Europe but warned of the disruptive effect of “Brexit” on business, saying: “You can’t leave the EU one moment and re-enter the single market the next.”

What is interesting is that both of these figures have changed their mind over Europe. Lord Lawson was a strong supporter of the European Union when he was in the Cabinet; Lord Mandelson wanted to join the euro.

As minds have changed, times have changed too. Lord Mandelson pointed out that the export market is not as clear-cut as it was. Rather than finished goods being boxed up to leave these shores on their way to overseas buyers, UK manufacturers are part of complex supply chains that stretch across several countries. Because more than half of Britain’s trade is with the EU, pulling out would only increase that complexity.

There is a question over whether Lord Lawson is too far past his prime to lead the Conservatives for Britain “out” campaign. He confessed over lunch – and a glass or two of red – that he was a bit old for this sort of thing. But it is precisely because he has nothing to lose that he will be a leading voice in this debate.

On the other hand, Lord Mandelson is clear-sighted on the issue but you can’t help thinking he has one eye on where the next consultancy contract is going to come from.

Outsiders on the centre ground

Another, unannounced, lunch guest at the IoD was Lord Adonis, fresh from being pulled rabbit-like from George Osborne’s hat in the Chancellor’s party conference speech. As head of the National Infrastructure Commission, the Labour peer must get high-speed rail moving across the country, but also energy projects and perhaps, eventually, housebuilding too.

One of his former ministerial colleagues had been onstage at the IoD conference earlier: David Miliband, talking about the relief effort in response to the Syrian refugee crisis and what business leaders should be doing about it. As chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, Mr Miliband has some stunning statistics at his fingertips, stating that last year 20 million people crossed borders to escape conflict and another 40 million were rendered homeless in their own country.

Where does business come in? He talked of “your big heart” and “your hard head”. So not just money, then, but ideas – with Mr Miliband pointing out that most of the big problems he could think of were only solved by the combination of government leadership and business innovation.

It all made me think of what the rest of Labour’s talented centre-grounders could do for the next five years or more, now that their party has turned left. Lord Adonis had an answer. Britain’s biggest charities face a crisis over targeting vulnerable donors and trading personal data. They need political antennae as well as commercial ones.

Beats mouldering on the backbenches.

A whole new ball game

I thought there was little to learn from listening to chief executive Richard Scudamore regale the same conference with stories of the Premier League’s world domination – but I was wrong. Take, for example, what he regards as the organisation’s biggest rival. It is not the Bundesliga in Germany or La Liga in Spain but almost any other global entertainment company that is competing for viewers in Mumbai or Melbourne. And listen to this claim: the Premier League generates more overseas programme sales than the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5 and independent producers put together. That must make it part of the creative industries off the pitch as well as on it.

Mr Scudamore’s biggest worry is what happens as everything digitises. Will fans still sit through a full-length match when smartphones are shooting attention spans to pieces? The technology boffins who predicted that everything would be boiled down to three-minute video clips have gone strangely quiet now that day-long box-set binges courtesy of Netflix are in vogue. Ninety minutes seems like a decent compromise.

He who pays the piper…

Blood on the boardroom carpet and a hasty public-relations effort to mop up the mess – the Investment Association excelled itself this week with the ousting of chief executive Daniel Godfrey. This, remember, is the trade body for fund managers – the ones who demand the highest levels of corporate governance from the companies in which they sink clients’ money. That includes boardroom harmony, succession planning and all the good stuff that is meant to aid the creation of shareholder value.

Mr Godfrey might well have been on to something, championing reforms including greater transparency for customers. The party never really stopped for fund managers when the financial crisis struck, and an overhaul of the fees structure from which they benefit handsomely is long overdue.

But the error Mr Godfrey committed was forgetting what he was there for. For all the stakeholders that a trade body has – its members, government, the media – the ones who pay the wages must always take precedence.