The Economy

Lord Selsdon Excerpts

Thursday 28th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Selsdon (Con)]

My Lords, these are rather great times for the United Kingdom. It is the one country in the world that has the greatest opportunity on a global basis. That could be in part due to the Commonwealth and in part due to communication. I have to admit that I am only here because my grandfather, as Postmaster-General, laid the copper cables under the sea to the rest of the world. Those cables are the sole method of secret and confidential communication.

I spent my life in trade and the financing of trade. I remember, on odd occasions, when people would ask what I did for a living, that someone would whisper, “He’s in trade, you know”, as though being in trade was not a very gentlemanly or smart thing to do. However, we are and always have been a trading nation. We are global. With or without the Commonwealth, the historic nature of this nation is effectively to do things wherever it may be on the face of the earth.

When we come to look at our trading future, we have to look at what we are going to trade. When trade was the life-blood of the United Kingdom I got a bit worried and suddenly wondered how we could survive when we were not making steel anymore. When someone said that we cannot build the ships that we need for the Navy to defend ourselves on a global basis because of the collapse that has taken place recently, I wondered why and how these ideas come about. If we look at our own institutions on trade, I had the pleasure of serving under Lord Shackleton and Lord Jellicoe on the East European Trade Council in the very early days of communism. They kindly took me in under their wing, hoping that someone might be alive when the United Kingdom emerged from the ashes and wanted to trade on a global basis.

The opportunities are there, but one of the most important factors is how we train people and what for. Does it matter that the trade developments and investment opportunities go through embassies, or are there new institutions that could be created to advance these things? The noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, is very good at promoting India, which is one of my favourite countries because, for a period of time, I was appointed as an economic adviser to research the future of trade with India. I remember going into the Savoy Hotel to meet the head of the Indian delegation, Manubhai Shah—a remarkable man—who was sitting cross-legged on a table. We were paid by one of the aid agencies to look at the opportunities for India. It was one of those strange things when I arrived in Calcutta. I was obviously too young and unfit for the job that I was about to perform. I sat at dinner at the table and one of the waiters brought in a telephone and said, “Are you Lord Selsdon? There’s a telephone call for you”. The voice at the other end said, “Hello Peter, it’s Jai here. How’re you?”. How could I know that that was the Maharaja of Jaipur, who had played cricket with my father years before?

We were doing this job for six months. We were invited to go to the Lok Sabha. A car came to collect us and I went round there. The speaker—I think Hukam Singh, but I cannot remember who it was at that particular time—greeted me and said, “Where’s Lord Selsdon?”, because at a very young age I was not up to the job or the image. The car was sent round again so I could come back and the band could play. I had a great affection for India. I worked with many of the other Commonwealth countries. For me, one of the great roles that we can perform is to help these countries in their development and provide and arrange the necessary finance with appropriate offtake agreements.

We often say that the Commonwealth is the institution, but the direct one has become more important. Who are our future allies? Trade, we have said before, is the life-blood of the United Kingdom. Are we doing well at the moment? How do we know that the value of the pound will be retained? Is that the key factor? One of the principal opportunities is to look at the migration situation. We have always needed migrants in this country to work and perform jobs. Looking at the steel situation in the West Country, are we suddenly going to have no ability to produce steel, which, after all, is effectively essential for the British economy? When we look at the industrial developments needed, is it investment or attracting foreign bodies? We have a good balance of payments position at the moment. I always quote:

“Gold is for the mistress—silver for the maid—

Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.

‘Good!’ said the Baron, sitting in his hall,

‘But Iron—Cold Iron—is master of them all’”.

I feel optimistic about the trading future of this country, but I am not sure who is in charge. Are we after solely exports or imports? As far as finding foreign investment goes, we have no problem at all these days raising funds. We have, through ECGD, a remarkable institution with adequate credit available for most of the world. So the question is a very simple one: we have a glorious future, but who is in charge and what do we do next?