Business leaders show their Conservative – or ‘self-servative’ – colours
More than a hundred business bosses have declared support for a Conservative-led government in a letter published in the Daily Telegraph.
Signatories including former Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne, BP chief executive Bob Dudley, Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam, Arcadia retail group head Sir Philip Green, and Nick Robertson, chief executive of ASOS lined up to show their desperation to stab working-class people in the back in their worship of profit.
They said they wanted a government that lowers corporation tax, so their firms don’t have to support public services and can pay more dividends to shareholders and executives.
It seems clear they also wish to deter voters from electing a Labour government that would outlaw exploitative zero-hours contracts that allow them to get away without providing holiday or sickness pay for employees.
Incredibly, they said the Coalition government, led by the Conservatives, had supported investment and job creation. It is hard to imagine where they think this has taken place. Government investment in infrastructure and support for businesses has plummeted under Tory control and, while the number of people in work has increased, 800,000 zero-hour workers is no credit to anybody.
The Torygraph says the letter has five signatories who have previously supported New Labour: the entrepreneur Mr Bannatyne, the hotelier Surinder Arora, chairman of Dixons Carphone and Talk Talk Sir Charles Dunstone , theatrical producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh and businessman Moni Varma. Clearly these rats will jump ship to whoever they think will do them the most good, and the Devil take the rest of us.
What fine examples of moral and entrepreneurial character!
They really demonstrate why Tory supporters have been nicknamed “Self-Servatives”. Clearly they exist only to increase their own wealth at the expense of the people who actually work to make it for them; they are prepared to peddle falsehoods in order to perpetuate this situation, and happy to use their positions as business leaders to influence the outcome of what is supposed to be a democratic election.
Last week, someone called Katie Hopkins, who this writer understands is some form of right-wing irritant, claimed that she would leave the country if Ed Miliband becomes Prime Minister – to a storm of applause across the social media. Many people suggested that she should not wait, but should leave immediately.
Perhaps Mr Bannatyne and his co-signatories should consider taking the same boat.
Here’s the full list, so you know which firms to boycott:
Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have enjoyed this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
blowing the whistle on the rats who would ruin the UK.
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
What a bunch of shysters! All in it together! Those who haven’t already got their knighthoods or lordships soon will have!
I may not like them at all, but they do have the right to say what government they like, and of course they like the dreadful one we have now.
Not only should we boycott these businesses, we should contact these people directly and let them know why we are boycotting their goods and services. It speaks volumes that the majority of them are OBEs and CBEs. Refuse them your hard earned cash and hit them where it hurts.
Must study the list carefully and, wherever possible, boycott their shops/goods.
100 Bosses may have shown their support!
I would doubt that their support would be worth the paper it is written on if, by some other means, another party were able to promise them even bigger profits at the expense of proper management.
Let us hope that there are another few thousand decent employers out there who are cleverer and decent enough to make a fair profit from fair management of their workforces.
Unless we get rid of this greedy government we will all pay the price in the end.
The oddest thing about British business leaders supporting the Tories is that it is quite clear that this government has been particularly keen in favouriting FOREIGN corporations over local businesses.
This is a worrying move. There was a lot of evidence that in 2010 the business leaders who wrote to the papers saying Labour ‘couldn’t be trusted with the economy’ had a real impact on voters.
I’m no fan of Labour, but let’s hope voters aren’t swayed this time. Given the way the corporate sector has been feasting off the impoverishment of the people under the Coalition it would be collective madness for anyone to listen to them.
These sorts of stunts are pulled on a regular basis and we, the majority and therefore those with the power, should ignore them. As J K Galbraith famously said, ” The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is, the search for a moral justification for selfishness”
More succinctly with regard to the signing of these letters and to (mis)quote Mandy Rice-Davis ” well they would, wouldn’t they”?
Yes indeed.
I found it amusing that George Osborne said the move was unprecedented in modern politics. My experience is that something similar happens at every election.
First of all sorry for the long post, Felt it needed posting so we all know which shops to boycott :) This was on the Guardian website so reposting.
1 Rooney Anand CEO, Greene King
2 Surinder Arora MD, Arora International
3 John Ayton Founder of Bremont Watches
4 Alex Baldock CEO Shop Direct
5 Lord Bamford Chairman, JCB
6 Duncan Bannatyne Founder, Bannatyne Group
7 Robert Bensoussan CEO, LK Bennett
8 Lord Karan Bilimoria Chairman and founder, Cobra Beer
9 Charlie Bradshaw MD, Matrix APA
10 Baroness Brady Vicechairman, West Ham
11 Graham Chipchase CEO, Rexam
12 Zameer Choudrey CEO, Bestway Group
13 Neil Clifford CEO, Kurt Geiger
14 Steven Cohen CEO, Blue Inc.
15 Glenn Cooper MD, ATG Access
16 Andrew Coppel CEO, De Vere
17 Gerald Corbett Chairman, Britvic
18 Peter Cullum Founder and Deputy Chairman, Towergate
19 Ron Dennis Chairman, McLaren Technology
20 Julietta Dexter Owner, Communications Store
21 Annoushka Ducas Founder, Annoushka Jewellery
22 Bob Dudley, CEO, BP
23 Sir Charles Dunstone Chairman, Dixons Carphone
24 John Elliott Chairman, Ebac
25 Mark Esiri Director, notonthehighstreet.com
26 Ralph Findlay CEO, Marstons
27 Richard Glynn CEO, Ladbrokes
28 Ben Gordon Chairman, Powerleague
29 Julian Granville MD, Boden
30 Peter Grauer Chairman, Bloomberg
31 Philip Green Chairman, Carillion
32 Michael Gutman President and COO, Westfield
33 Wendy Hallet MD and Founder, Hallet Retail
34 Jenny Halpern Prince Founder, Halpern
35 Andy Harrison CEO, Whitbread
36 Aidan Heavey CEO, Tullow Oil
37 Oliver Hemsley founder and CEO, Numis
38 Joe Henderson Founder and CEO, Henderson
39 Vernon Hill Founder and chairman, Metro Bank
40 Anya Hindmarch Chairman, Anya Hindmarch
41 Brent Hoberman Founder, mydeco.com
42 Cassie Hutchings CEO, GCH Capital
43 Sir George Iacobescu Chairman and CEO, Canary Wharf
44 Alan Jackson, Chairman, The Restaurant Group
45 Peter Jackson, Former CEO, Travelex
46 Nick Jenkins, Founder, Moonpig.com
47 Neil Johnson, Chairman, E2V
48 Luke Johnson, chairman, Risk Capital
49 Richard Joseph, Co-founder, Joseph Joseph
50 Ray Kelvin Founder and CEO, Ted Baker
51 Nadir Lalani Founder and CEO, 99p Stores
52 Ben Latham Jones Head of Ealing Studios
53 Nick Leslau Chairman, Prestbury Investments
54 Rhydian Lewis CEO, Ratesetter
55 James Lipscombe MD and co-owner, The Chesterford
56 Derek Lovelock, Chairman, Mamas and Papas
57 Ron Mackintosh, Chairman, CSR
58 Sir Cameron Mackintosh Founder, Cameron Mackintosh
59 Edward Mellors, Director, Mellors
60 Tom Molnar CEO, Bread
61 John Morgan, CEO, Morgan Sindall
62 Matt Moulding, CEO, The Hut Group
63 Stephen Murphy, Chairman, Wyevale Garden Centres
64 Jonathan Neame CEO Shepherd Neame
65 John Neill Chairman and CEO, Unipart
66 Nick Newbury, CEO, Original Travel
67 Jonathan Newhouse, Chairman & CEO, Conde Nast International
68 Richard Nichols CEO, Instinctif Partners
69 Mike Norris, CEO Computacenter
71 Sir Dick Olver, Former chairman BAE Systems
72 Alan Parker Chairman, Mothercare
73 Tony Pidgley Chairman, Berkeley Group
74 Thembalat Ramachandran, CEO&MD, Bristol Laboratories
75 Nick Robertson Founder & CEO, ASOS
76 Lord Rose Chairman, Ocado
77 Richard Rose Executive chairman, Crawshaws
78 Chrissie Rucker Founder, The White Company
79 Sir Nigel Rudd, Chairman designate, Meggitt
80 Rakesh Sharma CEO, Ultra Electronics
81 Baroness Shields Chairman, Tech City
82 Jasminder Singh Chairman and CEO, Edwardian Group
83 Rob Templeman Chairman, RAC
84 Tidjane Thiam, Group CEO, Prudential
85 Sarah Thomson, Founder and CEO, Addictive Points
86 Simon Townsend CEO, Enterprise Inns
87 Michael Turner Chairman, Fullers, Smith & Turner
88 Moni Varma, MD and Chairman, Veetee Rice
89 Matthew Vaughn Owner, Marv Films
90 Ollie Vigors, MD, Longshot Kids
91 Robert Walker Chairman, Travis Perkins
92 Malcolm Walker Founder, Iceland
93 Paul Walsh Chairman, Compass
94 James Wates Chairman, Wates
95 George Weston CEO, Associated British Foods
96 Nick Wheeler Founder, Charles Tyrwhitt
97 Mike Wheeler MD, Auto Styling
98 Charles Wigoder Executive chairman, Telecom Plus
99 Paul Wilkinson Chairman,Thorntons
100 Will Wyatt CEO, Caledonia Investments
101 Sir Hossein Yassaie CEO, Imagination Technologies
102 Steve Varley Chairman, UK&I, EY
103 Richard Baker, Chairman, DFS
Well they are only 0.02% of business leaders so why should they be considered as relevant 99.98% haven’t backed the tories.
Publicly. They haven’t backed the Tories publicly.
That’s probably because they’re not friends of Samantha Cameron.