
This weekend’s Royal Wedding was one such event and there will be many people returning to work feeling very proud to be British. With this spring in our national step are we at the point where we can tell the grandkids, “I was there when we got our mojo back”?
The wedding might be over but the sense of optimism that swept Britain might well only have just begun. So, pack away the bunting but hold on to that golden feeling of hope and happiness – it might just be your first glimpse of recovery.
I must be honest; as I approached the second long weekend in two weeks I was ambivalent and somewhat critical of what I believed was national self-indulgence. I was wrong. National reinvention is nearer the mark and my apathy gave way to a sudden realisation that this potent symbol of hope has major potential for the country in which we live and work.
It was the day our nation bathed in the warm rays of optimism, the “feel good factor” as we used to describe it in our recent halcyon past. What a contrast to the usual diet of cynicism, doom and gloom.
It’s a diet we just can’t afford any longer. Pessimism will not lead a nation to recovery, a business to profit, or a person to success. It is a parasite that robs us all of creativity, energy and action.
To that point, last week’s Newsnight gathered the former treasury minister Lord Myners, the former city high flyer Nicola Horlick, and the former Asda boss Andy Bond to discuss the recently reported rise in GDP.
I happen to share the view with many that the 0.5 per cent lift is an important step in the right direction but I respect the view that these figures might well be taken as evidence of flat lining. There is therefore a debate, but not on Newsnight it would appear.
Despite the veneer of “business debate”, this was one-sided, vintage political point scoring and blame game par excellence. What a spectacle of doom. A corrosive orgy of rampant pessimism and ghoulishly crafted soundbites, all delivered with the certainty of Macbeth’s three witches,“Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble.” So, Andy Bond says the retail recession is just beginning. What about the views of say Sir Terry Leahy, the former Tesco boss, who says the retail recovery has just begun? Lord Myners, whose business credentials were on full show, was rather less forthcoming about his role as a professional politician, a Labour peer and former minister. Whereas Nicola Horlick, speaking about hopes for the planet, told the New Statesman in March, “I don’t see this as a terribly happy place to be for the next 150 years.” Goodness, what GDP forecasts has she seen?Share this story