Governance

After so much TV coverage and media comment we need a different take on our new government. So let’s do poetry.

To see the Prime Minster and Mr Clegg on their smile-athon reminds one of Wordsworth’s lines:

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!—“

We need have no doubt that after Mr. Osborne’s emergency budget we will be changing poets to Browning:

“Never glad confident morning again!”

And that will be but the beginning of a four-year squeeze on public spending of unprecedented ferocity, spiced up with a sprinkling of tax increases.

What will it mean for Corporate Responsibility? For community engagement It will mean an unprecedented boom. Here’s why.

First the positive reason: both parties in the coalition believe in voluntary action. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat traditions both hold that voluntary action makes society healthier. Don’t take it from me, take it from the Prime Minister. Here is part of what he said as he entered Number 10:

“Real change is not what government can do on its own, real change is when everyone pulls together, comes together, works together, when we all exercise our responsibilities to ourselves, our families, to our communities and to others. And I want to help try and build a more responsible society here in Britain…and a guide for that society that those that can should and those who can't we will always help.”

So, New Labour’s target obsessed centralism will be replaced by us all being called on to volunteer and rally round. Action by companies will be welcomed.

That’s quite enough of the hopey-changey stuff. What about the harsh fiscal reality?

Knowing that no party was ever rewarded by the electorate at the polls for offering gut-wrenching cuts in services and knuckle crushing tax increases, our political class acted rationally. They made no attempt to explore or explain what the true horror of what balancing the national budget would mean. It involves not just trimming at the edges. Most likely it involves the ending of some services that have hitherto been considered government’s responsibility. For other services it requires a quantum shift in the way the service is provided. Cheaper models of service provision, harnessing community energy and making wider use of volunteers will of necessity be centre stage. That is the second and rather less positive reason why the input of companies through their community programmes will be welcome. Ministerial praise will gush over any initiative that can generate even a scintilla of positive news coverage.

If companies’ voluntary community engagement will be welcome what about the government’s view of their core activities and responsibilities? Expect to hear all the usual old toffee about enterprise and the wealth creators of Britain. However any corporate failing whether it be in health and safety, product quality or sourcing is likely to be panned even more thoroughly than usual. The reason? The two parties of government will have to bear all the opprobrium accompanying the service cuts and tax increases. In the event that a company does falter in its basic responsibilities the politicos will be right in there with their size 10s. Unfair? I am put in mind of an anecdote told me about a long-dead Labour MP. “Never kick a man when he’s down” asserted one of his constituents. The MP was aghast. “Never kick a man when he’s down!” he spluttered “When else do you kick a man?”

My advice to companies is beef up your UK community engagement but don’t at any price falter in the other areas of your responsibility.