Last week I went to the British Chamber of Commerce national conference in London. Truth be told I was not particularly looking forward to it. But I was pleasantly surprised and the quality of the speakers and the debate was first rate. Top of the bill was a very heated debate between Lord Peter Mandleson and Ken Clark. It was a privilege to watch two such hard-hitters at work. The gloves were definitely off and polite insults abounded. Mandleson accused Clark of living off his past political reputation, to which Ken replied “At least I’ve got a past that I can mention, Peter” Ken also said to Mandy. “what you have done is catastrophic and driven the British economy into a train crash!” and that “we are teetering on the brink of the Greek financial situation.”
Other speakers included Trevor Phillips from the Commission for Racial Equality, and Alan Sugar, who was on good politically incorrect form as usual, and attacked the media vehemently, he surprised himself by complimented the French for their protectionist policies and said that the UK is too soft on this issue.
So Ken wears hush puppies. But a little publicised fact is that Peter Mandleson wears slip-ons …..