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Your support makes all the difference.Labour's plans for business were met with a distinctly luke warm response by industry leaders. Deeming it "more a political meeting" many walked away none the wiser.
"There are a lot of unanswered questions," Sean Murphy, managing director of Japanese bank Sanwa said. Alec Reed, chairman of Reed Personnel Services, said: "I would have been naive to expect it [detail] and they would be naive to offer it."
Opinion was split on the usefulness of the conference. Those seeking detail on policies such as duty on fuel and windfall taxes came away content, those seeking explanation of how Labour would control the financial instability of change of government or clarification over EMU membership and the level of a minimum wage were disappointed.
Andrea Cone-Farran, chairwoman of the Wire Station, an interactive business communications business, said that her experience of national minimum wage in Australia had shown it to be futile. Any firm that employs unfair rates of pay, she said, tends to fail to retain staff and secure productivity. "Natural forces rather than the formal impositions Labour flirts with tend to dictate pay and productivity," she said.
This view was echoed by Michael Moseling, senior director of project finance at Nikko (UK). Attempts by a Labour Government to legislate on corporate governance issues such as those recommended by Greenbury would be met with resistance and resentment, he said. Intervention and tinkering with corporate taxation would simply find investment being directed elsewhere.
On other tax issues Mr Moseling thought Labour would not be radical.
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