General Chat

Did anyone else catch the interview with John Caudwell by Stephen Sackur on BBC's HARDtalk last night?

He spoke with great eloquence and restraint, despite Sackur's jibes and the fact that he kept trying to put words into Caudwell's mouth. It was an absolutely fantastic demonstration of how to put an interviewer with pre-formed ideas and leading questions in his or her place.

I was very impressed with many of his views, particularly about tax, wealth and the economy.

Having interviewed John Caudwell on a number of occasions, I have always been touched by his generous and open nature and the fact that he is particularly unassuming despite his £1.5 billion wealth.

Maybe one or two politicians could take a lesson in interview technique from Caudwell.

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John Caudwell made his fortune by doing something very obvious - importing and selling mobile phones. Back in the 1980s anybody could do this but few did. We sourced our phones directly from Hutchinson Whampoa rather than forking out a king's ransome to BT but J.C. had a cool idea.

Like many successful entrepreneurs he had a keen sense of timing on when to get out. Phones4U ending up in tears all round. In the end the network operators hold the whip hand.

It is easy to recommend shelling out more tax when you have > £ 1bn of assets and your own private railway. Not so easy for most individuals or SMEs while PLCs do indeed have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to manage their tax affairs efficiently but legally.

I didn't think that Stephen Sackur was particularly tough on J.C. and def caught his Janus like approach to paying tax. "Yes, when I was on the up I avoided tax as much as possible ... now I am rich tax is a good thing everybody should pay as much as possible for the common weal".

Predictably the age old issue of who is best placed to spend on behalf of others - govt bureaucrats or not - was left hanging in the air. It is though the issue at the heart of the May 7 election.

Whatever Milliband, Cameron et al say the problem of international corporations shifting their tax liabilities around cannot be fixed on a national basis especially with countries such as Luxembourg and Ireland offering sweetheart deals.

All I can say is that if the Tories contrive to stay in no.10 even if they do not win the election ( quite possible under current law ) then it will not be a good time to be young, old, poor and frail or tobe trying to raise a family on typical incomes.

If Labour's big idea is to hit the £ 40-50K group with additional taxation either directly or by tax band creep then they will lose most of the Tory marginals they need to win. Daft.