CHILLING
CHILLING WITCH HUNT
AGAINST FREE SPEECH
COMMENTARY
By Peter Oborne
GENERALLY,
there are two types
of spokesman for the
business world. Most
prominent are those
with slippery
tongues- and sadly,
major British
companies have more
than their fair
share of things.
They typically
represent
plutocratic
directors are
overpaid and have
their eye on the
next opportunity for
themselves -
normally a political
career or a peerage.
I knew from the
moment In first
came across John
Longworth that he
did not belong to
this category.
Instead, he was an
exe of the type who
actually know what
they are talking
about when they
fight public battles
on behalf of their
members. I liked
him, and we have
stayed in touch ever
since.
The crucial
difference between
him and the type of
PR spivs who work
for organisations
such as the CBI was
the fact that he had
spent 30 years at
the sharp end of
British industry.
Mr
Longworth has been a
board director
general of the
British Chambers of
Commerce came after
three decades in
which he had got his
hands dirty and
learnt first-hand
the daily problems
facing the countless
number of small
businesses that are
the backbone of the
UK.
As such, Mr
Longworth was a
polar opposite of
Roland Rudd, the
sleek public
relations expert who
is running the
Remain campaign.
Rudd, who was a
financial journalist
before making his PR
fortune, has never
in his life run a
business that
actually makes
things.
However, this does
not stop politicians
flocking to meet
fatcat corporate
moguls at Rudd's
fashionable parties
because they regard
such occasions as
superb networking
opportunities.
I would argue many
of the outfits that
London based Rudd
champions do not
always behave in the
best interests of
the British public.
Unlike
Oxford-educated Rudd
whose sister is in
the Cabinet (the
vehemently pro-EU
Energy Secretary
Amber Rudd), John
Longworth came up
the hard way and it
shows in the way he
talks. Utterly
candid, he would not
know how to tell an
untruth. Integrity
shines through him.
He is a man you
would want beside
you in the trenches.
Above all;, he is a
practical man. He
knows through rueful
personal experience
the terrible and
needless damage
Brussels-made
regulations can
inflict on British
business.
He could see
straight through
threats made by the
Westminster and
Brussels political;
establishments. He
was a true
representative of
the 95percent of UK
firms who do no
business with Europe
but still have to
pay the full cost of
EU
REGULATION
Indeed, his savaging
by the Remain lobby
over the weekend
exposed the two very
different sides of
the argument over
the
UK'S MEMBERSHIP OF
THE EU
ONE IS BASED ON COLD
FACTS;THE
OTHER ON SPIN AND
VESTED INTERESTS.
Remain's big
corporate backers
are often based
overseas, pay little
British tax, and
their British head
office will
invariably be in
CENTRAL LONDON
On the other hand,
the companies John
Longworth
represented were
smaller with much
deeper connections
to the
BRITISH ECONOMY.
and above all, were
regional.
I do not know what
John Longworth will
do next. BUT I am
certain that if he
was to agree to
become spokesman for
the
LEAVE CAMPAIGN
he could make a big
difference to the
result of the
REFERENDUM
Voters would respect
his plain speaking
BASED ON FACTS
at a time when they
feel they are being
bombarded by
[BY FEAR]
with twisted
propaganda
They would recognise
that the fiercely
PRO-EU CHANCELLOR
George Osborne
(whose personal
experience of the
workplace outside of
politics extends to
just six weeks as a
journalist on the
Sundat telegraph)
WOULD HAVE MET HIS
MATCH WITH SUCH A
MAN.
Millions who share
Mr Longworth's
worries about the
EUROPEAN SUPERSTATE
will recall that
many of those who
are now advocating
that the UK remains
in the EU were
agitating 15 years
ago
(No doubt on orders
from Brussels)
for
BRITAIN TO SIGN UP
TO THER
EURO
Had they had their
way, the British
economy could have
been devastated like
has happened in
GREECE
ITALY
or
SPAIN.
As
for Mr Longworth's
former employer the
British Chambers of
Commerce, following
his resignation I
predict there will
be an EXODUS of
disgrunted members
who either share his
view on the EU or
who are profoundly
perturbed
BY THE WAY HE WAS
TREATED.
TO BE CONTINUED.
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