Lord Jones’ attack on US’s ‘bullying’ policy

Lord Jones, who will visit Yorkshire this weekend to promote his book, Fixing Britain, also called on the Government to use its procurement policies intelligently at a time of economic tension.

In his book, Lord Jones launches a scathing attack on the decision by former US President George W Bush to impose a tariff on steel imports.

Mr Bush later withdrew the tariff following opposition from the EU. At the time, Mr Bush said the tariff had only been intended as a short-term measure and US steel mills had become more productive as a result.

Lord Jones said: “If you look at America, they are brave but they are not free. They are a heavily protectionist society.”

In his book, Lord Jones highlights the damage done to Yorkshire’s economy while the tariff was in force.

He says: “Britain felt this insensitive commercial bullying particularly acutely.”

During his time at the CBI, Lord Jones received a letter from a steelworker in Rotherham, who said he was about to lose his job because of his employer’s inability to sell the speciality steel he made into the US market because of the tariff.

In Fixing Britain, Lord Jones recalls: “Yet his son was fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the Americans in Iraq. Some way to treat your friends!”

He told the Yorkshire Post: “We should try to use Government procurement to create value in society, that’s different from protectionism. We should use intelligent procurement and look at the value and not the price.”

He also argued that too many people were leaving school without the skills needed to make them “fit to work” in the real world.

“After 11 years of full-time free comprehensive education, half of the kids who take GCSE don’t get grade C or above in English or maths,’’ he said.

According to Lord Jones, there have always been people who can’t read, write or count, but the developed world doesn’t have jobs for these people anymore.

He said Britain needed to change its mood and acknowledge that entrepreneurship involves risk.

He said that “at the first whiff of gunshot” too many politicians ran away from the business community and didn’t support it.

He added: “We have a tax regime that militates against business fixing the economy.”

Lord Jones said Britain prided itself on its openness to trade with other countries, but he claimed that other countries often found a way, through taxation tactics, to make overseas markets more difficult to penetrate. He believes small businesses need the help of a tax break to encourage them to export. He supported calls from the Institute of Directors to ring-fence infrastructure spending because he believes it will lead to more employment and make society more efficient.

He said the business community also wanted “predictability” from the planning regime.

Lord Jones also predicted that the UK economy wouldn’t drop back into recession, but we should be prepared for years of modest growth. “I don’t think we’re going to get two to three per cent growth for four or five years, but I’m not a double-dip man myself,’’ he said.

Lord Jones will discuss his book at the Ilkley Literature Festival. He will be speaking on Sunday at 2pm in the Kings Hall in Station Road, Ilkley.

The event is being sponsored by accountants Garbutt & Elliott. Lord Jones was director general of the CBI from 2000 to 2006. In 2007, he was appointed Minister of State for UK Trade & Investment by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Lord Jones did not join the Labour party and concentrated his energies on promoting the UK overseas.