Bernard Ginns: Great cities and nations are built on freedom and trust

Victor Watson, the late, great Yorkshire business grandee, was standing on stage before a ballroom of business leaders, smiling warmly and holding a Y-shaped metal trophy.

It was October 2009 and I had just presented the former Waddingtons chairman with the individual title at The Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards and we were doing the customary on-stage interview.

Mr Watson told the audience: “I don’t think subsidies should be given to businesses, but the small businesses should be relieved of many of the shackles, many of the controls and many of the restrictions.

“Freedom is what we want. Look at the great nations, the great cities of the past; Venice, Amsterdam, London even. Why did they succeed?

“Because of freedom. Intellectual freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of association, free trade and because of that, enterprising people went to those places.

“ It could be the same here. If the smaller and medium-sized enterprises are encouraged and freed from the shackles then they will snap at the heels of the bigger companies and make Britain great again.”

The audience roared its approval. These were tough times, remember, and good news was in short supply.

With the wisdom of his words and the warmth of his delivery, Victor gave us all hope at the end of the night.

I was saddened to learn last week of his passing away at the age of 86. He was a friend to many.

His brother John Watson, the former Conservative MP, remembers Victor as “a very honourable chap” with a long list of contributions to public life who could be very competitive, but never made a single enemy.

Victor understood the nature of commerce, competition and enterprise and knew that in any society that creates wealth, some people have to fail.

Mr Watson told me: “Nowadays, people start off with a degree of distrust for everybody. Trust has to be earned. Victor’s approach was the opposite. He would trust everybody and if they let him down he would become more cautious in his dealings with them after that.”

Victor felt that the big Yorkshire cities had become great on the basis of trust.

Bradford had textiles, Leeds had engineering, printing and tailoring; both cities saw very substantial businesses build up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because, Victor believed, people knew each other and trusted each other.

Mr Watson said: “He felt there was something about the size and culture of Yorkshire cities that enabled them on one hand to be big enough to thrive but also small enough that people knew each other.”

He added, rather mischievously as a Tory, that more jobs have been created in Yorkshire in the past year than in the whole of the France “so maybe the size and culture of our Yorkshire cities is still serving us pretty well”.

The last word should go to Victor though, one of the few men who saw off Robert Maxwell, the powerful print and publishing tycoon.

Maxwell made his first bid for Waddingtons, the Leeds-based manufacturer, in May 1983. At that time, the share price was standing at 104p. The battle, hotly contested, lasted for 18 months. When it finished with Maxwell’s defeat in December 1984, the share price had risen to 500p per share, yet the investors still chose to stick with the existing management team led by Victor. That speaks volumes for his skill with investor relations.

Back to the business awards in 2009 and Victor summing up his approach to life in business.

“Everybody can make a contribution, if only they are dealt with properly, fairly and decently. Everything is achieved through people,” he said.

A memorial service for Victor Watson is planned for April.