UK: Lord Mandelson reflects on the Government's role in business

At yesterday's CBI conference in London, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - Lord Mandelson - delivered a speech in which he reflected on the Government's role in business and indicated that he would have more to say soon:

New Labour orthodoxy ... has made the government rightly suspicious of ministerial entanglement in markets. We learnt from past experience the perils of Ministers substituting their judgement for company boards. Getting too involved in market decisions, we believe, will tend to lead to worse decisions. And in 1997, quite honestly, when we came to office, governing was easier then, in simpler economic conditions than we know now. Put in place stability, as we did, strengthen the supply side and the rest will look after itself. And actually, in the main, it did. It's a good time to reflect further. Not because we want the government micromanaging our economy, but because we need to rethink the frameworks that government puts in place within which the private sector is then free to take its decisions. I intend to say more about this in a lecture in a few week's time".