The business of politics

As London’s mayor, Sir Alan, you’d be a mere apprentice

A recent poll placed Sir Alan Sugar as the leading independent candidate to be the next mayor of London. His statement that ‘…observing the past mayor, Livingstone, and Boris, the current one, I’m confident that it would be a walk in the park for me’, tempted me, just for a moment, to wish him success — until I realised the likely effect on London. Why is it that so many successful businessmen think government is a part-time job and something they can handle with ease? Is that why so few have succeeded?

It is for others to say whether or not I succeeded in government: at least I was able to choose the time of my own departure without the press hounding me out. I did not go straight from business to government but became a civil servant first, on what turned out to be a training programme for Cabinet that lasted a full five and a half years.