Willow Design

Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

It all began with a cordial invite from the Prime Minister to a select group to attend a reception at 10 Downing Street to “Celebrate the Success of Small Business”. Everyone had a personal invite and we individually had to RSVP directly to number 10.

Arriving at the scene by taxi last night I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I can confirm that they’ve converted Downing Street into something like a prison camp, a sad reflection of our times – you simply can’t get into the street AT ALL without the full metal detector bit. To be fair the police were very friendly with it all and this didn’t really detract from the experience..

After passing security we walked up to number 10 which in itself is quite an experience and from there on it got a lot easier and civilised. We were welcomed inside and asked to leave coats and mobile phones at reception. The place is a lot bigger than I imagined and there is a large entrance-way with lots of racks for coats etc. Everything is well-lit. Having been relieved of our weapons of mass destruction it was each man for himself. Past reception is a large staircase and all the way up are images of past prime ministers – very impressive. I took my time to enjoy the moment. Once upstairs we were greeted not with champagne but simply a choice of red of white wine and very nice too! We were free to wander about the place, I don’t think anyone got to to see the cabinet room which is apparently in the basement (good idea thinking about it) but the place is pretty impressive non-the-less. The inside of 10 Downing Street is suitably impressive.

As colleagues arrived the wine flowed very nicely. Various well known faces appeared including “Sir” Alan Michael Sugar. Next up was Lord Mandleson who proceeded to apologise for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s absence as he was off on important business and who then gave us a very polished speech about the importance of small business.

As the speech rolled out, those present for the most part stood politely in their lounge suits and merely listened… but looking at their faces one could see that most of us will be happier when there is a change of government, none of which detracts from the excellent experience of actually BEING THERE and of course that was the whole point. I’m sure Lord Mandleson didn’t really believe business representatives would let him off lightly!

Within half an hour or less the speech was over and everyone was pretty much free to network or simply drink more and enjoy the view. I was having a nice chat with one of my fellow FSB directors when a microphone appeared out of no-where..  For the life of me I can’t remember which newspaper or radio station it was but the reporter went through a whole list of questions about how we felt about government, banking, you name it, clearly he was onto a goldmine with the two of us as we were taking turns at the microphone for well over 15 minutes – a MOST enjoyable way to round off the evening.

Several glasses of wine and umpteen nibbles later, though not under any pressure to exit the premises, a small group of us decided it was time to take our leave and wandered back down the excellent stairway and out of the door to be greeted by the official photographer – results you see at the top.