Robert Paston

There's one other thing I want to talk to you about, just because it's something that comes up a lot on this podcast.

We talk about it a lot, which is the whole question of the competence of British management, putting the EU to one side.

Actually, you know, the UK did have a period in the run-up to Brexit and certainly in the run-up to the financial crisis

And within Europe, the British economy performed relatively very well.

Over a long period of time, we performed, for example, significantly better than Germany.

Historically, we regarded as the kind of competitor that was always going to do better than us.

But productivity...

has been depressingly low for 20 now years.

Growth in general has been low.

Living standards have been suppressed.

There is an argument that says that part of the problem is that those who run our companies, the quality of our managers is not as good, for example, as those in America.

You have been running essentially a study of this for donkey's years.

What would you say the data shows about the quality of British management?

And so that's also connected to this issue of, particularly with talent, making sure the visa system doesn't discourage them from coming.

There's also stuff to do with

whether we are the kind of place which is resentful of people who earn a lot of money.

And I think, you know, it's such a difficult balance there.

You know, tackling inequality, which is plainly cancerous when it comes to the cohesion of us.

You know, inequality is undoubtedly...

to the cohesion of a society and trust across society.