By Simon Hughes - One of the features of the recent election campaign and the subsequent scramble around Europe that the Prime Minister is now embarking on has been the use of the phrase 'red lines'. Everyone seems to have one these days. I'm pretty certain that several high profile politicians that lost out as a result of the election are now sitting at home asking their red lines to explain what went wrong. That must be a funny feeling. One minute you're on the stump, proudly declaiming which red line you will not cross. The next minute you're just cross, all alone with your red line and trying to avoid watching the Queen open Parliament on the TV.
I believe that the history of the expression originates from Kipling's "thin red line of 'eroes" in his account of the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. Ironically, given the small army of SNP MPs now charging around the House of Commons, this involved a courageous stand by a red-coated Scottish regiment. How times have changed. They were heroes back then; now they try to bully poor old Dennis Skinner. The PM meanwhile has demonstrated once again that the diary management team at Downing Street really do run a smooth operation, as he packs his red lines in his suitcase before heading off to see all the European leaders as part of a charm offensive ahead of that rather tricky renegotiation he has promised us all.
Heartened as I'm sure we all are by his support of business tourism and the value of meeting people face to face, there remain a number of red lines that we in the business visits and events world want to ensure are not crossed. We could even go all old fashioned and describe them as lines in the sand. The first of these has to be moving forward on the excellent work set in train by the new SoS at BIS regarding the Events Strategy. If we can encourage him to combine his new remit to develop a bi-partisan approach with the DCMS and create the proposed Events Industry Board, then the events industry and trade growth will certainly benefit. I'm sure that we all want that to happen.
Another red line – make event apprenticeships a reality. There is a meeting next month that will finally kick start work that has been going on for ever – and a massive thank you is in order to Sarah Wright, who has marched around the arid desert lands for ages on this and gathered enough sand not only to draw several thousand lines but have a massive beach party for good measure. What a woman! There are a number of other Bills and policy promises that will impact on the industry over the next few years – at the time of writing it is too early to see how much impact they will all have, but we need to keep focussed on them. My own favourite is the spectre of greater devolution for English cities – which could create more local opportunities across the UK.
So, lots of red lines around at the moment. If you have one that you'd like to share with us, then please do, as ensuring that BVEP is focussed on the most important things for all our partners is critical if we are to maintain the authoritative voice for the industry that is required to ensure that we are heard.
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