Until 1997 Labour invariably mismanaged the economy.
In the past decade, however, the New Labour project can count among its successes a stable economy with sustained growth and high employment.
Painfully aware of its shortcomings in the past, New Labour has tried to refrain from instituting too many impediments to the business of business – wealth creation. It hasn’t tried hard enough many would say, but whatever your opinion, we’re a long way from the Callaghan government of the late 70s.
Labour hasn’t entirely suppressed its socialist instincts, but its attempts at helping the lower orders of society, as demonstrated by the shambolic administration of tax credits, haven’t always had the desired effect.
Gordon Brown hopes that entrepreneurs with an eye for efficiency and the bottom line which is often lacking in bureaucrats can make a better fist of tending to society’s ills.
On Tuesday a programme aimed at fostering ‘social entrepreneurialism’ – a relatively new and oft-used term – is launched in London’s opulent Oxo Tower.
The Ambassadors Programme, which is part of the PM’s Social Enterprise Action Plan, has been devised to foster a culture of social enterprise, where profit-making businesses put the bulk of their profits towards social or environmental goals.
Founder of the Big Issue John Bird, CEO of top fair-trade coffee company Penny Newman and winner of the first Apprentice series Tim Campbell will speak at the launch after being officially named as ‘ambassadors’. This means they have experience running or working for a successful social enterprise, and their role is to inspire budding social entrepreneurs and raise awareness of social enterprise as both a viable business model and fulfilling career choice.
A Big Issue vendor will also explain how his life was turned around by social enterprise.
Ed Miliband MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Phil Hope MP, the new Minister for the Third Sector, will co-host the event.
The Social Enterprise Coalition is to invite inspiring speakers from across the social enterprise movement to apply to become ambassadors as a further 20 are to be recruited over the next month.
Seven publicly known ambassadors have already been recruited. They are Monty Don, celebrity gardener and social entrepreneur; Liam Black, CEO at Fifteen, a restaurant which employs disadvantaged young people; Tim Smit, co-founder and chief executive of the Eden Project; John Bird, founder and chief executive of the Big Issue, supported by Nigel Kershaw, chief executive of Big Issue Invest; Penny Newman, chief executive of Cafedirect; Lord Victor Adebowale, chief executive of Turning Point, a social care organisation; and Tim Campbell, winner of the first Apprentice series and founder of the Bright Ideas Trust.
The event starts at 16:45 on the second floor of the Oxo Tower in London.
To attend the event please contact the Coalition’s press officer Katy Duke on 020 7793 2318 or 07974 217 681, or at pressoffice@socialenterprise.org.uk.
