‘A country is not a bank or a global corporation. It is a living organism: it has a heart’.

Janice Turner, Journalist, The Times

Our quotation above is drawn from Janice Turner's commentary last Saturday, reflecting on the rather sad immaturity of our current Prime Minister — one of the subtitles in her article says, ‘Purchased privilege put him too early, too young, above the clouds’.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic we have the bizarre spectacle of two near-octogenarians slugging it out for a second chance to be American president: quite the reverse end of the scale.

My favourite author is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and his best-known book is ‘The Little Prince’ — written for children, but full of deep wisdom for all ages. One of its charming tales is about the fox who explains the secret of taming: that the heart sees more clearly than the eyes. The fox says, ‘People have no time to learn. They buy things ready-made in shops and there it ends. But since there are no shops where friends are sold, they have no friends’.

Maturity of understanding takes a lifetime, and that's difficult for an ambitious young man like Rishi Sunak, as he proved when he left the D-Day commemorations early a fortnight ago. As Janice Turner says, ‘A slick mind, hard work, charm and looking the part might succeed in financial services and take you a long way in the Conservative party, but it doesn't win over hearts and minds throughout the country’.

You may recall our commentary on 25th September last year, 'Cummings' Unintended Legacy', when we said that financial-market-orientated people are good at dealing with short-term issues, but we need strategists to plan for the future and to make the case for general public support.

In this context of lifetime learning, I was very sad to read a few days ago that Sir Martin Jacomb, one of the people who has taught me so much over the past four decades, died on 8th June at the age of 94.

I remember first meeting Sir Martin in the Senior Partner’s office at Wedd, Durlacher, Mordaunt as he prepared to take the Chair at Barclays de Zoete Wedd. We were then just five years into the Thatcher era and the merging of principal, agent and banker roles in preparation for the 1986 ‘Big Bang’ process presented huge challenges and opportunities. His obituary in The Times referred to the herculean task of bringing together bankers, stockbrokers and market-makers, but his calm and diplomatic style steered us through those rapids into calmer water.

However, our relationship deepened a long way past those early days. He became Chair of Barclayshare, which I established in 1986 after persuading the bank that they needed a retail investment business to look after their retail banking customers; high net worth client broker de Zoete & Bevan didn't fulfil that role. Then, ten years after I set up The Share Centre, Martin joined us as Chair and helped build the business for the following fifteen years, including its flotation on the AIM stockmarket in 2008.

We met frequently over those years, and we discussed national and international issues every bit as much as developments at The Share Centre itself. One of those early meetings was in the afternoon of 11th September 2001 — one of those moments when everyone remembers exactly where they were, as those awful pictures came in from New York.

Martin was not only a friend but a real mentor for me over the past forty years, and I so much valued his wisdom. He took part in Share Radio's 'Track Record' on 25th April 2015, and that wisdom shines through in his conversation with Sue Dougan.

Learning does indeed take a lifetime, and I'm still learning now. Whether it's understanding people's very different experiences and perceptions, weighing up priorities both for yourself and for others, looking forward to exploring opportunities or to resolving challenges, the journey continues throughout a lifetime, and it is so valuable to learn from mentors, friends and others as we travel. That's also why I'm very grateful to those who've responded to our survey already and, as promised last week, here's some initial feedback on respondents’ views:

  1. Self-rating for long term perspectives: Excellent (20%), Very Good (20%), Good (30%), Fair (20%), Poor (10%)
  2. Preference for use of the inheritance levy: Use specifically for disadvantaged young people (42%), Abolish (35%) , Continue to use for general public expenditure (23%)
  3. Making tech giants more accountable: Introduce ‘Stock for Data/Creativity’ (70%), Anti-Trust Regulation (30%), Do Nothing (0%)
  4. Keeping healthcare and education as state monopolies: Healthcare (50%), Education (40%)
  5. Sequence of preferred alternatives for reforming the House of Lords (1= top preference):

1

Elected, but asking voters to take a long-term perspective (on how they would like to see the country 50 years from now)

2

Qualified by virtue of their roles outside parliament

3

Elected with the same perspective as the House of Commons (i.e. relatively short-term)

4

Appointed by whoever we choose as Government in the House of Commons

5

Same as now (mainly appointed by Government, partly qualified, partly hereditary

     6. UN representative — appointed or elected? 70% would prefer retaining the current system of appointment.

Politicians may be surrounded by advisors and think-tanks, but people need to be consulted on long-term issues as well: and not only at the time of General Elections. They're not just interested in the cost of living and taxation, but they also share an active interest on how the future is to develop.

That's why learning does indeed take a lifetime, and Janice Turner is right to draw attention to Rishi Sunak's immaturity in this respect.

It's extraordinary to think that ‘The Little Prince’ was written nearly a hundred years ago, but even then the shallow nature of everyday humanity was visible. How much more so today, surrounded by social media and instant access to news reporting, which many people find so depressing that they just switch off? Please see Adam Cox’s current episode of The Hypnotist.

We should never lose our appetite for new understanding.

Gavin Oldham OBE

Share Radio