Sorry, this video asset has been removed.

Video: Lord Digby Jones
addresses the launch of the 2020 business event. Video by Chris
Price

by Trevor Sturgess

Only business people can get this country out of its economic
malaise, Lord Digby Jones told Kent bosses today, Tuesday.

The outspoken former CBI director-general and Trade and
Investment Minister was in the county to launch next year's Kent
2020 Vision.

It was a special occasion for him because he was the keynote
speaker at the inaugural event five years ago. Run by Business Link
Kent, it has since gone on to become one of the biggest business
events in the country.

In a 60-minute speech in Maidstone Studios, the charismatic
business flag-waver told 350 delegates: "You are at the forefront
of how this nation is going to sort itself out. If we're going to
get of the economic malaise, weire going to have to trade our way
out of it. There is no other way.

"We are a trading nation and we're going to have to work our way
out of it, make a profit and then pay tax to repay the debt."

He added that business was "the only agent in our society that
generates tax".

It created the wealth that paid for schools and hospitals,
giving jobs to people who paid tax, and helped public sector
workers do their jobs and pay tax.

He added: "If it were not for the wealth that business creates,
there would not be one penny of taxation in any Western democracy,
not a bean. I want the businesses of this country to stand up and
be proud."

The cross-bencher with no declared political party allegiance
urged the Government to work "with the grain of business" and not
to impose any more regulation. He complained of a "complete lack of
connection between the governed and the governing" and claimed
that MPs,tarnished by the expenses scandal, lived in a bubble
that was "apart from all of us".

The process would only be cleansed by a general election.

"Bring it on!"

Earlier, delegates had been encouraged to network with each
other and post their contact details on a huge networking wall. Bob
Jones, chief executive of Business Link Kent, urged them to visit
the next Kent 2020 Vision at Kent Showground on April 22. It would
help them through these "troubled but opportunistic times."