Bashing Britain has become dangerously fashionable.
It is a sad irony that in the run-up to the Coronation, where the very best of this country will be showcased to the world, it has become a knee-jerk response in certain business circles.
Microsoft boss Brad Smith lashed out in an extraordinary fashion last week when the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) kiboshed his £60billion takeover of video game maker Activision Blizzard.
He claimed the decision marked the ‘darkest day’ in Microsoft’s four decades here, that it was ‘bad for Britain’ and even, absurdly, that the EU is a better place to start a business than the UK.
He and his fellow American Bobby Kotick cast unwarranted slurs on the independent CMA. Yet, as the Mail on Sunday reported, the watchdog reached its decision after one of its biggest investigations, with 30 staff looking at three million documents.
Broken Britain: The anti-British chorus seems to be composed mainly of rich, entitled middle-aged white men
Its probe will be hard for the authorities in other countries to ignore, and is not one that can be dismissed by the rantings of a couple of self-interested US executives.
Attacks of this sort on Britain are a variant of the old chestnut that the country is a seething mass of resentment, where successful people are cut down to size rather than celebrated. This is a cliche masquerading as a truth: I very much doubt the UK has a global monopoly on envy.
But it has been touted loudly by certain CEOs, including Matt Moulding of THG.
This form of Brit-bashing has its roots in the Brexit referendum, when the bien-pensant global elite loftily assumed Leave voters were ignorant and ill-informed.
The anti-British chorus seems to be composed mainly of rich, entitled middle-aged white men, who are at risk of sounding like whiny corporate versions of Prince Harry.
None are objective intellectual observers, but have huge self-interest at play, in the shape of personal shareholdings or rewards linked to the success of deals.
They appear to be confusing their individual experience of being thwarted with injustice on a national scale.
The pile-on took off in a big way in Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget, when everyone waded in. One analyst even coined the phrase ‘moron premium’ to explain the rise in interest rates. The morons intended may have been politicians, but the whole country was included by association.
No denying there have been some needless own goals. The disgusting allegations of sexual assaults at the CBI hardly help the image of Britain abroad. And some of the Chancellor’s business tax policies are myopic. The Mail’s ‘Scrap The Tourist Tax’ campaign is highlighting how the UK is losing out as a luxury shopping destination for visitors.
Hiking corporation tax is also a poor move as it discourages long-term investment when firms are being offered huge subsidies in the US and the EU. Respected chief executives including AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot have warned the UK is becoming unattractive in comparison.
Even John Neill, the veteran boss of Unipart, says he is considering moving investment to the US because of the subsidies.
There are serious points to be made about the competitiveness of our tax system.
But the idea that Britain has become a benighted backwater is a falsehood that can only serve predatory overseas raiders or failing founders seeking to deflect blame.
Alison Rose, who as chief executive of NatWest is the biggest lender to UK firms, understands the realities. Her view on the idea Britain is a bad place to do business can be encapsulated in a word: ‘Nonsense.’
