It is typical of this stuttering and under-prepared government that the build-up to today’s international investment summit, an event that should have been the perfect opportunity to reset Britain’s badly damaged international reputation, was so littered with own goals.
First there was the row about the failure to invite the world’s richest man, and arguably its most influential business leader, Elon Musk. Initially we were told it was because of his admittedly inflammatory and inappropriate comments about the summer riots, although this has now morphed into the rather lame excuse that “he doesn’t do these sort of events.” Well we know that he does, as he was perfectly happy to sit down with Rishi Sunak for a rather awkward interview at the AI summit last November. There maybe much to dislike about the Tesla boss but it is important that the Government is not actively making him even less likely to invest here.
