Sal and Vince at Mothercare
Vince arrived in Watford this afternoon for a busy session. We met Ben Gordon, Chief Executive of Mothercare plc and his team at their global HQ in Watford. This company understands its market, and is expanding around the world. Vince was particularly impressed with the toy design team who we met. Watford is proud to be Mothercare’s home town.
Vince and Sal have tea with LibDem members
We then moved on to St Luke’s church for tea with Lib Dem members: the hall at St Luke’s was buzzing, and were well fed with Sue Greenslade’s wonderful home baking. Vince talked to us, and signed copies of his book. He manages to explain the problems in the economy so clearly, as well as articulate what we need to do to start the long hard journey out of recession.
Vince visits Watford and West Herts Chamber of Commerce
Vince’s last visit of the day was as guest speaker at the Chamber. More than 120 guests turned up through the biting cold weather to hear him, including a small group of sixth formers from Watford Grammar School for Girls, who asked questions during and after the meeting. Vince set out the background to the present recession, two possible routes out of it, bull and bear, and then talked about how we had to be realistic about the difficult balancing act that politicians will have to follow to ensure that we don’t fall back into recession (if cuts are too draconian and fast) versus a “do nothing” approach, where we lose the confidence of the banks and international finance system. I spoke about Watford’s strong partnership between business and councils, and how we need to work together to help our town begin its own recovery. Thankfully, our position is no worse than the national average, but unemployment, empty shops, and businesses failing affect us all. I particularly asked the businesses to consider employing young people, who are finding it very hard to get jobs at the moment. In 2009 youth unemployment doubled in Watford. These young people under 25 are our future and we ignore them at our peril.
