Vision of skilled Brits put forward

LONDON - Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has set out his vision of a Britain united around celebrating enterprise and social responsibility in order to help it succeed in the global marketplace.

In an article for Newsweek published just days before his pre-Budget report, Brown said Britain must meet the economic challenges posed by countries such as India and China.

Brown's report is likely to re-ignite speculation he is launching his personal manifesto to become leader of the ruling Labour Party.

"It is by rediscovering our intrinsic strengths - our British values that include our belief in liberty, enterprise and civic duty," Brown said.

"And by celebrating them and by making investment in skills, science and enterprise our priority that the coming decade can be Britain's decade - making Britain one of the new global economy's greatest success stories."

Brown said he would make enterprise, science and job creation centrepieces of his pre-Budget report, due tomorrow, six months before an expected general election.

Britain had to encourage enterprise and innovation - and business creation in the country was still half that of the United States.

"The long-term choice we must make is to learn from the US, rigorously introduce the right incentives and rewards for risk, and make the changes in the school curriculum and in our colleges and universities necessary to create a revolution in attitudes toward enterprise and wealth creation," Brown said.

Britain also needed to ensure that it valued science and to avoid falling into the trap of many industrial countries of shunning new techniques, whether it be because of genetically modified crops, stem cell research or animal experimentation.

"The long-term choice Britain must not duck is to balance the need for scientific advance with ending unnecessary suffering and thus protect legitimate science on potentially lifesaving research from being under constant attack," Brown said.

More steps were needed to make sure the unemployed got back to work and raise skills standards at schools and in the adult workforce, creating new obligations and opportunities for the jobless.

"And with 40 per cent of new regulation coming from Europe, we will continue to resist inflexible barriers to job creation from whatever source they arise," Brown said.

He noted the rising economic might of countries such as India and China but decried the fact that only 2 per cent of British exports went to these countries and said that he would take steps towards strengthening this trade over the coming months.

 

- REUTERS