The passing of Margaret Thatcher has inevitably led to an exploration of her years as Prime Minister; how her leadership affected the country and how her policies impacted on the people she governed.

As a politician she was formidable, forthright and an election winner. Three consecutive election victories is an impressive record in anyone’s book. However, the fact that during her eleven years of power she was aided and abetted by a Labour opposition that split, leading to the formation of the SDP, and lurched too far to the left to be taken seriously should be accounted for. And then of course there was the Falklands War. Pre the war, despite Labour’s lack of direction under the leadership of the intellectually bright, but personality light Michael Foot, the Tories were badly trailing in the polls.

Her war victory – and she made sure that it was very much perceived as her victory - gave her not only an electoral bounce, but an unwavering, some would argue unhealthy, confidence in her ability and beliefs.  The Left’s continued flirtation with insanity throughout the eighties did little to restrain her.

She took on and crushed the Trades Unions. She persuaded enough of the electorate to buy into her vision of free enterprise, buy council houses, and buy shares from Sid. She significantly reduced the power and influence of local government, even abolishing the Greater London Council and Metropolitan County Council’s.  She outmanoeuvred and out fought her internal opponents, including giants such as Heseltine, Clarke and Howe. And she became a major player on the international stage.

For many in business, she was a breath of fresh air, introducing the possibility of entrepreneurship to a new generation that included leading Manchester success stories Tom Bloxham and Lawrence Jones, both of whom benefitted from her ‘Enterprise Allowance’ initiative. Even Labour supporter Sir Alan Sugar has been celebrating the Iron Lady’s premiership this week, and praising the cultural shift in Britain that she and her policies were undoubtedly responsible for.

Following the winter of discontent, a three day week and power cuts, it is difficult to argue that change was needed.

Nonetheless, my abiding memory of the late PM is that of someone who was destructive; a divide and rule kind of gal. Not to mention, a bully.

‘The ends don’t always justify the means’ was clearly not a phrase in her vocabulary. Communities were, quite literally, abandoned and closed down. Individuals who were unable to ‘get on their bike’ and find what little work there was for those outside of the ‘Yuppie’ panacea were written off. Miners were battered into submission in a brutal manner not befitting a civilised country. Our state services, most notably the NHS and education, was underfunded and undermined as billions of North Sea oil revenues were thrown away on a growing welfare budget that we are still grappling with today. Then there was the Poll Tax.

Of course her supporters will claim that on her way to ‘victory’ she was unaware of the consequences. However, they then have to account for some crass comments that she made including ‘Unemployment is a price worth paying’ and ‘There is no such thing as society’.

Whatever her successes and her personal attributes, a leader who so divides a nation and who cares so little for the impact of her polices on the most vulnerable of her citizens is not one that I can have any lasting admiration for. Thatcherism did a job, but then again, so did Norman Hunter!

One of the most important things that we need in life is the ‘C’ word – confidence!

We often hear economists and business commentators bemoaning the lack of confidence that exists in the market at the moment, stunting our ability for growth.

Everton’s centre forward Nikita Jelavic had bags of confidence when he joined the club last season, bagging eight goals in twelve games. His failure to score in his last thirteen matches is, according to his manager and most football pundits, due to a draining of that confidence.

The last time Downtown did an event with Labour leader Ed Miliband, in Lancashire almost two years ago now, he seemed to be suffering a crisis of confidence too. He was unconvincing in his presentation, hesitant in answering questions, and awkward in style.

I attended a dinner with him last night at an excellent venue, the Landing in Media City, and I have to say his performance has transformed. Well briefed, humorous, relaxed and, most importantly, confident, he delivered a short, punchy speech to a business audience of 150, and followed this up with an equally impressive Q&A session.

This was a very different Ed Miliband, and one that may, after all, be seen as a potential Prime Minister as the general election looms ever closer.  

And although last night’s Eastleigh by-election, on the face of it, does not offer the Labour Party a huge degree of optimism (they finished in fourth place) the fact that UKIP beat the Tories into second place means that David Cameron now faces a potential spring uprising from his right wing and backwoodsmen that will keep him occupied calming internal party nerves, rather than getting on with the job of leading the country.

Miliband can continue to slowly build momentum, take advantage of the Prime Ministers internal difficulties, not just with his own party but with his coalition partners too, and start to develop a policy narrative that can regain the trust of those voters whom Tony Blair converted to the Labour cause.

I believe the UKIP bubble will burst after the Euro elections next year. If that does happen, Miliband and Labour will have to be in a position where they have a set of policies that have a much broader appeal than the Eastleigh result suggests they have at the moment.

Nonetheless, Ed is in a much better place than he was eighteen months ago – and his confidence is visibly growing. 

Lord Heseltine’s report ‘No Stone Unturned’, published with a fanfare of publicity last week, demonstrated that the former Deputy Prime Minister has not lost his appetite for government intervention, decentralisation and constructive criticism of leaders of his own party.

Calling on Messrs Cameron and Osborne to develop a ‘strategy for growth’, many of the 89 recommendations contained within his latest missive would be welcomed by most pragmatic Labour politicians. Indeed, Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves and Chuka Umunna, Labour’s Shadow Business Minister, were among the first out of the blocks to welcome Hezza’s document.

Certainly his narrative surrounding an acceleration of the ‘localism’ agenda that would see the abolition of two tier local government; the extension of elected or ‘metro’ mayors to cover natural geographical economic areas such as Greater Manchester, Merseyside and the Leeds City Region; and the devolution of budgets to regional agencies in an attempt to re-balance the UK economy, would all be generally welcomed by a private sector that is often left baffled and frustrated by the complex, bureaucratic structure of governance that we currently have to battle with.

However, it was with with some trepidation, that I viewed Michael Heseltine’s recommendation of providing more powers to Local Enterprise Partnerships as a key to devolving power.

Though I would fully support the notion of a transfer of power from Whitehall to our major cities and city regions, the idea that Local Enterprise Partnerships will become all powerful is somewhat concerning. LEP’s are very much a work in progress, and even though the local LEP here in Leeds City Region is better than most, it still suffers from the lack of accountability and legitimacy that should go hand in hand with the responsibilities this report is suggesting.

Surely any transfer of powers from accountable, elected politicians in Westminster should go to elected, accountable politicians in the regions?

If I was being extremely unkind, I would say that the former Minister for Merseyside’s report is more ‘back to the future’ than ‘new frontier’. TEC’s, Business Link’s, economic development boards all come and go, but somewhere; somehow the people running them appear to re-emerge under different titles, but offering more of the same.

‘The usual suspects’ are not what we need for these unusual times. If LEP’s are to be provided with the funding pots and strategic powers that Heseltine is arguing for, then they will need to be reviewed and renewed as a matter of urgency.

‘Tarzan’s’ other suggestion that Chambers of Commerce ought to be seen as the voice of business is a ludicrously outdated view. I could not say it any better than our Downtown Manchester chairman Michael Taylor who wrote last week:  “I pass no comment on local Chambers...but in many parts of the country they are moribund talking shops; nothing more than a Rotary Club for local shopkeepers to demand that the police chase the gypsies off roundabouts.”

Nonetheless, Heseltine’s findings are a useful contribution to the debate as to how the government compliments its austerity programme with initiatives that will start to genuinely stimulate the economy. As always, this political giant has produced a strategy that may not be universally welcomed across the political spectrum – but it certainly can’t be ignored.

You can view the full report here.

The Prime Minister and his Chancellor were under pressure this week to deliver speeches that bought them time, both with the British public, and with their own party.

The noises of discontent from Conservatives about the inability of Dave and George to tame their junior partner in government had led to a feeling both inside and outside of parliament that the Lib Dem tail was wagging the Tory dog.

Ed Miliband’s decent performance at his conference last week, Vince Cables demands at the Liberal’s jamboree to soak the rich and the ever present spectre of Boris Johnson meant that both Cameron and Osborne had to be at their very best in Birmingham – and as far as the Tory right are concerned, they didn’t disappoint.

The chancellor focussed his fire on welfare and the work shy, promising £10 billion worth of cuts to the benefits budget, and reminding delegates that as soon as he could he would cut taxes, throwing in for good measure that there would be no ‘mansion tax’.

From the PM, no mention of past interests such as climate change or hugging hoodies. Instead, a reiteration of his commitment to those who want to work hard, better themselves and get on in life. He wants to spread privilege, not protect it. He articulated a compelling attack on some of the absurdities that exist within the existing benefits system, and he reminded Ed Miliband that the government did not have money to write out cheques to people – it was the people’s money in the first place.  

It was an impressive performance, and one that will certainly halt any talk in the short term of a visit to number ten from the men in grey suits.

Osborne and Cameron rediscovered their voice and their confidence because they were actually talking to us with conviction. They remembered that they are Tories, and they espoused Tory doctrine extremely effectively.

The problem they have had, and will have, is that that sort of free market, rampaging Conservatism may well go down a storm with Tory delegates in Brum – but it will have had Liberal Democrats absolutely seething.

When the cabinet next meets, will Cameron and Osborne lay it on the line to their minority stakeholder in government and tell them to tow the line. Or will we see another period of compromise, fudge and U turns?

I’m not a big fan of ‘X’ Factor anymore. Its format has become rather tired and predictable and without Simon Cowell the show just doesn’t have the same appeal to me. However, it remains one of the most popular programmes on television, and at the weekend it attracted over 8 million viewers.

What that meant was that Liverpool’s magnificent waterfront, architecture and vibrancy was witnessed by over 8 million people from across the UK, as the show was recorded at the Echo Arena. Some of the aerial views of the city that were shown were nothing short of stunning. It was among some of the best marketing for Liverpool that I have seen.

In my opinion the arena is the greatest legacy from our European Capital of Culture year in 2008. Liverpool is now the most visited city in the UK outside of London and Edinburgh. The fact that we now have a facility that can host major events, concerts and conferences is the single most important contribution to that.

The arena doesn’t win things like the Mobo awards, political party conferences and the ‘X’ Factor by accident though. It has a team of dedicated people, led by chief executive Bob Prattey, that provide a magnificent welcome and offer to the events they host – and a formidable sales team that travels the globe to tell potential users not just about the arena but about new Liverpool too.  

Hats off to the arena for helping to drive forward the tourism and destination economy. Their work has huge beneficial spin off’s for our bars, hotels and restaurants. Anyone who is involved in promoting or marketing our city region should spend some time with the arena team. They would learn a lot.

Talking of the ‘X’ Factor, and political party conferences, Nick Clegg was first up among the party leaders this week, wooing his conference delegates, and he hopes the country, with a very public apology, and a number of speeches that, to me, appeared to condemn his coalition partners and the Labour opposition in equal measure.

Amusingly his apology was transformed into an entertaining ‘rap’, and featured here in Downtown’s TFI bulletin last week. Saying ‘sorry’ has become a far too regular feature from our politicians in recent times. Andrew Mitchell is ‘sorry’ for being obnoxious towards police officers; a good number of MP’s apologised for claiming things on expenses that they ought not to have claimed; Ed Miliband is sorry for everything the last Labour government did that you don’t agree with.

I would ask them to stop. If you have done something that you are genuinely ashamed of, your judgement was so poor that you feel the need to issue a statement, then the first sentence of that statement should read ‘I resign.’

They are not the words that we will be hearing anytime soon from our Prime Minister David Cameron, despite his rather odd appearance on the Letterman show this week. He was the first ever serving PM to take a seat opposite the formidable US talk show host. His advisers should have realised that there was a reason for that!

Instead, they got twitchy about the fact that the only UK politician who does have the ‘X’ Factor at the moment, Boris Johnson, had done Letterman earlier this year, and they thought it would be a good idea to get their man on that stage too. If Boris is Simon Cowell, Cameron is more like Gary Barlow. It was a bad move for the PM and his advisers should say ‘sorry’.