The Tony Danker One
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
BBC
4.6 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2023
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nick Robinson talks to the director general of the Confederation of British Industry, Tony Danker. They discuss what it was like to grow up in a Jewish family in Belfast during 'The Troubles', why he chose to join the Treasury three weeks after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 and how his calls for post-Brexit Britain's economy to grow more led to ministers accusing him of talking the country down.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | Hello and welcome to Political Thinking. |
| 0:08.6 | Is the man who leads the organisation which represents Britain's biggest employers, |
| 0:14.3 | talking the country down? |
| 0:16.8 | Or is he simply speaking up for the policies needed to get the country growing again? |
| 0:21.6 | My guest on Political Thinking this week is Tony Duncan. |
| 0:23.9 | He's the Director-General of the CBI or what we used to call the Confederation of British |
| 0:28.8 | Industry. |
| 0:29.8 | He's gone from selling menswear on the shop floor in his home city of Belfast to being |
| 0:35.4 | an adviser first for the Chief Rabbi and then to a Treasury Minister during the banking |
| 0:41.2 | crisis. |
| 0:42.2 | It is the job he does now, though, which led the times to argue in an editorial this week |
| 0:48.8 | that he, as the leader of the CBI, should not be talking the country down. |
| 0:54.3 | Tony Duncan, welcome to Political Thinking. |
| 0:56.7 | You just made me sound so much more dangerous than I am. |
| 1:00.6 | Thank you, Nick. |
| 1:01.6 | Any regrets? |
| 1:02.6 | At what the time said and that quote about not being part of TVUK, that was a, came about |
| 1:08.0 | not Government Minister. |
| 1:09.0 | I know she's great, came by the way. |
| 1:10.8 | Look, it's really funny because I spent the first two years of this job. |
| 1:15.6 | I'm in it two years being booster-ish about Britain. |
... |
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