Untapped market has been overshadowed by Europe
THE most recent addition to the Chamber of Commerce family in Greater Birmingham has been the Commonwealth Chamber.
I'm delighted to say that it has taken off in great style and next week it will lead a comprehensive review of new trading possibilities in our Commonwealth Opportunities Week, now vital after Brexit.
The Covid crisis dictates that the Greater Birmingham Commonwealth Chamber must take place online but the interest is remarkable with many delegates already signed up for the intensive programme.
The highlight will be a virtual Commonwealth Conference on Thursday with a presentation and Q and A from two Scots. Ian Reid, chief executive of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, will share the platform with Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. Both Ian Stuart were involved in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow so we look forward to an update on the prospects for next year's Birmingham Commonwealth Games and how business can engage to take full advantage.
The Commonwealth Chamber, the tenth division of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC), was created largely to help businesses open new trading opportunities around the world. We believe that the Commonwealth
represents a largely untapped market, and one which has been overshadowed by the UK's relationship with the European Union. Currently, the EU accounts for 44 per cent of all UK exports, while Commonwealth countries make up only nine per cent.
So we believe that we must now focus on forging new links with Commonwealth Countries, and next week will include three webinars as well as Thursday's conference.
The webinars will focus on Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games opportunities for business, culture differences when trading with different countries and the benefits of trading with the Commonwealth.
So any business can learn about the myriad of opportunities that exist in the Commonwealth.
And Stefanie Bowes, international business manager at GBCC, who is one of the organisers, tells me that during the week there will be a renewed effort to boost international trade by providing vital details and insights on trading with Commonwealth countries.
Representatives from Chambers of Commerce and embassies from a variety of Commonwealth countries, including Canada, Australia, Singapore and India will be taking part in events throughout next week.
Virtual guests will also be able to network with representatives, as well as others attending the conference.
I'm delighted we are hosting our first Commonwealth-themed week and conference because global trading will become fierce in the years ahead.
There is the very real prospect of the UK joining the CPTPP consortium of Pacific Rim trading nations.
The acronym stands for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
It might sound ponderous but this group of nations, which the UK may join along with the US and China, will have an enormous impact on global trade.
While that partnership gets its act together, it is time for businesses in the UK and Commonwealth countries to find out more about markets they may have never considered.
Next week provides an ideal opportunity.
Anyone interested in joining us can get details at www.greaterbirminghamchambers.com
IT is fair to say when it comes to TV interviews, the royal family’s record has produced more car crashes than a demolition derby.
Whether it be Princess Diana’s Panorama interview 25 years ago, Prince Charles’s chat with Jonathan Dimbleby or more recently the Duke of York’s horrific attempt to talk away his friendship with a paedophile, the fall out has been catastrophic.
All were poorly advised. If only they had listened to Ronan Keating when he sang “you say it best when you say nothing at all” they would have been far better off.
However, this week it emerged that despite his parents’ experiences, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are to give a tell-all interview about life, love and loathing.
The publicity-shy couple who said the turning of their backs on the UK was for privacy and wanting to stay out of the limelight will chat to the ‘queen’.
And by queen, I don’t mean the Prince’s paternal grandmother who the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have not seen in person for over a year.
For in their lives it appears TV royalty comes first in the form of Oprah Winfrey, the world’s chat show queen.
The couple has agreed to sit down with the American for an “intimate” and “wide-ranging” TV interview discussing their shock departure from royal life.
According to Oprah’s best friend Gayle King, “nothing is off-limits” when the interview takes place.
The announcement blindsided Buckingham Palace who is said to have been oblivious to their plans.
It came one day after Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, disclosed they are expecting their second child in the summer.
The sit down with Oprah comes a year after they stepped away from royal duties, and when they left, the Queen made it clear the new working arrangement would be reviewed in 12 months.
That time is now up.
But such an interview, which will be seen by a global audience of billions, only indicates that a path back to royal life for the couple now looks unlikely.
If anything, it will see Harry stripped of his few remaining royal patronages.
But no one should be surprised by the couple’s desire to have their say.
Since meeting Meghan, Harry has been happy to throw the royal protocol he grew up with away, instead embracing a much more vocal approach.
Their chat with Oprah is claimed to have been three years in the works indicating that the life they now lead was planned long before Megxit was announced.
Quite frankly, all of Britain was sold a dud by the couple.
It has now proven to be a shameless move by the Sussexes who’d gained sympathy from many of us when they claimed they were fleeing the UK and royal duties to maintain their “privacy”.
Since then we have seen a carefully orchestrated PR campaign that included the couple undertaking a photoshoot in a cemetery to commemorate Remembrance Day.
All this, while earning tens of millions of pounds on the back of their royal names.
Of course, Harry and Meghan are now free to do what they want regarding media appearances.
They are also under no obligation to inform the royal household of any plans.
But it’s one thing not telling the institution. It’s another not telling your family.
And it seems the family didn’t know this was coming.
But don’t tell the British public, who have funded your lifestyle and your multi-million-pound wedding, that the reason why you wanted out was for privacy.
There is no bigger draw in terms of chat show hosts than Oprah – something the couple know only too well.
Since meeting Harry, Meghan and her mother have reportedly grown close to the queen of daytime TV but it is a disgrace how they have not grown closer to the real Queen in their lives.
You cannot help think with the softball questions their pal will ask, this is more an advert than an interview.
NOWHERE on the planet is woke becoming more of a joke than America. The latest target of those who appear to want to make a career out of cancelling people is our own William Shakespeare.
A growing number of ‘woke’ academics are refusing to teach the Bard in US schools, arguing that he promotes racism, white supremacy and intolerance.
Writing in the January issue of School Library Journal, Amanda MacGregor, a Minnesota-based librarian, bookseller and freelance journalist, asked why teachers continued to include Shakespeare in their classrooms.
“Shakespeare’s works are full of problematic, outdated ideas, with plenty of misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism and misogynoir,” she wrote, with the last word referring to a hatred of black women.
But others have hit back arguing such views are short-sighted and do not take into account the lessons he can still teach for today.
This culture we now live in where a minority of people have such a huge voice to affect so many millions more is quite incredible.
Increasingly, people are viewing the past through their 2021 eyes and perspective.
Times, values, ethics and morals have come a long way.
Deleting and cancelling the past will only cause people to have less knowledge and perspective.
It appears TV royalty comes first in the form of Oprah Winfrey, the world’s chat show queen