If “issues around our historical legacy” are to be addressed, as Tom Fletcher argues in his opinion piece “The UK needs a new approach to international affairs” (April 8), a good place to start would be the removal of the statue of Robert Clive, founder of the British East India Company, which appears in the photo of the Foreign Office accompanying the column.
Fletcher calls for the integration of international spending on “climate, humanitarian, development and ‘soft power’” but makes no reference to international trade and investment. His piece also recommends “a much better focused and co-ordinated set of mechanisms across government” without specifically recommending the reversal of the atomisation of business support for struggling inward investors and UK small and medium-sized enterprises across (at least) three government departments.
In this context, it would hardly be radical to replace Clive at his symbolic position at the steps above the Churchill War Rooms with a figure who symbolises the importance of innovation and commerce in Britain’s past and future place in the world — George Stephenson, for example, philanthropist, gardener and pioneer of the railways. This would be a more useful contribution to human development than conquest.
Crispin Simon
Chief Executive, UK Trade and Investment (2013-14), HM Trade Commissioner, South Asia (2017-2020)
Combe Hay, Somerset, UK
