Painting a target
It wasn’t quite up there with the Vatican demanding the ordination of women or Donald Trump conceding the US election, but a pretty big thunderbolt went off here last month.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) formally asked the Government to consider whether public companies should be forced to give equal weight to public-interest issues such as the needs of customers and the environment, alongside the imperative of optimising returns to shareholders.
This should have caused a sensation. It’s as though the Vampires’ Collective demanded Dracula be made to go vegan several days a week.
As the directors more sedately characterised it, the shareholders-first tradition is
