Do politicians have a plan for the long-term prosperity of UK business?

As the media is currently swamped with articles and analysis about Trump, I considered writing about something, anything, else for this blog.

After all, our PM Theresa May has just released a green paper on ‘Building our Industrial Strategy’. It claims to focus on new technologies, from robotics to batteries, our pipeline of talent and our infrastructure to make sure our economy is ready for the next industrial revolution.

Surely I can find some hope in its pages? Well, as Sky News’ Adam Parsons’ opinion piece notes this week, it is a document that is “decorated with good intentions, but short of new, costed hard facts”.

Truth trumped by reality TV culture

Which brings me right back to the new US President. Events in American politics are just too important to dismiss, as they will have far-reaching implications for both its own people and us folk back in the UK.

Amusing as they are, Trump’s ‘twitterings’ reveal his rise to fame through the ranks of reality TV has ill prepared him as leader of the free world. So why did people elect him?

The US is not the only country to be experiencing a populist movement. People around the globe have been driven to vote for change, at any cost, by years of recession.

They are rallying against the establishment and drifting towards characters they see as going against the grain in the hope they will regain a voice in their own economic destiny.

Populist movement may not bring right kind of change

The irony is that we don’t need a rebel; what we need is a government which nurtures a dynamic economy and that can deliver wealth from the bottom up.

We need better jobs, access to better educational opportunities and healthcare and a brighter future for our children.

So while Theresa May might not have worked out the numbers, her industrial strategy is at least a step in the right direction, informed by a clear vision for the country’s path to success.

That’s what politics should be about - a mature, considered plan for the long-term prosperity of the UK.

There is a Twitter account called @IndStrategyComm, but I’m yet to see a tweet. And there’s something reassuring about that.