As humiliations go, telling a reluctant prime minister to get off stage to make way for the opposition parties must rank high up anybody's list. But today's CBI conference was an unforgiving place for politicians of all colours. Telling Gordon Brown his question time was up because the business crowd had a schedule to keep, caught the mood rather nicely.
You might have thought that after a year in which the government had committed us to the largest private sector rescue in free market history, an annual gathering of British business leaders held at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane would be a somewhat grateful affair.
Instead, all three party leaders were treated to a barrage of questions on why they weren't doing more to help. Gordon Brown was criticised for withdrawing tax incentives for small businesses. Nick Clegg was challenged about his lack of support for the nuclear industry. And David Cameron got a hard time for suggesting that some regional business quangos deserved the chop. All the while, the question of how quickly they would all cut public spending to bring down the deficit hung like a knife over the proceedings. Only Stephen Hester, the new chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, said thank you, but that was to the rest of the business audience in their capacity as taxpayers.
It has become accepted wisdom in Westminster circles that politicians no longer need seek the support of the business community. Certainly, Cameron went through a stage of triangulating his shift to the left by bashing big business. But yesterday was all about carrot, not stick: scattered with promises for transport spending, broadband support, red tape eradication and tax incentives. Brown ducked another chance to flesh out his proposals for a new tax on City transactions, while Clegg mentioned a similar plan just twice. Cameron came closest to delivering a harsh truth when he said a Tory government would not be able to deliver all of business's "wish list" because Britain had run out of money, but he said it with such a charming smile, that they'd stopped listening by then.
Even this wasn't enough for Peter Mandelson, who weighed in with a press release accusing Cameron of overstating the case for taking the economy off the political life-support machine. "Business needs to beware. Mr Cameron's two faces have again been on show at the CBI," he said. "While he talks a business-friendly language, he is hiding policies that would set back the economic recovery and leave business weaker in the longer-term." It was a taste of things to come.
