What You See Is What You Get: My Autobiography (104 page)

The careful choice of candidates, as well as some great filming and boardroom scenes, produced a massive hit for the BBC. Michele, Tom and Michael worked relentlessly and, once again, were all over it like a rash - as was Andy Devonshire, the man who made the pictures work. During the filming period, there were so many ups and downs - which I can't even begin to explain - but with a combination of 'all hands on deck including my own, Nick, Karren and a great production team (as well as mentors for the kids), we made a great series. Surprise, surprise, suddenly the BBC executives came out of the woodwork, all claiming this was under
their
watch and what a great idea they'd had!

I have to say I've never enjoyed myself so much as I did making
The Junior Apprentice.
What I got from it was laughter and a sense of pride - and it showed. My idea had really worked but, more to the point, it was heartwarming to see how we'd resurrected some confidence in the young. Through my visits to schools, I've always known that we in Britain
do
have great young people who are resourceful, willing to learn and hard-working - now we were showing the nation! Bloody brilliant stuff. I will follow the future of the class of 2010, to see how their lives pan out. I have the utmost confidence that there are a few Alan Sugars or Richard Bransons amongst them, so watch this space. In fact, Richard very kindly agreed to be one of the 'treats' for a winning team. They were gobsmacked when I said I'd arranged for them to meet him at his house for tea. They had just won a task where they had to make and sell cupcakes, so I suggested, half-jokingly, that they should take him a few samples. They had a ball that day.

I can tell you honestly that each week I struggled to choose the candidate to fire, as they were all so good. And I
really
struggled in the final, when Arjun Rajyacor was crowned the first winner of
The Junior Apprentice.
If nothing else, it was a voyage all ten kids will never forget.

*

Three years earlier, in June 2007, Gordon Brown had been appointed Prime Minister after Tony Blair stepped down. A couple of days later, Gordon called
me to say he was about to reshuffle his government advisers. He explained that because of my involvement in business and television, it wouldn't be right or possible to give me a formal position in his government, as a conflict of interests would arise. However, he would value me as a member of his Business Council, together with people such as Richard Branson, Terry Leahy of Tesco, Stuart Rose of Marks & Spencer, some other big-hitters from Rolls-Royce and HSBC and other famous economists. Gordon and the Chancellor would meet every three months with the Business Council to discuss business affairs in general. It was an opportunity for a group of businesspeople to feed back what was going on in the marketplace.

It was nice to receive the call and to be thought of in such a way. Gordon and I went back over ten years, to when he first took on the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was he who asked me to embark on my trips around the country, talking to universities, colleges and businesses. Every year during National Enterprise Week (around November), I'd be called to attend all the seminars and sessions. More recently, I had also agreed with Ed Balls, the Education Secretary, that I would embark upon an advertising campaign to promote apprenticeships. As well as making some television adverts, I'd have to go on a roadshow, talking to potential employers about the benefits of apprenticeships.

The Business Council meetings were very interesting, though quite formal. Gordon Brown and the Chancellor would share data on the current economic climate, welcoming any input from its members. Little did anyone know that Gordon had walked straight into a hornets' nest when he became PM. The world was about to explode financially.

I'd seen, in the real estate business, the madness that existed in the markets between about 2004 and 2007. Assets were being sold for ridiculous amounts of money. The tradition of conservative lending from banks had gone out the window and now they were dishing out money with no regard for the value of assets they were funding. It was all well and good lending Fred the butcher PS50,000, but the banks viewed their margin on that type of transaction as peanuts. What they wanted to do was lend
billions,
so they could make 2-3 per cent on
that
sort of money. Following such a strategy meant they took amazing risks with some strange characters. A whole new wave of so-called entrepreneurs came to fame in the marketplace and were labelled multi-millionaires, or even billionaires, when in fact they didn't have two bob to rub together. All they had was a good and fast mouth and a bank eager to lend them money.

The American market was racing away in the same fashion. The bubble
had to
burst, and burst it did in the fourth quarter of 2008, the so-called credit-crunch crisis. The Americans had been selling what they called 'junk sub-prime loans' between banks. Trouble was, the banks weren't able to pay each other. Many UK banks had bought the sub-prime rubbish from the Americans and got themselves into big trouble paying up.

Like the rest of the UK, I woke up one morning to see on TV that the bank Northern Rock was in trouble. Rumours were rife in the market that they were near insolvency and people were starting to queue outside the branches to get their money out. It was the nightmare all banks dread. The whole banking system rests on the use of depositors' money to invest elsewhere. Therefore, hypothetically, if every depositor demanded their money back on one particular day, they'd never be able to get it. And this was the scenario being played out at Northern Rock.

I remember turning to Ann and saying, 'This is a disaster! You have no idea what this means. If this bank is allowed to go down and ordinary people lose money, the next thing you'll see is long queues outside Barclays and Lloyds. And if that sort of panic breaks out, the whole banking world will collapse and the ramifications will be unspeakable.'

The government stepped in and propped up Northern Rock and tried to calm the situation, but the people still queued. The crisis was not helped by the media, who gave no support to the government - if anything, they were responsible for instilling
more
panic in the public. Finally, the Chancellor announced that the government was taking over Northern Rock, which meant, in simple terms, that ordinary people's money was secure.
Still
some thickos in the media were casting uncertainty on this move, and still some people queued. This only stopped when the government reiterated, for the umpteenth time, that investors' money
was
secure. Eventually, the penny dropped and the public realised that if anything, the
best
place to put their money now was Northern Rock. In fact, after a while, they had to stop taking deposits, as everyone was running back to them.

It soon became clear that
all
the banks were in trouble. Lloyds, who had been my bankers for over forty-five years, decided to acquire HBOS and, in doing so, they bought a can of worms that nearly brought them down. This resulted in the government having to bail them out, as well as RBS.

Gordon Brown was getting so much stick it was unbelievable. The media were blaming
him
for the disaster. As events unfolded, companies were also collapsing, one by one. The famous Woolworths went into administration, as banks started to recall the loans they'd made to them and others. There were mass redundancies and a general negative feeling in the air. It was recession
on a scale we hadn't seen before. Real estate assets started to drop in value. This resulted in all the Champagne Charlies and so-called billionaires walking away, leaving the banks with huge debts and a nightmare to clean up.

When the dust settled after the bomb had dropped, it seemed obvious that the problems had started in America and that, basically, the greed of bankers lay behind the mess. Despite this, as far as everyone in Britain was concerned, Gordon was to blame. I was a bit frustrated for him. His swift action to save Northern Rock and inject money into the other banks to avert a disaster was not recognised by Joe Public. They had no idea what life would have been like had there been a full-blown run on the banks.

I decided to write some articles in the national newspapers in support of what Gordon had done, trying to spell it out in simple terms. I also pointed out that, uncharacteristically, the leader of the opposition, David Cameron, seemed very quiet on the matter, as if he knew Gordon had done the right thing. I put this quite plainly in my articles and invited Mr Cameron to speak up and tell everyone how he would have played it differently.

Baroness Shriti Vadera had been one of Gordon's advisers for at least ten years while he was Chancellor and she was still by his side now he was PM. She sent me an email passing on thanks for my support and said that my explanation of matters in the media was such that it was really understandable to the man in the street. She called me a few days later to ask me to come in and have a chat with her and Gordon.

During my forty-five years in business, I've had the opportunity to meet the last four prime ministers, and when I say
meet
them, I mean
meet
them - I don't mean going to some bum-rush at Downing Street with hundreds of other people; I mean talk to them seriously about important issues. I'm not so naive that I can't see that, in some cases, these politicians have their own agendas and will use people like me to help them. But give me a bit of credit when I say that, based on what I've seen over the years, Gordon is one of the most sincere and well-meaning people I've met. Now that is my opinion, and everyone is entitled to an opinion. I consider myself an experienced person in life. You have read that I'm quite sceptical when it comes to some of the characters I've encountered, but I decided, rightly or wrongly, to give Gordon my backing. I had known him for ten years and had no axe to grind. I wasn't after a knighthood, as I already had one. There was nothing in it for me.

The country as a whole had got used to a showman in Blair, one very much modelled on American politicians. He was a good mouthpiece, a good actor and orator. Gordon, however, was criticised for being dull and indecisive. People had forgotten the history of British politics, which is full of past
prime ministers who were deemed to be rather cautious, formal and stuffy people - and were none the worse for it!

When I sat down with Shriti and Gordon, I told them he needed to fight back a bit and not stand for all the criticism. He should tell people that he's a serious thinker, not an actor. Spell it out and don't dodge the issue. I spoke to him as I would a friend or business colleague and I gave him my advice, for what it was worth, without holding back. I think Gordon appreciated that, as most people speaking to the Prime Minster tend to be far more subtle.

I went on to talk to Gordon and Shriti many times after that. I once agreed to interview Gordon for a series of video clips to try to put to him what most people were thinking and give him the chance to express himself to the public in a way they'd not seen before. We made five different films, each about six minutes long. They came out quite well and were published on the
Sun's
website. You can still see them today on Amshold's YouTube channel at
www.youtube.com/amshold

Funnily enough, Piers Morgan, who by now had become a real TV celebrity, copied my idea and interviewed Gordon in one of his chat shows. I called Piers and jibed him over this, saying I'd be watching carefully to check he didn't infringe my copyright, as once again he was learning from the master. Piers, of course, ignored my goading. He said, 'The difference is,
your
one went out on the internet -
mine
will be viewed by millions.' In fact, the BBC and ITV turned down the chance of transmitting my clips, as they saw them as being too much of a party political broadcast. Funny how they changed their minds and let Piers do it, though.

On some occasions, I was asked to get to the Business Council meetings a little earlier or stay behind to have further discussions with Gordon. He was concerned the recession was really hurting the small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and wanted some ideas. Most of the people on the Business Council ran giant firms. With the exception of Richard Branson and myself, none of them had seen
all
sides of business. Richard and I had both started as small one-man bands, grew into SMEs and then into huge organisations. Obviously, the other members of the Business Council were well able to advise Gordon on issues concerning large businesses, but who better to give advice on how to help small businesses? Gordon recognised that I'd been there and done it.

*

It was mid-May 2009 and I was in Spain visiting the town of Ronda, having driven up there with Ann to check out a possible new cycle route. While we
were having a coffee in the town, my phone rang. It was Gordon Brown, asking whether I could pop into Number 10 the next day, to talk about stepping up my input in assisting SMEs and promoting enterprise to the young. He said that, due to the economic climate, he needed additional advisory skills and wanted to draw me into the camp in a more serious and formal manner.

'Well, Gordon, I'd like to help,' I said, 'but right now I'm up a mountain in Spain, checking out a cycle route. I won't be back till next Monday, so it will have to wait until then.'

'Oh, okay, no problem, Alan. Sorry to bother you. Give my regards to Ann. I'll see you next week - my people will arrange a meeting.'

The following Tuesday, I went to Downing Street to see what Gordon had in mind. My car rolled up at the main gates and, after the usual security checks, I was driven to the front entrance of Number 10.