I didn’t go to public school but I am assured by those who did, that cricket was a very important part of the school curriculum.
When I was in the Civil Service, the upper-echelons were almost entirely of ex-public school boys (the odd girl did sneak in) which is probably why so much civil service speak has a cricketing connection: ‘We should get this into the Minister’s Box by stumps on Friday’. ‘The Minister should play this one with a straight bat’. I could go on. 
The make-up of the senior civil service has changed over the years and I am sure that the vocabulary has similarly evolved.
Yet it is still prevalent in the political field. There has been considerable internal discussion of our lobbying activities entering a new phase or, as the lobbyists would put it, moving from the back foot to the front foot.
This is a change of emphasis that we all agree needs to happen, but we must not be as simplistic as to believe this is merely a move from defence to attack (cue note from CPT’s Chairman explaining that you can play aggressively from the back foot and defensively from the front).
I prefer to see this as a move from a reactive position, which was largely imposed upon us, to one where we work with policy makers to set the policy and agenda.
I do not believe that we could or should be criticised for being reactive in recent years. We have had legislation that was a surprise even to Transport Ministers, any number of reviews and an Air Quality Plan that, although not designed purely with transport in mind, is likely to have a profound effect on the coach and bus industries, operators and manufacturers alike.
You never know when you are going to be bowled a bouncer…
This magazine’s ‘Westminster Watcher’ has already explained how in their view our industries were, legislatively speaking “collateral damage” in the wider political aims of increased devolution and cleaning up the air.
I believe that we positioned ourselves well in these debates and, with some intelligent partnership working, we can make sure that operators can gain from both policy initiatives.
I firmly believe that we are now seen as a solution rather than a problem by most and we must now capitalise on this. The question of course is, how?
The general thrust must be for us to start shaping the agenda and providing Government with solutions that will help it to meet its policy objectives and serve our customers in the best possible way. They have set the direction of travel; we must show them how to get there.
This does not mean, as some have reported, that we are going to turn into table thumpers because, as anyone with children will tell you, this does not work. We will however seek to open the batting rather than play catch up.
