Things I have learned from Charles

Today I have started what I hope will become a semi regular element to my blog. Charles Orton-Jones is the Deputy Editor on Real Business and is a font of knowledge, whenever we chat about “stuff” the conversation usually ends up somewhere interesting but a world away from where we started.

Today we were talking about the effect on the UK government if the SNP win a referendum on full Scottish independence. Alec Salmond has said that there will be no Scottish based MPs in Westminster if Scotland becomes independent, this means the loss of 39 current Labour MPs and quite a few ministers including both serious leadership hopefuls Brown and Reid.

This then led us onto a discussion about the importance of oil revenue to Scotland and other independent countries and how good governance is so much more important that natural resources in the prosperity of nations. We chatted about the relative successes in Africa and how poor/corrupt leaders had been culpable in the impoverishment of Africa.

The thing that I learned from Charles today was:

Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa, declared himself to be Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire (now the Central African Republic) in 1977, the solid gold coronation throne used up a huge amount of the country’s limited wealth and when asked about his economic plans he said “"We ask the French for money. We get it, and then we waste it”.

After watching the costs of the Scottish parliament building soar I would watch out for golden thrones if I lived north of the border.