To the Washington Hotel Mayfair – which incidentally is owned by a British Indian – for the Labour Friends of India (LFI) Annual Luncheon as a guest of Saffron Chase. The compere for the event was current LFI chair Steve Pound MP. Our Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the chief guest of honour with current Mayor of London Ken Livingstone following him. Both gave speeches of some interest on the subject of Indo-British relations. Gordon received a particularly large round of applause when he said ‘I believe the (UN) Security Council without India cannot be a Security Council reflecting the reality of the day’. In general, I have found that the Labour party follows a more proactive line in dealing with India relations when compared to their opposition. Ken highlighted his recent opening of offices in India during his own speech but his Conservative criticisers have tended to scoff at these efforts charging him with wasting money. However I think that – as an emerging superpower and one of the fastest growing economies in the world – British policy makers cannot afford to ignore India and should be doing all they can to maintain our country’s historically close relationship. At the event the Fenner Brockway medal was presented by the PM to a predecessor as Labour Party Leader Lord Neil Kinnock who currently chairs the British Council. I took the opportunity to introduce myself to him after the speeches and lunch were over and found him to be quite engaging. I also met International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander along with the PM’s Special Envoy for Forestry Barry Gardener MP. Other distinguished attendees included His Excellency Mr Asoke Mukerji the acting Indian High Commissioner, Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw, Minister for Olympics Tessa Jowell and British Ambassador for Overseas Business industrialist Lord Swraj Paul. It was great to see so many of in our government supporting the importance of good relations with India and it was a very well put together and enjoyable event. Happily I bumped into a few old friends and acquaintances as well and I shared a particularly entertaining walk and tube ride back to the office with a Partner at a boutique securities trading firm which does a lot of work on Indian products.