Weekend Box: Platinum Jubilee, Shein rises & more
Welcome to The Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business, and cultural news from around the world.
A POV ON THE PJP
Audley were proud to play its part in delivering the landmark event, Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Pageant. Audley's Senior Associate Twyla Williamson gives us her insight into the spectacular day.
Sunday 05th June 2022 – 05:55AM – The Mall, London.
After months of planning, the day had finally arrived: The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant was about to take flight. Although there were only a handful of crew members still sweeping the roads – a positive sign that most of the work was behind us – and a few loyal campers who braved the rain overnight, there was an air of anticipation that only this once-in-a-lifetime event can conjure.
We paced down the empty Mall and I couldn’t help but think of the rich history that paved these iconic streets. Having watched ‘Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen’ the night before, my thoughts were filled with the people’s faces who had decorated this prestigious route, not just the Queen but the many monarchs who had preceded her. What awaited us that afternoon was different. A moment in time which no-one had ever witnessed before, an event unlikely to ever occur again. A seventy-year celebration of a woman who has served the UK public and Commonwealth tirelessly, a dedication few of us can imagine.
Whilst much meticulous planning had been committed to the occasion, there had been no full rehearsal with the 10,000 people involved, making it hard to predict how this large-scale event would turn out on the day. This sense of uncertainty was compounded by the tumultuous state of the country, evoking a sense of apprehension that this type of celebration for the monarch, who has been a constant thread throughout many of our lives, may not resonate with today’s audiences as Pageants have done before. Therefore, with a great sense of anticipation we walked back to take our “beginners call” positions for it to begin. It appears our angst was unnecessary. An estimated one billion people from around the globe united in watching the Pageant on Sunday, a spectacle in itself.
The organisers, Audley’s Chairman and Pageant co-chair Sir Michael Lockett, Pageant co-chair Sir Nicholas Coleridge, and Pageant CEO Rosanna Machado, intended to reignite the British spirit and make the public feel they were finally moving forward towards a more hopeful future, despite the challenging times we still face. It was designed to be an event as much about the aspirations we should share for the next seventy years as celebrating the past seven decades. Committed in this endeavour, the celebration cherished The Queen’s service to the county with equal measure placed on the people’s service. The creative directors had coined it, ‘The People’s Pageant’ and that, as a somewhat biased bystander, was evidently delivered.
What came next was a showcase of diverse talent, reflecting the rich tapestry of British culture. National treasures who have decorated our screens were out in force, humbled by The Queen’s majesty and spirited by the crowd’s exuberance. An impressive military procession paraded the route, 8,500 members of the community showcased their talents, and a finale which echoed The Queen’s Coronation of 1953, where spectators filled the streets surrounding Buckingham Palace in pure jubilation.
It was Walter Bagehot who said, ‘Monarchy is the visual expression of national unity’ and Sunday certainly confirmed this to be true. A country which has been divided for so long, suffered so much and felt great loss, saw its people run, dance, and sing through the streets of London, and celebrate at 16,000 street parties across the UK. There was a shared sense of belonging and unity which transcended far above the political dialogue, which has plagued our airwaves for so long. It was a moment in time that people will cherish in their memory forever.
It does not take a raindrop to fix a drought, but as Her Majesty returned from the balcony and the crowds vacated the streets it started to rain, leaving us hopeful of what will follow and providing a perfect end to a typically British event.
BORIS JOHNSON: THE PAST AS PROLOGUE?
Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Theresa May have many things in common. The suggestion that their experience as Tory leader has any kind of bearing on Boris Johnson’s fate should not be one of them.
The no confidence votes faced by each in 1990, 1995 and 2018 respectively have regularly been cited this week to prove that the prime minister’s end is somehow inevitable, despite his victory in Monday’s vote of the parliamentary party. This analysis ignores both the particular circumstances of each vote and the fundamental strength of Johnson’s position.
Thatcher was defenestrated by her own Cabinet following a series of policy errors and criticisms of a leadership style that had become increasingly autocratic after 11 years in office. Theresa May stepped down voluntarily when it became clear she couldn’t get her flagship Brexit policy through the House of Commons due to her lack of majority. And John Major lived on to lead the Conservatives into a general election. It’s not clear that any of these examples tell us anything about Boris Johnson’s predicament today.
Indeed, they ignore the fundamental truth that the prime minister continues to command a sizeable majority in Parliament. That was true three months ago. It was true on Monday. And it will be true in another three, six, maybe twelve months’ time. It means that the Tory rebels need to find 180 Conservative MPs to vote against him, something that has always been a tall order. That they reached 148 in Monday’s vote doesn’t make it any less so as many who voted against the PM now consider the matter closed and believe that it would be unfair to change the rules to allow another vote, as some in the party seem to want to do. It’s therefore not merely a matter of finding another 32 rebels to join the cause but of also keeping together the disparate coalition that opposed the prime minister on Monday. This is far from an easy task.
This is not to say that Johnson is safe. The forthcoming by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton & Honiton will likely be disastrous for the government. The prime minister still faces an investigation from the House of Commons’ Standards & Privileges Committee, which might well conclude that he misled parliament. And there will surely be further scandals and missteps to come – at least if Mr Johnson’s career to date is any guide.
But nor can it be ruled out that the prime minister succeeds in resetting his government, continues to enjoy a year’s immunity from another vote under the party’s rules, and ultimately leads the party into the next general election.
It’s a foolish person who makes any predictions about the direction of British politics at the moment. There have been plenty of surprises, twists and turns along the road in recent years. But as many have found in the past, it’s equally foolish to write off Boris Johnson.
His position at the end of this week is stronger than it seems. He has survived the vote. There have been no Cabinet or Ministerial resignations. And that sizeable parliamentary majority remains intact. Mr Johnson is never going to step down voluntarily. The realities of the electoral arithmetic remain in place.
Sagely pronouncing that what happened to Tory leaders in the past inevitably means the end is nigh for Mr Johnson is therefore unwise. Perhaps it is. Perhaps it isn’t. But if there’s any lesson from the past that’s relevant to today, it’s found in the words of US President Lyndon Johnson. There’s one iron law of politics, he said. You have to learn to count.
CHANGE ACROSS THE BOARDS
London’s most high powered and influential women, from Aviva’s CEO Amanda Blanc to Freshfields managing partner Claire Wills, are making great strides towards embedding a culture of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, especially at senior level. Despite their extraordinary efforts to achieve gender equity in their institutions, the question that stills posits is: why is the cultivation and nurturing of female talent through the ranks in British institutions not manifesting in more women in senior management roles? Whilst the UK has not yet settled on a solution to this, the EU has made definitive steps.
The European Commission has reached an agreement on a landmark deal requiring all listed companies in the EU to achieve 40% female representation on corporate boards by 2026. It has also set a 33% target for women in senior roles, including non-executive directors and directors, such as chief executive officer and chief operating officer. After ten years of deadlock over the proposals, this legally binding target proves the impact and influence the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has had on pushing the business case for gender equality forward. In a statement on Tuesday, Von der Leyen said: “It is high time we break the glass ceiling. There are plenty of women qualified for top jobs: they should be able to get them.”
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, vice president of the European Parliament and the proposal’s co-rapporteur Evelyn Regner said, “the directive needs teeth, so we put penalties into it.” The penalties, which will have to be enforced at the national level, may include fines for failing to recruit enough women to their non-executive boards and see boards annulled by a judicial body if they breach the national provisions.
Women have always had the capability to occupy corporate board seats and hold senior positions in businesses, but centuries of misogyny have made it unacceptably difficult for women to climb the ranks. However, the EU’s legally binding targets provide a glimmer of hope that seismic change will occur as men will have no other option but to recognize the proficiencies and talents of women.
THE PATH OF DISCREET RESISTANCE
Last weekend saw the anniversary of the Tiananmen protests and massacre pass by in relative silence. However, it appears that one Chinese beauty streamer was not prepared to let the historic occasion go unacknowledged, in a possible act of protest that has led to his disappearance from the public eye.
On Friday 3rd June, the eve of the anniversary of the massacre, streamer and influencer Li Jiaqi AKA Austin Li was broadcasting live on the e-commerce platform Taobao. Li, known also as the “Lipstick King,” has developed a reputation for selling extraordinary volumes of beauty products during his shows, on one occasion selling 15,000 lipsticks in five minutes. However, this livestream came to an unexpected halt after Li raised a cake to camera that appeared to resemble a tank, with Oreo biscuits for wheels and a wafer attached to a mound on top resembling a turret and cannon. Li posted on the social media platform Weibo following his stream’s disappearance saying he had encountered technical difficulties. However, he has not streamed since and reportedly his profile can no longer be found on Taobao.
Li’s showing the cake on his popular stream has been interpreted as a reference to the events of June 4th, 1989, when hundreds if not thousands of student protesters at Tiananmen square in Beijing were killed by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which infamously deployed tanks at the site. Historically, references to the massacre – verbal, visual, or otherwise – have been forbidden in Chinese media, particularly around the anniversary. An annual vigil has traditionally been held in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to commemorate the events of June 4th. However, this year, the vigil was not held for the first time in over three decades due to concerns around Hong Kong’s national security law. An event took place in Taiwan at the Chiang Kai-shek memorial.
Whether Li will return to streaming remains unclear, as do the circumstances of his June 3rd stream. What is apparent is that his actions have opened a conversation around the events of June 1989 more than thirty years after the fact and made sure that those events stay alive in memory, in a way that few could have anticipated.
SHEIN-ING EXAMPLE?
The environmentally friendly second-hand industry is becoming one of the largest growing consumer segments, with many expecting that it will be twice the size of fast fashion by 2030. Whilst the horizons look downcast for fast-fashion, one brand is not going down without a fight.
The ultra-fast fashion company Shein was valued at $100bn in April, cementing its place as the largest fashion retailer in the world. This makes it bigger than the fast-fashion heavyweights Zara and H&M combined. Shein can credit its meteoric rise from a domestic apparel merchant to a global fashion behemoth to its popularity amongst budget-conscious Gen Zers and its online marketing strategy, particularly on TikTok. The TikTok hashtag #sheinhaul, which has garnered over 5bn views, is used by young influencers to show off their clothing. The videos of influencers trying on a piece at a time, quick-fire, interspersed with cuts to Shein’s app spotlighting the low prices, such as a $8.00 mesh dress or a $4.50 jumper, encourage customers “to refresh their wardrobes nonstop,” said Wired magazine. For many, these TikToks heighten the pressure to stay on trend, making the temptation to purchase a cheap and stylish garment destined for landfill irresistible.
Shein’s model of manufacturing garments, aided by algorithms, makes the production of clothing expeditious. This, alongside Gen Zers susceptibility to the brand’s aggressive marketing on social media, fuels the ease at which the company churns out 10,000 new garments a day. The constant stream of trendy but low-cost clothing perpetuates the idea that you must buy now, and nothing should be worn twice, effectively encouraging consumers to throw away their used clothes. The brand also ships to more than 150 countries. This becomes an alarming statistic when you consider the emissions of not just deliveries but also returns. It has been reported that $5bn worth of returns in America alone ends up in landfill because it costs more to put them back in circulation.
In light of the e-commerce giant’s commitment to prioritising the production of cheap and disposable clothing over our planet, it was a surprise that Shein received a chorus of applause at this week’s global fashion summit in Copenhagen. At the industry’s largest forum for sustainability, the ultra-fast fashion brand was lavished in praise for donating $15m over three years to the Or Foundation, a charity working at the world’s largest second-hand clothing market at Kantamanto in Accra. The director of the charity Liz Ricketts said the multi-year agreement will fund their Mabilgu Apprenticeship Program for Kantamanto women, improve working conditions, and help businesses recycle textile waste. Speaking at the summit, Ricketts hailed Shein's philanthropy as “revolutionary” and applauded them for their “acknowledgement that their clothing may be ending up here at Kantamanto, a simple fact that no other major fashion brand has been willing to state as yet.”
However, not everyone was won over by Shein’s gesture. An anonymous attendee lambasted Shein’s philanthropic donation as “public greenwashing,” echoing the belief held by many at the summit that eliminating the production of fast fashion is the only solution. The brand’s commitment to addressing second-hand waste could also be an attempt to avoid the dismal fate of their competitors. In recent months, the former fast-fashion titan Misguided collapsed and in the last financial year Bohoo’s profits slumped 94% in the year. Meanwhile sustainable reselling Apps such as Depop and Vinted are taking another slice out of the market and the popular reality TV show Love Island has ditched fast-fashion for a partnership with eBay, leading many to wonder if the preloved clothing industry is turning the tables on fast-fashion once and for all.
And that’s it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at cwilkins@audley.uk.com.
For now, that’s the weekend box officially closed.