Michael Portillo lecture on

Michael Portillo MP gives a speech and answers questions from Imperial alumni.

This was the Alumni Network's most successful domestic event to date. An attendance of 95 indicated that Mr Portillo is a figure of interest to alumni and friends - and a most interesting speaker he was too.

Some of our guests identified something of an implied irony in the subject matter of Mr Portillo's speech, since the Tories are not famously linked to corporate responsibility, but the general thrust was hardly ironic.

A Conservative MP, arguing in his own constituency that in an era of schizophrenic attitudes toward enterprise, companies do themselves few favours by - for instance - masking bonus structures for senior executives, especially when the same companies are laying off workers.

Mr Portillo was questioned extensively by some bright minds from the alumni corpus. Among the most intriguing came from Ivan Massow, another controversial figure who was until recently Chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. One of our alumni Tim Sellers reported, "...it was a very enjoyable evening - an excellent speaker, complemented by beautiful surroundings and high quality refreshments." Sue Birley, Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre, called the event "delightful".