London goes to India to woo India back to London...

Of course here I am talking about Boris Johnson's 6 day visit to India this week to charm Indian business and students over to London instead of heading off to the US, Canada or Australia.

Boris - not Boris Becker, not the King of England or even the President of London - but Boris Johnson, Mayor of London.  I remain agnostic as to whether he is actually a brilliant mind and politician beneath the buffoonish exterior, where the so-called 'gaffs' are actually carefully scripted political interventions.   On the other hand,  he might just be a charismatic, upper class buffoon coming out with gaffs.

The UK these days has to eat a certain amount of humble pie.  No longer can we rely on the reserves of labour and support from our ex-colonies but have to work hard to attract business back to the UK.  We can't even rely on the universal love experience created by the Olympic Games this year.   Whether it is BAE's Eurofighter Typhoon losing out to France's Dassault Rafale or students choosing the US, Canada and Australia over the UK amid increased visa restrictions or terrible one-off tragedies such as the murder of Indian student Anuj Bidve in Salford. We have to do some serious sucking up.

So, Boris is encouraging more welcoming visa regulations to entice students back, putting him slightly at odds with Theresa May, the current Home Secretary.  He's also offering tax credits to Indian film companies wanting to shoot films in London.  Let's just hope they offer a slightly more realistic view of how most people live in London compared to your average Bollywood millionaire success-story representation of life in London (eg. Rahul in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham).

I just like the squaring of the circle (or whatever the expression is) - of the once arrogant and mighty UK, master of its colonies where public school boys not long out of short trousers ran the show - now has to advertise its wares in the new global marketplace.  Desperate to attract the rupee into London, London now woos India.