buccaneering

Prime Minister David Cameron wants Britain to be a “buccaneering, trading, investing nation right around the world”. This commentary looks at the origins of the word: tracing it all the way back to Caribbean pirates – “horribly violent, ruthless robbers”.  Apparently Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, went into battle with pieces of burning slow match stuck in his filthy, matted beard and hair. The article references stories of buccaneers’ courage and enterprise (“peirates” in Greek comes from peirao, “endeavour”) and liking for daring exploits. For some the word still means someone who greedily grabs what they want by force. “Buccaneer capitalism” was blamed by some for the financial crisis of 2008. On Mr Cameron’s Twitter account people have queried whether his use of the term is culturally sensitive and historically accurate.  Yet the Prime Minister has frequently used “buccaneering”.  During an address to the Australian Parliament in November 2014 he described how the UK economy had ‘turned a corner’; saying “we have found again our buccaneering spirit and our determination to seek new markets and new opportunities. And in his annual speech to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet back in 2013 he said he wanted Britain to show an “entrepreneurial, buccaneering spirit where people who take risks to make money are celebrated and admired”. Rather than alluding to piracy the Prime Minister is trying to articulate a vision for the economy with a state we can afford, an economy where everyone can take part, an economy that is equipped for the future and an economy based on enterprise at home and abroad. I look forward to reading the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ ’10 point plan’ for rural productivity in the Autumn. In the meantime I think central Government will find the countryside is dominated by entrepreneurs, self-employed people, ‘job jugglers’, home businesses and small and micro enterprises, all of whom are seeking to address the challenges of living and working in a rural area compared to locating in an urban area, while benefitting the national economy.