Next step for Simon Wolfson: politics

Tesco is apolitical, said its chief executive Sir Terry Leahy, declining to be drawn on the subject on national insurance increases in case anybody tried to discern a party allegiance. Just in case, he added: "If you feel my answer leads you in one direction then I haven't confused you enough." There no qualms at Next. Chief executive Simon Wolfson , who has the ear of George Osborne, has been nominated by the Conservatives to be a working peer. That's the end of a great retailing career, Next's shareholders might assume. It seems not. Wolfson intends to continue as a FTSE 100 chief executive. We'll see how long that lasts. Politics is a time-consuming business and investors, fairly, feel it can't be compared to sitting on somebody else's board as a nonexecutive director. Next is on a roll and investors would hate to see Wolfson go – but they'd be right to make him choose which job he wants most.