The Gap Between Theory And Reality

I have been to sunny Northampton today to attend to a number of family matters, but having spent five hours in the car, I have been able to listen to the roll out of the Entrepreneurs are going to save us spiel from Con Dem and the slathering we must all work for the state socialists/social democrats.



Nice try Dave but here is the problem, every one of the companies that your spokes person listed this morning as starting in the teeth of one of the last ten recessions was American.



Americans can go to the market and raise start up capital relatively easily, here in the UK it is beyond difficult, the 'Dragons Den' is good TV but not a reality show.



Start ups need backers who inject equity and take a risk, in the UK working capital has been raised by going to the banks, signing a personal guarantee against your assets and leaving your kids as hostages.



You are also required to act as an unofficial unpaid tax gatherer for the Inland Revenue, social worker for staff that it has been increasingly difficult to get rid of,  if they are incompetent or  have zero work ethic. As a Director /owner of the you are subject to the whims and vagaries of the the Companies Act, The Insolvency Act, The Health & Safety at Work Act, Money Laundering Legislation, you can also fall foul of the Department of Business,Innovation & Skills, whose collossal budget and overspending by Mandelson introduces further rafts of regulation, thats before we start bring the EU into the equation.



The average life of a limited company is two years, before that personal guarantee is called in and you are left broke never wanting to repeat the experiance.



As I was driving back, I got a call from a colleague in Northern Ireland, who told me that the Ulster Bank (part of the Nat West farcical Bank) owned by the taxpayer had just pulled the plug, despite having a full order book, it was in the 'Wrong sector'.



All of our cash Dave, has gone to prop up the zombie banks, don't rely on the entrepreneurs until you sort out getting Government of business' backs, and an equity market is flourishing again.