13 Comments

• Neil Walton 14th Aug '07 - 5:08am

  When was the last time that a govt or council did not say that they were going to cut waste / red tape? One of the first issues I remember the first Tory govt of Mrs Thatcher talking about was cutting waste, etc and using the savings for something else. After nearly 30 years of cutting waste, is there anything left to cut?

• Mark Pack 14th Aug '07 - 8:18am

  Crikey, the comments are a bit messy this morning 🙂 Two main problems – (a) the extremely offensive posting in the Tim Garden thread from liblablog (though I suspect its placing was a mistake as it was its placing in that thread that made it offensive), and (b) liblablog posting the same comment, shall we say, really quite a lot of times on really quite a lot of different threads. I’ll repost it once below, minus the swearing, so discussion can (re)commence.

• John 14th Aug '07 - 9:32am

  get rid of liblablog. The Tim Garden comment sounds like a disgraceful act. He doesnt deserve to be able to post for that. What a nasty act.

• Tristan Mills 14th Aug '07 - 9:36am

  Politicians always talk about cutting red tape and waste – they never do though.
  Brown has been talking about it, yet his aim seems to be to regulate the country into submission to his will…

  If Thatcher did cut regulation and waste then her good work has definitely been undone by her own government, Majors and now the Blair and Brown governments.

  The LibDems should be looking to cut regulation and make it simple and easy to comply with where it still exists.

  We can start with the whole tax credits system and replace it with low end tax cuts.

  The Health and Safety industry should be another target – lets treat people as adults responsible for their own decisions.

  Tax is ripe for reform, as is business regulation and of course the planning system.

  The Liberal Democrats can be radical, liberal and help the poorest all at the same time.

• Mike Cox 14th Aug '07 - 2:46pm

  There is an increasing mountain of bureaucacy and red tape which nobody has ever attempted to tackle seriously.

  Leaving aside the public bureacracy which affects us all whether it is huge resources committed to NHS management or massive Police time wasted on form filling, the area which I believe WE should attack is that which is stangling smaller businesses

  In that Redwood has a point but the Tories have always been big on talk and do nothing to help the little people. They are too busy ingratiating themselves on the big companies to rake in the donations/loans. Thatcher managed to get a reputation for helping small businesses (probably based on her fathers shop) but in reality she ruthlessly aided massive global companies and ignored smaller ones

  I beleive there is a real opening here for us to be the voice of small business but to date our attempts have been feeble

• Les Farris 14th Aug '07 - 3:11pm

  Redwood is/was a member of the infamous No Turning Back group. Nuff said.

• tony hill 14th Aug '07 - 9:59pm

  As a small businessman I have to say that I do not feel the government’s hand heavy upon my shoulder. I do not resent paying income tax, believing it to be the price of living in a civilised society; I would rather my business rates went to the local authority rather than into general taxation, but that doesn’t count as an imposition; VAT inspections are never pleasant, and I have seen (although not been on the receiving end of) VAT inspectors behaving extremely aggressively; but as far as health and safety are concerned I have always welcomed an inspection because I do not want to be responsible for placing my employees’ well-being in jeopardy. On occasion the advice I have received from inspectors has cost me substantial amounts of money, but I cannot understand why any responsible employer, or political party, should want to water down health and safety legislation.

• Mike Cox 15th Aug '07 - 8:50am

  I disagree with you Tony (and yes I run my own business as well)

  H&S and HR legislation are well generally well and good for large corporations but are frankly ludicrous for smaller outfits.

  If small businesses actually did everything they were supposed to do they wouldn’t make any money at all they would just employ an army of lawyers accountants and conultants

• tony hill 15th Aug '07 - 5:58pm

  OK Mike, maybe I’ve just been lucky, have you got any examples of things you have been required to do which seem over-the-top?

• Mike Cox 16th Aug '07 - 1:52pm

  Lots Tony. The latest HR requirements are quite bonkers for smaller business as I recently had a experience of. I am not personally as familiar with H&S but from what I hear from the Head of our local school they are even worse

  I fully appreciate people need to be protected but that protection has become overwhelming and is having a detrimental effect on te way we live our lives and the way we do business

• Hywel Morgan 16th Aug '07 - 3:10pm

  Wasn’t one of the OTT bits of red tape the 79 Thatcher government cut the silly provision setting a high minimum temperture for rendering cattle feed. The new lower temperature wasn’t sufficient to destroy the prions that seem to be the cause of BSE.

• tony hill 16th Aug '07 - 5:42pm

  The main imposition for small businesses seems to be maternity/paternity leave. I have been lucky because I have been more or less unaffected by this, certainly by the most recent legislation. With a 5 person business the consequences could certainly be crippling. However, there is a Catch-22 here: if you exempt businesses under a certain size then they are going to be much less likely to be able to recruit the young, energetic people they need to help them grow, so all the talent will go to larger companies which offer these sorts of benefits.

• Ben 16th Aug '07 - 6:32pm

  John Redwood’s proposals just continue to show how out of touch with the electorate the Tories are.

  Here we have a Tory party planning to scrap data protection legislation and to make it easier for businesses to sack people.

  Firstly, how many voters want to be able to be made redundant more easily? I would have thought that it wouldn’t be too many.

  Secondly, that Tories feel that it is right to allow businesses to play fast and loose with individuals personal information. I guess it’s better than placing it on an ID card but I would still prefer it to be kept safe.

  David Cameron is trying to regenerate his party by pushing forward the same old policies.