The Weekly Gripe

Gripes the News
The Soapbox
Gripes in the pipes
*

The government doesn't care about small businesses

10 comments  Add a comment

Why is it that most politicians, especially those in Government, can't understand the problems and motivations of small businesses?  They load us down with penal tax rates, red tape and regulatory threat and then exhort us to expand and employ more people, taking up the slack caused by public sector cutbacks. 

For example, the Government says it is going to cut red tape and restrictive employment legislation.  Sounds great!  And then you learn they are rubber-stamping the ludicrous EU regulation allowing employees to claim sick-pay while they're on holiday!  Could anyone outside of the mad-house of Brussels or Westminster dream-up a more restrictive, stupid and maliciously motivated attack against small business employers? 

Here?s another example: Britain's high streets are slowly emptying of small retailers as they fall prey to the economic disaster bequeathed to us by the economic geniuses of the last Government, ably assisted by the present incompetent incumbents.  And what's the Governments response?  To raise Business Rates of course!  What else would you do to help ease a small family retailer into bankruptcy!  So they raises taxes and business rates while our high streets start to resemble 1930's dust bowl America.  Brilliant lads - well done!  Another great example of 'small-business friendly' policies. 

Small business, politicians haven't got a clue Of course the absolutely brilliant Business Secretary, Vince (Foggy) Cable, gave it all away in a recent interview in the famously business-friendly rag 'The Guardian' when he uttered these words ?it's ridiculous and bizarre? to claim that economic growth can be helped by lower taxes and deregulation.

Perhaps the nations small business-people should bow to Mr Cables vast experience and obviously superior intellect.  Because of course we can assume that no Prime Minister worthy of the name would be silly enough to appoint a Business Secretary to the post that didn't have extensive business experience ...  surely ...  but ...  oh maybe not.  Turns out Mr Cables? entire business career amounts to 2 years at Shell in the hard-hitting coal-face position of 'Chief Economist' (why Shell required a Chief Economist goodness knows).  The rest of Mr Cables? career seems to consist of 'trying to get elected'.  For my own interest, can anyone tell me if any other cabinet member has any business experience.  In fact is there anyone in the cabinet who is not a career politician with a PPP from Oxford or a law degree from Cambridge?  Last one out ...  turn out the lights!

By: Alan Jenkins


Leave a comment

Mark

Mark

tinkerman what you said about landlords are right but if there are not enough jobs to go around and very few people can afford to pay the rent, who's gonna rent their houses? Their houses will end up being unoccupied and therefore not generating any income.
10/06/13 Mark
-7
ahforfoulkessake

ahforfoulkessake

dont pay the licence grumpy.
pile of s**t on telly anyway these days.
Just make sure you dont let anyone in to your flat.
Try to pretend to be out if they call round and even if they know you're in don't open the door, you're under no obligation to. Same with any other bailiff stuff.
24/05/13 ahforfoulkessake
0
tinkerman

tinkerman

Becoming a landlord in this country is like being given a license to print money, everyone who has sufficient funds available can jump on the bandwaggon and rip tenants off.
British law was set up by the powerful landed gentry who were landlords to 1,000's of tenants, they tied workers to their businesses with housing so that losing your job meant lose your house, later years have not seen better laws, only laws to ensure good profits.
The rich invest in property as it has the best return per £ invested. Britain needs more houses because the population is increasing, why? because immigration is the new bonanza, semis that used to house 1 family are now sub-divided into 2 and therefore rents double giving the landlord increased capital to buy another house and repeat the process increasingly the banks are jumping on the same bandwaggon and "buy to let" is their new cash cow, those selling houses pursue those houses big enough to sub-divide into 2 homes know the market rate for rents and therefore increase the buying cost which makes 1st time buyers unable to get a stake in the market and fuel the demand.
British law is designed and maintained to support the rich and powerful, all the most powerful people in britain have attained great wealth by exploiting others, they could not work long enough hours or hard enough to earn their fortunes by the sweat of their own brow.
Landlords are not the villains though, they are only playing the game to the rules set out for them by the system.
03/05/12 tinkerman
0
athair_siochain

athair_siochain

Boblet I spent more than a decade helping victims of greedy landlords, could write thousands of stories about them, they are the bed bugs of humanity. no other human being can match them, if it was illegal to collect rent, they whould be seen as the greatest criminals of all, they need kneecapping, my last dealings with a greedy landlord, when the tenant moved in they had me to inspect, I detailed everything , the curtains were rotten falling to pieces, I adviced the tenant to take them down , and store them untill such time they left. when they did leave they put the rotten curtains back, this tenant had to travel over 50 miles to clean a thumb print of a window to get the bond back, after two weeks the bond had not been returned so I WENT TO SEE THE LANDLORDS AGENT, who said the tenant had stolen the curtains as they were missing, a window had been forced this was reported to the police, the tenant had already paid a bond for another place using a credit card. she was desperate, I went with her to clean the thumb print, we looked in the cupboard where she had stored the curtains, there was still a rotten curtain there. I brought this curtain to the police who were investigating the break in, asked them would someone steal this curtain, no joking If I was to shake it it would fall to pieces. the police were not interested, I found that the landlord was claiming new curtains from the insurance company, went back to the agent for the bond threatened to go to the media, bond was paid within minutes, the agent was in on the scam, the tenant waited six weeks for the return of the bond, could not find the name of the insurance company, this is one of thousand of situations where the landlords power causes great pain to a tenant, the landlords hands should be cut off, try to find a politician, lawyer or judge that does not collect rent or interest. the hairdresser that cuts my hair , pays two thousand a week in rent, so every two years the landlord recieve,s a amount that is equal to what the building cost. this is the greatest scam ever,,
04/04/12 athair_siochain
2
Boblet

Boblet

A few years ago athair_siochain I rented a brand new industrial unit of English Industrial Estates, when I came to the end of my lease I decided not to renew it. They sent a surveyor to check on the condition of the unit. They reported minor things such as fixing plug-holes in walls etc, which I willingly filled. The annoying request concerned the cleaning. The floor & walls were dirty from industrial use. They said they would allow me to paint the floor & walls. My blood boiled how could I have used the unit without walking on the floor? I referred them to Shylock, he was awarded a pound of flesh, but no blood. My argument was that English Industrial Estates should not have let the unit, knowing it would be used for industrial purposes & could not be handed back in new condition, I won.
03/04/12 Boblet
5
athair_siochain

athair_siochain

The truth of the matter is the large majority of politicians and people with power are landlords, small business has to soak up high rents, more often than not the rent amounts to 50% of eaning from sales, I know of a small resturant that pays $3000 a week they will have to sell a lot of meals just to pay the rent. the landlord does not have a input into the business yet they charge as if they own the business if it is doing well through the hard work of the small business owner, I say we need to bring back hanging to deal with these parasites,
03/04/12 athair_siochain
6
Grumpy xx

Grumpy xx

GOW,

I keep getting nasty letters from the TV licensing people accusing me of not having a license and practically threatening to send round a bunch of 20 stone skinheads to kneecap me in dark alley if I don't cough up. I have been paying it by standing order for god knows how long.

Word of advice: always tape record significant phone calls; always date and time letters and get proof of delivery if sending hard copy forms. That way you can't be screwed (in theory anyway!).

Don't get me started on Health and Safety legislation. It's just a handy excuse for a lot of bossy, interfering bullies to tell you how to live your life.
27/03/12 Grumpy xx
5
grumpyoldwoman

grumpyoldwoman

asdasd, if you'd ever run a small business you'd know!

Particularly nasty is the way HMRC treats us. You can send in a return on time; it sits on someone's desk for 3 weeks, then they finally open it and log it in as being "late". Then they send you a penalty notice, a £100 fine. They are an utter shambles; almost impossible to speak to on the phone and very patronising when they send you a letter.

As to health & safety; where do I start! I've already had several goes at it on this site so won't repeat myself. I will say that SOME h&s is necessary; but you really don't need a boat on hand when working in a stream 18" deep. (Yes, this happened.)

As a company secretary most of the work I do is for the purposes of collecting taxes, PAYE, NIC and VAT, and at the end of it I'll get bu88er all for a state pension because of my age.
27/03/12 grumpyoldwoman
2
Timelord

Timelord

I think your summary of Vince Cable's career sums it up, most leading politicians experience consists of working for Daddy's or Uncle's bank (yeah, going to get really bad appraisals there) or working for an MP.
They then get elected after trying a few times in obscure seats, and are miraculously transformed into experts in health, defence, economics, etc.
The days of ex-trade unionists in Labour seats are long gone. The occasional exception are the rare independents.
I would suggest all MP are required to work 10 years in a "real" job before being even considered for election.
27/03/12 Timelord
9
asdasd

asdasd

Ahh red tape, that phrase that's so overused it essentially means nothing, what exact regulations are hurting you and that you want changed - you need to start the conversation with specifics otherwise we get nowhere.

All regulation can not be taken away, we know exactly what happens when workers have no rights, they are exploited terribly. So what exactly is it that you don't like.
27/03/12 asdasd
-4

FEATURES

Gripes the News
Gripes in the pipes
The Soapbox
spinner