An event out of our control, or just a bump in the road?
When the election date was announced, right on deadline, my first question was whether or not we should cover it?
My initial reaction was ‘Yes, definitely’, followed by my inner voice saying ‘No, we must never get involved in politics’, then the chimp on my shoulder chipped in with ‘Why not, you could probably do a better job of running this great country than half of Parliament’. So here goes…
To begin, I’m all for the idea of the Common Sense Party. The challenge is, that in 2024, it seems common sense is not very common.
As a nation, 94% of the economy is made up by SMEs. The government’s definition of an SME is a company that has between 10 and 250 employees, or a turnover of £2m to £50m. That, in itself, is laughable. If you sat down 100 MDs of companies with 10 employees and 100 MDs of companies with 250 employees you’d see they are facing extremely different challenges. The PAYE bill of a company with 250 employees for one quarter will be close to the turnover of a company that employs 10 people, yet the government decide to bundle us all together. Meanwhile, the rest are corporate giants who pay very little or no tax whilst benefiting from the smaller businesses in their supply chain.
I feel that Great Britain is losing its greatness, because those with power and authority are not making the right decisions, and the political system has to change.
Very few MPs have control of their own destiny, let alone their constituents. Too many of them are looking to the next two years at best, competing and lobbying for ‘that job’ – one that will benefit who? Them. It will look good on their CV.
How many of them have been involved in projects, or started something but not finished it? When they do agree with their opposition, can they actually put into practice what both parties have agreed on? More often than not they can’t. It’s almost like they enjoy the merry-go-round of arguing and then, of course, we have the cover ups.
Many of us have skeletons in the closet, but some MPs seem to have them by the roomful, helping each other out until the time comes when they cross each other and use it against one another – it can more like an episode of Eastenders than a seat of government.
Would this behaviour be tolerated in the private sector? Seriously… ask yourself, would the majority of MPs and ministers survive in the private sector? These are the people that are making decisions for millions of us now, and for the next generation, and the generation after that.
The fact is small businesses are also producing goods and providing services for people now, for the next generation and, in some cases, the generation after that – but imagine if they ran their businesses like our government has been run recently. We’ve had five Chancellors of the Exchequer since the 2019 general election, not to mention five Business Secretaries and five Education Secretaries. Just think what your business would look like today if you’d had five CEOs, five Finance Directors and five Operations Directors in the past five years – in the unlikely event you still had a business, it wouldn’t be going anywhere fast.
The private sector and public sector, in my opinion, has never been further apart. I firmly believe that the public sector can, and needs to, learn from the private sector. One politician said years ago that we need to make Britain great again, and we do, because the people we have in this country are great.
But for me, this is just another year, with another challenge, and we have no real choice but to pull our socks up and get on with it. I just wait for the year, or years, where we do not have to contend with a significant event that causes uncertainty but that is beyond our control.
I have been playing the Euro Millions for over 10 years, with one goal in mind… if/when I ever win I will form the Common Sense Party. Until then, my team and I will keep serving the communities in which we work, and continue making a difference.
If you have read this far, thank you… and I appreciate all feedback, so don’t hold back.
Email me at news@allthingsbusiness.co.uk
Managing Director
All Things Business
