Businesses Back The Conservatives

[Deskdiary]

Further to the letter to the Telegraph a few weeks ago from the leaders of many of the UK's biggest firms, many small businesses have also endorsed the Conservatives.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/11564460/Boost-for-David-Cameron-as-5000-small-firms-back-Conservatives.html

Given the UK's businesses are the main employers and the wealth creators, surely they should be listened to, shouldn't they?

[mrs_overall]

Have a good sleep oz x

[Deskdiary]

Thread seemed to start off reasonably well....until the love-in started!

[Baldric]

Yes, agreed.

[tonyav]

We did ok before joining the 'C

[tonyav]

Common market and we''ll do ok out of the EEC imo.

[New Judge]

“The CBI, which represents British business, emphatically wants Britain to remain in the EU. Indeed, its position is that its overwhelmingly best for business.”

The CBI does not represent British business, Mikey. It represents mainly large and growing companies. It also has as members a number of public bodies and institutions such as universities. The CBI clams to have 240,000 members (though this has been recently revised downwards considerably. As a measure of how representative even that inflated figure is, at the end of 2013 there were somewhere in the order of 4.9 million businesses in the UK. It is unashamedly pro-EU for reasons that escape most people who ask the question whether the EU is good for the UK as a whole.

Now let’s turn to the topic in the question – small businesses (0 to 250 employees). Very few small businesses are CBI members. Of the 4.9m businesses, 3.6m of them have no employees. Almost ten and a half million people work for the remaining small businesses compared to 9.9m for the large businesses. Their turnover accounts for about half of all the UK annual turnover. The vast majority of these businesses have no dealings with other EU nations whatsoever (in fact only one in five small businesses trades abroad). Nonetheless they are hidebound by every rule and regulation and every piece of legislation that spews forth daily from Brussels. Much of this is highly damaging to their profitability and many small businesses fail under its weight.

Before lumping in all businesses with the CBI’s views on the EU you should read the manifesto put forward by the Federation of Small Businesses. This is a far more representative body for those small firms and you will find that many of them do not support the UK’s membership of the EU at all and among those that do they seek urgent reform of the type Mr Cameron promises (but has not a cat in hell’s chance of delivering, whether he forms the next government or not).

[mikey4444]

NJ...the CBI would appear to disagree with you::::

http://news.cbi.org.uk/about/

To quote from the first page ::::

"The CBI is the UK's premier business lobbying organisation, providing a voice for employers at a national and international level

We are here to provide a voice for businesspeople and their businesses on a national and international level. We speak for companies of every size, including many in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 350, mid-caps, SMEs, micro businesses, private and family owned businesses, start ups, and trade associations"

I think they can speak for themselves

[mushroom25]

//I think they can speak for themselves //

who - small businesses, or the CBI?

[New Judge]

I haven't the time (or the inclination) to do so, Mikey, but I imagine a trawl through the CBI's membership list would show very few small businesses as members.

Of course the CBI claims to talk for all businesses. To paraphrase the words of the late Mandy Rice-Davies, "They would, wouldn't they?" They'd like people to think they represent the views of all businesses, small and large but I think you'll find they do not.

On the particular issue of the EU, it makes no sense for the 80% of small businesses who do not deal abroad to hanker after membership. There's nothing in it for them except reams and reams of red tape to comply with rules that have no relevance to their trade and many firms have gone under because of it. Ask around among a few small business bosses and you'd be surprised at their views.