A letter to my MP

Hello Mark,
You must have been pleased with the masterly performance from George Osborne on Wednesday, putting a great spin on what is a rather depressing message. After thirty five years in business, and having now weathered five recessions since starting out in self employment (as a carpenter/joiner in Mallorca) just as the economies of Europe took a dive in 1974, I have become rather more sanguine than some. After all these years of New Labour 'growth' we are seeing some chickens come home to roost.

I returned to England in 1978 just in time to experience Labour's Winter of Discontent, and another nosedive in the economy. As I turned up one morning to install a porch for my very first UK customer, I met her setting off to the ATV studios to take part in a hand-wringing discussion about the dire economic future and the death of UK business. "What do YOU think?" she asked. I told her that I thought the increasing productivity promised by modern computerised manufacturing would bring on a Golden Age freeing us from wage-slavery, with a flowering of small businesses in trade crafts and art and food production. I rather think I was proved right in the fullness of time, although the look on her face told me she thought I was mad.

The one thing that was missing from George's performance, though, was anything to encourage these small businesses to take on staff. After struggling with ever-growing laws biased in favour of the employees, five years ago I grabbed an opportunity to get out before the roof fell in, and shut the business with the loss of twenty two jobs. I swore then, for the second time, as it happens, to never employ anyone again. Although I am now drawing the state pension, and (as Gordon stole my company pensions) I have to work for a living, this time round, with business booming following a phase of innovation permitted by not having to battle the staff on daily basis, I intend to outsource and licence my way to a pension.

Two questions:
1: Are you aware that private individuals have to pay VAT on the costs of developing their Intellectual Property?
My patent agent charges VAT that I can't reclaim as an individual. This amounts to a substantial imposition on a pensioner, even if (with a fair wind) I hope to live long enough to see the fruits of my innovations some years hence. What value-added does the government see in taxing my innovations? Is this designed to encourage us as entrepreneurs? Or is it just one of those silly things that HMRC slipped past everyone thinking that BIG BUSINESS is the source of invention? Ask George to give us a break, please.

2: I recall pointing out to your father (ed - then local MP) some fifteen years ago or more, that small businesses had the capacity to soak up most of the unemployment of Margaret Thatcher's time. The problem was, much of the time employing more staff wasn't worth the hassle, or the risk, and wasn't sufficiently rewarding. Regrettably, the suggestion fell on deaf ears, and I guess Euro Employment Law took precedence over sanity.
So,the question is - what plans does the Coalition have to make employers WANT to employ more staff? Surely, as I put it to Frank Field MP in 1992, during another economic nose dive, tax-breaks for employers MUST cost less than welfare payments.
It's frankly too late for me, but as George says, it's time for some radical thinking.

Yours ever
Keith