It was Joseph de Maistre who said ‘Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle mérite’(Every nation gets the government it deserves).The general election campaigning by both the main parties has been depressing. Maybe we’ll get what we deserve, but I know we deserve better.
Given the huge opportunities available to entrepreneurial British businesses in science, engineering and technology - and the support services these industries will require - both parties have competed to underwhelm us with their lack of vision.
Two facts, both of importance to entrepreneurial business owners, stand out:
- Politicians, the media and the vast majority of the electorate lack even a basic understanding of economics;
- If political bosses were in charge of marketing, UK businesses most would go bust very quickly.
I am not an economist (although I was
fortunate to have taken Economics 101 at University) but even I can tell that most of the comments about the economy made by politicians of both parties and reported in the media are factually inaccurate. Take 'there is a finite amount of money'. Really? What about quantitative easing (aka printing more money)? Or 'it'll take some years to balance the books'. Actually the books always balance, which is why it's called a balance sheet. You borrow and debt increases but so does the asset the debt
is invested in. Or my favourite 'we (the country) can't spend more than we earn'. Why not when we can borrow at 0% or even less and roll over the borrowing indefinitely? These myths are then repeated by people who should know better.
How did we get to the point where borrowing is seen as a bad thing? When budding entrepreneurs see borrowing to finance their dreams as failure? When businesses seek to grow without the capital it
takes to finance their investment in working capital?
I wrote recently about our broken education system; some basic economics and finance training would be a good start.
And marketing.....? Has any party, person or policy stood out? Will you be queuing to vote from 4am to be the first in the polling
booth?
If we marketed our businesses as badly as the political parties have marketed themselves to the electorate we'd be on the way to the job centre and rightly so. Where are the leaders who want to put British businesses at the forefront of Britain's need to become more competitive, innovative and productive?
As I said, we deserve better.
Noel Guilford