A bailout for the rest of us

The Conservative Party and Daily Mail's feeble campaign in support of SMEs and self employed with 1-4% tax changes is utterly futile. And simply deferring VAT and tax is a recipe for disaster. Charlie Bean at the BoE now says this is possibly the largest financial crisis in "Human History" - so please DO something about it!

The imminent unemployment tsunami simply will not/cannot be absorbed by the "globalised" companies - can you see the likes of any financial institution (unless they specialise in repossession or insolvency) or service brands such as Costa Coffee, Starbucks, or behemoths such as Tesco (especially retailers...) being able to absorb significant extra staff?

One way to make a difference might be to allow small firms of up to 10 employees with 3 years accounts filed to keep the equivalent of the previous year's PAYE/NI costs on up to 10 employees for a year if they do not cut total staff headcount, and look at a similar scheme for new ventures and start-ups. If they are lucky enough to make profits, then some of it will be taken back in corporation tax. However, that's not the point - it costs a lot to take on staff and train them. It takes a year to set up any sort of new business and its systems, premises, paperwork and get it ticking over - it takes Gordon Brown one speech to sow the seeds of ruin, and it takes a minute to wind it all up.

If we do not get as radical as this, then we're going to have to pay the dole on AT LEAST 3 million again, which is a dead loss to the economy. Yes, there are bound to be all sorts of efforts at fiddling/exploiting any such schemes, but the plan could be presented in such a way that fiddling it would be regarded as socially unacceptable - the business and fiscal equivalent of speeding at 120mph whilst 3 times over the limit.

When all the "globalised" behemoths complain this is unfair, "so what?", we say. They are almost as much to blame for having exploited the stupidity of hypnotised governments and regulators and their failure to act on curtailing the worst excesses of cartels and monopolies as the discredited (sic) financial conglomerates.

Fiddling on the fringes is NOT an option this time.

This time it's going to have to get really personal and substantial.