28 December - Big Man flies to China. Little Man flees from reality
While visiting the family business entrepreneur over Christmas I asked him
what impact the Rachel from Complaints budget has had on a small limited
company. The answer was a surprising “nothing really”. If 1·2% on National Insurance
contributions is critical then you pay the staff 1% less than you had in mind
for the next pay increase.
The “real killer” he says, is the Conservative’s mad decision to raise
Corporation Tax from 19% to 25% which has just landed him with a bill five
figures higher than it was last year. A business man who will not be supporting
the Conservatives any time soon.
Trying desperately to comment on local matters requires a return to Sadiq Khan’s
idiotic decision to adopt HGV safety regulations for London that differ from Ncap and the
rest of Europe. The aforesaid son and his team of engineers seems to have
cornered the market in vehicle safety consultancy with contracts with each of
what he called “the Big Seven” and the European Union. The latest is that he has been
engaged by manufacturers in both China and Japan, who unlike our hopeless Mayor are keen to adopt Euro Ncap standards.
“Will this mean Chinese and Japanese lorries on our roads?” I asked. The answer
of course was “yes eventually”. They have done it with cars and to some extent with buses.
Now it is HGV’s turn. Will Khan have been persuaded to stop ploughing a different furrow by then?
Note: Big Seven. DAF, Iveco, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Scania, Volvo.