Scottish Executive ministers should pay attention to Mr George and his thoughts on entrepreneurship. He believes we need to depend less on foreign investment and rely more on internal ingenuity. That, in general terms, is also the thrust of executive policy. The faltering Scottish economy, apparently on the brink of recession and outperformed by the other regions and nations of the UK, is in its present condition partly because of an over-reliance on low-skill jobs in silicon valley that disappeared when foreign multinationals pulled out of Scotland to cut their costs.And why hasn't Brown's "strategy" borne fruit? This is what the CBI has to say:The game has changed. Gordon Brown, the chancellor, is at the forefront of a campaign to encourage Scots to catch the entrepreneurial bug and start their own businesses. The strategy is yet to bear significant fruit.
GROWING red tape and an "appallingly low" level of basic skills will undermine Britain’s competitiveness, the Confederation of British Industry warned today.That just about says it all, doesn't it? The truth is that the Labour party (Old or New) hasn't got a clue about the world of business. The Labour-voting class depends on the continuation of red tape and taxation. I expect that Brown will bankrupt us just like any other Labour chancellor. Many CBI members had it coming to them of course: they wrongly thought that New Labour might be friendly towards business. Let them make amends by acknowledging that leaving the EU would be a useful start if we want to see massive cuts in regulations and taxation.The business lobby group warned Britain’s economy could suffer by losing out to countries with lower cost bases.
And while that made the need for greater flexibility even more crucial, such flexibility was being stifled by a rising wave of regulations binding business.
The CBI said increases in regulation and taxation, as well as slow progress on improving transport was also threatening to harm the Britain’s economic competitiveness.