In 2022 the US continued to dominate venture capital investment in growing companies and backing new ideas. Although well down on 2021 record levels the US invested $245 bn, four times much as China in second place with $61 bn. The UK was third with $31bn, twice the French level  and two a half times Germany who were in fifth and seventh place in the world league. India was fourth and South Korea sixth.
Strong venture capital, backing many smaller, innovative companies and companies needing restructuring is crucial to good levels of economic growth. Business constantly needs to adapt and to invest as technology revolves and consumer expectations change. One of the ways the US ends up with more the largest quoted companies is it nurtures a large population of growing and innovative companies to give it more chance of success with creating the giants.
Venture capital can be encouraged by allowing easy access to licences and markets for safe products. The EU is suspicious of the new and slow to permit. The UK has to establish itself as an independent regulator , striking a good balance between protecting consumers from harm and allowing  changes to product and processes to proceed quickly.
I have set out before tax proposals to boost self employment and allow the faster growth of small companies during their early stages. We need to be friendly to small business and to star6t ups, as they will be the seedcorn for the new larger businesses we will need in the years ahead.
August 30, 2023
Good morning.
Venture Capital = Risk and return.
Who would risk their capital when a rapacious government and profligate eyes more and more of your return ?
August 30, 2023
Indeed but not only is risk capital on sensible terms hard to find so is well secured bank landing on sensible terms. Bank lending regulations & controls are doing huge damage to UK businesses.
August 30, 2023
As is the mad ERG and diversity over ability agenda.
August 30, 2023
ERG/ESG agenda.
August 30, 2023
LL,
Who in their right mind would invest here when taxes at historic high, corporation tax higher than competitors, wind fall taxes on top, ESG bureaucracy, work from home nonsense, EU employment regulation, UK more and more dependent on EU inter connectors for energy, UK told what to do by EU, in lockstep with EU, no border controls, EU laws still applies to UK! What would your view be of UK Govt.!
Importing energy from hostile EU rather than produce your own!
August 30, 2023
@Hope – indeed and even worse Labour with a large majority surely on the way very soon with this direction of Travel. The one thing Nadine got wrong in her letter is that she too is another deluded net zero believer too.
August 30, 2023
Hope ….Correct
August 30, 2023
Our government policy is to use ESG Rating to secure venture capital and bank loans âŠ.in the old days your balance sheet would be enough âŠ.just another step to the left
August 30, 2023
Would you want to risk your money when you see a government taking 102% tax as is happening with the North Sea drillers.
All risk, no reward, no thanks.
August 30, 2023
Look what govt has done to landlords to stop them owning rental properties! Same for pubs, small shops, high street shops, car manufacturers, porcelain companies, steel industry, ship building, coal mining, fracking, the list is endless. Who gives Spain contract to build our war ships! It appears EU tendering rules still apply!
This socialist outfit is anti business, anti small and medium size businesses particularly, big state, big welfare etc.
August 30, 2023
Same for CGT without inflation indexation and for landlords unable to deduct their interest from profits often in-effect taxation at over 100% of profits. Hardly very âsustainableâ yet we need properties available to rent not everyone wants or is able to buy. It is vital for job mobility!
August 31, 2023
What a pile of BS, LL. Why should BTL landlords be able to deduct their interests from profits? You sound as if you were a charitable person to offer properties to rent. And I doubt very much you are stupid enough to let taxation go over 100% of your profits. If it is the case, youâre a dummy and should really shut up instead of continually whinging about on this blog.
If one invests in any asset other than property, one is unlikely to be able to deduct interest if one has had to take a loan to buy such asset, and very likely to pay CG on any profit one makes.
Instead of favouring the BTL sector as it had been in the past, the successive governments would have been much better if they had provided incentives to help real entrepreneurs (sorry, BTL is nothing to do with entrepreneurship, simply people milking others, and the property situation nowadays makes the whole BTL sector even more repugnant).
August 31, 2023
Every business is allowed to balance their income against their expenses hefner.
Interest and other banking charges are allowable as a business cost.
It is a basic process of accounting.
It’s been acceptable for decades.
I’m amazed you don’t know.
Except for private landlords.
Your hatred private landlords caused by your political bias is plain for all to see.
Sadly it will result in one of two things.
Either it will drive landlords out of the rental market or put up rents for people.
Both will create problems for renters at a time demand for rental property is rising.
September 2, 2023
BTL landlords can deduct âallowable expensesâ (fees of letting agents, accountants or other legal fees; BTL buildings insurance; utility bills and Council tax (if not paid by renters); service charges & maintenance/repairs costs; other ancillary costs linked to the letting of property (telephone, stationary, advertising)).
All these expenses (and obviously the interests on a bank loan/mortgage) are not deductible for a owner-occupier single property landlord (as I am) since the suppression of MIRAS in 2000.
August 30, 2023
Exactly. Extreme taxes are driving business and people away as the Government refuses to act on welfare and health tourism in all its forms.
August 30, 2023
Ian
In Guido Fawkes web site today.
Looks like Germany may slash corporation tax to get their economy moving again.
You must be shaking your head JR at the total incompetence of the UK political leaders to take your advice, and see what is common sense to most people.
The Germans it would appear would seem to now agree with you, that high taxation does not encourage investment, a strong work ethic, and reduces demand due to less disposable income.
People go to work and invest, to earn money for the benefit of themselves and their families, not to give it to governments so they can waste it !.
Will Germany follow Ireland ?
August 30, 2023
Was going to make the same comment.
Highest taxes ever to fund ever growing list of benefit recipients. Even the MSM are saying the UK is halfway down the toilet.
The backlash against globalism is coming.
August 30, 2023
Destroyed our fishing, giving away our fishing grounds to EU, demanding and paying farmers not to grow food! Making our country dependent and subject to EU control after we voted leave! What does it say about the spineless useless admin mangers who call themselves govt.!
August 30, 2023
And makes the lunatic decision to close down or massively restrict half of the private sector for 18 months over a virus which they knew was low risk for the vast majority …… whilst encouraging the already inefficient public sector to become even less efficient.
August 30, 2023
and the prospect of Labour in Government less feared after this current grabbing series of Governments nominate their Chancellors.
August 30, 2023
If we are to have Socialism, it is probably best done by Socialists.
August 30, 2023
they stab you in the front, rather than the tories stabbing you in the back
August 30, 2023
Because they’re all the same.
August 30, 2023
+++
Looks like they are working on making VC even riskierâŠ
Michael Kleinman ( Amnesty International US and Silicon Valley links) said:
âThis glaring lack of diversity means new frontier technologies are being largely funded and built by white men, without an understanding of the broader impact of their technologies. VC firms urgently need more women and minority groups in decision-making roles and should publicly commit to hiring more diverse teams.âl
August 30, 2023
Sir
“The EU is suspicious of the new and slow to permit”
You imply that the reason France and Germany (the main players in the EU) are well behind the UK is EU red tape. I do not know the EU rules but I would have thought there must be more to it. If there is a thriving culture of entrepreneurship in France and Germany then surely their Governments would have found a way ?
August 30, 2023
Over large government, over regulation of almost everything, the many rigged markets (energy, housing, education, finance, banking) the mad war on CO2 plant food⊠freedom to choose and people keeping more of their own money is what is needed for growth.
August 30, 2023
@Oldwulf. I worked 5 years in France and the red tape for small businesses was atrocious. There was still some entreprerial spiritual but it was stifled. Most French people had (possibly rightly) concluded that the only way to get on was to work for the government or for a company/organisation with close government ties, or create a company that fed off government.
I’ve also worked a couple of years in Austria and there too small businesses are not encouraged, although people do still try. It’s not quite as bad as in France.
August 30, 2023
Globalism has failed.
Now the harpoon needs to be pulled out.
August 30, 2023
Javelin
The people that you need to convince will need a lot of convincing and arenât receptive to the idea
So thatâs not going to happen anytime soon
August 30, 2023
“I have set out before tax proposals to boost self employment and allow the faster growth of small companies during their early stages. ”
Yes. But you’ve been ignored because the Public Sector Blob – the Civil Service and Quangocracy, including the BofE and the OBR – are stuffed to the gunnels with Brownites. And the Blairite element of the Not-a-Conservative-Party, which is in control in Westminster following the Sunak Coup, will do absolutely nothing to change that.
We are still, to all intents and purposes, and after 13 years of supposed Conservative Governments, being governed by NuLabour.
August 30, 2023
VAT threshold stuck on ÂŁ85 000. All tax thresholds frozen for about a decade and more for inheritance taxes. What part of disincentive for small businesses doesn’t your Party get???? Capital gains tax allowances and savings dividends reducing. Cut the state and the welfare bill. End of. We the 46% can’t afford the Tory’s or their green virtue signalling obsession.
August 30, 2023
Yep – we’ve remarked on here before, VAT threshold is bonkers.
August 30, 2023
No shortage of VC in the U.K. just companies attractive enough to invest in. A major problem being a lack of understanding what a VC needs. I.P protection and scalability crucial and then a readiness to give up equity, often a barrier, top management and specific expertise, a real problem in SMEs, happy for the VC to exit etc.
With start ups we used to say, out of ten, 3 would go on to be successful, 2 limp along 5 fail.
Politicians think itâs easy to pick winners. Just look at how much the British Bankâs last chance funding has lost.
August 30, 2023
I expect that having the Stock Exchange is a great help to the U.K. regarding VC.
Gives us international access plus all the banks and financial networks etc.
Great wonder the govt. hasnât closed it down to make some sort of theme park.
August 30, 2023
Come to think of it, perhaps best to not crow about our start up system being second only to Silicon Valley and our 135 or so unicorns đŠâŠgovt. might hear of it and apply the usual kybosh!
August 30, 2023
Venture capitalists rarely risk their own money.
August 30, 2023
It seems that French and German VC has a higher failure rate than the UKâs. Apparently they look for a 30% return and usually only get about 13% and they look first at the company management/structure rather than the potential product ( which seems odd).
But oh dearâŠSIX European firms FAILED TO HAVE adequate human rights due diligence policies in place.
PLEASE DONâT say that our usual gold plating of such nonsense is why we are so good at attracting/facilitating VC!
August 30, 2023
I follow several AIM companies and am struck by the fact that North American investors are quite prominent (in % shareholding terms) in many of them. It is also evident that several companies seek ways to list on NASDAQ or even delist from AIM to migrate to NASDAQ because they judge that new capital is more readily available in the USA; Abcam did this last year. Others get taken over by US companies, such as Blue Prism. Both of these are growing hi-tech businesses. Such developments reduce the choices available for UK investors. The LSE has attracted a number of non-UK companies to list on AIM by offering more attractive listing conditions for smaller and start up businesses. But the sharply increased corporation tax and the oppressive ESG rules now imposed on even quite small companies are real disincentives both for them and for UK-based businesses. It is not surprising UK stock markets are in decline.
August 30, 2023
The ESG, a Tory invention, is really political correctness gone mad. Enter Nat West and Farage’s Banking ban! Keep political correctness out of business, our schools and public services. The Tory’s have been a disaster following nu Labour’s lead.
August 31, 2023
I think you will find it was Labour under Blaire, S. 172 companies Act. But Tories gold plated everything socialist idea he had.
August 30, 2023
Mayâs book is called âThe Abuse of PowerâŠâ she should know. The appalling attacks on Andrea Leadsom by many MPs that caused her to drop out and hand the leadership to unelected Theresa May rather similar to the way Sunak achieved power. He even managed to blame all the economic problems largely caused by him as Chancellor on Trussâs few days in office. Of course Socialist VAT on private school fees Gove in knifing Boris was the main reason we ended up suffering the dire May.
Though had Boris stood his ground he would surely have won and we would have avoided the disaster of May.
August 30, 2023
The USA invests about half as much again per kapita as does the UK. How much you invest is down to available capital and in the UK, government via taxation ensures that it stifles our level of investment. Why does it do it, simples, to ensure it has enough money to pay for its own none profit making virtue signalling schemes. The Groundnut scheme, the Dome, and HS2 are just a few visible examples. They exacerbate the lie by declaring most government spending an investment. Meanwhile we enjoy the most decrepit infrastructure in the so called first world. On top of this they cannot even deal with the day to day irritants like illegal immigration and the Labour Party’s Sadic Khan’s Ulez. Seen from outside, government has abdicated from all responsibility for everything.
August 30, 2023
They are doing the square root of nothing with the boat people. Rwanda and a few barges are not even a start. Mass deportation and turn back time! End of or end of Tory’s. We cannot afford ÂŁ11 million a day and rising for the gutless Government.
August 30, 2023
“The EU is suspicious of the new and slow to permit.”
What you propose would require us to depart from EU rules/practice, but of course Sunak/Hunt won’t allow that. As an example from another area, what happened to the promise (in the manifesto I think ?) to ban the export/import of live animals post-Brexit ? Sunak abandoned it so we stay aligned with EU. One assumes all this is to ease future rejoining the EU in some form.
August 30, 2023
I was under the impression that âgrowing businessesâ was the very last thing that the present government wanted?
You plough serenely on as if everything was Hunky Dory and normal!
I distinctly remember writing something similar just a few days ago đ€đ€
August 30, 2023
But the Government will allow modest-sized UK companies to be bought by any foreign owner before they have achieved their longer-term growth potential. So why would a venture capital firm invest in a start-up or growing business when it will never achieve the returns possible?
The UK is overtaxed, over-regulated, and hostile to business, so we will never grow the world-beating tech companies that America has.
August 30, 2023
The Treasury don’t like either the self-employed or very small private companies because in its eyes they are mechanisms to avoid tax and must be made to pay up. Until that changes the UK will not become a powerhouse of innovation. The UK has in Sunak and Hunt disciples of this suspicious Treasury mindset.
August 30, 2023
Why should they be jealous of making a profit? Beats me.
August 30, 2023
John, if you are looking to support new ventures and new business start-ups then a good place to begin would be to stop making being in business so difficult. There is not a government of any flavour in the past fifty years that can claim they have rolled back the state interference in business. The rules have become so draconian no one with the brains to start a new business here in the UK will do so. it was difficult enough with the environmental demands and the planning demands and the employment rules etc. Now we are faced with Woke gender ID personal pronoun lunacy and of course discrimination rules of every flavour.
Who in their right mind will want to start a business with the minefield of negatives introduced by state agents.
No government has ever repealed the red tape they so often claim they will.
Now we have the ultimate negative. In our Capital city people are forced to pay a tithe to the Mayor simply to visit our parliament. If you wanted to deliver goods there the fees for doing that are prohibitive.
Tell us what you have ever done John to stop this constant barrier to free trade and to entrepreneurial spirit?
August 30, 2023
“Here, have some money and then sell yourself off to the US or China”.
Last paragraph is just part of the past world Sir John lives in. His old views are lasered in his brain and cannot be changed. These companies will not last in home ownership for long but he will be happy they can be sold. He thinks we should be open to sell everything and pretends other countries have their markets totally open too. Part of an idea that we should do things as examples to the rest of the world because we are intellectually and morally superior and it will follow. There are other examples from which we are suffering now and this will get severe soon.
Our country is desperate for foreign money because his party and party in government has bankrupted us. Sir John calls it ‘inward investment’, another way of describing the selling us all off to foreign interests. If it’s a really good business with growth possibilities they’ll quickly take it away.
August 30, 2023
@The PrangWizard – this pretend UK Government short circuits that. Taxpayer money, is a subsidy if you import into the UK. The Government does not encourage UK Industry it frowns on it as it might cause the economy to grow. So the Government will always give hard earned taxpayer money straight to whatever offshore nation that wants it.
August 30, 2023
âWe need to be friendly to small business and to star6t ups, as they will be the seedcorn for the new larger businesses we will need in the years ahead.â
Even if government, the civil service, quangos and corporates in the unlikely event do become friendly to small businesses then this will be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as the country sinks as a result of the economy destroying Net Zero Strategy causing us to suffer from unreliable, insecure, rationed supplies of expensive, intermittent, weather dependent, resource profligate renewable energy.
August 30, 2023
The problem with VC is it is not a general solution, and never has been!
May be useful for Politicians to pass the buck, rather then finding a solution for access to capital for SME’s.
The trouble is VC want control of the company! No chance!
And, they want far to high a Return, making their debt very expensive! Can’t even compete with Bank Lending, which is unsuitable (too expensive, and conditions to ridged) for SME’s, Family SME’s, and Startups!
Especially, now QE (x2) has inflated Asset Prices so much, with deposits, repayments, and lending criteria so ridged!
There is nothing wrong, with VC, they are focused on R&D or Tech company’s with a large potential Returns, lots to share out, but they are not what is required for SME’s, which is where the problems are!
And (as a politician), you will not be thanked, if you don’t solve the real problem, soon!
BR
RDM.
August 30, 2023
Excellent piece, there is not nearly enough discussion of this crucial topic in the political arena. The threat of a leftist government and even more tax rises, Inc capital gains tax rises, is very bad news for entrepreneurship and investment in the U.K. letâs hope I doesnât happen and we get a renewed focus on tax simplification and competitiveness.
August 30, 2023
One of the biggest differences between the UK and Germany and to a lesser extent France, is the relative number of medium sized businesses. Driving through Germany only last week, it reminded me of something I’ve known since I lived there in the 1980s : that Germany has thousands of medium sized businesses, particularly in engineering, employing between 25 and 1,000 people. The UK, by contrast has many thousands of very small businesses with 25 employees or less, but far fewer medium sized enterprises than our nearest rivals.
The difference has always been the ability to borrow for expansion. When I have tried this myself, here, UK banks offer a three year loan at punitive interest rates and expect the investment to show a profit in year one. They will also only lend against totally secure assets like the business owner’s home. In Germany the banks take a much longer term view and allow a business time to grow.
Until UK banks adopt a more reasonable view to expansion, most of our businesses will continue to be forced by lack of investment to remain small. For the same reason, any business requiring capital to acquire machinery to increase production struggles. It is always easier to take on more low paid workers than it is to grow the business via automation, even though the business owners know that automation would prove much more efficient and profitable in the long run. That is one major reason why the UK is so far down the league tables for efficiency.
August 30, 2023
Excellent. Everything here is short-term. This, with the wish to sell all assets as fast as possible and eco-fanaticism, will ensure our economy contracts. It won’t be long before we are no.10 in the international value table.
Disgracefully no-one pays worth to our views – we have no value with the elites and nothing of substance changes. Just postures.
August 30, 2023
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/Micro/Small-and-medium-enterprises/Number/Per-capita
In this list we are 13th per capita.
France 40th
Germany 45th
Sweden 2nd
August 30, 2023
Yes, we are very good at starting and running very small businesses !
Remember that “nation of shopkeepers” comment which was once reputed to have been made by Napoleon but now doubted.
August 30, 2023
You could start by giving a start rate corporation tax of 15% for the first ÂŁ200,000 profit. By taking 25% off small and medium-sized companies, your government is stalling the reinvestment and growth plans; SMEs also need to keep a reserve for growth and contract funding so they are not at the will and control of expensive bank overdrafts as payments take longer to recover than wage bills, overheads and fuel suppliers (7 days credit).
August 30, 2023
even better make the first ÂŁ20,000 zero Corporation tax, then ÂŁ100,000 at 14% to set the cat among the pigeons. Thereafter 16%.
August 31, 2023
Lol Mickey, then we’d see we really aren’t out of the EU at all as we wouldn’t be allowed to drop to 14% (sovereign don’t make me laugh), although the Germans can do what they want, the French can bail out their wine producers, I’m surprised they just don’t give it away as a sales and promotions exercise in markets they don’t currently supply rather than tip it.
August 30, 2023
Who do you have to know to get venture capital?
Who proposes suitable companies?
How do they decide who are the ‘excellent’ directors or ‘ideas’ to be invested in?
I’ve always been curious about this, especially as I sit outside little cliques, oxbridge connections that I have seen work, union power or political power. The older I get the more interested I am in who gets seen and catapulted, I really was naive enough to believe it the past that was down to merit alone, it isn’t.
Reply If you have a business in need of expansion money with a good Business Plan there are likely to be VC firms interested. They advertise their presence on the web.
August 31, 2023
I did have need years ago; we had new ideas, new ventures, big expansion plans, and good business plans, but when we needed the money there were no takers, nowerdays we could get it, but it’s too much trouble and risk for a reduced return and just a bigger tax bill for us.
If any ÂŁ1 you make gets 25p corporation tax, then 33.75% dividend tax; if you take a reward after having a little reward for 35 years, that’s then taxed at [58.75%]. If you do well and alternatively draw it as income tax so it tips you into a higher band that would be 40% tax, 15.8% ni (55.8%), the IFS and others are talking about why employee ni reduces to 2% so expect a rise soon, you’d also have to put 8% [63.8%] into some poor return compulsory workplace pension that no doubt politicians are going to dabble into if they’re not already with their green investment criteria off the bat.
Now, people in our press and political realm are venturing that people shouldn’t be able to pass on their hard-earned savings to people and family they choose. I can’t see why anyone would want to bother in the UK, take a safe job with loads of holiday a guaranteed pension from the state, work from home, short hours and moan about everyone that has actually taken that risk and done well and work out ways to take it from them.
August 30, 2023
Yesterday, and the introduction & implementation of the governments ULEZ net-zero strategy is just an echo of the restrictions & control to come âŠ.make my words, direct investment into the UK will fall as the policies of net-zero take effect, venture capitalists survive & thrive in a free market
Our government decided yesterday not to stop the expansion of ULEZ; it sent a message to the world âŠ..and we the people will reap the whirlwind
August 30, 2023
@glen cullen – Where else in the World do State Controlled surveillance cameras monitor people, whether they criminal or completely innocent 100% of the time. What you have is just Xi Jinpingâs China, and the pretend Conservative Sunakâs UK.
Would never happen in a Conservative Country!
September 1, 2023
Number of surveillance cameras per 1000 inhabitants in Europe
London 70, Berlin 12, Warsaw 8, Vienna 7.4, Istanbul 7.2, Madrid 4.5, Budapest 3.4, Athens 3.4, Paris 3.1, Sofia 2.4.
For comparison, Beijing 440
upcomingsecurity.co.uk, 10/06/2023
comparitech.com, 23/05/2023
September 4, 2023
And what use are they? Crime detection is slowing. You can have a man shove a woman nearly under a bus in clear light, on the bus camera and on other cameras in the area, yet no one bothered to identify him.
August 30, 2023
@glen cullen – From the media
âRishi Sunak hints he could meet Xi Jinping at G20 summit next weekâ
âOne dictator to another, what more do I need to do to control those that think we live in democracy?â
We have the camera live feeds, we listen in and monitor to private conversations on the internet and elsewhere. We ban ‘free speech’ We take money from the people to contain liberty – to pay for ours and our ‘Blob’ masters mistakes – that should hold them back, but the keep objecting. We condemn and punish those that wish freedoms, yet the people still don’t get it is my country not theirs.
August 30, 2023
ULEZ and net zero are starting to impact the quality of peoples lives. Many are now aware that our power bills are higher as are many goods manufactured here as those costs have to be passed on to customers. How on Earth can YOUR Government not see it is stupid to export our manufacturing base and jobs to import coal produced dirty goods back? We need to make a living. It is no point hitting net zero targets if we can’t afford to live or make our way in the world. All for a virtue signalling plant food contribution of 0.000012% of man made CO2.
August 30, 2023
There is little political incentive for smaller companies . The economy is in the doldrums and the blockage tactics of the BoE do not help . Liquidity and freedom are essential ingredients for investors and this is absent today with stagnant markets . We badly need change in our leadership for hope and opportunity to re-exist . Our AI companies are looking and seeing horizons outside of the UK because any sort of expansion is limited here .
August 30, 2023
Venue capital will keep a wide berth when there is significant risk of the public sector competing in that market and undercutting commercial organisations with state subsidised offerings, or where there is significant risk of moving goalposts of regulations & fashions of those, or where there is lack of good infrastructure to support any workers they will need. or where there is significant competition from others who are not playing by the basics of the rules (paying tax, using property properly planned & approved, looking after basic staff welfare, etc).
I have spoken to quite a few Americans who have done the classic of landing at Heathrow and looking for areas, workforces, and so on to build a UK business. Its quite illuminating to see things through their eyes.
One of the other big issues they have is a thriving meritocratic US approach, when trying to do something similar here they quickly get swamped by accents, school ties, and the whole treacle of UK non meritocratic class based and woke nonsense.
So its a bit more complex than you are saying John. But a whole area that could easily be transformed with some common sense.
August 30, 2023
Don’t usually comment twice, but have just seen the German Government announcement of a ÂŁ32 billion cut in cooperation tax to stimulate growth. When a left-leaning, socialist & green government can see that tax cuts help the economy to grow, you realise how thick and mule headed our PM and chancellor are!
August 30, 2023
Keith, we didn’t need the Germans to illustrate how thick and mule headed our PM and Chancellor are.
Khan has already shown higher taxation is something the current Tory government are quite happy to allow.
I speak as a Tory member, though I am increasingly wondering why? We have the most socialist ineffective Tory administration ever and after Theresa May’s period in charge that is some achievement.
August 30, 2023
@Keith from Leeds – not allowed in the UK it might create a successful and prosperous economy. The last people(democratically elected) that tried that were removed from office, as the UK is not permitted to have a Government that works for the Country and its People.
August 30, 2023
From exposure to the USA tech. start-up scene, I take venture capitalists as seeking hockey-stick growth from all their investments knowing that most will fail but the few will, hopefully, cover all the losses and more.âTheir hunger for ‘unicorns’ means successful companies which receive their capital are pushed too hard and fail completely instead of growing to be medium-size successful ones.
But perhaps VC doesn’t mean that in the more general sense?
Is much of what the VC invests debt?âThe rising price of money could lessen this largesse and leave us with the more slow-and-steady investment which builds sustainable long-term enterprises.
August 30, 2023
Sir John
You time and time again mention the things that would be a priority and natural inclination of a Conservative Government. You could even suggest any Government that understands the point of a Parliament and the reasoning for having democratic elected MPâs.
The big question would really be how do we get a Conservative Government? The people that have high-jacked the party, that some of us call the Socialist WEF Disciples, have no intention at any stage of defending the UK and its People, its way of life and future prosperity. Those that have stolen our democracy are running the Country for their own personal benefit and seemingly and increasingly those elsewhere they take their orders from. Each and every move by those that have stolen power under false pretences have a doctrine of how to subjugate the UK and its People. At no stage would they, have they, ever consider releasing the nation to succeed and grow â every move they have made in the last 13 years or so and now growing more intense is on how to Control the People in-case they(the people) rumble the subterfuge, dishonesty and the lies told by those that call themselves Tories that causes the people to rise up against them.
It is clear that those in this Government are working for others, not those that elected them. They hide behind laws, rules and procedures that havenât emanated from or wanted by the people of this country, that havenât been originated or are controlled by our own legislators, our own parliment. They refuse Sovereignty, they refuse a Democratic Parliament and its Legislators. They only conclusion is they donât care, have somewhere else to go or are working for others to subjugate and destroy a Country.
So in other words, Sir John if there was a Conservative Government your questions and thoughts wouldnât arise as we would have the independence necessary to prosper. We would then have the opportunity for each and everyone of us to achieve their full potential. Instead this false Conservative Government, Hunt/Sunak have chose enslavement for all.
August 30, 2023
@Ian B
What is it deceive me once shame on you, deceive me twice shame on me. Isnât it now 4 GEâs elections on the trot where we have had an extreme Socialist left wing Foreign Controlled Government foisted on us. All based on false pretences at the ballot box
Sham on me over and over, shame on everyone else for like me becoming a Lemming
August 30, 2023
O/T
Just wondering if the Westminster Uniparty net zero eco-loons are taking note of the opposition to ULEZ?
August 30, 2023
If tomorrow our government cancelled its policies of net-zero, ESG and the climate change committee, two things would result:-
(1) the climate wouldnât change
(2) inward investment & growth would increase
August 30, 2023
@glen cullen +1 – but they would be removed from office by their foreign rulers and the âBlobâ cabal. Never forget that is how they stole power in the first place, by denying democracy. Even the Conservative Party was excluded from democratically choosing their own leadership. That wouldnât be the first time that the unelected unaccountable removed the elected in recent times.
August 30, 2023
Without doubt Glen. However, listening to conversations, I believe we are going to see a revolution at the next general election!
I sincerely hope so!
August 30, 2023
I’d suggest if your 2 actually happened, our climate would become healthier if not sunnier!
August 30, 2023
I hope it gets hotter & sunnier ….its been wet, windy and now colder for the whole month of august (the BBC weatherman has gone quiet)
August 30, 2023
We’ve been studying the ‘NOW’ forecasts for Wokingham during the last few weeks.
They have been incredibly wrong, almost the opposite happens, on a bright day we get ‘rain stopping in xx minutes when no sign of rain for a couple of days. On a cloudy day forecast we have wall to wall sun.
Not sure who provides it to BBC and the mobile provider but it is beyond useless.
August 31, 2023
Perhaps I should have added the word “economic” before climate!
August 30, 2023
PM stated today on GB News at 14:10hrs that the numbers of immigration are âdownâ
Is he, your party, your government having a laugh
August 30, 2023
no! – he’s merely telling a whopping great porkie..
August 30, 2023
m? That should be Mickey Taking….don’t know what happened there!
August 30, 2023
My word, the right-wing, EV hating, anti-renewables, climate crisis denying, pro-fossil fuel press is still banging the ULEZ gong ONE MONTH after the Uxbridge election.
Lets put this into context. ULEZ was a Conservative initiative with the original plans drawn up by Boris Johnson when he was mayor. The zone initially covered Central London, the same area as the existing London congestion charge.
The number of non-compliant vehicles entering the zone each day dropped from 35,578, in March 2019 to 23,054 in July 2019. The proportion of vehicles which complied with the standards rose from 61% in March 2019 to 74% in September 2019. This further rose to 85% in December 2020, including 90% for cars, and the number of non-compliant vehicles dropped to around 12,000 (of which 4,000 were exempt from the charges)
The total number of vehicles entering Central London each day also dropped from over 102,000 in February 2017 to 89,000 in April 2019
Clearly, as an anti-air pollution measure ULEZ is a major success. I know we are still in the media “silly season” but, as with “Lifelogic” daily rants (often in quadruplicate), ULEZ is getting boring.
August 30, 2023
Sakara
But has it actually made any significant difference to the air quality ?
Clearly that depends upon the publications people choose to read and believe, given the vast differences in the so called results and differing measuring methods. !
You can still legally pollute as much as you like if you can afford to, hardly a truthful clear air policy !
August 30, 2023
@Sakara Gold
I have never read anyone commenting on Sir Johns diary being against any sort of renewable, ‘Per se’ . They question the cost and the real practicality and the religios cult that surrounds it.
I have never read anyone deny what you call a climate crisis, all anyone has asked for is proof, preferable true scientific proof. The proof has been denied by those that have a controlling agenda as it goes against their new world order.
Your EVâs are more polluting than the banned ULEZ Diesel cars. EVâs do not have engine braking are twice as heavy so create considerably more amounts of carcinogenic pollution. That is without getting into the matter that they are produced in the Words most polluting factories by the Worlds largest polluter. As every one knows BJ was a fool, are chancer and never understood what he was saying.
The ULEZ surveillance cameras are not programmed to look for interlopers, rule breakers, they have been programmed to track everyone â is that right in a so-called free society?
Using our own oil and gas will significantly reduce World pollution importing the resulting products. Oil and Gas is used to provide the lubricants in your EVâs the body parts the bulk of the interior comes from having access to oil.
There is nothing right wing, or left wing about questioning things that just donât add up, that have never been costed and just set out to punish.
August 31, 2023
@Ian B
You clearly do not read the regular, repetitive comments posted by a small number of ill-informed fossil fuel industry apologists on this blog, frequently in quadruplicate. These people repeat climate crisis denying fossil fuel lobby propaganda as if it is factual, which it is not.
For years I have engaged in debate on this blog concerning the environment, the climate crisis etc and spoken up for the planet. Somebody has to, even if i’m a lone voice in the wilderness here
August 30, 2023
Stem for a moment your pride in having reduced commercial activity in and around the commercially vital heart of the country’s capital city. The basic fact is that Ulez (always a speculative venture) has actually made very little difference to London’s air quality.
Impartial reports (e.g. Institute of Physics) have found “an average reduction of less than 3% for NO2 concentrations, and insignificant effects on O3 and PM2.5 concentrations. This study implies that the ULEZ on its own is not an effective strategy in the sense that the marginal causal effects were small.”
The House of Common Library research (11 August 2023) finds that “While a few studies have highlighted a reduction of air pollution after the introduction of clean air zones, this sits in the context of a general longer-term downward trend in air pollutants, influenced by other factors, such as improvements in vehicle emissions standards.”
Ulez is a gigantic waste of money, while restricting its residents’ right to basic freedom of movement. (I notice btw those who prattle airily about ‘public transport’ are those who never use it, and who scarcely notice that it is largely unavailable in the outer areas of London except for those who have all day to wait around in all temperatures.
August 30, 2023
According to a report by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College, ULEZ has had a negligible impact on air quality:
“Aggregating the responses across London, we find an average reduction of less than 3% for NO2 concentrations, and insignificant effects on O3 and PM2.5 concentrations.”
Air quality has recently improved, but the other measures have had the most impact, not the ULEZ policy.
Naturally, the Deputy Mayor disgracefully tried to suppress this report, but such interference in science is what is now what we expect from the green fanatics.
August 30, 2023
Using your figures, John aren’t we doing exceptionally well for VC?
There are 50 states, 11 states are bigger than the USA $245 to UK $31
There are 26 Active VC firms in London, venture capital investment in London predominantly goes to early-stage startups.
Perhaps instead of just looking at start-ups, they should look at established SMEs and train take over Managers more often.
They seem to only want a short term view 5 years and expect the business to grow significantly. The companies that I know well that went down the VC route had the founders cut out, left out to dry, any franchisees abruptly facing profit cuts the banks doing the dirty on them to aid takeover, its a dirty business they want a lot for a little effort themselves.
August 30, 2023
It has been brought to my attention, not being a big newsprint reader, that today’s Daily Mail features a wonderfully accurate article from Sarah Vine (Columnist of the year).
The gist of it is summed up in caps ‘ BASKET CASE BRITAIN’ and I am told every word of it got agreement.
While I await a copy to read, I encourage scribblers on this site to engage with her views.
August 30, 2023
John, as sure as eggs are eggs, the tax-hungry government (this or the next one) will soon turn to demonizing VCT investment in the media (‘a rich man’s sport’) and on any budget/spending review day remove its current income-tax relief and CGT exemption.
The question is not if, but when.
In my personal view, VCT investment has been a speculative worth a risk rarely taking except when needing to offset a very large income tax burden. (Tax-free and IHT-free AIM shares would surely be less of a risk, as Jim Slater cannily perceived.) A Conservative government that can decrease CGT and dividend allowances on a whim – even for the poorest, smallest investor – can easily reduce VCT investors to penury at the stroke of a pen – and demand congratulation at being a ‘scourge of the toffs’.
August 30, 2023
editing typo: ‘has been a speculative risk rarely worth taking except’ etc
August 30, 2023
‘The German coalition government has agreed to a massive corporation tax cut worth âŹ32 billion over four years in a bid to revive its flagging economy, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ order-order
Shame we can’t cut our corporation tax ….maybe a couple a months before the election ?
August 30, 2023
Its started â yesterday it was the London with ULEZ and today its the Wirral peninsula adopting 20mph speed limit https://www.wirral.gov.uk/20mph
Another huge step to the left âŠfurther away from democracy
Within five years youâll need to apply for a chitty and pay a fee to cross a county line by car
September 1, 2023
Wales slowing economy, lack of growth, and unproductive road system for movement of goods will all be blamed easily on the UK government’s lack of money and investment (when Drakeford stops link road improvements).
The English need to improve our seaside resorts, peaks, and parks and stop leaving the holiday areas to get dragged down and out, and full of benefit claimants. It was another nail when government stopped the casino and large investment plans in Blackpool. When the Winter Gardens was paved instead of being left as beautiful gardens and lake, the Council abused the environment in the Town Centre so much they are paying the price of that.