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Cameron's Business Speech Reveals How Out of Touch He Really Is

Posted: 24/02/2012 00:00

With every passing week this government appears to increasingly reveal that it is the most out of touch in recent memory; they just never seem to quite get it. This time it's Cameron incongruously labelling the current mood of anger as "anti-business snobbery" - just who is he kidding?

Cameron's comments echo those of Chris Grayling MP, who desperately attacked those criticising his 'free labour for corporate leviathans' programme as "job-snobs" and "anti-capitalist extremists". The same man who refused to acknowledge the widespread public outrage his policy had caused, and then lied when asked whether any businesses were withdrawing from the scheme. Cameron even continued the defence of the scheme in his speech. If he really can't see the difference between putting a young person into college for a month's learning unpaid and putting a young person into a supermarket for a month's 'learning' unpaid, then he's all but completely detached from the public mood.

However, it's his attack on the public as opponents of 'wealth creation' and business in general that just take it to a whole other level. He's not only misread our concerns; he's trying desperately throw them back at us. I am certainly not anti-business. For starters, and like many people in this country, I work for one. Neither do I feel contempt towards my local plumber, or the family-run funeral directors at the top of my road, or the co-operative on the high street, or large corporations that pay a fair price for their goods and for their wages - all of which are businesses. Cameron's loose use of the word "business" - a concept that is so broad - makes the prime minister's accusation appear ridiculous at best.

It doesn't take a PhD in economics to know just how vital businesses are for our economy. In fact if anyone's "anti-business" it would appear to be the government. After all they're the ones who've failed to ensure that banks - many of which have been propped up by the taxpayers' cash - stuck to their lending targets to small - and medium-businesses as agreed to under Project Merlin.

Anti-big finance, the government certainly is not. The banks which caused the 2007 crisis are the same ones that continue to pay themselves huge amounts in bonuses. Only today RBS has announced losses of £2billion in 2011, but has still managed to somehow pay its staff £985million in bonuses! How can a loss-making company possibly justify giving its staff bonuses? RBS Chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, says that it's because the bank needs to be run on "commercial grounds" - last time that happened you and I had to bail it out.

Where has Cameron's dream of responsible capitalism disappeared to in all this? Whatever happened to "not rewarding failure"? Yet again the government has misjudged the public perception; either that or they simply couldn't care less about it. The public aren't anti-business, we're anti-corruption; anti-tax avoidance for multi-national corporations; anti-state support for private industries; anti-record profits for energy companies whilst millions live in fuel poverty; anti-million pound bonuses for 'top' bankers of loss-making, 82%-taxpayer owned banks; and anti-predatory businesses which are prepared to destroy an entire economy to make a quick buck.

Cameron is right to say that business can be a "powerful force for social progress" and that an individual enterprise can act as a moral entity, but this doesn't mean that they don't need government oversight and regulation. Following today's remarks it seems that pursuing this course is as far from Cameron's mind as it has ever been. Sadly, Labour's deafening silence and the Liberal Democrats' complicity on the issue can only lead us to believe that the country's other main parties don't intend to take it up either.

 
With every passing week this government appears to increasingly reveal that it is the most out of touch in recent memory; they just never seem to quite get it. This time it's Cameron incongruously lab...
With every passing week this government appears to increasingly reveal that it is the most out of touch in recent memory; they just never seem to quite get it. This time it's Cameron incongruously lab...
 
 
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05:39 PM on 02/28/2012
Cameron just demonizes anybody that dissagrees with his ideology.
11:44 AM on 02/28/2012
This country does have an 'anti-business' rehtoric that is counter productive. It exists in the media and this feeds down into the pliable minds of the general public.
How is our economy ever likely to come out of recession and return to growth, if every time a company turns a profit (unless the business is some kind of "wholesome" cottage industry) the media and vocal anti business groups vilify their actions.
Cameron is right to address this issue, as a country we need to support business, whatever that business may be and applaud it when it does well, not view it with scecptisim and distain, simply because we haven't been successful ourselves.
Why should RBS not be able to reward those individuals that have helped to keep it's loss lower than it might have otherwise been? Does anyone ever stop to think that the people earning the bonuses might be those that have 'done a good job' and that those that haven't don't get a slice of the pie?
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09:58 PM on 02/24/2012
Succinct. Excellent article. Crony capitalism, corporate welfare, private profit/social losses. God help us all.
04:05 PM on 02/24/2012
My understanding of 'unpaid' work at Tesco (?) for instance is that the individual working 'unpaid' is still collecting Benefits of some decription, be it Job Searchers or unemployment,whatever, whilst doing the 'unpaid' job.
08:40 AM on 02/26/2012
Get yourself down there then, 58 quid a week when you're supposed to be seeking work not doing it on behalf of a multibillion pound company is a farce, no-one needs 6 weeks to learn the art of shelf stacking or collecting trolleys in supermaket car parks, if staff are needed then employ them not rob them.
02:17 PM on 02/26/2012
I'm sorry you take that view. £58 per week for doing nothing seems pretty good to me. Explain the logic of that to me. All part of the 'something for nothing' culture we have here. Try being so hard up you have to walk 3 miles to an employment agency. They felt so sorry for me they gave me the bus fare home!!! My husband (unemployed through no fault of his own) was at home with the three small children. This was in Canada where we were unable to claim benefits of any sort because we were newly arrived there. You don't even know you're alive. By the way, I got the job. I was admired because I had made such an effort instead of sitting at home feeling sorry for myself.
09:53 AM on 02/24/2012
British Senior Citizens Party are very supportive of businesses in the S&M range. However most big Companies are tax avoiding and the City of London has the reputation for being the biggest tax haven in the world. Gov. needs to deal with this immoral situation, which D Cameron is certainly not doing.
In recent months the H of Lords has had to make many amendments to prospective new legislation which is making the Gov. that no-one voted for look not fit for purpose.
02:47 PM on 02/24/2012
Don't be ridiculous. Of course they were voted for. Every MP in the Houses of Parliament was voted for!!! If you check back pre-election you will see that the Labour party instructed Labour voters to vote Liberal Democrat if they felt they could not vote Labour back in again. A deliberate tactic to divide and minimise the use of voting. And where did you get the information that London is the biggest tax haven in the world?
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12:15 AM on 02/24/2012
Methinks the PM is blowing smoke to cover the posteriors of the avaricious money lenders, the irresponsible money swoppers, the greedy CEOs, the corrupted utility operators etc. etc.