Extract #1: The Business Owner
Posted on 09. Nov, 2009
Over the next two weeks, we will be publishing a series of 10 extracts from the new book Ten Years On here for you to digest, discuss and debate. The first explores life in 2020 for the owner of a small business – what impact could changing our relationship with the EU have on her?
Sheila Jones runs a successful small business in Birmingham, called Gentle Breezes. Over the past twelve months, it has expanded and taken on two new members of staff. As Sheila says, ‘hiring people is now a fairly straightforward process and I don’t have to spend hours explaining my reasons and decisions on various, complicated, forms.’
Like everyone else in the UK, Sheila knows the amount of red tape that choked British business in the past has been drastically cut. The process of review began within weeks of breaking with the old EU structures. It was no easy task; there were thousands upon thousands of statutory instruments, putting into law 105,000 pages of European regulations. These needed to be sifted to determine which ones made sense, which were superfluous and which went way beyond the original intent and were simply doing damage. A lot fell into the last category. The review quickly revealed just how many bad laws went far beyond the original EU intent because our own officialdom had enthusiastically added to the text for reasons of its own.
Tens of thousands of pages of regulations were either simplified or cut. Businesses were amongst the major winners. Sheila tells us, ‘I know for a fact that I do two hours fewer paperwork every week. Even the Health and Safety paperwork, it used to be my particular bugbear, is a lot clearer, and it now seems to be based on common sense.’ She also points out to us how the legislation governing waste disposal used to be simply self-defeating. ‘A small firm like ours was expected to cough up £850 in a given year to be compliant with just one directive, with a wall of paperwork that aimed to push waste to travel further. All that actually did was encourage our local fly tippers. You know, the worst thing was we just had to pass these compliance costs on to the consumer, never mind the extra £15 per tonne we had to pay to dispose of the waste.’
In some cases the simplification process lightened the legislation while keeping the intent, rubbing away much of the gold plating; in others, the bureaucracy was so heavy for so little benefit we just dumped it. Within a few years the clear out was judged to have saved two per cent of the country’s GDP. That totted up to a staggering £19 billion. Sheila says to us, ‘two percent off my cost base gave me room to expand the company this year.’
Thanks to the trade agreement the UK has with the EU, her company continues to deal with the same continental customers and suppliers she had before 2010. The punishing tariffs some feared would be the price of UK independence have never materialised because it was never in the interests of any of the UK’s business partners to cut off their own nose to spite their face. So Gabi from Frankfurt still calls once a week, while Aleix and Llora in Barcelona have increased their orders on last year’s, thanks to the striking new floral design that’s proven quite a hit.
But then, as Sheila says, ‘like most British companies, eighty per cent of my business has always been with shops in this country, all the way from Penrith to Southend and everywhere in between. Another ten percent I’ve done with the States and Australia and countries elsewhere outside the EU. All the rules and regulations – the red tape – that used to be forced on me from Brussels had a really deadly impact on all of my business though it was actually only relevant to one tenth of it, so the burden was mismatched.’
Sheila’s very excited about the phone call from Shanghai. The city’s economic growth this year is practically double that of the national Chinese average and even that is 6.9 per cent. In Shanghai alone there are potentially thousands of new consumers, who this year now have the jobs, the money and the interest to, buy her products. Truly, the future for ‘Gentle Breezes’ is far bigger than just the EU, it is global.
To read more, order your free copy of the book.
7 Responses to “Extract #1: The Business Owner”
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R Torres
09. Nov, 2009
Could do with mentioning this book or putting a small ad on the Telegraph comments/blogs site especially Daniel Hannan’s or one of the other Eurosceptics blogs. There’s a lot of support for this type of material. Or at worst just a brief comment about it in some of the blogs, can’t see it doing any harm.
PS. Good Luck and keep up the good work
Terry Docherty
09. Nov, 2009
you hold yourself under the banner of a british company, i did not know that britain was a country and it ran from southend to penrith, mind you me being from a foreign country like SCOTLAND would not know that.
Steve Mepham
12. Nov, 2009
We are told that if we decide we do not wish to be part of a Federal State and pull out of the EU we will lose zillions of jobs, and contracts with Europe.
So Companies all around Europe will no longer buy my Companies goods, even though they are the best quality and value for money on the market. What a load of tosh.
Why do Companies buy goods from China, they execute people for the slightest thing, from India when 8 year olds are making them etc etc
People and Companies will buy the best goods and services on offer, it would not make the slightest difference if the Country of origin were in the EU or not.
Colm
12. Nov, 2009
I find it strange that the English do nothing but complain about red tape, rules and regulations which are imposed by themselves on themselves.
Every other EU country has a ‘get on with it’ attitude but not the English – here there is a ‘get on with it’ and then ‘prove it to the ‘authorities’………. And ‘authorities’ there are many….. more and more of them are invented every week. Quangos, Councils, Government Agencies the very long list goes on and on and on.
Every other EU country, without exception, can introduce new laws and prosecute only those who break them and get caught……….. But no not here! Oh no not here! …….. We want to prosecute those who cannot prove to the multiple layers of ‘authorities’ that they are complying in full with every element of these new laws. With forms that are pages and pages thick! Forms that are invented by state paid people with unnecessary job descriptions and ostentatious job titles. JOBSWORTHS!!
I’m sorry but the so called ‘red tape’ is not from Brussels, nor the EU. No other country has the reams and reams that the English do.
In every other EU country the Government credits it’s own people with the ability to understand regulations and abide by them OF THEIR OWN ACCORD. These ‘civilised’ countries have courts and police to prosecute those who break them and get this ……….. the burden of proof lies with the prosecutors. I know it sounds like an unusual concept but believe it or not IT WORKS!
Colm in Wales
Jessica
12. Nov, 2009
Hello
I applied for the free copy as advertised however recieved no confirmation. I really like the look of this book and it seems it will come in handy with my University course and one of my assigments of EU Law.
Do you know whether you can tell me how I know if I will get a copy, or how else I can..,.
Thanks x
Average British voter
16. Nov, 2009
Politicians in all EU states take the credit for the good things that the EU does and then blame the bad things on the EU.. that’s OK, it’s only human, but voters deserve to understand better the benefits that the EU brings as well as the downsides that come with them.
The EU has brought peace and prosperity to all EU nations since it was created. We are the first generations of British people not to face the fear of invasion and not to have to fight bloody wars not of our choosing.
The EU has made it easier for British companies to trade worldwide, because so many other countries have adapted to European trade rules. Even if we left the EU, any company that wanted to trace overseas would have to follow the same standards. As consumers we should thanks EU standards for ensuring that food and other products are safe and of the highest quality for the lowest prices.
British people can travel and work freely throughout Europe without the old bureaucracy that used to make it such a hassle.
Britain’s voice has diminished as the sun has set on our old world of empire and unmatched navy, air force and land army. Within the EU we can be one of the three main players. Working with France and Germany, as well as our other allies, we can agree EU positions on the major issues that threaten our way of life. The EU is the largest economy in the world representing more than 500m people. When the EU speaks with a united voice, the world listens…
Britain has always been an outward looking, civilised nation. The EU is a continuation of that tradition As part of the EU, we can continue the British story of helping to bring the world together in peace and prosperity and help our fellow humans all over the world.
Much Smarter-than Average British Voter
21. Nov, 2009
The EU didn’t bring peace and prosperity to the EU. Europe was rebuilt on the backs of its own hardworking people and the shoulders of NATO protecting Western Europe from that other agglomerating “Union”
Does Japan (or the US, or Norway) have any trouble trading without European trade rules?
Your whole post contains a staggering amount of naiveté that makes me wholly concerned for the British voting public at large.