Do you think that Labour should be the party of and for small business and the self-employed?
The Labour Small Business Forum do. The aim of the forum is to build a network of Labour members who work for themselves or work for a small firm, that there is an organisation within the party speaking up for small business.
We will be hosting a fringe meeting at this year’s Labour conference on Tuesday 2 October. We have a line-up of some of the best small business thinkers in the country and it certainly looks set to be the premium small business event at the conference.
Ed Miliband has said that he wants Labour to be the party of small business and the self-employed. An admirable aim and it is our objective to deliver on that pledge. I believe that there is a key Labour principle involved from the old Clause IV, which was ‘to secure for [people] by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry’. Being your own boss in a fair society is a good way of trying to achieve this. It is about empowering people, it is about aspiration and it is about building prosperity.
When out canvassing in 1992, Tony Blair was told by a man cleaning his Sierra that he had always voted Labour in the past, but now he had started his own business he was going to vote Conservative. Blair said afterwards that that was the point at which he realised the election was lost. If Labour wasn’t reaching out to such people then they were doomed to fail. That was 20 years ago. Today more and more people work for themselves as self-employed or freelance or run or have run small business. The Federation of Small Business notes that there about five million small businesses in the UK. Small businesses, freelance working, self-employment and the knowledge-based economy – this is the future and Labour needs to get it in terms of tax, welfare and economic policy. So that is fit for the 21st century and the way that people work today. The Tories only policy for small firms is to remove employment rights from workers and administer it through deference and fear. My view is we need to create a level playing field between large and small firms administered with fairness and respect.
Small business is crying out for funding and help but the banks though getting virtually free money from the taxpayer are sitting on their hands. The market’s response has been to go round the banks. Here and in the USA there has been a huge growth in peer-to-peer lending – crowdfunding – which circumvents the banks and links up pools of investors directly with borrowers.
In the foreword to a recent CSFI report on the topic, director Andrew Hilton noted that ‘pouring subsidy into this sector [banking] is not without its risks … [it] may end up strangling at birth one of the most fascinating and vibrant new financial businesses to spring up in the country for decades’. It will be one of the topics discussed at our fringe event by the following:
• John Walker, chair of the Federation of Small Businesses will tell us about the issues facing his members, particularly in areas such as finance and loans.
• Dr Jo Twist, CEO from the UKIE (the games industry’s trade association) will tell the meeting about crowdfunding (peer to peer funding) and the discussions she has had and how it works and what a future Labour government can do to help.
• Richard Little from the PPMA will discuss issues around innovation and creativity and how Britain needs to build on its creative strengths, and how a future Labour government should reform patents law and celebrate invention.
• Emily Thomas, a former DTi and Treasury adviser and now director of her own company, will detail the issues surrounding past and future changes’.
• As chair and a former freelancer, who has just written a book on the issue, I will push the case for reform to support freelancing and the knowledge based economy.
• Answering issues from the other panellists and expounding Labour’s policies and vision will be former small businessman and now shadow small business minister Toby Perkins MP. Following a number of informative presentations the audience will be invited to pose their own questions.
I believe that the Labour Small Business Forum is both an exciting idea and urge people to join whether you are self-employed, freelance, run your own business or work in a small business.
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All are welcome to attend the fringe if at conference, to join the debate and to help define Labour’s future as the party of small business.
The fringe meeting will be on Tuesday 2 October 6-7pm in Manchester Central Exchange Room 10 (inside the secure area).
http://www.labour-small-business-forum.org.uk
Or contact Philip at rosspe at talk21.com to join or for further information.
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Philip Ross is a candidate in the members’ section in the Progress strategy board elections 2012. You can find out more about all the candidates at the dedicated Progress strategy board election microsite