There has been a flurry of calls in recent months urging for a rebalancing of business rates – with some warning that a failure to act risks economic slow-down.

Not only is there the well-documented disparity between bricks-and-mortar retailers and their online counterparts when it comes to paying the tax, there’s also some bizarre loopholes, which highlight the outdated state of the rates.

For example, you have to admire the sheer entrepreneurial front of those who have set up a snail farm in a Staffordshire shopping centre in an apparent attempt to avoid paying the charge.

Dozens of covered containers marked with snail symbols and bearing the word ‘escargot’ have been placed in neat lines on the floor of the empty unit in Newcastle-under-Lyme’s Roebuck Centre.

Reclassifying the former store for agricultural use means the owner is no longer liable for the business rates that are still payable on unoccupied premises.

For those sceptical that this sudden outbreak of breeding gastropods is nothing more than a prank or publicity stunt, the phenomenon of the urban snail farm is nothing new.

A spate of snail farms sprang up last year in the well-known agricultural centre of Bradford. One official told local councillors: “It’s a box with some snails in it, it’s as simple as that I’m afraid, nothing more elaborate. They are breeding snails, they are therefore a snail breeding farm.”

It was a profession adopted by several in the city.

Whatever your take on this – a blatant attempt to dodge financial responsibility or a creative way of reducing costs in straightened times – it’s obvious that a root and branch reform of our business taxation system is long overdue.

The whole retail landscape is rapidly changing, with online retailers having an unfair advantage over those that still support bricks-and-mortar. The Centre for Retail Research points out that business rates account for 42 per cent of all taxes paid by retail businesses.

No business owner enjoys paying taxes, but in times of economic fortune the system is adequate. But despite the introduction of business rate relief schemes, businesses continue to fail or retreat, and it is plain that action is urgently needed to make the burden more equitable and sustainable.

Meanwhile, anyone tempted to become a snail farmer can be heartened by the fact that one person working full time can raise 200,000 snails, with a kilo retailing for around £40.

Realistically a shopping centre is possibly not the best place to rear our slimy friends, so let’s roll back on the urban rewilding and return to attracting people back onto our high streets.

Before owners of commercial properties rush down to their gardens to collect a bucket of snails, it’s worth pointing out that Kirklees Council was awarded £16,000 costs following a successful prosecution of one snail farm case.

However, it is time for the government to restructure the business rates – and not at a proverbial snail’s pace, otherwise our town centres may soon be overrun!

Read more:
Reform of business rates is moving at snail’s pace

The clamour to push remote working as some sort of post Covid future is sending business leaders into a tizzy.

With the ‘work from home if you can’ ruling due to be potentially binned along with other Covid restrictions from 19 July, there’s a lot of work still to be done to reverse a damaging culture so we can get people back to their office desks.

However, for me there’s simply no debate here. Remote working is bad for everybody and I’m not sure what it is about it that people aren’t getting. Companies are being pushed around by their employees far too much if you ask me.

The fact that some businesses had a massive change of heart after getting caught up in the initial excitement last year is a good thing.

Although, having got a bit over-excited by first saying that people can stay at home indefinitely, is leaving some facing a kickback from staff over the U-turn. Workers are confused and disappointed and that is perhaps understandable.

When I read that Google has had to water down its ‘back to the office’ plans after complaints from workers, I have to wonder who’s running the show there. Likewise, Apple is facing a backlash over its reduced remote working plans.

But I’m not the only one thinking that this reimagining of the post-pandemic workplace is bad news. James Gorman, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley, has told his staff they want them back in its offices.

As James says, “That’s where we teach, that’s where our interns learn, that’s how we develop people. If you want to get paid New York rates, you work in New York. None of this, ‘I’m in Colorado . . . and getting paid like I’m sitting in New York City.’ Sorry, that doesn’t work.”

The only person to benefit from being able to allegedly work from home is the individual, but you can’t allow staff to run your business.

However, this perk for the individual is likely to be short lived, for when bosses wise up to the idea that they can close the office and farm the jobs out to workers in foreign climes, where people appreciate the work and do it for less, they’ll be out on their ear.

The point is, if they don’t like the work, or where the office is, they can find another job or go self-employed and then do as they please.

But don’t expect me to pay for you to do the house work, or organise your social life, while fitfully focussing on the job you are contractually obliged to do for me, in the office.

Pimlico is successful because our departments talk to each other and collaborate, which helps morale and retention stay very high.

It is supported by our strong company incentives culture, which includes a free gym and exercise classes, a subsidised canteen, a company masseuse and parties at Christmas and in the summer.

Let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want a few days at home lounging around in their pyjamas at someone else’s expense? Remote working just ain’t working though.

It is more likely that no office means no training, no camaraderie, no collaboration and no future for businesses and ultimately no job for you.

Read more:
WFH: no office, no job, no training, no camaraderie, no collaboration and no future for businesses

The case of the workshy driver who won an employment tribunal despite being spotted at a bar after phoning in sick is a fine example of why the pendulum of power has swung too far towards employees.

The presiding judge may as well have given every work dodger carte blanche to call in sick whenever they fancy a pint or a daytrip to the seaside. I don’t know why she didn’t invite him to invoice the company for the booze and fags too!

Colin Kane was spotted smoking outside a social club after having told bosses he was laid up in bed with an illness. 

Not only that, but the 66-year-old has a smoking related chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which suggests he has the same respect for himself as he does his bosses.

Incredibly, the judge found that Kane had not broken the company’s rules and was wrongfully dismissed. Does that mean we must all make a lengthy list of things that employees can’t do when they are sick?

Will a contract need to state that ‘Bob cannot go the beach, visit a zoo or hang upside down from a trapeze,’ when he is ill? It’s common sense, surely?

If ‘Bob’ is spotted windsurfing on a sick day, will he escape scot-free because employers neglected to specify he couldn’t do that in the contract?

Huge strides have been made in the protection of workers’ rights and health and no one wants a return to Victorian workhouses, but things have gone too far and bosses need to fight back.

During one recent job interview, an applicant declared they would rather not take the agreed written test because they preferred a ‘chit chat,’ and it would take too long.

They then informed our recruiter they couldn’t stay for the whole interview because they had double booked and arranged a Zoom call for a set time.

Another person quit after one day, apparently unhappy at having to agree their lunch break with the line manager in the morning and not being allowed to jabber on her mobile phone during work time.

Where are these people coming from? How did they get so entitled and spoiled?

We now face a situation where workers’ lips are wobbling because companies have realised the remote working fantasy is exactly that. It works for no one. That hasn’t stopped Apple workers getting up in arms about a recent edict to get back into the office.

There’s a massive difference between treating staff well and incentivising them to work hard, as I believe we do at Pimlico, and letting them walk all over you.

The idea that you can let people in your employ dictate the rules is the quickest route to a bankrupt business, mass unemployment and a shrunken economy I have ever heard.

I mean, who’s running the show bosses or employees? Bosses should lead, not pander to every whim in an attempt to be matey. Good workers are vital, but they’re not the ones who are putting their livelihoods on the line to build a business from scratch with blood, sweat and tears.

If contracted staff want to do as they please they should set up their own business or go self-employed.

I spent nearly a decade fighting a plumber in the courts. He loved the way we worked at first, it earned him a small fortune after all. He then changed his mind when the chips didn’t go his way and took us to court. I was vindicated, but it should never have gone that far.

This latest employment tribunal decision is a disgrace, which undermines the authority of business leaders everywhere.
The company concerned should fight this all the way to the Supreme Court, if not for themselves, but for all bosses and their companies.

Read more:
Employment Tribunal judge might as well have invited workers to ‘go sick and send bosses your beer tab’

It’s fantastic to see no less a person that the head of universities admissions service UCAS supporting my life-long appreciation of apprenticeships, and the fact they are undermined by “misplaced snobbery”.

Clare Marchant has pledged to tackle the “outdated stigma” surrounding vocational qualifications that has put off many thousands of youngsters from earning good money by learning an honest trade.

For decades kids have been brainwashed into believing that going to university is the key to a glittering future, while those who should know better either dismiss apprenticeships or ignore them altogether.

Clare admits this undoubted snobbery is deterring people from entering vocational training. A report published by UCAS reveals many sixth formers are unaware of the options available to them – with a third of pupils at schools and half of those at colleges saying they weren’t even told about apprenticeships.

The truth is that many of those who go to university emerge with a Micky Mouse degree that doesn’t offer automatic entry to the workplace. In such cases, they often still need to gain work experience or take further courses to learn more specific skills.

Universities are big business pocketing exorbitant fees for often sub-par courses. Last year it was reported the average pay and benefits package of a vice chancellor in the Russell Group of universities was £380,000. Our prime minister is entitled to £161,401.

No wonder going to university is so heavily promoted! But in the three years it takes to get a degree, apprentices will have been earning while they learn – an experience that can give them the necessary launch pad to secure a well-paid job in their chosen career.

Meanwhile, the average UK student loan debt stands at an eyewatering £35,000.

The reality is that apprenticeships are far from second-rate. I find the quality of teaching and training on the job, and as part of apprentice’s college courses is first rate, giving employers the confidence that they are developing someone with the right skills, knowledge, and attitude.

This country is already suffering from a host of skill shortages, from heating, electrical, and mechanical engineers, to truck drivers and web designers. In 2019-20, the number of those aged 16 and 24 starting an apprenticeship fell from 265,000 to 171,600.

As a former apprentice myself, I know the value of learning on the job – it provided me with the building blocks to found Pimlico Plumbers.

UCAS has highlighted the complete lack of information on apprenticeships and says its goal is for the service to be as strong for potential apprentices as it is for prospective undergraduates.

We urgently require a shake-up of the careers service and the quality and quantity of advice handed out in our schools and colleges.

Attitudes need to change so apprenticeships are considered a first, rather than a last resort. This country must champion apprenticeships and ween the next generation off the university gravy train – and in doing so make a vital contribution to this country’s economic recovery.

Read more:
Misplaced snobbery is robbing our youngsters of career options

In the past I’ve criticised bosses for jumping on the ‘work from home’ bandwagon in the hope of saving a few quid on running offices and other workplaces.

But there’s another troubling sentiment I’m picking up that’s rumbling away among employees across the country who don’t want to come back to their workplace.

What I’m getting from other business owners and from people messaging me on social media isn’t just a begrudging resignation from members of the nation’s workforce that a year of working at home in their pyjamas is coming to an end, but a more militant attitude that in future they, not their employers, should have the right to choose when and where they work.

The reality of the situation is that if you are employed by a company that needs and wants you to be at a certain place, for a certain period of time, on specific days, then that’s the deal.

Otherwise, why would anyone even bother to start a business and employ people if they don’t have the power to organise their workforce in the way they think is most efficient? If people don’t like the conditions on offer they should look elsewhere for work, or take the leap into self-employment and become their own bosses.

The truth of the matter is that people are more creative and productive when they are in the company of others (and if you don’t want to take my word for it, ask the chancellor, Rishi Sunak), and despite all the rubbish some bosses have been spouting about remote working for most it has been a second-best standby measure that was necessary during the pandemic.

Some will disagree, and I wish them all the luck with their new models, but believe me most companies have already put together plans to get the majority of their staff back to centralised working as soon as is practical.

This is not only a business priority, but it’s also about having a functioning society. If everyone got to choose when they worked the place would fall apart. What of shop workers, police, those in the NHS? Should they have the same rights to dictate when they show up, and where they walk the beat or tend to patients?

The idea that people who work in predominately white-collar office jobs should be allowed to stay at home and work is in many ways an entitled and selfish one. They want to stay at home on the same wage, be kept safe from crime, have access to local medical services when they are unwell, and head to the supermarket for the weekly shop whenever they feel like it.

The reality of the world of work is that it takes place somewhere other than the home. People do work better in each other’s company, and there is a productivity advantage to businesses when they are organised in this way. Otherwise, why would a UK company pay UK labour prices to local staff to work in an office, when they could get the same result for half the money in Mumbai?

So those who want to permanently work at home need to understand that they are now in direct competition with workers from across the globe, many of whom are prepared to do their jobs for far less money. And that seems to me like a recipe for unemployment, which is why it won’t happen.
Ends

Read more:
In post-pandemic Britain most employees won’t get to choose where and when they work

It’s not often that a multi-national investment bank such as Goldman Sachs shares a common bond with another fine city institution – Pimlico Plumbers!

Given both operate in rather different circles, unless one of their bankers suffers a burst pipe or boiler breakdown, I must applaud its CEO David Solomon’s take on the importance of the office and its pivotal role in our return to post-pandemic normality.

This week he underlined his faith in its benefits by announcing plans to open a new office in Birmingham, which will eventually accommodate several hundred staff.

He recognises that Goldman Sachs requires an innovative and collaborative culture to thrive, and that means its staff operating as a team rather than in isolation.

My own business has worked throughout the pandemic, and we have only had a very few people operating from home due to shielding requirements.

However, it’s not all about improving creativity, efficiency and encouraging greater productivity.

This week I was also chatting to one of my own people who has returned to the office having worked from home for the best part of a year due to a heightened risk of contracting Covid-19.

They described how isolated they had felt at home – staring at the same four walls and laptop every day, and how they missed that simple everyday human contact.

They told me: “Being back inside the main part of the company has been something of a mental release after spending so much time alone. I felt so Isolated, but now I’m part of things again and don’t feel so remote and out of the loop.

“It’s not just a work thing, it’s the human contact. Just to be able to talk to and joke about with colleagues on breaks is making life much more enjoyable. I still need to be careful and keep up with the distancing, but to be able to communicate with people face to face is a wonderful feeling.”

My own view is that Pimlico is a family-run firm that operates on family values and that culture is best promoted by having everyone back in the office, wherever possible.

It’s not just about saving a few quid on office rent or heating bills – businesses need to consider the negative long-term effects on their people.

There’s no doubt the many millions up and down the country have helped keep businesses and our economy afloat by working from their bedrooms, spare rooms, and dining room tables.

But large parts of London have been deserted as hordes of commuters continue to stay away. While those who are vulnerable should continue to isolate where appropriate, now is the time to get back on track.

This will boost other areas of our economy, from sandwich and coffee shops to convenience stores, places that depend upon the vital office trade.

Several institutions have already gone on record as saying they want to continue the practice of remote working or introducing a home-office hybrid arrangement.

David Solomon has already branded this vision an “aberration”, saying it does not suit Goldman Sachs’ innovative and collaborative culture.

It’s worth making the point that many who worked from home initially enjoyed the freedom, flexibility, and lack of a commute. But in many cases, this gave way to stress caused by working in isolation, which in turn led to poor motivation, burnout, and problems created by poor communication.

Businesses have learnt many lessons over the past 12 months – not least how to create Covid-safe spaces through social distancing and effective hygiene measures.

Many might feel resistant to a return to the office, given that they have now grown accustomed to working from home.

However, we must restore that sense of community that has been sadly lacking from our lives for far too long – and to start to get this country motoring again. Something that both financiers and tradespeople definitely agree on!

Read more:
Return to the office provides a ‘mental release’ for remote workers

Enshrining a right to work from home into law would be anti-business and set back any chance of a quick recovery from the pandemic.

It’s hard to imagine that a Tory government would support something so stupid, but if the past year has proved anything at all, it is that nothing is as it once was.

Currently, requests for flexible working must be dealt with in a “reasonable manner”. However, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy wants to strengthen this and make it a legal right.

I have to ask, who’s running my business, them or me? Allowing staff to dictate when, or if, they come into an office is an idiotic proposal.

I firmly believe workers need to be in the office to create a company ethos. It also inspires speed of thought and speed of action, something all businesses will need in full supply if we are to truly bounce back from the economic doldrums of the pandemic.

It could be argued that a lot of businesses have been agile and successfully embraced the need for more remote working caused by the pandemic.

I would counter that by saying that was probably as a result, in the main, due to teams of people who have worked closely before lockdown and know and trust each other from being together in person, using the legacy of those relationships to battle their way through the past 12 months.

Many businesses owners have told me the goodwill and collaboration that had been built up prior to Coronavirus has waned and even run dry, which won’t serve companies well going forward.

Pimlico is a family business, and we go out of our way to make everyone feel included through incentives, bonuses, a state-of-the-art gym and even a weekly massage, virus restrictions permitting.

And from those benefits we get a motivated team whose interactions make our business what it is.

Zoom meetings are no substitute for meeting colleagues, working together, sharing ideas and learning new skills and progressing through a company

If you are sitting around in bed doing a bit of work in between washing up and catching up on Netflix, where is your investment in the company you work for?

Other bosses may, and do, disagree but that’s up to them. The point is, government must let us get on with what we do best, running our businesses. The terms of work are agreed at interview and when the contract is signed. If jobseekers don’t like the terms they have the right to seek a job somewhere else.

Boris Johnson previously dismissed the idea of making flexible working the default setting for businesses, but I sense another U-turn in the offing.

Yes, currently, half of working adults spend some time working from home, when before the pandemic it was just five per cent. But that will and has to change.

The vaccine rollout success and the Government roadmap out of lockdown has fuelled hope that something like normality is around the corner. Confidence is high.

Workers don’t need to be left to stew at home, they need to be brought back to the business premises to help rebuild camaraderie, moral, team-working, colleague bonds and to drive productivity.

We need all hands-on deck –and fast. Not just for our own businesses, but those who serve the many workers who populate our towns and cities before, during and after working hours.

These places have become deserted, which has had a terrible impact on businesses that rely on the custom of office workers.
Even the Bank of England has said that people need to start spending the money that they have squirreled away in the various lockdowns.

The way to do this is to get them back to their desks, and using public transport, socialising, getting haircuts and their clothes dry cleaned, using gyms and lunching with their colleagues.

State intervention during the pandemic has proven to be a lifeline for many businesses, but proposals like this will be stifling rather than encouraging the economic recovery.

The government needs to keep its grubby mitts and pointy noses out of our business and let bosses make their own decisions about the companies they run.

Read more:
A flexible working law is government meddling in the extreme, which would dash our recovery hopes

When I started talking about vaccine passports some months ago, I didn’t think it was a huge stretch to imagine a United Kingdom where society would soon be divided into vaccine ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and that people’s ability to return to some kind of normal life would depend on their vaccination status.

The mere suggestion that to go out to dinner, watch live football, go on holiday, or just enjoy a pint down your local would require proof of vaccine seemed to make people very angry.

But as the UK approaches 30 million first vaccinations, businesses desperate to return bums onto seats are starting to accept the inevitability of vaccine passports.

Yesterday, as an example, British Airways announced that it was planning to register customers’ status on its smartphone app as a way of reopening international travel for its customers.

The move along with the prospect of the Government allowing international travel to restart on May 17 has apparently already seen a flood of bookings for the airline. So, I have to ask who is surprised by this?

To share an aeroplane with a group of passengers who are highly likely to be Covid-free must be the gold standard in air travel. Especially when you also know your vaccine status means you are as well protected from infection as possible.

I can understand why various groups are against vaccine passports, and I agree with those who argue that more government interference in our lives is the last thing we need right now. But I don’t think this is an area the government needs to get involved in. We don’t need Boris and his cronies getting involved.

All we need is for businesses to adopt some form of vaccine ID leaving people to choose to use it or not.

Again, this isn’t me saying what should happen, it’s just looking at what’s going on and realising that for many businesses the ability to save themselves from disaster will depend on being able to open again soon. And proof of vaccination is the fastest way for this to happen, so it will.

People may not like it but the new truth to modern life in the UK is that a person’s vaccine status will be the biggest influence on what they can and can’t do.

That said, this will hopefully be a short-term measure as so many people will soon be vaccinated, making it a moot question in the future. But in the here and now it is the flint that sparks the flame of recovery that we can’t afford to snuff out.

Read more:
Vaccine passports are inevitable, not just for travel as a spark for economic recovery

It’s strange to think that someone who has worked as an investment banker and is now the Chancellor under a Tory Government would turn out to be such a softy.

Unfortunately, what he is doing by extending this scheme until September is causing more harm than good.

This scheme is a costly waste of money, but it has become a comfort blanket which is sapping productivity and putting a stop to growth.

It is throwing money down the toilet by delaying the inevitable. The Chancellor is simply propping up unviable businesses for another few months and paying the wages of people in ghost jobs that effectively ceased to exist months ago.

It’s not ruthless or cold-hearted to say that it’s better for all concerned to stop delaying the difficult decisions.

We are kidding ourselves to think this scheme is doing any good now. It served a purpose but now it’s like a big Ponzi scheme, with money being poured in but no return.

Very soon the majority of people will be in a position to return to work, so what’s the point of paying them to stay at home?

Unless, of course, you are just hoodwinking everybody into thinking the jobless figures aren’t that bad.

If you’re paying people to sit at home and watch Loose Women, then of course that’s what they are going to do.

We now need to move on, get the economy going, get people back into the workplace and stop this idea that people can sit at home talking to their cats and get paid for it.

Of course, it will be tough initially, but we have to get rid of the dead wood. It will enable the people to think creatively and start again and will free the nation’s zombie workforce, giving them a chance to find work elsewhere.

I understand the need for targeted furlough in sectors like hospitality, which will take some time to return to anything like a normal operational level.

But for other businesses it’s become a crutch that is stopping them from toppling and that is not good for anyone.

It’s time the Chancellor grew a pair and put furlough to the sword once and for all, so that the country can start to flourish once more.

Read more:
The Chancellor is prolonging the agony by extending the furlough yet again

As I gazed into my crystal ball a few weeks ago it struck me that vaccine passports were the future.

After I announced my vision to the country, I was knocked back by the outright hostility I attracted from some quarters, especially from the vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi.

Sadly, my efforts to flush out the future didn’t go down well. People derided me and generally poured scorn on my predictions. Some even had the cheek to say ‘Mystic Mullins’ was a fake and could no more see into the future than Uri Geller could bend spoons with his mind.

Government ministers turned fire on me and my powers too, not only claiming that vaccine passports would be discriminatory, but that they would never happen in a free country such as the UK.

Well, the smoke has cleared, and it is happening. And it’s going to allow people to travel abroad, which will provide a massive boost to the airline industry – and that’s just for starters.

The first pass is being developed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and will be verified at the borders, which could be June for us Brits, or maybe earlier.

Vinoop Goel, IATA’s regional director of airports, said: ‘We are currently working with a number of airlines worldwide and learning from these pilots. And the plan is to go live in March.’

He says the association ‘expects to have a fully functional working system over the next few weeks.’

This not to mention that the UK Government has awarded grants to at least eight different firms to develop ‘vaccine passports’ despite saying the very idea is ‘discriminatory.’

Ministers still deny vaccine passports will be used inland but if you believe that you might as well believe the moon is made of cheese, lizard people are in charge and Covid was invented by Bill Gates to further his campaign for world domination.

Once the technology is out there what will stop businesses snapping it up and installing it to make their staff and customers safer? Why wouldn’t theatres, concert venues and cinemas use vaccine passport technology to help their businesses operate freely once again?

Ministers would have to make a law against it, which would be utter lunacy and would cause outrage, especially on the back benches.

It’s coming. It cannot be stopped, and the Government would be foolish to try.

Now, as I gaze once again into my crystal ball, I can see vaccine passports in widespread use and happy punters going about their business, enjoying shows, films and music in live environments with other like-minded people.

I’m also getting a strange vision of a red-faced government minister chowing down on a large slice of humble pie – but don’t hold me to that one.

Read more:
Just call me ‘Mystic Mullins’ – vaccine passports ready in weeks as my crystal ball predicted

After today’s Supreme Court ruling that Uber drivers should be classed as workers and not self-employed the inevitable comparisons with our old case have already started.

For those that need reminding, one of our former plumbers, Gary Smith sued Pimlico for employment rights, including back-dated holiday pay, despite being a self-employed plumbing contractor and signing a contract to that effect and earning more than £500,000 over three years from the company.

During his time with Pimlico Plumbers, he operated as self-employed and was VAT registered. He paid taxes on a self-employed basis, bought his own tools and materials, on which he reclaimed tax, also claiming for an office in his home, chose when he wanted to work, and even employed his wife to carry out secretarial tasks for him and offset that as a business expense.

This included a trip to the Supreme Court where Mr Smith was deemed to be a worker and entitled to certain employment rights. It is, however, worth pointing out that Pimlico won the Employment Tribunal and rejected his claim for holiday pay.

And now, with Uber drivers celebrating their victory the debate around the so-called gig economy will again gain momentum and we will again wrongly be caught up in the swell of opinions.

During the eight years of our case, and since, there has been many comparisons made with gig economy cab firms, food delivery services and courier companies, which have been detrimental to our business.

With no disrespect to graft put in by Uber drivers, there is a huge difference in skills between their job and a plumber or heating engineer. That’s why some of our engineers are the best paid in the industry with an annual income of £100,000 or more.

The Taylor Report on modern employment states there are different classes of gig economy contractors, came up with the term ‘dependent contractor’ to describe low skilled workers who are at greater risk from exploitation in the labour market.

Skilled tradespeople, unlike drivers and couriers for example, are not dependent at all. Even if they are contracting solely to one company, they can easily take their skills elsewhere should they feel they are not getting a fair deal.

The law needs to understand there is a legitimate class of self-employed contractor, who may work predominantly for one employer and may even wear a uniform and carry an ID badge, but they are more of a contractor than a worker.

As such, companies that are paying these contractors in exactly the same way as those who may work for 10 different companies, should not have to provide all the benefits owed to employed staff.

Read more:
Uber drivers and plumbers are not the same, whatever the Supreme Court says

It is no surprise that in the past 12 months we’ve become a one-issue nation. Even if it’s not the battle against COVID-19 itself, it’s the social and economic fall out we’ve got to deal with.

With our eyes rightly focused on the prize of getting the country back on its feet and its population safe from the virus, it’s easy to miss other threats to our economy and livelihoods.

Chief among them is Sadiq Khan’s plans to expand his Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) into Greater London.

Pressing on with the expansion of the ULEZ beyond Central London will spell the death knell for thousands of businesses and one band operations.

And while this currently might just be a London problem, mark my words, other cities across the country will be paying close attention and will be looking to copy the mistake our tin-eared mayor is making.

He doesn’t seem to care about the damage it will do to the economy; he is more interested in the single-issue lobby groups and picking the pockets of long-suffering motorists.

Plumbers, carpenters and electricians are just some of the people who are likely to be hit with the 24-hour, seven-days-a-week £12.50 charge, for vehicles not deemed to have been the emission standards, once it’s stretched out to Greater London at the A406 North Circular Road and A205 South Circular Road in October this year.

Don’t get me wrong though, I do completely agree that London needs to address its pollution levels. However, I have a feeling that clean air may not be the mayor’s only motivation for creating one giant ULEZ zone across the capital as he has form for this sort of thing.

Back in Lockdown One he slapped a 30 percent increase on the congestion charge to milk hard-pressed businesses and workers of the capital to pull in some more cash.

Yet again he forgets we are in the middle of a pandemic where people have been unable to work for months at a time due to various restrictions.

Many businesses are being pushed to the brink by this proposal. I’ve heard from numerous tradespeople who will simply have to hang up their tools when they time comes as they are unable to afford a new van to meet the stringent restrictions or pay the mounting bill for driving around the capital.

And tradespeople won’t be alone in this, other businesses will be too, not to mention the volunteers, carers, pensioners and many others who will be forced to pay more to get around London.

It is disgraceful that this is still even a consideration at this time. The effects will be far-reaching at a time when everybody is struggling.

Time may be dragging while we’re all prevented from leaving our homes for anything more than work, but October will come around very quickly. The mayor has to do the right thing as soon as possible by waking up and giving people a break by pushing this scheme back for 12 months.

Read more:
Low Emission Zone expansion is not just a death knell for London businesses

Who’d have thought putting the health and safety of your people and the public first would create such a fuss!

During an interview with City AM, I discussed my intention to spend an estimated £800,000 on having my 400-strong workforce vaccinated against Covid – once the vaccinations become available to buy privately.

Some responded with claims that such an initiative is coercive and discriminatory.

The mention of a ‘no job, no jab policy’ meant my words were quickly picked up by the likes of The Sun, Evening Standard, Daily Mail, The Guardian, Scotsman and even Construction News – as well as prompting a debate on talkRadio, among others.

I want to stress that while I am in talks with my lawyers about making the vaccine mandatory for all new hires, I would not force anyone to have a jab who is already on the books and no-one would lose their job over it.

Knowing my people as I do, I believe the great majority would be both eager and grateful to have the chance of getting an early shot, at no cost to themselves.

I know the well-rehearsed arguments of the anti-vaxxers and the shocking statements of the persistent band of Covid deniers, partly spread by the storm of misinformation from across the Atlantic.

Never mind all that nonsense. The reality is that this country is fast closing in on 100,000 Covid deaths. This virus has also brought the economy to its knees and is affecting every part of our daily lives – whether it’s running a business, kids going to school, or an ability to visiting your nearest and dearest.

Those businesses still operating have long since introduced strict Covid-safe working procedures and many are already investing in lateral flow tests for their staff to ensure that anyone found to be contagious, ands who might not be showing symptoms, can quickly self-isolate and reduce the risk of infecting anyone else.

Having a jab at the request of your employer is just the next step up.

The truth is that this pandemic has gone on long enough and if I as a business owner can play any part in helping the government stamp out this awful virus, then I’ll do it so we can all get back to some type of normality.

This is not about coercion but persuasion and explaining to people why this is a logical and sensible step. This is about protecting everyone and restoring both our health and our economy.

I suspect those that would refuse a Covid vaccination may well have dodged tuberculosis, measles, mumps in the past thanks to jabs received earlier in their lives.

Pimlico Plumbers provides a critical service and has worked right through the pandemic. Our Covid-secure policies has inspired confidence when our engineers call at customers’ homes, but I know that proof of vaccination would inspire a great deal more.

There are many more enterprises out there that haven’t been so fortunate, having been stopped in their tracks by restrictions and lockdowns. We owe it to them and their employees to get the economy back on track as quickly as possible.

Extensive medical trials have found that the UK-approved vaccines are safe, but a low take-up threatens further coronavirus outbreaks and more lives being placed at risk. We also have to face the fact that we will all require annual vaccinations as the virus continues to mutate.

Some employment lawyers have already warned that attempts by employers to have their staff vaccinated could lead to claims of discrimination.

Unfortunately, the grim reaper doesn’t have such concerns.

Read more:
No jab, no job debate is about public and workforce safety, pure and simple

The Chancellor put himself in the driving seat to ‘Restart’ the economy but the ignition failed and someone appears to have stolen the satnav.

With a slice off the aid budget here and a little for nurses there, Rishi Sunak’s spending review had one eye on the backseat drivers on Twitter, and ultimately pleased no one.

Upskilling the nation through apprenticeships should be a top priority and would help get the country moving again, but the Chancellor missed the turning.

Rishi Sunak outlined plans to use £3 billion to help more than one million people back to work. It’s an idea that must have looked good on paper but lacked detail, except to say job seekers will get tailored assistance, something which already exists.

Restart was probably created by consultants. The name probably came first – the content might follow later.  But the idea of a new beginning does open the door to look to a new look future, with a renewed focus on training British people.

The Government needs to put its full weight behind apprenticeships instead of half-heartedly, with non-committal plans like Kickstart.

Currently, its £1.5bn Kickstart project offers around £1,500-£2,000 to businesses which take on apprentices for six months, but alienates most, especially small, businesses. Apprenticeship starts have plummeted, which is not surprising. What small business will create a new position for £2,000, when it can cost around £40,000 to train an apprentice over four years?

This scheme needs to be completely revamped and made more attractive. It could be tied into his new Restart scheme. For a start, there needs to be more investment over a longer period of time – even business apprenticeships last 18 months.

The same goes for this idea of ‘levelling up.’ The £4 billion earmarked for this needs to be used to train and retrain people affected by this crisis. Boris wants windfarms everywhere; who is going to build them? The answer is obvious to me.

The Chancellor and the Government need to get a firm grip on the wheel and focus on the road ahead by re-skilling people of all ages so they can help rebuild our economy.

Huge infrastructure projects such as HS2 are on the horizon, more homes need to be built and there is a general shift towards a green economy. People will need training up to do the jobs in these industries and the Government must steer the economy in the right direction by creating more apprenticeships and properly funded training schemes.

Read more:
The Chancellor’s ‘Restart’ missed the turning marked apprenticeships and wound up in the ditch

Businesses have rolled over and absorbed far too much of a basting from this Government over Covid and it’s time to stand up and tell it to get stuffed.

And this suggestion that we should have a Christmas ‘free for all’ and a harsh lockdown in January so people can have their families over for a bit of turkey is both idiotic and childish and needs to be stamped out fast.

Apart from the fact you might as well ask if your gran wants extra Covid with her spuds, more than £300bn has been spent fighting the virus so far, while tens of thousands of lives have been lost and businesses are going to the wall every day.

The idea we should flush all that suffering away for turkey and tinsel suggests we are in the grip of a new Christmas delirium virus and it’s getting out of control.

There are already thousands of businesses on the brink of collapse and another lockdown in January would be likely to tip 50% of them over the edge.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a family Christmas as much as the next person, but this year people have to grow up and accept that for one year we can’t celebrate it normally, even if that makes Boris appear Scrooge-like.

The Government must return us to a system of tiers if needs be, but also remove the shackles and encourage businesses to adopt proper measures to stop the spread of the virus and to work around it.

Hospitality has borne the brunt of recent restrictions even though it is known that Covid is spread most by people visiting each other’s homes.

This cannot even be supported on a health basis surely? You might as well be handing out gift-wrapped Covid parcels to your nearest and dearest.

What kind of Tory Government says screw business and sacrifices people’s livelihoods and health at the alter of Christmas? It’s as if they don’t mind ruining the economy as long as it doesn’t affect Christmas.

Pimlico has taken the decision to stand and fight this virus, rather than run and hide. We have adopted numerous measures to stop the spread of the virus, including heat scanners, and incentivised staff with bonuses and free lunches to get on and work.

This has driven our own fantastic recovery. I believe that if more companies followed our lead they would be in a better place.

It’s time for businesses to stand up and tell Boris and his crackpot Government they have had enough and if necessary to march on Parliament and tell him “never mind the baubles, you must let us get back to work.”

Read more:
Business must unite and tell Boris, ‘never mind the baubles,’ we want to get back to work

The latest GDP figures showing the country’s record recovery after the first lockdown highlight what a catastrophic decision it was to impose an unnecessary second shutdown.

Britain briefly lifted out of recession in the summer, posting a massive 15.5% growth in the three months to September.

The economy shrank in the first three months of the year and contracted by a record 19.8% in the April-to-June period of the first lockdown. Two consecutive quarterly contractions usually mean the economy is in a recession.

Normally they are as a result of a banking crash or some other financial-driven catastrophe, rather than a microscopic bug that has impacted severely on the health of the population and as well as our economy.

But the following quarter’s sharp rise lit the way to V-shaped recovery and lifted us out of that recession. This was predicted by me and other business owners who urged the Government not to overreact and pull the plug for a second time.

Britain’s bounce back was mirrored by Pimlico’s own recovery.

Last month, we showed what a V-shaped recovery looked like with sales rising by £650,000 to £10.9m for July, August and September after the first lockdown, compared to the same period in 2019.

But nobody needed a crystal ball to predict what impact renewed restrictions would have on future prospects. Sadly, the Government turned a deaf ear to our pleas, and the chance for a quick recovery was squandered.

The economy is likely to take another hammering this month as the effects of this lockdown take effect – October won’t be pretty either.

The Government has dithered and dallied. It is clear we were shunted into the latest restrictions on the basis of some dodgy data and Boris is reportedly annoyed, no doubt aware that he has hobbled our recovery hopes.

There will be plenty of business owners now watching their hard work being flushed down the toilet, who will rightly be furious and wondering why they weren’t supported by the so-called ‘party of business.’

It could have all looked so good, with everyone hailing the Boris bounce. Instead, we have a Johnson slump.

However, the prospect of a vaccine being rolled out before Christmas has provided an unexpected boost. The Government should capitalise on this bout of positivity and end the shutdown now, not let this nightmare drag on until December 2, while there is still the possibility of averting the worst of the damage.

The Prime Minister and his party need to shrug off the ‘stuff business’ attitude of recent weeks, lift the restrictions stifling trade and get us all back to doing what businesses do best once again.

Read more:
Retreat into a second lockdown deflated Britain’s summer bounce

It has never been clearer to me that the way out of this Covid crisis is by properly supporting apprenticeships, but the Government is failing in this by every measure.

To say I was disappointed to read that the number of apprenticeships has plummeted to its lowest level in 10 years is an understatement.

We are literally back where we started when I worked with David Cameron and George Osborne to change the way people thought about apprenticeships.

Boris and Co need to get a grip quickly and push training schemes to the head of their thinking while shifting focus from this misty-eyed obsession with bailing out boozers and restaurants, many of which will go to the wall anyway.

It’s a deeply personal matter for me, obviously. Having started out as an apprentice myself I know the fantastic opportunities it gave me – and countless others.

Now, it’s frustrating to that apprenticeship starts fell by 18% to 319,000 in the year 2019-20 compared with a year earlier, according to the latest Department for Education figures.

And the number of young workers beginning as apprentices during lockdown was half that of the same period last year.

This is not only a reflection of the pummelling the jobs market has taken during the pandemic, but of the Government’s failure to grasp the nettle.

The Kickstart programme is not the right way forward. Currently, apprenticeship courses are funded from the Government levy pot, which companies pay into. But firms are then left to pick up the tab for the apprentice wages, which many cannot and will not be able to fund.

Yet again, the Government has been found wanting and is stuck in the past.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has already bailed out the hospitality industry and is ready to wave his cheque book again for pubs and restaurants in the north, paying two thirds of the wages of workers at venues the government is going to force to close.

Nobody wants to see people lose their livelihoods or the high streets full of derelict bars, but people were not flooding back to them even when the lockdown was eased and are unlikely to do so.

Currently, the people worst affected by this failure to tackle this issue head on are young people aged between 16 and 18, making up fewer than 10% of new starts during this period, compared with 17% a year before.

It makes no sense to pay benefits to these teenagers when the money could be directed to training them up to help rebuild our broken economy.

Boris needs to stop looking to the past, move away from this fixation with just propping up the bars and toast the future by investing in subsidising the wages of apprentices.

Read more:
Boris can’t just prop up the bars, he has to dig deep for apprenticeship schemes

October 2020 was the biggest billing month for Pimlico in the 41-year history of the company with sales in excess of £4.6 million, and the phones are still ringing off the hook. So why am I not happy?

The answer is that what we are seeing isn’t great news because the only explanation for what’s happening on our balance sheet is the country is bleeding out. Many businesses have gone to the wall or are being artificially kept alive by one government bung or another.

Many people have lost their jobs and are wondering how they will get to Christmas, rather than looking forward to it.

Those with jobs and some financial reserves are having one last hurrah, getting essential and non-essential jobs done while they can, or even perhaps attempting to avoid thinking about the medium-term consequences of Covid will be come 2021 by installing a new bathroom or kitchen.

Whatever way I look at the Pimlico receipts for this October all I can think about is what’s going to happen to the wider economy next year, and in the coming 5-10 years as we attempt to rebuild and pay back the huge amount the government has spent on job retention schemes.

As a company, Pimlico will be okay with so much of what we do falling into the ‘essential work’ category, which of course is why we will be offering our full service throughout this latest lockdown.

Last month’s result is half a million more than October 2019, and £100,000 above our previous all-time busiest month of November 2018 when we were visited by the storm known as the ‘Beast from the East’. After recouping much of the revenue, we lost out on during the first lockdown in Q3 Pimlico I was optimistic that we might finish 2020 with sales similar to 2019. However, with this new lockdown that now looks unlikely.

Looking forward to 2021 at a macro-level there is no chance that having shipped so much debt and unemployment into the economy we can realistically expect to escape without consequences hitting us next year. Sadly, these will now include a second dip into recession, irrespective of whether we get on top of the virus in the coming months.

Read more:
The UK economy is bleeding out as customers renovate their last gasp saloons, kitchens and bathrooms…

Today the chancellor put back the date when the UK will recover from the coronavirus crisis.

His measures are too complicated; too generous and open to fraud, and above all completely unnecessary because we should have had the balls to keep fighting and stick with the original plan of getting this country back to work.

Last week was the official anniversary of the Battle of Britain which is very appropriate since we are again in a dogfight to protect our country and everything, we’ve worked so hard to build as a nation. I’ve got lots to say about Rishi’s latest emergency measures, but mostly I think the real criticism needs to be aimed at our lack of courage at going head to head with the virus, come what may.

The chancellor’s latest package of relief measures is complicated. There will be some businesses that will be saved; while some will manage to struggle on for a few more months before collapsing in seven months, rather than in November when the original furlough ends. But there will also be thousands of businesses who find themselves so messed about by today’s complicated financial ‘rescue’ plan that they too may end up going to the wall.

History tells us that when plagues and disease hit, you must fight on, not hide away. What I have seen today from the chancellor is a ‘relief package’ that is only necessary because his Government didn’t have the stomach to stick to its original plan of getting the country back to work.

In the past when faced with killer diseases people kept going and got through, and by doing so they figured out new ways of living and doing business that worked. What we’re doing is just putting off the moment when we get to grips with the virus and can get on with our lives.

Read more:
Rishi’s latest measures are only necessary because his Government doesn’t have the stomach for a fight!

Rishi Sunak’s desperate pleading with company bosses not to lay off their furloughed employees once the scheme ends next month will cut no ice with those who must balance the books in the real world of business.

Many industries have been decimated by the virus and the measures designed to curb it, which means some employers will be forced to make cuts to survive.

Most businesses operate on very small margins and cannot afford to simply swallow employee wage bills, especially if sales are on a knife-edge or have failed to return to anything like pre-lockdown levels, no matter how much the Chancellor begs them to do so.

This is why the Government and employers must do much more to get people back behind their desks. Bums on seats is the only way to drive up productivity, restart the economy, and stop the recession that has already landed becoming the full-blown depression many are predicting.

Unemployment has jumped from 3.9% to 4.1% with more than 700,000 job losses since March, but we are kidding ourselves if we don’t accept worse is coming.

Companies that have closed their eyes and crossed their fingers will get a shock when they discover that work levels have not returned.

Job cuts will be inevitable and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool. To survive employers must be honest with themselves about what the future brings, and they have a moral duty to share this honesty with workers, giving them the best opportunity to safeguard their own futures.

According to the latest figures, around 11% of the workforce remain on the scheme. Whilst it has been seen as a success for many up until now, it will only prove to be a stay of execution for some of those four million people.

The chancellor is facing mounting calls to extend the scheme but that would be madness. He needs to find a way of weaning the country off of it before it ends, but time is running out.

Young people have already shouldered the burden of the lockdown and the £2bn Kickstart scheme can help alleviate their suffering in the future, but Sunak needs to act quickly to avert the worst of the looming catastrophe.

He must turn a deaf ear to those who would have him extend the furlough scheme into the never, never. Pretending that some areas, such as the high street, haven’t been permanently ravaged is stupid and just creates false hope.

The fact is that Sunak needs to help workers shift to other areas, where growth is predicted or is happening already, because company bosses will have to get real once the scheme ends in October.

Read more:
As furlough ends employers have a duty to be honest with their workers

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the rights and wrongs of the government’s furlough scheme, as well as, in some people’s minds, the related issue of working from home and whether it’s going to be the ‘new normal’ after the virus has been defeated.

As anyone who has been watching television news lately will know at Pimlico, as an essential service, we worked throughout the worst of the lockdown.

I would like to personally thank everyone who continued to find a way to get themselves into the office to keep the wheels on in the business.

It’s also fairly widely known that while the furlough scheme was needed at the beginning of the crisis it is my belief that it should now be stopped, so that workers across the country can be returned to their jobs, and more crucially their places of work.

As part of this important stage we have brought all our staff back to their desks and workshops, and I would also like to welcome them back, and thank them for joining their colleagues to help keep Pimlico being available 24/7 to customers.

But this is more than just a thank you note to my team. The fact that Pimlico, the company I, along with many others, have built since 1979, is now ‘back together again’ makes me very happy and is should be followed by many other businesses.

We are a company again. And it’s that word ‘company’ that’s important, especially if you think about its original meaning.

When someone uses the word ‘company’ usually they are referring to a business of some sort. But ‘company’ also means company, as in having other people around you.

So, to my mind, not joining your colleagues in the real world won’t work long-term because we’re social creatures at heart. Already even the most conscientious of people, who have been working alone for months at home, are starting to report that the isolation is having an effect on their state of mind. This is why we must get back to our colleagues and become proper companies again.

If you think about it, businesses who have been able to function with high levels of working from home are mostly trading on the comradely that they had before the lockdown.

They may not be with other members of their company every day anymore, but they remember the positive relationships, and that allows them to keep going. For now, at least.

Can you imagine what sort of dehumanising organisations we would have if entire ‘companies’ started from scratch with colleagues who never meet each other in the flesh? This is not the type of company I want to be part of, and I don’t think long-term it’s one that many people would enjoy.

So again, I say welcome back to all my company, in both senses of the word, and I hope others are doing just the same.

Read more:
We need company, in every meaning of the word

Another day, another Brexit disaster for the UK and it looks like we’re closer to remaining than the day after the 2016 referendum.

The ruling that suspending Parliament was unlawful is the latest nail in the coffin for the process of leaving the EU and we have to put a stop to this runaway train before we all career over a cliff.

I have always been very clear and vocal that I am a Remainer and believe that the UK is better off as part of the European Union. I also believed that, having seen the difference Boris Johnson made to the capital as Mayor of London, if anyone could deliver Brexit, it would be him.

What happened in the Supreme Court reduces that possibility dramatically. The ruling has the danger of infecting his authority and lead us to needing a new Prime Minister, which is what I see happening.

An election could be very dangerous for the country as it could give Jeremy Corbyn the keys to Number 10, which will make the Brexit debacle look like a two-week Marbella holiday if he is able to turn any of his anti-business, anti-aspiration polices into law.

Boris’ only hope is to secure a deal, but with his October 31st deadline rapidly approaching, the only option he has left is to get an extension of at least 12 months. I have said since he set his Halloween deadline that we were on course for an extension as it was and is extremely difficult to pull a deal together in such as short window.

And in that extension period, we can decide what we want to do, and I think that breaks down into two options.

Firstly, go back to the people for another referendum. If the disaster zone of the last three years has taught us anything, it’s that no-one had enough information at the time and now we are all so much more informed than before.

And I reckon that vote will only go one way, so we might as well save the time and money of a second referendum and just be bold and revoke Article 50.

Then the Brexit project can be consigned to the dustbin of history and we can get back to focusing on the key issues that effect this country such as addressing skills gaps, investing in our health service and creating opportunities for private enterprise to flourish, create jobs and grow the economy.

Read more:
We’re closer now to remaining in the EU than we were the day after the referendum

I’m not claiming to be Mystic Meg, but I knew I would be spot on with my prediction when the Supreme Court deemed employment tribunal fees to be illegal in 2017.

I said there would be a flood of claims against businesses, and I have been proven 100 percent correct!

According to stats from the Ministry of Justice, employees brought 9,340 individual claims to tribunals in the year to April 2019, up from 5,520 the previous year.

Most significantly, of the cases brought to tribunal last year only three in ten of all employment tribunal claims that were resolved were successful.  That says to me there are a large number brought by employees that see tribunals as a way of making easy money from a claim that would cost virtually nothing to lodge.

Since the fees were scrapped it’s a no-lose situation for workers and put massive pressure on businesses. Employees are entering the lottery and businesses are having to pay for the ticket.  The Supreme Court made a huge mistake two years ago and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Of course, there are genuine claims out there and businesses don’t want to be sat opposite their workers in a tribunal, but lots of people now see going to an employment tribunal as a way of making a quick buck.

And I’m not saying that bosses are all angels – that would be stupid, there are always good and bad in any bunch of individuals.  But the no-fee system is a huge incentive to have a go at an employer. Ex-staff would have nothing to lose and half a chance of a few grand in their pocket.

By reopening the floodgates on this the Supreme Court has, in the stroke of a pen, reintroduced the fear of God into employers, over taking on staff to grow their businesses.

The no-fee system is a huge incentive to have a go at an employer and makes businesses think twice about taking a chance on employing someone.  With the fees in place there is more chance for issues to be resolved in-house by HR teams.

When David Cameron brought in the fees it proved that there was no truth in a huge amount of the cases as they dropped by 79% over three years.  But things are going in the opposite direction and something needs to be done before some businesses are brought to their knees by spurious claims.

The Government has to step in and whoever becomes Prime Minister in the coming weeks needs to make sure this is dealt with, and quickly before many more businesses find themselves facing the prospect of defending against malicious claims.

Read more:
The Supreme Court opened the floodgates and now businesses are starting to drown in employment tribunals

In her maiden speech as a member of the new Independent Grouping in parliament, the extremely impressive former Tory MP, Heidi Allen, nailed it for me when she said:

“The Conservatives were always recognised as the party of economic competence but when we allowed a cabinet minister to say ‘eff business’ and we have a Prime Minister bullied into submission by the ERG and is now dragging the country and parliament kicking and screaming to the edge of a no deal abyss.

“I’m done. I want to be part of something better.”

And while I didn’t manage to put things quite so eloquently 18 months ago when I gave up on supporting Theresa May’s Conservative Party, that was exactly what I was thinking.  I had always backed the Tories because they were the party of business, and they had abandoned me.

For all my life the Tories had seemed to speak to me and for me; firstly, as the one-man band, doing his best to get established in the dog-eat-dog world of domestic plumbing.  Then as I grew, I became more aware of how various government policies affected my business.  And finally as the owner of a medium sized operation, employing hundreds of people, whose views and concerns were sought and listened to by those in power.

But I’m afraid that all changed when David Cameron moved out of Downing Street, as the new resident seemed far less interested in finding out what business people actually thought.  At first I thought maybe it was me and maybe I’d blotted my copy book with a few less than flattering observations about the new broom in town.  But I soon came to see that the open-door era for entrepreneurs at Number 10 was over.

So Mrs May didn’t want company, fair enough.  But what has followed is the really tragic part, and that’s the selling out of traditional business supporters like myself, and plenty of other SME owners, in favour of policies driven by the ultra-right ERG and the downright nutty DUP.

In a very small period of time, not helped by the losing of her majority in the 2017 snap-election, Mrs May, a former Remainer, was marching about like a machine chanting bizarre and unfathomable slogans like ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and ‘the will of the people must be obeyed’.  It was like a bad sci-fi movie, except that AI actually learns from its mistakes, Mrs May just sticks to the same old failing plan.

In a very short period of time the Conservative party had abandoned its business core, and instead of looking forwards and outwards towards innovation and success, it now very much is the party of the past, pandering to hysterical fears over immigration and globalisation.

Those are my thoughts and feelings, and I would urge that anyone who feels some resonance with my explanation to lend their support to the three brave former Tories, Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen and Anna Soubry, who joined their eight Labour colleagues, led by Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger, into The Independent Group.

Read more:
Why I’m backing the new Independent Group in parliament

Sorting out employment law in the UK is something I’ve been calling on for years.

I have been calling for it especially after a plumber who signed a self-employed contract with my company, took all the financial benefits of that status, but then convinced a court he was a worker and therefore entitled more money and employment rights too.

Today the Government has announced plans to change the law to make things fairer and drag the outdated law into the 21st century.

However, what these changes don’t do is protect good employers, who use self-employed contractors in an honest and ethical way.

I paid the man who sued me more than £500,000 in one three-year period, and he was still able to convince a court that I was in the wrong and owed him more.

This is a huge disappointment for thousands of companies, particularly in the building industry, who use self-employed contractors in a responsible way, paying them high rates that provide flexibility and reflect their independent status.

What seems to have happened here is that the Government has treated us as if we’re all Uber or Deliveroo, paying low wages, sometimes below the minimum wage, and also not offering good working conditions and rights.

I’m all for the Government finding changes in the law to protect the poorly paid, poorly treated and poorly appreciated workers – but there’s still no clarity on how these changes will benefit, impact or even relate to the highly-skilled self-employed contractors in industries such as mine, under these supposed landmark changes.

The Taylor Review focused largely on how to protect low-skilled workers from exploitation, but the building industry, with its highly skilled workforce, who are able to demand (and receive) much higher rates as contractors, is an example of a much fairer market, where both sides have bargaining power.

Taylor himself understood the differences between different classes of Gig-Economy contractor and came up with the term ‘dependent contractor’ to describe low-skilled workers, who are at greater risk from exploitation in the labour market.

Skilled trades people, unlike cab drivers and couriers for example, are not dependent at all, even if they are contracting solely to one company, as they can easily take their skills elsewhere, should they feel they are not getting a fair deal.

What the Government, and the law, needs to understand is there is a legitimate class of self-employed contractor, who may work predominantly for one employer, they may even wear a uniform, carry an ID badge, but they are more of a contractor than a worker.

And as such companies who are paying these types of self-employed contractors, in exactly the same way as contractors who may work for 10 different companies, should not have to provide all the benefits owed to PAYE workers.

Read more:
Government provides no clarity or protection for industries using contractors in an ethical way

I’ve been keeping a close eye on how our automotive sector is doing, because anyone with an understanding of business and the economy would appreciate how important the industry is to Britain.

To put it in numbers, in 2016 the industry brought the UK economy £77.5 billion and in 2017 it topped the record, with £82bn.

But the fact is, Brexit has been battering this very industry and today we’re met with even more worrying news.

Figures show Britain’s car industry investment has dropped by half with major car companies choosing not to invest into their UK factories. In the first six months of 2017, companies had invested a total of £647.4m, compared to the £347.3m for the same period this year.

And as dreadful as that drop is, I can’t say I’m surprised. The warnings have been clear to everyone apart from the government, who have done nothing but mishandle Brexit proceedings – which in no uncertain terms is the very heart of the issue.

The automotive industry is one of the UK’s great manufacturing successes and ultimately the survival of large scale manufacturing in the UK will depend solely on our failing Government’s ability to secure friction-free trade benefits.

The automotive industry is a craft heavily reliant on the imports of parts and the exports goods, and Theresa May’s foot-dragging around the Customs Union will leave the industry to crumble under the pressure of trade barriers.

If killing off an industry wasn’t bad enough, the job losses which come with that cannot be ignored.

The Prime Minister’s carelessness could jeopardise approximately 860,000 jobs, which would ruin lives across Britain.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has warned that it is the continued uncertainty and the Government’s lack of a credible plan B that would lead to car makers like Honda, BMW and Nissan literally driving production elsewhere.

And to think it was just in April of this year that the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Greg Clark was confidently telling the media that the UK car industry would be getting a ‘good Brexit deal’.

Unfortunately Mr Clark, it may be time to eat your words because by the way things are going, there may not even be an industry left by the time a deal is struck.

For months and months, automotive industry leaders have been switching on the hazard lights, in the emergency refuge area that has become the home of the UK motor trade – all to be ignored by the Government.

And so I wonder, will the latest revelations encourage ministers to call for roadside assistance, or leave the automotive sector to splutter to a halt and die like an Austin Allegro.

Read more:
Brexit causing automotive industry to splutter to a halt like an Austin Allegro

I’m supposed to say I’m disappointed that the Supreme Court has ruled against Pimlico Plumbers, by ruling that plumber, Gary Smith, was a worker, rather than the self-employed contractor we all knew he was when he was carrying out work for my company.

In reality I am disgusted by the approach taken to this case by the highest court in the United Kingdom.

The five judges had the opportunity to drag our outdated employment law into the 21st Century, but instead they bottled the decision, and as a result thousands of companies across the UK, who use contractors in an honest and responsible way, remain exposed to huge potential claims in the future.

This case was never about exploitation of so-called ‘gig economy’ workers, this was about a highly-skilled, self-employed plumber, who was earning a six figure salary, wanting to have his cake and eat it! And to be crystal clear here that means Gary Smith expects companies like mine to pay him twice.

During his time with us he bought his own tools and materials, reclaiming tax on both; he worked when he wanted to, and even employed his wife to perform secretarial tasks, which he offset against his tax bill. This arrangement, it is also important to say, was checked out and approved by HMRC.

There was never any question that Gary was anything other than a self-employed contractor, until he became ill and his circumstances changed, at which point he decided that it would suit him better to be considered an employee, so he could claim more money from Pimlico Plumbers.

For those who think this is a victory for poorly paid workers everywhere, against large corporations who exploit their lack of bargaining power, think again! This was exploitation alright, but that of a highly-paid, highly-skilled man who used a loophole in current employment law to set himself up for a double pay-day.

The shame of all this is that it is generally accepted that current employment law is not fit for purpose, and needs to be changed. But when it’s put to the test in our highest court there isn’t even the slightest suggestion that there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

This was a poor decision that will potentially leave thousands of companies, employing millions of contractors, wondering if one day soon they will get nasty surprise, from a former contractor, demanding more money, despite having been paid in full years ago. It can only lead to a tsunami of claims!

Read more:
Supreme Court missed huge opportunity to drag law into 21st Century with Pimlico Plumbers’ ruling

If the UK is to overcome its skills problem, the Government has to do something about the ‘square peg, round hole’ solution it is persisting with.

And this includes delivering practical solutions to encourage more young people into practical training.

I’ve met former Skills Minister Robert Halfon on numerous occasions, and he’s always shown his dedication to ironing out the deep creases, sullying the apprenticeship programme in the UK.

It’s a shame however, that this is an outlook, not shared by Cabinet members who should be investing in a workable vocational training structure for British youngsters.

This week, Robert, the current chair of the Commons Education Select Committee questioned the Education Secretary Damian Hinds on whether the Conservatives will be delivering on its manifesto commitment to offer travel discounts for apprentices.

And staying true to trend that is sweeping through Cabinet, Hinds couldn’t commit.

The idea behind subsidised travel for those on an apprenticeship, is to ensuring travel costs aren’t a deterrent for youngsters, who can’t afford to burden the cost.

I, of course, have my own view on the situation, announcing earlier in the year, one of my first polices if elected as London Mayor will be to make travel for all registered apprentices under the age of 25 free on the Underground and the bus network.

I know this will not only boost real wages for apprentices, but will act as a real incentive to get youngsters into work, and off the streets.

But what miffs me off is the Government’s habitual failure to protect the youngsters of today and tomorrow, by being incapable of delivering sound policies to give young people real opportunities.

The current Apprenticeship Levy was meant to be a benediction, but it feels more like a ‘Hail Mary’.

The Government has failed by implementing a dud policy, and no one is doing anything about it. We need someone to stand on the threshold of history, and bring down the structural prejudice against young people who don’t want to go to University, by giving them more opportunities to success via an apprenticeship.

And whilst we trusted the Government to make this happen, they devised the Levy. A system susceptible to abuse, with large corporations taking advantage of it and subsequently taking away from the genuine meaning of an Apprenticeship.

Apprenticeships aren’t only the ticket to untold riches for the next generation, but they are also the answer to a nationwide skills shortage, already draining the economy.

There’s always talk of wanting a strong and vibrant economy, but the grey days will continue to reign, if our skills shortage isn’t addressed.

So whilst Skills Minister Anne Milton continues to do nothing, I’m committed to challenging policies like the Levy which will see our nation sink further into the darkness we’re undoubtedly headed for.

Read more:
Get apprenticeships moving, with policy change & free travel for trainees

The workplace is meant to be a place where people learn, a pathway to bettering themselves you could say; So someone please tell me why companies have the audacity to exploit our young people with ‘unpaid shifts’.

I agree with the MPs and lawyers who are today calling for a blanket ban on them.  And yes, the Federation of Small Businesses might be right, that they’re an important part of the recruitment process, but if someone does some work, they deserve to be paid for it.

I’m pretty old fashioned when it comes to employing people, there’s a rigorous process before getting the job, but if I ask them to come in and work for me – then I expect to pay them. Anything else is equivalent to slavery!

These exploitative practices are just another way companies are abusing their powers with our, mostly young and eager workers by taking them on with the false promise of a job at the end of the shift, only to leave them high and dry.

It’s not like these employers aren’t aware that when someone works for you, you’re meant to pay them, but there’s grey areas in the law that allow companies to bully those desperate for work, into taking unpaid shifts which is exploitative and fundamentally wrong! The Government need to tidy up the laws and prevent companies from taking advantage of those looking for work.

There is no excuse whatsoever for allowing someone to toil on your behalf and not pay them! All unpaid shifts should be banned, period. No excuses and no exceptions!

The same goes for unpaid Internships. I’ve been harping on about it being a criminal act for years now, and it’s good to hear that the Government are finally launching a crackdown on unpaid internships with enforcement teams targeting companies with warnings – but we need to do more! A warning letter isn’t strong enough to curb the exploitation.

Unpaid internships are not only a road block in the social mobility agenda, with poorer candidates at a disadvantage because they simply cannot afford to work without remuneration, but regardless of wealth – anyone who works a job, should be paid for it!

Unpaid internships and unpaid shifts are by their very nature designed to misuse and ill-treat people, looking to learn work and develop.

It’s not like we’re talking about a week or two work experience for 15-16 year olds, which is part of an education framework, these unpaid shifts and unpaid internships are plain and simply a disgraceful act by companies, looking to capitalise at the expense of others.

Read more:
Unpaid shifts are exploitative & fundamentally wrong!

Yesterday Theresa May once again proved it is she, not various members of her cabinet, who needs to be in another job.

For the second time in her calamitous premiership, the Prime Minister attempted to assert her authority, and for the second time she was slapped down.

And this time Business and young people were the biggest losers, with the disastrous sacrifice of the dedicated and talented Justine Greening from her role as Education Secretary.

Justine was a cabinet minister who was passionate about her brief, and truly believed in the importance of apprentices to the economy, and for the social mobility of young people through the acquisition of a skilled trade.  Her presence in the Government will be sorely missed.

Ahead of yesterday’s reshuffle we were told that the PM was going to ‘freshen up’ her cabinet, and yet all those who for various reasons, including incompetence, failure and outright mutiny, all kept their jobs.  Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, David Davis, Chris Grayling and Jeremy Hunt all retained their portfolios, when the rumour mill, and good sense suggested all or some should have been gone.

Unfortunately for the PM, rather than show her strength yesterday, paradoxically she proved that there are any number of members of her own Government who are stronger, have more authority, and so are better equipped for leadership of the party and the country.

The very fact that the Prime Minister dared not cut out the cancer that is undermining her administration shows that they are stronger than she.

And if Theresa May’s reluctance to bin underperforming and unruly ministers is not evidence enough of her weak position, then surely the embarrassing spectacle of Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, staring her down and refusing a demotion is?

In The Godfather trilogy famously when ‘The Boss’ makes you an offer you literally ‘can’t refuse’ for fear of the consequences, and while defying Theresa May was never going to get you a horse’s head in your bed, these days it won’t even get you fired.

I can’t help wondering whether Justine Greening would still be part of the Government this morning if it had been her, not Mr Hunt, who had the first opportunity to draw a line in the sand, and refuse the PM’s offer.

Theresa May needs to realise that she is swimming against the tide, in parliament, in the Conservative Party and crucially with the people.  She is drowning inside Number 10, and it’s about time she realised this.  This is not the first time I have urged her to quit, or for someone to grow a pair and do what’s necessary and take her out, but hopefully this latest debacle will hasten action.

Read more:
Theresa May’s sacrificial lamb has left business and young people bloodied!

The departure of Labour peer, Lord Adonis, as independent infrastructure advisor to the Government last week highlights a far more serious issue for business than a simple disagreement between traditional political rivals over a controversial policy.

Lord Adonis knew he had to clear his desk before claiming publicly that Theresa May’s administration was ‘pursuing a course fraught with danger’ over Brexit, and, more insightfully, make the observation that it had become ‘hyper-sensitive to any criticism’.

Quite clearly he is correct, as I discovered myself late last year, when I tried to donate money to the Conservative Party, and attend the annual Black & White Ball and fundraiser, as I have done many times before, only to discover that I was not welcome, due to my outspoken views on Brexit.

To be honest it’s not the good Lord himself I’m so worried about, he’s said his piece for the greater good, and paid the price, but I’m sure he’ll be okay. The concern is for the maintaining of good government in the UK at a time in our history when we desperately need to pool all our combined expertise to get us through.

Business people and other non-politicians, myself included, have, over the years, been used as advisors and sounding posts for all sorts of things. For me it’s SME business and skills training, particularly in the area of apprenticeships, others have different skill sets to offer.

Unfortunately we are now seeing a narrowing of the acceptable pool of knowledgeable advisors to a sub-group that includes only moderate to hard-Brexiteers! Yes, getting the right solution to the Brexit problem is huge, but there is a lot more to running the country than just charting our future relationship with the EU.

And yet we have an administration that is so sensitive about one issue, to the point of being prepared to alienate all those with dissenting views from any active participation in running the country for the betterment of all its people.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!

Read more:
The Adonis Affair Highlights A Dangerous New Trend In Theresa May’s ‘Hyper-Sensitive’ Government!

The Autumn Budget is looming and I can tell you, there’s one thing for sure that I hope to see included, and that’s a boost for apprenticeships!

I’ve been fighting for Apprenticeships for what feels like forever, but now more than ever, our Government needs to go the whole nine yards, and truly commit to boosting Apprenticeships in the UK.

When Hammond stands at the despatch box to deliver his big budget plans, I expect he will be addressing the very real problem of a skills shortages in Britain. Our economy is starved of skilled workers and the demand for more investment in schools and vocational training is prevalent.

As a country, we’ve gone through far too many years of underinvestment in workplace training, and let’s be honest, with the burden of Brexit breathing over businesses, we’re faced with the likely prospect of losing access to migrant labour.

We need to bolster our domestic workforce in the UK, and we need to do it now!

Although it may seem that our friends in Whitehall have put foot to pedal over the issue of Apprenticeships, I don’t see many employers responding or signing up.

The number of apprentices starting in May, June and July were down by 61%, according to figures published by the Department for Education, compared with the same time last year, which to me makes the pledge of 3million new apprentices by 2020 a distant dream.

It’s no surprise that this drop in figures coincided directly with the Apprenticeship Levy rule change, of a mandatory financial contribution from the employer.

But what I’ve been saying for years is that government needs to make changes to the system that will reinforce incentives for employers to recruit young people!

To put it frankly, there is an overriding need for more apprentices, as the decades of the UK’s access to skilled migrant labour looks set to be curtailed by Brexit.

With the cost of living rising – I’m sure many youngsters will be put off with the prospect of spending over £9,000 a year on University – I’m calling for Hammond’s Budget to recognise these youngsters and cater for a generation who either don’t want to go to university or can’t afford to.

Let’s give every youngster a viable choice in life, and let’s see a real push on an Apprenticeships to address the skills shortage in the UK.

Read more:
Don’t forget the Apprenticeships in the Budget, they’ll be the backbone of the future workforce

Settling on a ‘no deal’ future as the UK’s relationship with the European Union is completely unthinkable, and there is no way in hell that such an arrangement can ever be allowed to happen.

The simple fact is that half a loaf is always better than starving to death, although personally I think we should be aiming a tad higher than avoiding death.

By which I mean David Davis’ claim that a post-Brexit future can be every bit as economically prosperous for the UK as membership of the EU has been.

The ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ mantra is complete rubbish, both as a potential outcome, and also as a negotiating ploy.

I’ve done a load of deals over the years and when you say something, there has to be real fear on the other side that if they don’t play ball you’ll carry through with your threat.

The problem for Theresa May is that it’s obvious to both her revolting MPs and Cabinet, and the Europeans, that she is making an idle threat in an effort to try and look strong, but unfortunately all it has done is shown just how weak and desperate she is.

There is only one possible way that Theresa May can fight her way back, and that would be to stop with the hot air and bluster, and go and get us a deal we can all live well with.

UK business has been calling for this for months, even as recently as the Party Conference season when a number of business groups have said their members fear for the future of the economy while no clear plan for our exit is being discussed.

There is no ‘no deal’ future for the UK, and there certainly isn’t a ‘no deal’ future for Mrs May.

If there is any chance of the PM surviving being phased out, sometime soon after the look of Brexit is finalised, she must pull a massive rabbit out of the hat, and that rabbit needs to be able to trade and travel.

The PM has said she can ‘prove the doomsayers wrong’. I hope she can.  I really do.  I also hope that message comes from the businesses she is meeting today, such as GlaxoSmithKline, Vodafone and HSBC to hear what they want from talks on Britain’s relationship with the EU after Brexit.

And if I was there and was going to give her one piece of advice it would be to stop with this ‘no deal’ nonsense and get on with creating a little bit of modern-day political magic!

Read more:
No EU Deal is definitely a bad deal & threatens economic stability

I’ve received the most wonderful news that my company, Pimlico Plumbers, has been granted permission to appeal our long-running and potentially ground-breaking employment case to the Supreme Court.

This means we can appeal, to the highest court in the land, a Court of Appeal ruling from February this year, which found that one of my former Plumbers, Gary Smith, was entitled to certain employment rights, despite him having signed a contract with my company, as a self-employed plumber.

This case has been running for more than six years and throughout that time I have always maintained that Mr Smith was a self-employed contractor, and to my mind the evidence overwhelmingly supports our position.

The Supreme Court’s remit is to ‘hear appeals on arguable points of law of the greatest public importance’, and I am in no doubt that Pimlico’s case falls squarely into this category.

Its ramifications will impact upon many thousands of companies in the building industry and beyond, and potentially affect the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of UK workers.  I am needless to say incredibly grateful that the Supreme Court has agreed to look again at this case.

Throughout this long legal process there has been a lot of confusion, and dare I say, even the spreading of misinformation about the case, by those with their own particular agendas.  Often the case has been reported in the media alongside claims from arguably exploited people engaged in low paid and unskilled tasks, like Uber drivers and Deliveroo food couriers.

There is, in reality, no comparison between a skilled trades person, like a plumber earning £150,000 a year, and a bike courier or mini-cab driver, struggling to make minimum wage.  My people have great conditions and command huge money by virtue of their high skill levels, and if they didn’t wear my uniform they can make almost as good a living elsewhere.

There are exploited workers and there are Pimlico Plumbers, and the two quite literally live in different worlds; the later have big houses, expensive cars, great holidays and can send their children to the best schools.

This is the distinction that we are hoping to make clear to the Supreme Court.  And to that end I was extremely buoyed by Matthew Taylor’s Review of Modern Working Practices, which identified a class of worker it called ‘Dependent Contractors’, who it felt were the true victims of a morally suspect use of self-employment.  My people, with their heavily in demand, readily transferable skills, are in no way dependent on anyone or any company.

Let me be crystal clear, I completely condemn disreputable companies who are using fake self-employment to swindle workers out of pay and conditions, however at Pimlico Plumbers we are not doing that.  So, it is my determined aim to convince the Supreme Court that by using self-employed status Pimlico Plumbers is doing nothing wrong, and what’s more is both morally and legally in the right.

Read more:
Pimlico Plumbers’ employment status case heading for the Supreme Court

I am shaking with rage I’m so angry about today’s Supreme Court ruling that says that charging people to bring employment tribunal cases against employers is illegal.

Quite honestly this is the worst thing to happen to British business since the country voted to leave the European Union.  It is a ridiculous, stupid, dangerous and irrational decision!

Before David Cameron brought in fees of between £390 and £1,200 for disgruntled employees to bring cases in an employment tribunal businesses were under siege from malicious cases, which were costing a fortune to defend against, irrespective of there being any truth to the claims being made.

Quite honestly back in 2012 the problem had spiked, with many seeing the potential of making easy money from a claim that would cost virtually nothing to lodge.  Employers on the other hand were faced with defending lengthy and commercially expensive claims.

We always said there was no truth in a huge amount of the cases that were taken to tribunal and this was confirmed when the fees came in and the number of cases dropped by 79% over three years.   

And it’s not just the cost and disruption to businesses that free access to employment tribunals for malicious, disgruntled, or just plain unsuitable, employees that is terrible news.  

I’m not saying that bosses are all angels – that would be stupid, there are always good and bad in any bunch of individuals.  But the old no-fee system was a huge incentive to have a go at an employer. Ex-staff would have nothing to lose and half a chance of a few grand in their pocket.

By reopening the floodgates on this the Supreme Court has, in the stroke of a pen, reintroduced the fear of God into employers, over taking on staff to grow their businesses.

It’s all very well to try to take on the right people, but sometimes you have to take a punt on someone, especially when you’re on a growth surge, and the risk of ending up in a tribunal will leave employers gun shy for fear of landing themselves with an expensive claim.

This is also a negative outcome for potential workers who, after this ruling, are going to find it harder to convince a company to offer them a job.

The fact tribunals fell from more than 7,000 to about 1,000 speaks volumes and if the Supreme Court has today correctly interpreted the law then the Government needs to urgently change it!!   

Read more:
Supreme Court has opened the floodgates and employers will drown in tribunals

A year ago this month there was a big match played in the UK; watched by a huge crowd, with the final score probably best-described as an away win: Remain City 48-52 Leave County.

In keeping with any fiercely fought derby encounter passions ran high, and, at the final whistle, there were plenty on both sides calling foul and complaining about various key decisions that went against their side.

In the days afterwards there followed much crowd unrest, even some violence, and the manager of the losing team fell on his sword, along with several high profile members of his coaching staff. The fallout from the match opened old cracks and created new ones.

Families were split apart, old friends stopped talking to each other, and City and County never felt more disconnected.

Since the now-former manager of Remain City was also the national team coach, a new boss was required for the upcoming European Championships, against 27 of our Continental neighbours.  Somewhat surprisingly, and despite much pundit speculation, focusing on the ‘usual suspects’, a manager considered by many to have recently retired, was appointed.

Now, my mate, the comedian and West Ham fan, Micky Flanagan, isn’t everybody’s ‘go to’ reference point when they want to know the meaning of a word, but when it comes to ‘Out’, or the more emphatic ‘Out, Out!’ he is seen in some circles as something of an expert.

In his world this means ‘really’ going out, as in, going out for a ‘hard night’ on the tiles, rather than popping to the corner shop for a pint of milk, or to visit your granny.

In any case, the new national boss immediately adopted a playing style modelled on Micky’s ‘Out, Out!’ philosophy, telling all the other Euro teams that we weren’t going to play with them ever again, and if they didn’t like it, it was their bad luck because we were going to play more important matches with bigger teams like the United States and China!

Despite her bold new approach the new manager felt she didn’t have the dressing room, so decided to ask the fans what they thought of her strategy and tactics.

Unfortunately they weren’t impressed and told her that they quite liked playing with the European sides after all, at least some of the time anyway.

So, to save face, and keep her job (at least for a while), the new manager, changed her playing style back to that of her predecessor, while refusing to admit she had made a mistake and been forced to back down.

The upshot of all the upheaval left the national team pretty much where it had been 12 months earlier.

For their part the fans found themselves feeling extremely tired and fed up, and wondering why the hell they had gone through so much pain and anguish, just to end up back where they started.

So, what’s the moral of this sad little tale? Whatever you do when you feel you’ve lost the dressing room, for god’s sake don’t ask the fans!

And back in the real world, occupied neither by football millionaires nor career politicians, thousands of small business owners are left wringing our hands together and wondering how long it’s going to take to recover the stability and sanity we need in the economy for us to thrive.

Read more:
Football & Comedy – Perfect Analogies for the European Championships of Brexit

None of this is true; bad, abusive and exploitative employers are the problem and the way they pay people isn’t what separates the fair from the foul. Just because a company pays its workers based on a completed job doesn’t mean they are taking advantage. We need to bust the myth that the so called ‘gig economy’ is evil.

The truth is, evil is evil, and work, in all its forms, is generally a power for good.  And I’m hopeful that Matthew Taylor will bust this unhelpful and wrong myth when he publishes his report into employment, next month.

I don’t know Matthew personally, although we have been directly speaking to his enquiry, and I have to say a combination of what those who know him say, and his recent public statements suggests that the report will be a sane document worth waiting for. Let’s hope then that it is, and that it doesn’t end up gathering dust in some Westminster archive.

Of Matthew Taylor’s positive statements I particularly liked it when he said:  ‘I think some business leaders understand completely the importance of good work and its link to productivity, but, as always, we have a long tail of businesses where there doesn’t seem to be that understanding.’

And he went on to say: ‘I think bad work is unacceptable when so many people in work are in poverty. Bad work is clearly bad for our health and wellbeing; it leads to people dropping out of work. Bad work is bad for productivity, so it’s bad for our economy.’

For me, this is great because Mr Taylor seems to be intentionally avoiding the assumption that the so-called ‘gig’ model, which is one that my industry has been using for thousands of years by the way, is bad, and instead he’s talking about ‘good and bad’ work.

Yes, wages need to be at a level where people can live on them without aid from benefits, and yes, workers need to be treated with respect by employers. But, if we are going to persecute, and even prosecute those who are not doing the right thing, let’s get the right targets in our sights before we pull the trigger!

Read more:
Work is a power for good, so bust myth that ‘gig economy’ is evil

Penalising businesses for hiring skilled people who can train the next generation of British workers is crazy. Given the crippling skills shortage we are already suffering from, this measure actually threatens to restrict our ability to train more, young UK born workers.

It seems to me that on the day when the Apprenticeship Levy comes into effect, this is completely the wrong message to be sending out to UK PLC. Our skills base is narrow enough, that’s the problem, so restricting it even more, while trying to grow it long term makes no sense.

I can see what they are trying to do by slapping a grand penalty on employers who hire skilled foreigners, but the truth is they’re going at the problem from the wrong direction, and will end up making the situation worse. The real answer is to fine companies that refuse to invest in training.

For years foreign workers, especially skilled foreign workers, have propped up our economy; they have been a force for good, no doubt there, and they are still part of the answer to getting more UK workers trained up.

The whole idea of apprenticeships is that the people with the skills pass them on to those who need to learn them, and if we make things hard for this group of foreign workers, they will quite understandably bugger off, or not come in the first place, and it’s our kids and businesses that will suffer.

There will be less skilled talent to do the training of the next generation of skilled trades people, and businesses, forced to choose between paying out money to get the right person and taking on the wrong person, albeit one with the right certificate, won’t make the hires they need to expand and grow revenue.

The real answer to the skills shortage is to fine companies that do not train apprentices. The apprenticeship Levy (which comes into force today) makes far more sense. Charging companies a flat 0.5% of their wage bill, which they can get back if they use it to train apprentices, sends out a much better message – train or be fined!

Personally I’d go much further than the levy’s soft approach, and fine, name and shame companies that refuse to step up and shoulder their social responsibility, by training young people for the future. We need to create a situation, whereby businesses that don’t use some of their profits to train the next generation are genuinely considered to be parasites, leeching off other’s good work.

The way I see it, not reinvesting in profits is the same as not paying tax.

Read more:
New Government immigration fine damages Apprenticeship Levy on first day.

And today, the Asphalt Industry Alliance has put the numbers together to back up what every driver and fleet operating business will tell you – our roads are crumbling and our economy is paying the price.  Its Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance survey reckons that it will take £12billion and 12 years to bring the local road network up to scratch.

The Alliance says that roads should be resurfaced between every 10 and 20 years, but only London comes close to this with our roads repaired every 23 years on average.  Driving the crumbling streets of London every day, I can only imagine what other parts of Britain are like where the frequency of road resurfacing in England is 55 years and 63 years in Wales!

We’re told that infrastructure is a very large part of the productivity puzzle successive governments have been trying to solve for decades.  But it’s not just about super-fast railway lines to the Midlands or motorway flyovers; it’s also the local network, which acts as the pipework that helps keep the vehicle-driven economy flowing.

And, as any good plumber will tell you, a blocked pipe is a bad thing!  A small six-inch hole in a road may sound insignificant, but all over London and the rest of the country, these little bits of damage are causing a mountain of pain for drivers and businesses.  If we don’t sweat the small stuff, Britain will never challenge its neighbours in Europe and other countries around the world in the productivity league tables.

If we don’t sort this out soon, our ability to get around our towns and cities, and therefore deliver and trade products and service, will crumble faster than the asphalt under the wheels of our vehicles.

And if the pace of repair work doesn’t increase, perhaps I’ll start a new division at Pimlico Plumbers and hire crews myself to sort out the roads we need to get to our customers quickly and efficiently.  There are a couple of nasty potholes on our doorstep that have been there for years that we might just have to deal with first!

Read more:
We can’t improve productivity if we don’t sweat the small stuff – like potholes!

The concept is sound and already people know what they are, what they are for, and can understand that they are about giving our young people the delivery mechanism by which they can acquire the skills they and we will need to make the country industrially-competitive in the post-Brexit era.

And best of all, the policy is a serious one that has serious funding behind it, with an initial £500 million per year.

By following the German lead of taking skills training seriously, the T-level has the potential to move the UK from the nation state equivalent of a buying football club, like Chelsea, to one that nurtures its own talent like, and I hate to say this as an Arsenal fan, Tottenham.

There is, however, an odd tension to the Chancellor’s Budget speech and that looks a bit like he’s giving with one hand and taking away with the other.

What am I on about? Well, I think the way people work nowadays has changed beyond recognition from even the 70s, 80s and 90s.

It’s been a steady process, but we are rapidly becoming a nation of self-reliant, self-employed people.

This is a process that, while already well-underway by the late noughties, was accelerated during the recent recession, as hundreds of thousands dodged the dole by setting up their own small businesses.

The innovation of T-levels and the associated increase in the national skills base, which I’ve been raving about all week, will only add more fuel to this growing army of high earning self-employed.

So, my slight problem with the Spring Budget is that rather than creating a further incentive to encourage people into businesses, increasing the Class 4 National Insurance contributions from 9-11% might have a cooling effect, and turn some people off from the idea.

That said, maybe all Mr Hammond has done is started to re-balance the tax system to accept that being self-employed is a legitimate way to work and pay tax, and that this is a signal that the Government is accepting that being self-employed is a legitimate method of legal work?

And maybe when Matthew Taylor reports the findings of his review of modern work practices there will be the will in government to pass laws that better reflect the 21st century industrial landscape?

Read more:
‘Steady-hand’ Phil delivers a mixed message to UK’s next generation of skilled workers

I couldn’t agree more that the system by which we tax work is ‘very complicated’, and in many ways represents a code of practice based on 20th Century conditions, attempting to deal with the realities of 21st century social and employment practices. And there is no doubt that it is failing.

Last week I lost a legal battle in the Court of Appeal, brought by one former contractor, who after taking advantage of being self-employed for six years, during which time he earned a large amount of money, and paid a lot of tax to HMRC, albeit at 20% not 40%, as he would have done if he’d been an employee on PAYE.

The problem here is the assumption that businesses like Pimlico Plumbers who pay contractors in this way are short changing HMRC with their tax arrangements, and shafting the contractors because their status denies them employment rights. Now that may be true in some well publicised cases, but certainly not in mine, and I’m certain I’m not alone.

Over the years hundreds of contractors working for my company have paid for their houses in just a few short years, something that would have been impossible working on wages as employees earning £40k a year.

And, while one man decided he wanted employment rights, the hundreds of other contractors, past and present, making a lot of money from Pimlico Plumbers, are not crying ‘exploitation’, but rather are worried that the good times might be coming to an end.

As to the charge that HMRC are being short changed, well, if you do the maths, which they have done I’m sure, you’d find that 20% of the £100,000 that my contractors earn, is far better for the tax man than a marginal 24%, or £9,600, on PAYE that the same tradesman would be paying if they were taking home £40,000 per annum as an employee.

Mr Taylor has also quoted the Chancellor when he said that the rise in the ranks of the self-employed had impacted on the tax take of the Exchequer, which, despite the example above, could possibly be true. But only if the alternative to self-employment was paid work as an employee.

The reality is that self-employment spiked during the recession due to unemployment, and the real counterfactual for the Exchequer was paying an unemployed person a benefit!

So yes, it’s complicated, and looking at his comments and his track record, I’m certain that Matthew Taylor completely gets this point, and is not going to be dragged into the populist and trade union inspired dogma that self-employment is only used by companies intent in screwing those doing the work, and ripping off HMRC.

I think there is a genuine place for the self-employed contractor model in the 21st Century UK economy, and I would very much like to add my input from 40 years in the plumbing industry to Matthew Taylor’s very timely review.

Read more:
Matthew Taylor’s timley Employment Review needs to clear up grey areas

David Cameron may have left the scene, but George Osborne was on the back benches, smiling, no doubt, because it wasn’t him in the hot seat this time around.

But, as Philip Hammond waxed lyrical about how the UK’s ‘shocking productivity gap’ needs to be closed to compete with our European neighbours, with the help of a £23 billion National Productivity Fund; and another £2 billion-a-year for cutting edge scientific research and development, it felt like were back to square one on the giant game of Snakes and Ladders we started playing in 2010.

On the face of it things are still fine, and the results from all the hard work of building the economy up over the last six years, since the Conservatives inherited Gordon Brown’s ‘no money left’ Treasury, are still visible.

But instead of looking forward to a winning future, the thrust of Mr Hammond’s speech was very much one of laying more groundwork, for yet another attempt at scaling the economic heights, after landing on a giant snake head.

There was no mention of Brexit in the entire time the Chancellor was on his feet, but it was clearly the 122 billion quid elephant in the room, as revised forecasts on deficit reduction pushed the date our balancing our current account well into the next parliament.

There were small gifts for the people who are ‘just about managing’ that the Prime Minister had promised to help, with the national living wage increasing by 30p an hour to £7.50; a ban on letting agents charging tenants fees to find somewhere to live, and a minor adjustment to the taper rate of Universal Credit, as people partially come off benefits.

There was, of course, the rise in the personal tax allowance and the now customary cancellation of the rise in fuel duty.

But for me, there might have been a grand view of what the Chancellor would like UK PLC to look like in 20 years, but the nuts and bolts of how we’re going to get there were missing.

The Government is committed to creating three million apprenticeships by 2020, but that may not be enough if the Chancellor is going to deliver on his promises.

We can’t be more productive, work cleverer and compete in international markets if we don’t arm people with the right skills at an early age.  Investments into the fabric of the country have to be matched by investments in skills.

We already face skills challenges in key trades and technical industries, which depending what happens with our exit of the European Union, could be intensified by immigration curbs.

I’m sure you can feel my frustration, as I could feel the Chancellor’s yesterday, which is why I hope that what we heard is actually underpinned by a clear understanding that our ability to escape our new economic pit relies on us making sane choices in the way we negotiate our Brexit deal.

Read more:
The ‘Autumn Statement Game’ – The Chancellor Puts Up Ladders After Economy Lands On A Snake Head!

This is a momentous decision and one that if I’m being honest comes down to common sense. For me, if it took a vote in parliament to take us into Europe in 1972, when we passed the European Communities Act, then it follows that repealing that membership and the rights that people get from it must also be a job for parliament.

I thought this was a complete ‘no-brainer’, but I’m not a lawyer, just a plumber. So I’m struggling to express how I felt as I sat in court with my fellow claimants when Lord Chief Justice John Thomas so completely agreed with this simple and logical argument. I was shocked, I think I’m still in shock!

It’s so simple that I would urge Theresa May and the Government to think long and hard about going through with its promised appeal to the Supreme Court, and perhaps they will once their own legal counsel explain to them just what a trouncing they received today.

I’ve always said that this case was not only about abiding by the law and acting in a way that is consistent with the UK’s constitution, although that is of massive importance. But also it’s about creating an environment of certainty for everyone, especially business, and I think the pound rocketing upwards by two cents against the dollar this morning was evidence of what a force for good constitutional clarity is.

As a business, Pimlico Plumbers has already experienced a 5-10% increase in the cost of many parts, especially boilers and spares from Germany and other European countries.

Today we have done the Government a huge favour and, once it’s wiped the egg off its face, hopefully it will realise that establishing what exactly UK law actually is will be good for the stability of the economy. I for one wouldn’t like to think what a mess we’d be in if the Government had triggered Article 50 and a court found it had acted illegally in 18 months’ time.

My message to Theresa May, and the Hard-Brexit henchmen, Davis and Fox, is to stop trying to impose a secret settlement on the people of the United Kingdom, and let our elected parliament publicly decide the direction we take.

Brexit will happen, the referendum is over and the vote was to Leave; but membership cards are not as important as whether you can get into the club and do your business; and that’s what I believe is vital for the future of our businesses and our economy.

Hopefully after today we can get on with the important business of building a decent future for the UK that every sane person can agree with.

Read more:
Government should abandon appeal after Court takes 120 seconds to declare Parliament supreme on Article 50

And now we’re in big trouble because the bully boy hard right Tory thugs Davis, Fox and their acolytes are being aided and abetted in this self-harming frenzy by a prime minister, a prime minister in waiting, and their mild-mannered Chancellor.

Last month in her speech to the Conservative Party conference Theresa May warned of the “bad side-effects” from the Bank’s loose monetary policy. She also criticised a rootless “international elite”, which was a pretty obvious shot at the Canadian Mr Carney.

As for the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, it’s now time to stop pandering to these mind-numbingly stupid hard-line Brexiteers, who, whatever they say about the referendum, do not have a mandate for a hard-Brexit, and certainly weren’t given a free hand to wreck the economy.

Last night Mark Carney changed the game when he announced that he was leaving in March 2019. We can no longer stand by and let these economic vandals destroy the economy that we have so painstakingly rebuilt since the recession of 2008-09.

And the PM, the Chancellor, Boris Johnson, and the rest of the responsible cabinet need to consider how long they can continue to stay silent and support what is being done in their name.

Mr Hammond has attempted to talk up the economy, most recently with the Nissan plant announcement and the better than expected (post-Brexit at least) growth figures last week. But what isn’t generally acknowledged is that it’s the sane non-political Bank of England that is underpinning our relative stability, thanks to interest rate cuts, and its unassuming (£435 billion) QE programme.

There is no mandate for a so-called hard-Brexit, and with the pound hitting all-time lows, and the real pain is still ahead of us in 2017 and 2018, when we start to realise just how expensive life is when sterling has been devalued by 20 per cent!

Luckily the Canadian bank boss has more respect for the well-being of the people of the United Kingdom than the dogmatic anti-Europeans of the hard-Brexit variety, and so has decided to stay on until March of 2019, and continue to fight to stabilise the ship, rather than bail out in 2018, which he believes will be “the darkest days for the UK”.

Accept the referendum result, sure. Stand by and commit economic suicide, not a chance! And I think I’m not alone – it’s time the 48 per cent started fighting back.

Read more:
Hard Brexit thugs are an economic wrecking ball

The vote, established by The European Referendum Act 2015 was ‘advisory’, but, despite what people might think, I’m one former Remain campaigner who doesn’t support overturning the decision made by a majority of voters on June 23.

However as a businessman, for sake of certainty, stability and the economy, I passionately believe that we should get our EU departure right first time, and that means doing it by the book.

That is why I’m putting my money where my mouth is and financially backing Gina Miller’s legal challenge to the Government’s claim that it can take the UK out of the EU by triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, without consulting Parliament.

The EU rules for leaving are pretty simple, and say: “Any member state may decide to withdraw from the union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.”

The problem is that our ‘constitutional requirements’ are far less clear, which is why this needs to be clarified, and why we are asking The Lord Chief Justice to do just that in the High Court, later this week (Oct 13th & 17th).

As a result of my backing of this legal case, the Government has accused me of trying to ‘subvert democracy’ and of ‘insulting the intelligence’ of the British people.

And for what? Having the good sense to ensure that this momentous political change for our nation is done in a legal and constitutional fashion? Outrageous!

Personally, I think we are performing a public service by fronting up the cash to force the Government to do its own constitutional due diligence.

The alternative seems unthinkable; that given the lack of clarity, they are prepared to blindly push on into the unknown, when there exists strong dissenting legal opinion that Parliament, not the Government, must trigger Article 50.

I’m no lawyer, and, as I’ve said, my motivation here is to create as stable an environment as possible to do business in, which isn’t one where sterling crashes every couple of weeks.

But for those who like a legal backbone to their court cases, it goes like this: the Government wants to use Royal Prerogative powers to trigger Article 50, but our legal opinion maintains that this is wrong.

Our legal team will argue that such powers are not supposed to be used where they would ‘frustrate or substantially undermine’ laws made by Parliament. And because the European Communities Act 1972 was an Act of Parliament, Article 50 must also be triggered by Parliament.

It seems to me that a bit of common sense would go a long way here, and looking before you leap might be the appropriate piece of good old fashion advice.

Even if the court decides that we’re wrong then all that’s happened is I’ve spent money on the best legal opinion in the land, and the Government knows for sure that it’s doing the right thing.

Whatever the conclusion reached by the court it will make for clarity, more certainty and a less rocky environment to do business in. Surely that’s a good thing for all sides?

If you ask me, we’re doing the Government a favour, even if they’re not prepared to admit it. Otherwise, if they’re so sure about using Royal Prerogative, why don’t they put us out of our misery and get on with invoking Article 50 now, instead of waiting until the end of March next year?

The answer is that the clarity and certainty we’re seeking is good for everyone and only available in the High Court.

Read more:
Taking the Government to court over Article 50 is doing them a favour

I was being interviewed on BBC Radio about the issue and I told the host that, in 2015, six months after graduation, 60,000 new graduates were n non-graduate jobs.  That is a national statistic.

However, the bloke representing the other company on the wireless, The University of Bedfordshire, denied this and said 90% of his graduates had jobs. This, of course, is true, but they aren’t all graduate jobs, and is a perfect example of how these people misrepresent what they are selling.

Another way they misrepresent their product is by saying that as a graduate you will earn a couple of hundred grand more during your working life than non-graduates.

It might be true compared to the entire non-graduate population, but that’s not the case against non-graduates who train for a similar period of time, but just don’t go to university.

And there is the small matter of the £50k fees debt they have to pay off that needs to be subtracted from any alleged larger life-long salary, which looks to me a bit like selling wine, without mentioning the 14% alcohol it contains!

Personally I think the advertising standards people should start regulating these education businesses, and making them justify their wildly inaccurate and misleading claims.

The truth of course is that I’m all for training, and am not against universities for those who need to go to learn skills needed for certain jobs. I, for example, want my doctor to have a good grasp of science and human physiology at a level past A-Level, although I note that surgeons for example, are trained in a way that looks pretty much like an apprenticeship to me.

Point is, trade apprenticeships are a great way of building a career that will keep you in good paying work for life. At the end of your training you will be employable, unlike graduates, who need to be trained again by their new employers, should they manage to find a job.

As an apprentice you also get paid while you train, and there is no £50k tuition fees debt at the end.

Of course, I’m a businessman too and also have a vested interest in getting more apprentices into training. If we don’t train them, there will be no tradespeople to keep my company going in the future.

The main difference though is I’m not making money from apprentices, quite the opposite for the first year at least, and what I’m offering is better, and makes more sense.

Read more:
University Businesses should be forced to tell the truth about graduate jobs and debt

But, perhaps Theresa May’s mantra isn’t quite what it seems? Could it be that ‘Brexit is Brexit’ isn’t so much a statement of intent by the PM, as a warning that we should think very carefully before we abandon the EU because this one’s for keeps?

Personally, I believe that when the British public start to see the truth behind some of the things they were told during the referendum campaign many will lose their zeal for an EU departure.

Already there is economic data coming to light that may start to change people’s minds. Terrifyingly production and new orders, measured by the Purchasing Manufacturers Index (PMI), in the UK economy plummeted in July, in what represents the biggest month-on-month drop since the index began in 1996. And Construction also experienced its biggest slowdown since 2009 last month.

For me, this is only the start of what I’m sure will be a stream of bad economic data, which will have a huge impact on the economy and people’s thinking on Brexit.

And when it starts to hit their pockets as it inevitably will the mood in the country, and the will of the people, I am convinced, will change.

I haven’t faltered in my opinion that the UK would be stronger inside the EU and that doing whatever it takes to remain part of the club, including legal action to clarify how exactly Article 50 can be triggered.

But if, when all the cards have been played, Brexit is still trumping the views of those of us who voted to remain, then I can accept that as the price of living in a stable democracy.

I do, however, wonder exactly what the PM’s mantra really means, and I note that while ‘bread is bread’, there are many types, and some people give it up all together for health reasons, even though at first it looks and smells great!

Democracy is a concept far more complicated than simply campaigning for, casting and counting votes, and sometimes what people thought they were getting turns out to have been vastly exaggerated, or even completely misrepresented.

In the usual course of political life there is a safeguard against blaggers, and that’s another trip to the ballot box. If evidence of this is needed, have a chat with Nick Clegg.

The problem with the UK’s Brexit situation is that there is no safety valve to help us flush away any unintended consequential rubbish that making, and carrying though, a bad decision could potentially leave us with for decades.

Once the blue touch paper of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty has been lit there is no way of putting it out, and stopping its ignition from blasting the UK into who knows where.

During the referendum both sides accused the other of scaremongering and, maybe, we all were at it? The point is, it was like two poker players engaging in a bidding war, with no cards actually being laid on the table.

It led the public to ask, maybe there are some facts behind the players’ expressionless faces, or maybe they are bluffing to gain a psychological advantage?

Personally I saw a lot of claims and counter claims as to what the cards would look like when they hit the table, especially in terms of their impact on business. But we won’t know the truth of any of this for months, years even, in some cases.

So, my question is, why would we, as a sane electorate, act hastily and bail out of the EU when we haven’t actually seen the cards we’re playing with?

People may have voted for Brexit in June 2016, but I’ll wager that by spring 2017 common sense will prevail and bring people to their senses, making the referendum vote more a cry for help that must be heeded, than a collective economic suicide.

Read more:
Will Brexiteers’ poker faces drop when they see the economic cards we’ve been dealt?

Employers will be charged 0.5 percent of their annual wage bill to create an individual pot of money, which they can access to specifically pay training providers for apprenticeship training.  The government has committed to adding 10 percent to this money to allow companies to spend more than they have paid in.

Smaller companies will be effectively exempted from the levy due to a £15,000 allowance, available to all payers, to offset against their levy taken through the PAYE system.

So, if their annual wage bill is below £3,000,000 they effectively pay nothing. For the larger companies, they’re paying an additional tax, but they are able to get it back as long as they use it to train apprentices.

In business we all seem to agree that there is a problem with training, as well as an historic skills gap, which is being perpetuated by a lack of contemporary training.

There are however a lot of people, 45 percent of CBI members for example, who complain that the levy will force up prices.

This, of course, is ludicrous as, just like minimum wage legislation, any business that argues thus, is asking for a sub to enable them to sell below the real market price.

Basically, someone needs to pay to train our next generation of skilled people, and those who will make money from their existence should have to put their hands in their pockets.

And there’s more wrong-headed thinking too in the form of the 39 percent of CBI members who complained that the levy would lead them to reduce the amount of non-apprenticeship training.

Well guess what? That’s the actual point you idiots!   The policy is designed to redress an imbalance. And increasing the percentage of apprenticeships, as a total of all training, within companies is exactly what is desired.

And anyway, who said that while training in a specific economically-useful skill, such as being a plumber, an apprentice doesn’t pick up a huge amount of abilities that make some ideal candidates for management positions? Former apprentices, I’m told make great business people, CEOs even!

I suspect the detractors just don’t want to pay for the policy quite so obviously and directly. But to my mind that’s the beauty of the levy, in that it puts pressure on employers to train people because they can see that it’s their hard earned money they’re directly using, or potentially losing, and if they don’t use it, one of their smaller competitors down the road might get it, or the Government will trouser it.

Someone has to pay, and maybe, as with any fledgling scheme there may need to be some tweaking, but a scheme that pushes companies towards employing more apprentices is no bad thing.

Now all we need to do is turbo-charge the levy by redirecting benefit payments to employers to cover apprentices’ wages and we’ll stand half a chance of plugging the skills gap.

Read more:
Apprenticeship Levy: someone’s got to pay for the next generation

Throughout his political career, first as leader of the opposition, then as Prime Minister under coalition conditions, David Cameron did the best for his country, often at personal and political cost to himself, and for me that elevates him way beyond being merely a successful politician, and into the realm of true statesman.

When David Cameron came to power in the dark days of 2010 the country was in a terrible place. Mired in recession he, along with his faithful Chancellor George Osborne, took some bold decisions that dug us out of a huge economic hole.

He introduced some hard and unpopular measures on spending, rather than continue to borrow more and more to win short-term popularity. And, like Margaret Thatcher after her 1979 election victory, Mr Cameron placed his faith in some of the basic values that underpin the Conservative Party, trusting that if he gave businesses, especially small enterprises, a little encouragement they would they would repay his confidence with dividends that would drag the economy out of recession.

And just like those of us in business who count ourselves as ‘Thatcher’s Children’ a new generation of small businesses and entrepreneurs rose up in their hundreds of thousands, set their stalls out, marketed their products and services, employed people and paid taxes. Between 2010 and 2015 760,000 new businesses were founded ensuring Britain had a record number of 5.2 million small firms.

The recession ended, and then the unthinkable happened, against all predictions, Mr Cameron and the Conservatives were re-elected to govern alone in 2015.
Prime Minister Cameron was, however, not just the man that saved the UK’s economy, and perhaps if he’d not followed his conscience on social issues he may well still be in residence at Number 10, after today.

But, from the beginning he challenged many traditional Conservatives with his thoughts on how Britain could become a more caring place. Strapped for cash he floated the idea of the ‘Big Society’, where the concept of self-interest was extended to include improving everyone’s lot by helping thy neighbour, for no direct financial gain. He was also an advocate for LGBT rights and of course saw in the Gay Marriage Bill. This was clearly not a man with just the ballot box in his sights.

As recently as May of this year Mr Cameron included prison modernisation; help for children in care, and measures to get more kids for poorer homes into top universities, in The Queen’s Speech.

Sadly the departed Prime Minister won’t be around, certainly not at any top level in any case, to work on any of these initiatives. But it seems to me that he made one last sacrifice for what he believes in, when he effectively resigned on June 24.

Muhammad Ali once said: “Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”

I was at the Carlton Political Dinner last year after the election, so I know what it meant to David Cameron to be Prime Minister of the first pure Conservative administration for almost 20 years.

My point is this; devastated as he must have been on June 24, Mr Cameron could have immediately triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, as Boris, Gove, Farage, Leadsom et al would have liked.

But instead he refused, and walked swiftly away from the office he had devoted so much of his live to winning.
And in that final act, by rejecting petulance, or any thoughts of hanging on for personal gratification David Cameron saw off his enemies for the good of the nation, and set the stage for Theresa May to lead us back to sanity.

Read more:
David Cameron was a courageous leader who put country above self to the very end

Throughout the EU referendum campaign some have adopted the mentality of Russian football hooligans and used the referendum as an excuse to lash out, attacking anyone their suppressed anger drives them to possess of a seemingly visceral hate towards.

A more focused group have seen, and taken, the opportunity to vent their spleens over decades of frustration at an institution, which they blame for most of what they perceive to be wrong with modern Britain.

The dogma of this group has it that a departure from the EU represents a victory for democracy, liberty and sovereignty over a European tyranny.

Then there are those of us who wish to remain part of the EU. There are not too many, if any, who believe that all is perfect in Brussels, and most of us have, probably on numerous occasions, made such feelings clear.

But what I think holds the very broad church that is the ‘Stronger In’ camp together is a shared belief that the United Kingdom is culturally and historically better suited to an outward looking, embracing policy towards our fellow Europeans and indeed all nations.

This, I believe, is why those who want to remain part of the EU are prepared to look past the tired dogma that demands an isolationist future.

And I also think this is why most individuals and groups, whose world view doesn’t, at some level, deny or oppose the influence of globalisation, view the prospect of the UK leaving the European Union as a retrograde step.

This group is large and not surprisingly contains most economists, who understand that anything that blocks the efficient functioning of the market creates a cost. And this is why being anything but a full member of the single European market will have an impact on our national income.

On immigration, I am convinced that on the whole people do not travel thousands of miles across a continent to not work. The psychological makeup of someone who ‘gets on their bike’ to find work, as Norman Tebbit once famously said, for me doesn’t fit with the burdensome spongers we are so often told are flooding through our boarders to claim benefits.

I also wonder if leaving the EU will actually stop immigration as some hope. Given that we will have to be leaner and more efficient to sell the same amount of goods to retain our GDP, will a ‘Leave’ vote not force down wages, thus requiring more fit young foreigners to keep the cash registers ticking over?

There is also the security issue, which I think can be viewed like the market for goods and services. Staying friends with as many people as possible is the best way of ensuring they share intelligence and information with you. Any disconnect between the national agencies responsible for such activities has got to be a concern.

Personally I hope we can think our way past a dogmatic response and get a ‘Remain’ result come tomorrow morning, and I hope that during the course of the past few months some who thought that, given the chance to have their say, would vote to leave the EU, might decide to remain after all.

Read more:
Voters should look past the dogma of isolationism and embrace Europe