The Tories announce an excellent policy at their conference

 I daresay that most of my readers will be rather surprised to hear that I have something good to say about Kemi Badenoch and the Conservative party. However as someone who takes blogging seriously and also believes in fairness, I have to say that today they have released a policy that might actually work and has the potential to save the UK hospitality trade. As someone who runs a small business, I have felt we are under attack by all parties since 2008, when the credit crunch hit. 2007 was the year when my studio didn't have to take measures to save money to maintain our business as a profitable entity. This enabled us to give our less well off customers extremely cheap rehearsals, pay our staff significantly more than the minimum wage, invest in formal training for all staff, and do our job properly. We were able to regularly renew our studio equipment, ensuring our customers generally had equipment that was under three years old, and we sold the old gear in good condition.

All of these things helped generate economic activity in the UK. Everything is substantially more expensive now. VAT is 20%, energy prices have been an absolute roller coaster, things like employer NI have been hiked substantially. Minimum wage rates have meant that we simply cannot afford to maintain the differentials that we used to have with other businesses. We simply cannot afford to send staff on external courses. And then there are business rates. These clobber us. Following the slashing of government support, we have had to hike prices this year and cancel equipment upgrades.

Today the Tories have announced that they intend to abolish business rates for certain types of businesses. This would make a huge difference to us. I know many restaurant owners and pub landlords who this will return struggling businesses to profit. Once businesses are profitable, they start planning for expanson, that increases tax income generally. If the UK wants to be a successful economy, we need to make running small businesses viable. This measure is a huge, real and practical step. I genuinely hope Labour has the common sense to shoot the Tories fox and nick this policy. 

There is lots of hype in the press about Reform replacing the Tories. I am not a Tory, have never voted for them, but the truth is that, unlike Reform, they are a grown up party that is capable of developing sensible economic policies. I've seen no evidence that Reform are anything but shouty loudmouths, who are actually rather thin skinned when challenged. This was perfectly demonstrated by the news that Reform run Kent council is to raise Council tax by 5%, the maximum allowed, because they 'discovered' that all the waste and savings they imagined did not exist. The real problem with Reform is that Nigel Farage is a political fantasist. The stories he spins and the tales he tells are attractive to some. But the problem is we live in the real world, not a fantasy world. In the real world, the big bad wolf eats Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood. And our trading competetors and national adversaries are licking their lips at the concept of a Reform government, as it will open up all sorts of opportunities as Britain descends into economic mayhem. Liz Truss showed us what happens when a fantasist takes over. It was telling that the Tories turned to Jeremy Hunt to sort the mess out as Chancellor. He was the most left wing senior Tory left after the Boris purges. That is the problem with the real world for extremists. It always ends in chaos when  extremists get the opportunity to actually get their hands on the wheels of power.