This post will differ from an awful lot of the stuff that I have written in the past in that I am not just going to rant about something, I actually propose a solution. Which will no doubt bring the bricks raining down on my giant stone head, but frankly I don't care.

It's been a difficult over the past few weeks to ignore this story, which has re-opened the maternity leave can of worms (and the worms are a lot more like this than like this.) And even your average newspaper columnist has worked out that it is a major, potentially lethal issue for small & medium size enterprises.

Now, there are no two ways about it, SMEs have had a hard time from both this and the previous government; Major, Blair and Brown have all delighted in piling crap legislation on to the heads of businesses of all sizes, from FTSE 100s to start-ups. But, SMEs have far less cash to play with, generally being funded by some poor sod's remortgage/loans/credit card, or by venture capital money. Small, venture-capital backed businesses generally run with about six months to a year's worth of cash at any one time, meaning that they spend as much (if not more) time trying to get more funding in than actually selling stuff. If you have less than ten employees and one of them announces that she wants a year off, she wants paying and she wants her job kept open while you are running on short cash supply, you are f*cked and you may as well give up and run off to the Seychelles with the petty cash box. It is that simple.

I could go on about how NO-ONE is the current cabinet has ever set up and run a small business, and consequently this is probably news to Gordon's gang of numpties, but frankly I'd get even more ranty than I am now.

Now, if we allow that maternity leave is A Good Thing (which is a separate post), and the government wants to encourage it, and that SMEs have great problems funding it, it seems to me that the solution is obvious.

I don't propose this funding to come from a cash payment to XYZ Ltd, I propose it to be in the form of a tax cut, in order to make it revenue neutral, and to prevent the further mushrooming of bureaucrats.

b) gives a shit about the engine of the UK economy, and

*and* the loss of tax revenue will be negligible compared to all the other shit they blow YOUR cash on. Winners all round. Hooray, everyone to the bar!

In my next post, I will stop being so serious, give up doing anything positive, and get back to ranting and pointing out stupid links.

That is all for now.

TM

I bet this looks crap. Help, I'm technically inept!

Labels: Dept. of the Fucking Obvious, guest blogging, The Moai

// posted by Mr Eugenides on 21.7.08