To Protest not to Placate

The BBC website makes an intresting point with a short comment headed, "EU 'has to slash business rules'".

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The piece is publicising a letter from Gerrit Zalm and Bendt Bendtsen, respectively the Dutch and Danish ministers of finance. They are complaining that all businesses that operate in the European Union suffer from unnecessaryand costly red tape while also noting that the EU's programme to simplify regulation has conspicuously failed.

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The EU programme is being run by Günter Verheugen, vice-president of the EU commission, together with the president, José Manuel Barroso, with Verheugen calling it "the flagship of the Commission". But, over the summer, results have remained somewhat modest. The commission's plan was to simplify 54 laws this year, but only five have been tackled, an then no final conclusions have been arrived at.
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In the second of a series on the controls throttling the British economy Angus McCrone, in The Times this week, looks at the problems for manufacturers, both large and small. In an excellent article titled '' Red tape ties up industry'' McCrone tells of examlpes of time- consuming struggles British businesses have with red tape.

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The strong perception in many firms is that bureaucratic demands have been multiplying. The British Chambers of Commerce estimates that new regulations approved since 1998 have so far cost UK firms £50.3 billion, with £11.4 billion of that incurred this year.

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Tim Martin, chairman of JD Wetherspoon, which runs 657 pubs around Britain and employs 18,500 people, often repeats the concern that: “Red tape has certainly got a lot worse. Governments have learnt that they can in effect get companies to pay for the welfare state by issuing laws and regulations that hand out more rights. New regulations have made it more difficult to start businesses, and the effect of that is to make the economy less competitive.”

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The British Chambers of Commerce’s Burdens Barometer, based on regulatory impact assessments published by government departments, lists 69 new regulatory demands in the past eight years, from the Data Protection Bill of 1998 — which costsbusinesses £667m a year — to 2005’s control of vibration at work rules that cost firms £230m a year. About 75% of the new rules have emanated from the European Union, according to the British Chamber of Commerce; so we know who we should be complaing to.

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Clearly in order to protect and promote the intrests of British businesses, particularly small ones, (who are ''the engine room of the British economy'') the need is to protest not to placate.

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Suggestions (in keeping with British traditional attitudes towards politeness) as to the message on the placard in the comments section below please.