The Business Blog
The stories behind the stories, plus news, views, gossip and
analysis from Kent Business editor Trevor Sturgess.
Let me know what you think - you can add your comments or
views at the end of each blog entry. Or you can email me at
tsturgess@thekmgroup.co.uk
Hearing trade unions leaders at the TUC conference was a
frightening reminder of the dark days of the 1970s.
It had all the echoes of the
three-day week, the Winter of Discontent, Arthur Scargill and other
horrors that plunged the nation into doom and gloom.
I'm always suspicious of anyone in a senior public role called
Dave.
The name is used in a pejorative
sense about the Prime Minister - "Dave" Cameron - but it does not
sit easily on the shoulders of a PM.
If HM Revenue and Customs have made such a cock-up of their
computer system, they should apologise and move on rather than
embark on a costly bureaucratic exercise.
I guess those taxpayers in line
for a payout will be pleased, but not those facing a swingeing
£1,400 bill. And the net gain for the Treasury after all the
payments and repayments is negligible.
Tim Lightbourne will be celebrating the New Zealand Women's
Rugby World Cup triumph against England yesterday.
The Kiwi was in Kent recently to
promote Invivo Wines, the company he runs in Auckland.
It was sad to see the last LD Lines ferry leave Dover for
Boulogne yesterday.
The Boulogne route is a special
one for Kent people, with the prospect of visiting a French town
that is far more attractive than Calais.
While nothing much to do with business directly, although it
impacts on investment in Zimbabwe, there was a curious incident at
a Durban cinema.
The auditorium was packed for the
premiere screening of "Mugabe and the White African," the acclaimed
award-winning documentary featuring Zimbabwe farmer Ben Freeth,
from Sittingbourne.
It's good to hear that manufacturing is bouncing back. The
latest KPMG report says that things are looking up for
manufacturers and looking down for services.
An EEF/BDO is likewise upbeat,
saying manufacturing has exceeded expectations so far this year
with a broad-based recovery, supported by growth in world trade, a
weaker pound and restocking.
Both of them cannot be right. You have banks claiming they are
lending to just about every business that wants a loan, and
businesses who claim that the banks are unhelpful, charge too much
or just say no.
The banks seem to imply that they
only say no or charge a lot to firms that are risky. Businesses say
that perfectly good propositions are being turned down.
With 50 being the new 40, 60 the new 50 and 70 the new 60, the
decision to scrap the default retirement age of 65 makes sense.
Many people now wish to work
longer because they feel able to, because it keeps them active, or
because they need to for financial reasons, especially if they are
relying on a private pension.
It was always going to end in tears.
Anyone who has watched as many
World Cups as I have know that - with one brilliant exception -
England's campaign always ends in disappointment, the inevitable
triumph of pessimism over hope.
It was not confortable seeing Tony Hayward pilloried in the
Senate Star Chamber.
Admittedly, he’s not a stellar
communicator, and some answers for legal and commercial reasons
were evasive, but it was unfair of the senators to subject him to
such humiliation.
Maidstone Studios was an ideal venue for the Enterprise
event and full marks to Geoff Miles, the co-owner, for
agreeing to host the event.
He is a former BBC television producer
and spoke for 30 minutes while judges deliberated. He recalled
working with the late Tommy Cooper - the same in life as he was on
stage, apparently, “just like that.”
Future business is in good hands if the efforts of
teenagers are anything to go by.
This week, Maidstone Studios was the
venue for the Young Enterprise South East Innovation
Awards.
The end of Sir Terry Leahy's reign at Tesco is in sight.
But as Leahy leaves,
will BP's boss be next?
Vince Cable made a good fist of his first major speech as
Business Secretary.
He did not spell out any policy
specifics but summed up the overall context - deep-seated problems,
a fragile recovery, a massive budget deficit, a dysfunctional
banking system and an economy that is seriously unbalanced both in
its sectoral mix and in its regions.
Kent has needed a scheduled airline ever since the demise of
EUjet and it's great to welcome Flybe to Manston.
Having recently stepped off the
Bombardier aircraft at Manston after a pleasant couple of days in
Edinburgh, I can report that the total package is
excellent.
Business
Secretary Vince Cable seemed to doom SEEDA by saying its role
was hard to justify.
Yet it has done good work, investing a
lot of money in Kent and Medway. Would that have happened without
the Quango?
Just back from a Baltic cruise on Saga’s new
ship Pearl II.
It was its inaugural voyage from Dover
and showed just how good Folkestone's premier company has
become.
Irrespective of party affiliation, there has to be sympathy for
good MPs swept away by general election swings.
Especially when they took a keen
interest in business and economic affairs.
No wonder Graham Webb, Kent’s haircare entrepreneur, is
less than happy.
The chairman of the Kent
Excellence in Business Awards has just been told that his range of
products under the Graham Webb International brand, sold in the
United States, is to be put "into sunset". In other words,
scrapped.
VAT could well go up as part of the coalition government’s
search for loads of cash to plug the deficit.
But if the standard rate is to go
up, perhaps to 20 per cent, the new Treasury team should think more
laterally and look at reducing it on hotel rooms to boost
tourism.
What about the economy, stupid?
The polls opened on May
6 after a phoney election campaign that was more about
platitudes than real issues and the ways of solving them.
It was touch and go whether Gills chairman Paul Scally would
accept a new sponsorship offer from Kent Reliance Building
Society.
I guess he was hoping for a better deal
and that was why confirmation was delayed until just before the
kick-off against Southampton.
Commerce
always follows art.
That was the great business quote
from Tracey Emin when she unveiled her neon art in Margate. And she
is right...
Margate? I love it!
Nick Hewer, Lord Alan Sugar’s right-hand
man, did not live up to his image as Nasty Nick in The Apprentice
and apologised for slating Margate too.
David Grant brought fantastic inspiration to his
workshop
A pity that the audience at Skanska’s
Bright Young Things workshop was not as good as it should have
been.
A quartet of girls/ladies deserve an accolade.
Carole Black has been organising the
Kent 2020 Vision show for five years, along with countless other
events.
It was a shame that barely 20 business people turned
up for a fascinating pre-election hustings by three candidates
bidding to succeed Ann Widdecombe as MP for Maidstone and the
Weald.
The Federation of Small Businesses in
Kent and Medway has done a magnificent job organising similar Meet
the Candidates events across the county.
Alistair Darling's 58-minute Budget opus
was delivered with quiet authority and was probably one of his best
performances on Budget Day.
But style did not conceal the lack of
content or the omission of crucial details that emerged
later.
You have to admire the French for
so many things like baguettes, the Eiffel Tower and their
smoothly-efficient high speed TGV trains... but their ticket gates
are a danger to life and limb.
The tide of suits has swept away the normal array of
elderly but highly fashionable ladies accompanied by equally
resplendent poodles.
And public bodies are missing out on promoting their regions in
case they get stick for sending staff on 'jollies' , when it's
actually hard graft (honest)...
We are all guilty!
For causing the global meltdown, that is. At least according to
a banking expert.
These are good times to work for
the "never knowingly undersold" business.
John Lewis Partners are in for an average payout of two grand
each - about two months’ salary - after the co-ownership operation
made decent profits in the past year, despite recession and
half-year stutters.
Who has suffered most in the past
year? Savers of course.
Thrift and prudence have been discredited, unrewarded by the
Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee.
They had a chance a year ago to dispel the widespread claim that
they are money-grabbing, me-only materialists with no thought for
anyone else.
Of all the business organisations in the county, it is probably
one of the most successful in terms of links with the local
council.
Their 88-report, unveiled at The Gymnasium, alongside St Pancras
International, was a masterly analysis of what went wrong.
They launched Unlocking Kent’s Potential and 21st Century Kent,
two documents stuffed with wish-lists and realities.
I was looking at a box of After
Eight chocolates last night. I was sure it used to proclaim the
brand Terry’s. But I see that name has now given way to
Nestle.
It reminded me of the possible changes in store for Cadbury now
that it is owned by the American conglomerate Kraft.
There was a good political reason to axe the web-based service -
KCC has precious little money to spread around.
But the smooth sultans of spin are not immune from Murphy’s
Law.