Pulling our troops out of Afghanistan isn’t the only way to save

Comment on Why I’ll Never Vote Conservative at a General Election by David.

Pulling our troops out of Afghanistan isn’t the only way to save money, but from a money saving perspective sooner we are out of that war zone the better. As a responsible country we can’t just pull out over night, I bet we wouldn’t have gone to war had the credit crunch been under way at the time!

I’d rather see government promoting more business generation than concentrating on public sector cuts only. Yes trim the fat from government spending (a LOT of money is wasted on stupid stuff), but don’t hurt services that we need.

The great news is we are one of the top countries for “Ease of Doing Business” despite what the doomsayers within the Conservative party would have us beleive!

http://www.doingbusiness.org/en/rankings?tercile=top

When you look at countries with a large population we are ranked number 2 over all for “Ease of Doing Business” with only the USA above us.

Even if you look at all countries including the small ones they have ranked http://www.doingbusiness.org/en/rankings

We are still number 5 with other European countries like Germany (25) way down the list.

When I watch the news the impression I get is the UK is an awful place to do business and a place like Germany is awesome. I run a business (I’ve run two businesses over the last 10 years) and I find it very easy to do business in this country, I’ve not had a single problem from government. Everything I’ve wanted to do, I’ve been able to do easily.

Our worst ranking in the tables above is for Employing Workers (I guess it’s because our workers have a lot of protection) at 35 http://www.doingbusiness.org/en/rankings?direction=Asc&sort=4. Personally I see that as a good thing for the British people, we want good working conditions, but even then 35th isn’t that high when a Germany is ranked 158! USA is ranked joint 1 along with Australia and Singapore where I understand workers rights are not a high priority!

We are ranked joint 2 for Getting Credit, so businesses generally can get credit here easily.

A report like this sends out a completely different picture of doing business in the UK relative to the way the UK is perceived in the media!

The sort of negativity we see in the media and from the Conservatives is sending out the wrong picture to potential foreign investors who we need right now to generate more jobs.

I always believed Labour was good on workers rights, but absolutely rubbish on supporting business and the opposite for the Conservative. The facts point to Labour being really good for British business and good for British workers as well.

When you think about it a happy, well paid worker is going to work harder and smarter for a business than a poorly paid unhappy employee.

David