BY PETER THOMPSON

Two years ago I wrote the following post. I haven’t updated it so it refers to Ed Miliband and the very real threat he posed to the prosperity of our country. I now ask you to consider how much more dangerous these risks are under Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.

Labour have no understanding of the extraordinary risks entrepreneurs take and yet as a party they seek to eliminate any reward. That is the reason why every Labour government has left office with unemployment higher than they entered it.

Posted 7th May 2015: 

With the support of my wife Diane and family I took a huge risk. I gave up a well paid job as an oil industry executive, we sold our house and we started our own business. We moved into rented property and put all our savings into our first store. It had been a failed bar in Birchwood that lay empty for some time. We employed about thirty people, some full time some part time. It was a thin margin franchise business but a good one, we knew from the onset that to make a living we would need at least three stores. We took bank loans to expand and soon had a second and not long after a third.

We struggled in all honesty, long hours with little reward and had a decision to make, get out or grow. I learned of something called a SIPP, this was a pension fund where you could make your own investments. I transferred my Shell pension fund into it and invested every penny into the business, we didn’t tell anybody what we had done for fear they would think us mad. Of course we were, we had spent everything, mortgaged the business up to the hilt and now risked our future as well.

With the help of our sons we grew the business, after five years we started to make a profit, yes it really did take that long, soon we had nine stores employing over two hundred people. At this stage Diane and I were drawing less from the business than I had been earning ten years earlier in Shell so we decided to sell it. The proudest legacy is the hundreds of jobs, and that business under its new owner is still growing.

We used the proceeds to build our first Baffito’s Bar and Restaurant, sadly now gone due to the town centre redevelopment but it was great fun. The council have started the demolition of Baffito’s in Time square and we retain the option to re-open in the new development.

Again we risked everything, we opened a second Baffito’s on Preston dock, both of the sites had been empty and derelict and with the help of a fine architect we restored them beyond their former glory into modern bars and restaurants. Times have been tough, back to square one in many ways, but we can see daylight.

Should we continue to try and grow the new business? Well, it isn’t our decision, it is the entire country’s. For people like us to take the massive risks to grow the economy we have to believe that there will be a reward. So we have a choice, vote for Ed Miliband who thinks we are predators and will tax us out of existence, or for David Cameron, who has cut taxes, national insurance and business rates. If Labour win today I will not take that risk, I couldn’t because I am old enough to remember the last Labour government that was as left leaning as he is. Free unicorns that shit candy for everyone. Great until the businesses that pay for them go bust and like every Labour government in history the jobs go.

What about the NHS you cry, what about it? Look at Labour run Wales, it’s a disaster, health migrants getting taxis to hospitals in England. Or look back at the devastation for so many grieving families that was Mid Staffs. NHS funding has INCREASED in real terms under this government whereas in Labour-run wales it has been cut. This government has pledged the £8 Billion the NHS needs, Labour has not.

But but but, THE BEDROOM TAX, do you know what that really is? There is no tax, simply that you taxpayers now pay only for the rooms that people on benefits need, if they want more they pay a small contribution to their rent. Labour propose a real BEDROOM TAX that is the tax they will make me take out of our hardworking staff’s pay packets every week to pay for the spare rooms of others.

Labour want prosperity for all, but you can’t deliver that simply by taking a slice off one person and giving it to another, we have to grow the economy. The Conservatives want the same things but have a solid plan to deliver it. More kids are in outstanding schools than ever, record growth, new apprenticeships. Please don’t throw it away. Don’t tax our children and our grandchildren for Labour to piss it all away, again.

It wasn’t Labour’s fault it was a global economic crash caused by the bankers. Bollocks! Yes there was a crash, yes it was caused by the bankers, Fred the Shred that Labour knighted was one, but we didn’t have any money to deal with it. Labour ran a deficit every year from 2001, that was seven years before the crash when times were good. Instead of fixing the roof while the sun was shining they stripped it bare and inevitably the storm hit and hit hard. That is why it has been so tough.

WELFARE CUTS THOUGH, every penny somebody receives but did not earn, someone else earned but did not receive. Remember this when in the ballot box. It isn’t fairy dust, it’s your money, welfare is right and proper, but it is a safety net not a lifestyle choice. Don’t tell me there are no jobs when I struggle to fill them.

Today the choice could not be more stark, finish the job of fixing the broken economy for ourselves and future generations by voting Conservative, or throw it all away until the next inevitable economic collapse under Labour.

It’s your choice. If you got this far thank you for taking the time.

Posted: 19th April 2017

So here we are back in the present and the risk of Labour is greater than ever. Corbyn and McDonnell make Milband look positively right wing. As a nation, we have all the economic risks and rewards of Brexit facing us. It matters not whether you were Remain or Leave. Only one political party can manage the economy through it. Please Vote Conservative on June 8th.