Does business need government help?

The problem with campaigning organisations - including those that claim to represent business - is that they spend too much time presenting shopping lists to the government. This usually does little but raise their own profile, gives journalists something to write about and furthers the notion that we need to be looking for government assistance in everything we do.

Next week's pre-Budget report has given another opportunity for various groups to send out piles of press releases outlining their demands.

A couple of weeks ago the Global Entrepreneurship Week took place and present at the launch was Peter Jones. During the discussions, as Duane Jackson of KashFlow reports:

"There was one point made that really grabbed my attention. There was a lot of talk about what government can do to encourage startups. There were some valid suggestions such as lowering tax for startups and payroll costs for your first few staff.

"Peter Jones of Dragons’ Den fame got slightly irritated and asked what government has to do with it. The point he was making is that if you’re going to start a business, you’re going to start a business. With or without help from the government. People need to take responsibility for their own lives and not depend on the government. His comments received spontaneous applause from everyone in the audience."

Quite.

The Downing Street authors of the pre-Budget report will, of course, disregard the advice offered and focus on their only objective: boosting their own re-election chances. Another reason why business organisations especially should not be asking government for anything other than to get out of the way.

UPDATE: Or, as Clive James said in 'A Point of View' on BBC Radio 4 on Friday evening (4 December 2009), "The first duty of a government [is] to leave people alone".