‘Business Secretary Sajid Javid will today promise to cut at least £10bn of red tape over the next five years as part of plans to boost British business growth and improve exports. An Enterprise Bill will also include the establishment of a small business conciliation service to help settle disputes over payment with larger firms.
“Small businesses are Britain’s engine room and the success of our whole economy is built on the hard work and determination of the people who run and work for them,” Mr Javid is expected to say. “As Business Secretary I will always back them and, in my determination to get the job done, one of my first steps will be to bring forward an Enterprise Bill that helps them to succeed and create jobs.”
Source: Financial Times, The Times, The Daily Telegraph’
A five-year mission; Enterprise Bill; are we the only ones who can hear William ‘Bill’ Shatner’s opening monologue to the original Star Trek series in our heads? Then comes Sajid Javid’s reference to Britain’s engine room, and we’re reminded of the engineering deck of the USS Enterprise – where a Scot had access to all that power. But that’s a political comment for another day.
Captain Kirk in turn, reminds us about Mr Kirkman. (Mr Javid, incidentally, prefers Captain Picard of the later USS Enterprises.) And if ever you’ve been intrigued by red tape in general, you might enjoy our musings on the phrase in this blog last year.
We wish Mr Javid luck, and hope that he won’t trigger too many red alerts. We suspect that his years as Business Secretary may be heavy, rather than light years.
