"Britain earns brickbat for red tape" 

 Business regulations make UK the hardest EU country to trade with. 

    Excessive bureaucracy makes Britain the most difficult and
    complicated country to do business with in the whole of the
    European Union, according to an EU survey published
    yesterday. 

    Foreign companies said they view the UK as being harder to
    trade with than any other country in Europe while they look on
    Finland as the easiest with which to do business. 

    The European commission, which ordered the survey, said that
    the problem of red tape was so serious that "in nearly 7% of
    cases, the regulatory environment was felt to be so discouraging
    that companies decided to reduce or stop trading". 

    EU officials spoke of heavy-handed, burdensome and
    "sometimes rigid enforcement" of business regulations in the
    UK, which they said gave the lie to government claims that
    Britain is one of the most business-friendly countries in Europe. 

    "They always tell us about their radical efforts to simplify
    legislation," said one official, presenting the report. "In the UK's
    case they think they're the only country to take an interest in it,
    but the most difficult country to trade with is the UK, according
    to companies which trade with it." 

    The official singled out complex tax formalities, employment
    regulations and product conformity rules as being particularly
    difficult for foreign companies - manna for the CBI and other
    business bodies which claim firms have taken a £20bn hit in the
    last four years through extra regulations. 

    The survey, carried out by Gallup Europe in September,
    questioned 4,000 businesses in all 15 EU member states
    across a range of industry sectors. The poll included small,
    medium and large companies. 

    Finland, Luxembourg, Portugal and the Netherlands were
    reckoned to be the most business-friendly nations in the EU, the
    survey found, while Britain languished behind countries such as
    Greece and Italy which are usually considered to be entangled
    in red tape themselves. 
 
    The CBI said: "Things may not be as bad as this survey
    suggests, especially when you consider that Britain has high
    levels of inward investment. But this should serve as a wake-up
    call to all public policymakers of the dangers of over-regulation,"
    it said. 

    Business friendly? 

    1 Finland 

    2 Luxembourg 

    3 Portugal 

    4 The Netherlands 

    5 Ireland 

    6 Belgium 

    7 Germany 

    8 Denmark 

    9 Sweden 

   10 Spain 

   11 Austria 

   12 Greece 

   13 France 

   14 Italy 

   15 United Kingdom 

   Source: European Commission 

   On the scale 1 is most friendly and 15 is most hostile 

    Andrew Osborn in Brussels
    Tuesday November 20, 2001
    The Guardian 

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,602250,00.html
   -----------------------------------------------------------

   "Perceptions" note:-

   This was not about "friendliness to business", it's
   about friendliness to _people_ !

   You'll notice that both British Gov't _and_ British big business

   (the CBI - Confederation British Industry: represents the big 
    companies only)

   were defensive about the bureaucratic mess of Britain.

   -------

   In reality it's all down to the bullying, 'anti-people' attitude
   of English senior civil servants. And _that_ is  down to a 
   generation's worth of steadily accreting secrecy and undue influence
   of senior civil servants, most often used to favor their friends in
   monopoly / cartel businesses, quangos and other forms of - often
   criminal - corruption. 

   That has grown up around their use of power, given them by their
   political masters:-

   to hide the mess of English tax corruption [favoring an elite];

   to hide the mess of English police corruption [favoring an elite];

   to hide the mess of English electoral corruption [favoring an elite];

   to hide the mess of English banking and business corruption 
   [favoring an elite]. 

   And those favored elites are _always_ incompetent. 

   Therefore they demand - from senior civil-servants and their
   political stooges - restrictive and abusive control over ordinary
   people and small businesses. Simply to prevent _any_ independent
   activity, competition, or even truthful information.

   ---------------------------------------------------------------

   Evidence? Check out:-

   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/tax.html for civil-service tax
   corruption

   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/laworjustice.html for police / 
   court corruption 

   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/dem-racebbc.html for civil-service
   electoral corruption
 
   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/bbio1.html#during for civil-service
   food manufacturing / supermarket corruption  

---------------------------------------------------


              FURTHER REFERENCES

  GO - "search perceptions" - in SEARCH-ENGINE


file-ID www.perceptions.couk.com/unfriend.txt