‘Churn’ is not growth

Surrey Research Park supports incubation of start ups, SMEs or much reduced corporate offices, such as when a UK world-wide corporation sold out to a European rival on the grounds of maximising shareholder return.  Where is the local economic growth in that? Incubation of start ups is a revolving door. When either they grow bigger and outgrow Guildford, or when they submit to the blandings of UK economic development areas that have larger government subsidies for larger sites when they scale up, or when they fail as do many start ups, their premises become vacant for a new start up or SME. For example, there’s one start-up that likely shall be vacating the Science Park later this year or the beginning of next to set up their new enlarged operations in an area where the regional subsidies handed out by central government simply out-compete what Guildford and Enterprise M3 LEP can ever hope to offer.

Letter writing is a dying art

Here I am, posting on the blog again, bemoaning the fact that nowadays letter writing is rare and hand-written letters more so.  Much easier the electronic media to share what you want others to know via e-mail, social media posts and blog posts, instant message, texting, voice messaging.  Not so in the “Whitehall bubble”.  When a minister or MP wants to make a point and give it the stamp of authority, the air of ‘realpolitik’, seeming sincerity and something aimed at ‘you’, they resort to writing a letter on House of Commons or departmental headed notepaper.  Well, they don’t actually write it, but they do top and tail it with an indecipherable scrawl, a bit like a prescription handed to you by your GP, a palliative given to shut you up and get you out of the surgery, so they can concentrate on the next case.