The employer-bashers

In 1997, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown succeeded in persuading businesses, and particularly small and medium-sized businesses, that New Labour was on their side. But promises don't last very long in politics.

For the first two years, Labour delivered its pledges, including revitalising support for modernising construction through Egan, creating a commercially driven Office of Government Commerce and even setting up the "small business service". By the start of the third year, it had fallen back to the standards of the previous Conservative government, spinning a good business support and deregulation policy while showering us with ever more onerous regulations from Whitehall and Brussels. Over the past 12 months, we've seen the final regression back to the employer-bashing of 40 years ago.

Stop the Treasury, the Revenue and Excise from treating all businesses as the criminal opposition