Today is 'Red Tape Day' in Britain, as a raft of new – and little understood – employment, health and safety, discrimination and grievance regulations are introduced.
The Times has assembled a panel to discuss the implications of all this, which is pretty much summed up by one panel member, businessman David Scott.
They will make life yet harder for the small businessman. My business is a world leader in its, admittedly small, field and my preoccupation should be staying ahead of the competition to improve things for my staff and, ultimately, UK plc. I can't do that and know about all the new health and safety regulations, the new disability discrimination regulations, the new asbestos regulations, the new maternity and paternity regulations, the new working time directives, and now we have new employment legislation - which must be followed to the letter or we are deemed to be automatically wrong, meaning pay-outs to ex-workers who, in all probability, will have left us for proper reasons.