I spent last Saturday night with a good friend who works in investment banking. Like many of his colleagues, he’s on the verge of discovering his bonus for this year. It’s fair to say that our after-dinner discussion got a little heated. Avoiding the merits of his particular case did nothing to pacify the mood. He simply didn’t empathise with the outsiders’ view that banking rewards have got out of hand. He also didn’t understand why a recession-hit public could hold bankers in so much contempt.

It’s a similar picture with another out of touch and unpopular cabal: Westminster politicians. The ultimate loser from the latest political scandals, whether revelations concerning the PM’s treatment of staff or Lord Ashcroft’s troublesome tax affairs, is politics itself. Politicians are only marginally less despised than the bankers: that much is obvious. But disrespect for the system carries the greater threat of indifference and disengagement. With a multitude of economic problems piling up, it would be a bad time for democracy to fail.

In a bid to help whoever wins the election make the right choices, this month Director, in partnership with Enterprise UK, has launched the Enterprise Manifesto. Subtitled “practical ideas for entrepreneurial Britain”, its aim is to gather the thoughts of the UK’s entrepreneurs and pull together in a single place all the best suggestions for whoever takes on “the poisoned chalice” of rebuilding the UK economy. What would you do to help stimulate enterprise?

Visit www.director.co.uk/manifesto to join in the debate. Sign-up to add your suggestions, or vote on those already there. The most popular ideas—as voted for on the Google Moderator page—will be pulled together into a manifesto that will be presented to whoever takes control after the election. Good luck.

Richard Cree

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