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A Home and Small Business Viewpoint by Len Tondel, from 1st - 30th June 2011

30.06.2011: Still more good news. Credit card spend by shoppers down 13% as purse strings tighten.

EU mobile phone charges coming down from tomorrow. Despite suggestions to EU telecoms providers that they bring down mobile phone charges voluntarily - which have simply been ignored, of course - Brussels has now been forced to wave its stick. Good news for once. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/eu-mobile-phone-charges-coming-down-2304810.html

Last day of cheque guarantee scheme today. Don't be caught out. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13961370

Independents Day coming up on the 4th of July - but why not make an early start? Support your local shop, which is often a home business, as well. At the same time try and Buy British and produce which is local. If you can. http://www.talkingretail.com/news/industry-news/retailers-team-up-for-%E2%80%98independents%E2%80%99-day%E2%80%99-on-the-high-street

I say 'if you can' because the last time I went to Harrods to buy some typical British produce to take back to friends and family throughout Europe, almost all I could find was produce - from France! Now then, excellent though these goods were I do like to support the old country when and where I can, however modestly. Now, I boycott Harrods partially out of disgust but also because I'm more likely to find good British produce at Sainsbury's. Seriously, though. It's time for the flamethrower to come out; perhaps appoint a few Frenchies to market Great Britain for us? After all, if they can turn some 120-year-old scaffolding into the most recognisable tourist icon in the world, they can surely do something for us, too? Even with a London skyline paying tribute to bike wheels and dildos?

Fortunately, the Co-operative Group 'has doubled the funding for its Enterprise Hub scheme – in the hope of fostering a new community business every day for the rest of the year.' http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/business-news/co-op-doubles-enterprise-hub-funding-to-15m.html

Consequently, I'm very pleased we bank with the Co-op; easily the most comfortable banking experience I have ever had; and good to see a banking initiative actually helping British businesses and not just skinning them alive. In fact, rather than Vince Cable's idea of offering the British public shares with defaulters like RBS, it would be quicker and simpler to boot their management out into the street and let the Co-op take charge. It would be a PR fix for the banking sector's image as well, which is presently around the same as for a paedophile ring.

29.06.2011: House prices continue to slide http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13939880 as disposable income falls to its lowest level since 1977 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13948326. Nonetheless, further gas prices are due to be announced http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13939826 which it should be easier to pay with all the business the country is now going to do with China. (£1 billion or so. Maybe.) Yesterday, Germany signed £15 billion of deals with the Chinese. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13954148 Does make you wonder about winning the last war, really. (I'll try to find some good news for you during the day. Ah, no sooner said than done: just in from business coach Ryan Jarvis, an offer to help; scroll down to the first entry in Things You Say.)

Oh, yes, Christine Lagarde has been appointed head the IMF (International Mafia Front.) Will she remain faithful to America's and France's best national interests? Or will she go 'native'? Or, is it part of the DSK plot? At the very least, like just about all French women in politics, she's a 'looker' with a brain. Shame about the men.

Will Ms Lagarde come to Britain's aid, though? Despite the emphatic opinions on the £ versus the euro of my Tesco checkout lady and economists slumming for The Sun, sterling has been taking a right battering the past few months and is the worst-performing of all the major currencies. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/8603130/Forex-focus-the-pound-takes-a-pounding.html

My earlier request for a larf from Moikal O'Lary has been answered, though. He is going to sue a Spanish consumer association for having, "committed a trespass on their honor attacking his reputation and causing a serious disrepute in the market." (Hold on, I'm just going to change my nappy.) http://www.europapress.es/sociedad/consumo-00648/noticia-facua-espera-resolucion-favorable-ryanair-20110627125041.html Stick it through googletranslate.com if necessary - although that really does beg the question: Wouldn't it be quicker and safer to learn the language, instead?

28.06.2011: Credit card fraud, particularly online, has exploded the past couple of years to such an extent that European banks are lobbying furiously to blame their customers in order to limit their losses. Cop-outs being suggested are a lack of client attention to security or individual cases of 'stupidity' - although not at all like over-exposure to Greek, Irish or Spanish national debt by the banks themselves, for example. (Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, has a cunning plan by the way, in case any British banks get themselves caught out by the Greeks defaulting. Which they will inevitably do, of course. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13941977)

It seems the countries which are the worst offenders for credit card fraud are Africa, parts of Asia, Brazil, Romania and Hungary. Makes a change for Asians and Africans to be screwing European bankers for once. Anyway, apart from blaming everyone else, new security measures in the fight against fraud include double security codes and obligatory card insurance. Why can't things be nice and simple like when I was a young man and it was perfectly acceptable to pay your hotel bill in certain parts of the world with a pair of new Levis?

However, in the UK, consumer interest groups are putting the boot into companies who hide credit-card-related charges for customers to discover at the check-out stage that they are being asked to pay typically 30% more than the original price being advertised. Certain cut-price airline and travel operators have been particularly naughty in this respect and the practice is to become illegal. (Go on, Mr O'Lary, gissa larf. Although EasyJet is considered to be the worst offender.)

UK consumer protection consultation under way - or government by public reaction. Is there a single piece of legislation which this Government has passed without changing its mind, yet? It puts a proposal through the media mill, sees what the reaction is and if the public howls loudly enough, the proposal is altered to one which makes the public howl less loudly. This time, it's all about increasing the 'efficiency' (funding cuts) of trading standards and getting the Citizens' Advice Bureau to assume greater responsibilities.

Reminds me of Jared Diamond's book 'Collapse' and his description of the first Norsemen's interaction with the native Inuit in Greenland. The Norsemen introduced themselves by stabbing the poor buggers to see how they bled and how much noise they would make. Naturally, Norse colonisation of Greenland collapsed. As will the Government.

27.06.2011: 'Astro-turfing' in line of fire. Legal eagles are warning about the increasing practice of firms using fake online reviews to drive business their way. Fake testimonials, optimistic statistics, 'authoritative' surveys, bogus circulation or visitor numbers, it all used to be a bit tongue-in-cheek and the average punter was usually savvy enough to see the wood for the trees. Nonetheless, there are some major review sites which have been getting just a bit too naughty. Time to slap wrists. http://www.out-law.com/page-12016

A 'compact' little article about working from home I picked up via AOL today: http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/06/24/how-to-make-working-at-home-a-whole-lot-better/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl7%7Csec3_lnk1%7C217119

1 in 4 working Brits (27%) would move abroad. Barely had I finished the weekend grab-bag for you with stories about prospects in China and Eastern Europe, (just below) when the following story appears. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13909598 It's from research group GfK so a better source than anything 'official' and as always, figures like this make for a pretty sad indictment of a government's policies. Trouble is, it's always the 'cream' that goes first, very often the business talent which any country needs so badly. It's not just the loss that's the problem; it's the fact that these people then go on to contribute directly to the economy of a competing trading nation.

Still, there's £1 billion in the pipeline promised by the Chinese premier's visit, according to British propaganda. Around one sixteenth of what Britain is already importing from China; or what one of PM David Cameron's banker mates picked up for signing off the latest loan to the Greeks. Musn't forget the opportunity to lecture China on its human rights, though. That'll go down well coming from a country perpetrating crimes against humanity in Iraq, Afghanistan and now, Libya. (Yugoslavia being in the far and distant past.)

26.06.2011: One of the lessons which I have always tried to drum into non-Anglo-Saxon businessmen who have passed my way is to avoid at all cost, blaming others. At the end of the day, if you have a certain area of reponsibility then that is where the buck stops. It's not the fault of a colleague, a member of staff or of a sub-contractor - even if it is - because you're the boss. You get paid to be the boss. It's YOUR fault. Accept it OR, risk losing business.

There are certain nationalities however, which have major problems with this business basic. The Germans are one. (And I admire the Germans, by and large). And then, the French. (I love the French. Really. My best friends are French.) So recently, the Germans blamed Spanish cucumber growers for an outbreak of food poisoning in their own country. Without concluding their tests they just shot off at the mouth to shift blame away from themselves, ruining a few dozen Spanish businesses and costing their country and the EU a few hundred million euros in compensation. The Germans can afford to do that, of course. Per capita, they owe almost as much money as the Greeks.

Now it's the French. Not to be outdone by the Germans, a career politician who has never worked in his life yet appointed to represent the country's consumer interests, has decided to broadcast a claim that seeds imported from a British wholesaler MIGHT be the cause of the latest food poisoning outbreak. Seeds which might first have been grown and imported from France, for example. (Although Italy is being suggested). Whatever. BUT it's also France's second major food poisoning scare in the past couple of weeks. Without any credible results yet having been made public for the first scare although they will have been available for at least a week now. And numerous beef product brands are on national recall in addition to those which were originally bought by German supermarket chain Lidl, from either a French food processing company or the French wholesale market at Rungis. Neither of these establishments however, has received an official request from the French minister for consumer affairs to suspend their supplies. Bien sur.

Whereas it's entirely prudent to eliminate any suspect elements in these situations while collecting all the evidence, a simple phone call in this case would have been more than adequate. A Real Boss doesn't screw up everyone's prospects by trying to make cheap political capital out of a crisis entirely of his (government's) own making and then, in cowardly fashion using the press wires to shift the blame elsewhere. Nonetheless, blaming the English (followed by the blacks, the Arabs, the Americans, the Romanians, as well as joking about the Belgians, etc) is always a good bet for the French. From the school system to the media, it's 100-year-old cliches, schoolgirl innuendo, and a vocabulary of the same 118 words with a bit of Froglish thrown in to impress the undeducated. OK, so this has been going on for hundreds of years. What's new?

What is new is that the French (and German) farming communities are already suffering from yet another period of drought. There isn't enough feed for the cattle now, let alone for winter. Thousands upon thousands of animals are arriving at the abbatoirs prematurely because the farmers can't afford to keep them any more. Nor is this just beef cattle but large percentages of dairy herds, as well. Consequently, there is an enormous glut of beef on the market; prices are diving. (Even the country's McDonalds are offering burgers made with iconic Charolais beef which would have been unthinkable even a year ago.) And as sure as night follows day, cuts and economies are being made as the farmers, the abbatoirs and logistics companies scrabble to make enough money for their contributions to the bloated salary of some commercially stupid French fonctionnaire.

The only consistent facts about food poisoning in France is that it happens regularly - as in all countries (and I think the UK still holds the record for the largest ever outbreak of food poisoning around fifteen years ago, was it?); that meat is usually found to be the cause and by the standards of the rest of the world, the French undercook their meat - and we're not talking about a prime piece of Charolais which the top chefs will use; we're talking about merde hache from various parts of a tired dairy cow, eating and drinking excess concentrations of it's own shite the past few months because there hasn't been enough rain, a few steroids and antibiotics thrown in for good measure, then frozen but often cooked half-thawed; and I'm sorry but French food hygiene also leaves a lot to be desired. Butchers, chefs, catering staff, for example, will handle cooked and raw meats at the same time without any gloves or head protection, yet most worryingly of all, a lot of French people wouldn't recognise that as potentially dangerous. You only have to watch British cooking programmes which have recently become popular on French TV such as Master Chef or 'Diner Presque Parfait' or the American 'Top Chef' (yeah, I know the Yanks stole that from us) if you want to have a good cringe at how sloppy these people are in the kitchen. And that's with experts looking on!

So what's going to happen? Well, our consumer minister's ill-advised press release will inevitably fan the usual populist reactions in both the British and the French media which will be good for sales of still more merde, of course. Although I have found most French and UK reporting trying (mainly) to be fair, it's always the pseuds posting their comments who cause irrational reactions and unfortunately, the French farmer and producer who relies on Britain as one of the largest and most profitable markets in the EU, is inevitably going to find his food boycotted. Not just beef, but dairy products, everything. Whereas to the independent EU observer, upon seeing that the only two countries affected by food poisoning so far are France and Germany, just whose produce do you think they won't be buying?

So there you go; just as my French friends and neighbours need every penny they can get, along comes Monsieur Lefebre. What a clever little fonctionnaire he is. (And something tells me the man trained as a lawyer, as well. Can't get any worse, really.)

A small consolation, though. The Tour de France is just around the corner. Which means another Franco-German battle for Les Pages Jaunes for hysterical journalistic diarrhoea and editorial cowardice; otherwise known as the World Media Hyprocrisy Championships for who can write the 128,868th story in 108 years about doping at the Tour. (All past German Olympic, world and European medal winners excluded from criticism as some athletes are still undergoing their sex change operations; also excluded are any French competitors, sporting commentators, swimmers, petanque and tennis players.)

On the other hand, cycling is a very, very good networking and publicity scene even for the most modest business. (Fortunately, after the Tour, the reporting does change. To the story about the world champion who dopes 'mechanically' with a Meccano electric motor hidden inside his bike, powered by a couple of vibrator batteries stuck down - or up - the seatpost.)

25.06.2011: A weekend grab-bag for you. With the sale of tickets for the London Olympic games turned into a farce, all the chancers are jumping onto the scam bandwagon to fleece the public which hasn't yet been fleeced officially. Predictably, fake websites are being set up to offer tickets. There is a website checker here: http://www.london2012.com/about-this-website/ticketing-website-checker.php And more on the story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13903874

Reprieve for the cheque? It seems as if the cheque has started to fight back after a Treasury Select Committee told banks they must offer the service until at least 2016 after the UK Payments Council (which toe-rags for the banks) had earlier announced the complete phasing-out of the cheque in the UK by 2018. More on the story here - http://www.totallymoney.com/news/index.php/2011/06/cheques-reprieved-until-at-least-2016 - but don't hold your breath. It's the banks that run the Government in the UK. Even got one of their own breed installed as Prime Minister.

Fancy moving to China? As the Chinese premier is due to pay a visit to the UK shortly to buy everything which still isn't owned by the Americans and the Arabs (and to have a word in Dave's shell-like about Anglo-French bombing of Chinese investments in Libya) a lot of smart businesses as well as jobseekers, have been moving to China in search of decent prospects for quite a few years. I could go on and on about China; the country was my principal translation client as long as 25 years ago and I'm surprised to see that to this day, the western business community still regards it as a far and distant outpost to which you can actually - sell. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/8577512/Moving-to-China-Take-my-advice.html

Or what about the Far East? Well, Eastern Europe, actually. Romania seems to be everyone's favourite punt at the moment, especially for farming. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/8591815/Rich-pickings-from-Eastern-Europes-farmlands.html That it's Romania shows how west European interest has been progressing further and further eastward. 20 years ago, when I was teaching commercial English to Polish businessmen in Warsaw, the first English farmer (that I knew of) had started farming in the north of the country although the Germans were already well established, especially in retail and forestry. Nowadays, I would agree, that Romania is a preferred destination together with the Ukraine. So what's stopping you going off in search of greener fields? Everyone knows that with the internet the world is your oyster!

24.06.2011: EU to rubber stamp new online consumer protection measures. We have commented on these new proposals before but despite appearing to be a set of welcome measures for consumers, we can see problems and abuse which will adversely affect small online traders.

It is claimed that one of the objectives of the new regulations is to allow online shoppers the opportunity to grab online bargains overseas. Well, that's been going on for years. And if you use eBay for example, your consumer rights are already quite well arbitrated and protected. The real problem with bargain hunting overseas via the internet, is the cost of postage, especially if you want to buy from the States, whereupon courier costs are just about prohibitive these days. Whereas they will become just as prohibitive once the UK sees the Postal Services Bill passed and many EU countries already have high postal charges, especially on packages. Unfortunately, it is the postage costs which can often be the rapid road to ruin for a direct mail or online small trader.

Other key elements will include: a 14-calendar-day cooling-off period for online purchases. (In many countries such as the UK, shoppers already have seven working days to return items bought on the internet that they do not want to keep, which is more than adequate for the purposes of a bona fide transaction); ensuring traders pass on only the actual cost of charges to people paying by credit or debit card, rather than any surcharge; an end to customer-service phonelines being charged at a premium rate, although it remains unclear whether technical-support services will be able to do so.

However, Governments will have up to two years to introduce these measures although I don't see any EU country dragging their heels. The proposals will create lots of new jobs for otherwise unemployable fonctionnaires whereas the old, central issues of who will investigate and above all, enforce these new measures, will remain. Consequently, for the serial offenders, larger companies who cynically hide behind the operation of the law for example, nothing will change.

Therefore, what we really have here is another statement by EU apparatchiks that the purpose of the small business community is to carry on sacrificing itself for the benefit of millions of social inadequates with a half-arsed education, no experience or work ethic but the desire to park a brand new Renault Fellatio in their drive every year.

More about this story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13894342

23.06.2011: Online shoppers getting real again. A report from the European Journal of Marketing at Kingston Unuiversity in London have just reported an increasing drift back to the old ways by shoppers becoming increasingly tired of ordering online. The research team found that, 'those drawn to doing their weekly shop online quickly tired of trawling through hundreds of products, late deliveries and obscure substitutions for unavailable items, according to the research. The study also revealed concerns among shoppers that fresh produce purchased online such as vegetables, bread and milk, are often delivered too close to their use-by dates.'

Two stories currently covering this trend: http://www.totallymoney.com/news/index.php/2011/06/shoppers-head-back-to-the-supermarket/ and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8588518/Back-to-the-High-Street-as-customers-brand-online-shopping-a-chore.html Perhaps things are looking up!

The Government has just announced the country's future nuclear sites: Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham, Lancashire; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Oldbury, South Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; Sizewell, Suffolk; and Wylfa, Anglesey. Very accommodating of them. Now we know where not to buy a home or set up a home business within a hundred mile radius. Mind you, with the proliferation of wind farms and radio transmitters at the same time, the only remaining safe bets are sea forts and decommissioned fishing boats. Should be a lot of those going cheap shortly.

Just come in is a BBC story about a third of motorists cutting down on their journeys. This is a worrying aspect of running a business from home, especially if you live in a rural area in the UK which will inevitably be poorly served, if not at all, by public transport and also if you are a trader who needs to get about to see customers.

Contrary to the brief, no-brainer articles about the economies you can make by saving on the daily commute, your transport costs as a home business can become very expensive and as fuel prices are never going to come down, it might be an idea for local businesses to start giving some idea to cost-saving schemes such as one person does everyone's stationery 'run' every Wednesday morning, another goes to collect a food order from the wholesaler on a Thursday and so on. Try to incorporate the local old folk and single parents as well and everyone's savings could become very significant. Perhaps a local Chamber of Commerce might be persuaded to take on the idea; if not, get going and d.i.y. A superb networking method, as well.

If, on the other hand, things aren't yet so bad that collective solutions aren't called for then fuel costs still aren't anything like high enough. In fact, I guess not. When the hardcore unemployed can afford a car and smartphone per member of the family (plus a car for the dog) to drive around in meaningless circles simply because they're bored, then hard times are still a long way off.

I see that my preferred online rail travel booking site, thetrainline.com, is extending its provision of European services. Always worth a look. (They are also offering free mobile apps at the moment.)

22.06.2011: Aye up! After the Eton Mess's successful attempts at thwarting the taxman's efforts to collect dues from its offshore-based mates the HMRC are going to use (reportedly) a web crawler for searching out individuals and businesses who are not paying the right amount of tax. According to the Government's Propaganda Distribution Service (PRODS), 'Before designing and launching the campaigns, the department will seek input from interested parties.' Ah. That means a US company is going to get a crawling contract. Which will probably cost the taxpayer at least twice as much as the reported £650 million shortfall in the taxman's coffers. Being blamed on its 'Time To Pay Scheme' to give struggling businesses a bit of breathing space.

So. The $1300 million dollar question is: Will tried-and-tested armaments professionals Lockheed Martin get the business again? Having - it appears - just shared its UK Census results with a schoolboy hacker. Big Brother apparently, is not amused.

We ran some publicity for a new Scottish cash and carry warehouse a few weeks ago and the opening must have gone well. They have just sent us an email with their latest offers, claiming that they are the cheapest in Europe. Now that is going some. Take a look and decide for yourselves. http://newsletter.bigoffers.co.uk/images/admin/bo_store/19jun2011flash/ (copy and paste).

21.06.2011: Further to our comments on 19.06 about the explosion in the number of scams in recent years, here are the links to a couple of more articles on the subject. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13854997 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11999997 Plus basic Q & A advice in our features.htm section from Marian Owen, Editor of Business Opportunity Watch: http://www.homebusiness.org.uk/features.htm#7

New insurance regulation. Full of promise of protection for the insured but really just another device to protect the country's financial institutions instead. You could always try the current, Greek populist approach if you're really concerned about safeguarding your own interests. Buy a gun and a safe. Then, hope that the next cyber-attack on the IMF is more successful than the last one.

According to my issue today of Deplacements Pros, every single minute the internet sees the following activity. (You don't really need to have this translated, do you? Since the universal language of the internet is illiterate English = foreign language = all the same thing?)

694 445 requêtes sont lancées sur Google
410 250 requêtes sont assurées par Wikipedia
124 250 films et musiques sont téléchargés illégalement
6 600 images sont également téléchargées sur Flickr
600 vidéos sont aussi téléchargées sur YouTube, soit plus de 25 heures de contenus vidéo
695 000 mises à jour, 79 364 messages sur le mur et 510 040 commentaires sont publiés sur Facebook
70 nouveaux domaines sont enregistrés
168 millions d' e-mails sont envoyés
320 nouveaux comptes et 98 000 tweets sont générés sur Twitter
13 000 applications iPhone sont téléchargées
20 000 nouveaux messages sont publiés sur la plate-forme Gobelet micro-blogging
FireFox est téléchargé plus de 1 700 fois
Wordpress est téléchargé plus de 50 fois
100 comptes sont créés sur LinkedIn
40 nouvelles questions sont posées sur YahooAnswers.com
1 nouvel article est publié sur Associated Content, la plus grande source mondiale de contenu
128 000 nouvelles annonces sont publiées sur les sites de petites annonces
370 000 minutes de communications vocales sont effectuées par les utilisateurs de Skype
13 000 heures de musique sont diffusées en streaming par les radios sur Internet
Et selon les associations de lutte contre la pornographie.... 3 140 pédophiles téléchargent des images interdites sur le réseau

Comment faisait-on, sans internet ? Marc Dandreau

Or, as I would say, what a total and utter waste of time. Right, that's it for today. Time to fire up the chainsaw.

20.06.2011: Insurance policy excess on the increase. A favourite little scam practised so regularly by the public that it's become just like avoiding paying tax is the somewhat-less-than-true insurance claim. It's almost a national sport. Trouble is that for every person who thinks they have managed to screw the system and claimed back more than they have paid out in premiums, there are a few thousand honest people who consequently have to see their premiums increased or, accept a larger 'excess'. Come what may, insurance companies will keep their margins intact and so we are rapidly approaching a situation where a hard-pressed home-based business or typical householder may decide not to insure at all. More's the pity. Latest story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13818145

(We are currently negotiating with an insurance comparator website which I hope will let you all find the keenest-priced products.)

19.06.2011: The Olympic Games and The Green Deal are being identified by UK's Trading Standards as the scam mens' next, soft targets as the Government cuts back its funding for the consumer agency from £247 million to £140 million over four years. The announcement comes hot on the heels of a National Audit Office report last week, that 'unfair commercial practices, pressure selling and criminal scams cost victims and the economy £6.6bn a year. It described how consumer protection is spread over a large number of local and central government bodies, with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) holding responsibility for policy.' http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rogue-traders-will-fleece-the-streets-as-trading-standards-are-cut-2299773.html

That's one hell of a jump from the £3.5 billion of losses attributed to scams by the Office of Fair Trading back in 2006. Although just as with 'red tape', business support, manufacturing, ad infinitum, everything has turned into a complete and utter pig's ear over the past twelve months. That the BIS is now responsible for trading standards policy does not surprise me in the slightest and from now a slide from the bad to an absolute catstrophe is guaranteed.

But let's not forget the flip side, as well. When we look at the key words and search phrase statistics for our websites, it is quite clear that there are a significant number of people who will call a scam anything which doesn't put them on a secret path to riches drip-feed (with the telly tuned in to Come Dancing in the background) in return for no investment, no time, no work, no experience and no brain. Perhaps someone on a forum somewhere, possibly another promoter or competitor, has decided to label something a scam when we know perfectly well, it's nothing of the kind. But that's the problem with the internet; although most of it is cheap porn and rubbish the majority of punters are inclined to believe the first thing they see and hear. It's only human.

Furthermore, if we look at our own take-up rates for HBA Trial Membership or those of other associations and organisations, then it is quite clear that a significant number of chancers are just after something for nothing. Once they have had their free membership pack, there isn't another word, frequently not even an attempt to log on to the membership areas or to communicate with other members. Then, immediately the first subscription payment is due, the mandate is cancelled.

Whereas details of such blatant time-wasters do get around, general scamming has certainly seen phenomenal growth with the spread of the internet; and I would strongly suspect that a large chunk of the £3.5 billion to £6.6 billion jump in just 5 years, lost to scams, is down to an increasingly dishonest sector of the public being done unto as they would do unto others.

17.06.2011: Official help at last for scammed Spanish property buyers? I see from my latest edition of The Telegraph's Ex-Pat News that finally, some help may be at hand for British buyers who have been ripped off by Spain's notorious illegal property market. Starting with timeshare, we have been reporting for almost twenty years on the dangers of this marketplace but unfortunately, a particularly stupid British media has done its worst as always to drive the greedy and the foolish into the arms of conmen.

Is it going to be more than just talk and belated advice? I doubt it. There are an estimated 5 million British ex-pats scattered around the world with large chunks of them in Spain and France - and the exodus back home has well and truly started. Certainly, the Spanish property market has taken its toll but the looming increase in the cost of commuting by air is also about to play a role. In France on the other hand, the general cost of living, pollution, (the French President, Nick Sarkozy, is an outspokenly 'non-eco' defendant of modern agricultural pollution) and arguably, the world's most incompetent 'administration' are having their collective effect.

In certain partisan areas, this will be causing some initial satisfaction: until the losses to the local economy start to bite. And no, there aren't going to be endless grants and subventions any more. The fete is over. All the world's countries who have financed left-wing Europe's 'Work Less, Gain More' philosophy feel it's time for Spain and Greece, Ireland (OK, probably shafted) and Portugal and next, France, to start paying their own way. Perhaps make a start with a few less national strikes which can cost an economy 100 million euros a day, or more. No risk of external terrorist attacks if a country can mobilise a handful of morons to do that sort of damage to itself.

And perhaps a lesson to be taken from all of this by Britain's potential summer strikers? A few weeks ago the country's voters screwed up the possibility of opting for more proportional representation and changing things positively. Now they're wanting to screw up again by venting their childish tantrums on what few resources the country has left. (And there are people who say the population hasn't been dumbed down.)

16.06.2011: E Coli outbreak may lead to new EU food regulations. As we pointed out in our personal take on the E Coli scare at the beginning of this month's Viewpoint (and no, we don't believe for one moment that the source is beansprouts), a telling remark from Professor Patrick Wall, the former chair of the European Food Safety Authority, puts his finger on the real cause. “People think if you wash vegetables your produce is safe. But if they are grown in contaminated water, you can’t wash off (the disease),” he said. Or as we found out three weeks ago.

And indeed, as we suggested at the same time, the strain (denied vociferously by the health authorities, of course) already seems to have found its way into the meat chain. As for new EU food regulations, well, that seems to be the logical step but with massive compensation to producers already at stake, can you imagine European governments owning up, even tacitly, to their shit farming methods? They'll be banning the car as a health risk, next. Anyway, here is the article: http://www.internationalsupermarketnews.com:80/news/3561

When I glimpsed the heading 'The Ten Best Mugs' in The Independent earlier today, I thought it might give me a laugh. Sadly, no, as the most important piece of kit you need to have for your home business isn't a computer but a mug. For your tea. Not coffee. Tea. Good, strong, English tea.

Anyway, take a look at the list above for pseuds and poseurs and then reflect on the best cuppa tea you have ever had and I bet you it was out of a white enamelled tin mug, with a blue rim around the top. Ex-army surplus. Costing around a parnd. Rather than several parnds for a mug for pseuds. Then, all you need to do to get the taste right is go for a 30 mile hike with a 70 lb backpack.

A stay of execution for the cheque? The cheque was due to be phased out in the UK by 2018 but it seems someone is having second thoughts. Another BBC business news story here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13781682

A nice bash for the weekend coming up which promises good things for the taste buds as well as an interesting way to make friends with a bit of networking thrown in. It's the Taste of London festival in Regent's Park. Although it could have been a promising pitch for promoting hearty English cuisine and products, there seems to be a lot of pretentious, French culinary merde on offer as well. You know the stuff; slugs, frogs, stinking cheeses, tortured and domestic animal by-products, songbirds, under-cooked meat and no veg, all served on cold plates with human hair sauce. Little wonder that you almost never see a French restaurant in the world's Top Ten anymore - although the country is the world's second largest consumer of McDonalds just after the US and its favourite national dishes are American-style pizza (grilled cheese on toast) and couscous!

Still. It is a 'Taste of London' festival and London is a very cosmopolitan city. We must show some tolerance.

15.06.2011: Trading Standards, among other official defenders of the consumer in the UK, are complaining that the current fight against scams is fragmented. Another BBC news story refers. Our personal take is that the interpretation of what to do, if anything, can vary significantly from one Trading Standards office to another - but being conscious of the problems that exist, is a good place to start. Sadly, with house sales and prices continuing to fall, scams are going to become more and more rife as home owners become more and more pressed.

Take your time, if looking for a home business or an earnings opportunity. Plenty of due diligence, caveat emptor, etc, etc. In that context, further small business support is being pledged by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) in the form of a free, initial advice service. The idea isn't new but the more help there is on offer, the better your chances become. Press release here: https://www.icaew.com/en/about-icaew/newsroom/press-releases/2011-press-releases/
new-icaew-president-places-emphasis-on-strengthening-links-with-business

A brief and interesting little article on the ICAEW website about the recent EU relaxation of financial reporting for micro-businesses. The UK has always been a sensible place to do business in this regard but some EU countries are a nightmare and these new rules are long overdue. All that remains to be seen now is if the new proposals are actually applied although the fact that the French and the Brits are actually agreed in this instance, can only bode well.

14.06.2011: Contract Finder: looks OK this, if it works in practice. The latest official page for Government opportunities and tenders.

It looks like the Taxman is upping scrutiny of online trading as the government starts to visibly scrabble for more revenue. Letting Eton mates off the fiscal hook is one thing but the slack needs to be taken up elsewhere and until now, the internet, just like fracking, has been largely untapped as a huge, potential source of revenue with lots of little operators who can be intimidated easily and cheaply by the state's #1 Public Enemies of Enterprise.

However, it's not all plain sailing for the Taxman, because the internet now seems to be slowing down in the West. Fewer sheeple are signing up to Facebook and thus, its commercial manipulation; good ole' fashioned online display advertising is doing the business, instead (as our own site will testify). Whereas the latest killing grounds of Libya are only yielding returns for the Anglo-French military industry at the moment, as it toe-rags for the Americans. The eagerly anticipated oil and banking prospects on the other hand, appear increasingly hampered as the population unites to defend itself against the common enemy, the psycopaths of NATO.

Still, there's hope on another front. Loan Sharks to the Third World and Developing Countries, the IMF, may soon have another 'human values' type (at $3000 a night for a hotel room) in charge again, so that the screwing of Africa and its people for the benefit of dilettante European economies with their millions of unproductive ap(p)aratchiks can continue as normal.

Speaking of ap(p)aratchiks - and just to remind you of our earlier editorial comments about the political expediency of creating red tape to reduce unemployment - it seems that the Government's original 'Red Tape Reform' proposals have encountered a public backlash; that the public is demanding even more red tape, in fact. Who says? Well, the Government says. From a mere, claimed 18,500 assorted posts on its Red Tape Challenge website. So we all know that that's true, then.

Contract Finder: looks OK this, if it works in practice. The official page for Government opportunities and tenders.

13.06.2011: Barclays take lead in no-quibble settlement of PPI claims. Do I detect a wind of change in the country's banking culture? Or is it just another PR job for a sector with an image roughly equal to that of a paedophile ring?

12.06.2011: A major tax evasion hunt is under way, including "chip shop owners, taxi drivers and landladies", according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). It has been set targets by the government to harvest unpaid tax. Naturally, it has to make up for letting offshore corporate tax evaders off the hook - like banks and telecoms companies.

11.06.2011: Another article added today, from columnist Colin Edwards this time, is his experience with online publishers, Blurb. (This is a re-amke of an earlier article from eBOSS.)

10.06.2011: We have just posted a Small and Home Business Scam Q & A in the features section of this website, prepared for media release recently by Marian Owen, Editor of B.O.W. Feel free to take a look.

Travelling in Europe by car? With holidays beckoning, taking the car has always been a favourite option, especially with the blissful driving experience of uncluttered and well maintained French arterial roads (apart from holidaying sheep taking to them all at the same time). Trouble is, it's getting more and more expensive. This page from the BBC News service offers some comparisons. The other important factor to bear in mind is that British and English drivers especially are statistically the safest in Europe; only the Swedes come close to us, followed by the Dutch. Unfortunately, once across the Channel, you will find that the Belgians, the French, the Greeks and the Italians are particularly bad so keep your cool, stay superior and give those ungentlemanly furreners plenty of space.

Incidentally, for all our US visitors, be aware that you are amongst the most dangerous drivers in the world. Three times more dangerous than the Brits; and twice as dangerous as your great friends, the French. (Stats based on mortalities per million drivers).

09.06.2011: More consumer and retail news for you. The European Parliament has abandoned plans for force retailers to offer free returns from anywhere in Europe and deliver to all EU countries. More on this story here.

08.06.2011: Energy price hikes. With the latest, unsurprising announcement by Scottish Energy that they are going to bump up gas prices to customers by a staggering 19% (and 10% for electricity) it is time for the average UK home and above all, home business, to come to terms with the fact that energy has been too cheap for too long. Modern homes are absolutely choc-a-bloc with energy-consuming gadgets and people have fallen into permanent waste mode, incapable of beating an egg with a whisk, turning off lights or even exercising or playing a game without being plugged in. This will change. As sure as night follows day. With Germany renouncing the nuclear option and French energy output severely compromised this year by the drought (two thirds of French nuclear production is cooled with river water), wholesale prices are going to go up like a balloon. (Britain was going to do fracking but that has come to an ignominous end as quickly as the propeller on Prime Minister Cameron's roof.)

OK, that's the doom 'n gloom bit. If I could recommend two small products which can make a big difference. The first is, know your enemy. Do an energy audit. It can produce some real surprises. This page will explain. The other little bit of kit which costs very little but can compensate for wasteful modern habits, is a motion sensor light switch or switches. Although that's just plugging the leak with your finger; as energy prices go up, I'm sure people will start to become as aware as their grandparents were that the only way to cut out waste, is to think about it. All the time.

07.06.2011: Another business headline to turn on its head. 'IMF Supports UK's Economic Policies'. That confirms it. The country's fcuked. (I'm sorry if that's in bad taste. Ed.) Said the banker to the maid. OK, OK, I'll stop.

The train fights back. With recent announcements by airlines that their profits are going to dive by around 75%, it heartened me to read in my latest issue of Event Organisers Update yesterday that travelling by train in the UK remains competitive when bench-marked against air travel. Well; that's my interpretation.

'A recent survey by the Daily Telegraph shows that despite the increase in Air Passenger Duty it can often be cheaper to fly within the UK on some routes than take the train.

The survey compared prices on Britain's ten most popular domestic routes, based on booking on April 8 for travel on plane and train three days later and eleven weeks later. The biggest savings by plane were on the Bristol to Scotland route with the flights on the three day notice being £100 to Edinburgh (train £143.40) and £100 to Glasgow (train £146.40). On the 11weeks notice booking the flights were £61 to Edinburgh (train £100.50) and £57 to Glasgow (train £98.50).

Other useful savings were on the London to Scotland route with the flights at three days notice being £87 to Edinburgh (train £114.60) and £82 to Glasgow (train £114.70). Those able to give 11 weeks notice would have also found savings on the Glasgow trip with the plane at £30 and the train at £66, though to Edinburgh the train was cheaper at £32.85 and the plane at £56.

On some other routes however the trains consistently beat the planes, such as London to Inverness, and London to Newcastle. None of the air fares quoted took into account baggage charges, or the cost of getting to and from the airport. '

I have highlighted the last sentence because for me, baggage charges, the cost of getting to and from airports and above all, the totally exaggerated delays associated with airport security are simply out of order for business travel. Plus of course, train travelling time is much more productive if you want to work on the move. Consequently, on price alone, some airline routes may seem competitive. But in the world of business, costing is a much more comprehensive exercise than that.

In fact, the only thing that the business community would miss with the demise of air travel altogether would be Moikal O'Lary's hilarious sound bites.

06.06.2011: It seems our view below on retailing is shared by Brian Binley MP, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group for Small Business who said recently he had personally lobbied Treasury minister Mark Hoban on stimulating the construction and retail sectors.

There is more on this story at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/8541034/Treasury-must-stimulate-demand-for-businesses-MP-says.html and for the latest bad retail sales report, go to: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/retailers-can-expect-a-bad-sales-report-again-2293608.html

Just a quick apology for getting off to a shaky start this month; read down for further explanation. We're still not at a 100% but will certainly be fully back up to speed in the next few days, I'm sure.

05.06.2011: On a more general note, I see that the favourite butt of British business jokes - bankers and so-called 'captains of industry' - are in the news again. The banking industry it seems, has become the main driver for management consultancy, as central government spending cuts account for a drop of around 11% whereas local government has cut back by 35%. Banking on the other hand, has driven up its consultancy spend by 35%. Good news for some of our members then; nice to see the banking industry putting back into the business community some of the money it rips off from its customers.

Much more amusing are British captains of industry trying to get well-publicised work. (There is no British industry any more; the country only has invisible earnings and they can't be found at the moment.) The tail end of last year, it was a report by the retailer, Sir Philip Green, on centralising government purchasing in order to make significant cost-savings. Just like the model provided by the good, old-fashioned Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) - until the last government privatised and emasculated most of its functions back in 1996. Still, the exercise allowed Sir Philip to put his name to a lightweight report which could have been compiled by any one of hundreds of thousands of lowly-paid government clerical assistants and also, to suitably impress The Big Society of i Dummies that the Eton Mess has everyone's best interests at heart. (What's called a 'double whammy' by them that can't speak English properly.)

As for his own sector, retailing, the same serious problems which are common to the rest of the UK's small business community, remain. An article from the latest issue of International Supermarket News, for example, states that UK retailers are losing billions due to bad mobile phone connections. Exactly. The country has been waiting for viable internet connections ever since the internet was predicted to be the economic mainstay of the future. Twenty years ago was that? So, on yer bike, Philip and get stuck back into a sector where your proclaimed talents continue to be awaited.

04.06.2011: Did you know about Continuous Insurance Enforcement, a new law which came into effect on the 23rd of May? (Well I didn't!) This requires you to keep your car insured permanently, 365 days a year, even if it is temporarily off the road. Otherwise, you could find it clamped even on your own driveway, towed off and destroyed. The DVLA is going to keep an eye on things so we all know that everything is going to run smoothly.

Anyway, it was in reading a couple of Press Releases from our latest corporate advertisers, Castle Cover, that I was able to get my head around this latest development. Other than that, Castle are insurance specialists for the over-50s. Bearing in mind that Little Britain has the second worst pension regime in Europe, (only Portugal's is worse), every possible saving the Silver Generation can make, helps, and makes this site worth checking out.

02/03.06.2011: As a real, lifestyle home business (and not just pseuds with an opinion), a quick personal take on the current E Coli scare for you.

We either grow our own food, or share with our neighbours. 'Tis a bountiful time of year therefore but unfortunately, even though we are well out of the commercial food supply and distribution chain we too, have been laid low by a milder form of E Coli the past week. Symptoms identical to those widely being reported minus the heavy bleeding.

The culprit in our case? Strawberries. We are so used to eating our own fruit and veg straight from the garden, literally ground to mouth that even though the scare had just started, we were too blase to think twice about the quality and safety of our own produce.

As already widely identified, the problem is water. Or a lack of it. Most of Europe is in the grip of a prolonged drought and rivers, lakes and water tables are dangerously low. As a result, concentrations of animal waste (disposed of on land quite deliberately and systematically by modern, industrial livestock farming) in the precious little water which is still flowing, are also much, much higher than usual. Consequently, although we have been irrigating our gardens with river water for years and never had any problems, that all changed a week ago.

The majority of modern crop producers through to packhouses, use their own, pumped water supplies. Otherwise, they wouldn't survive. So it's not a case, as widely suggested, of looking for a single source of contamination nor of it being associated with Spain, or Germany or France or any other country in particular. Given our own experience, I would envisage that the problem is universal, Europe-wide and just as likely to be at the processing (where water is used for washing) as the growing end of the chain.

If we get a lot of heavy rain in the next few weeks, the problem will go away naturally; water pumped from wells or bores shouldn't be a problem either; nor rain collection systems; otherwise, even growing your own could be questionable. Wash, peel and wash again. Or boil everything. It's a shame. You can't peel soft fruit or lettuce. But that's the future for you. Unless Europe changes the shit way it farms. Which I very much doubt. There's just a handful of people - and they're certainly not the farmers - making far too much money out the status quo. (Consequently, I'm not surprised at all by the Russian ban. Nor would I be surprised to see this latest strain of E Coli get into the meat chain, as well.)

01.06.2011: An interesting story just in from The Daily Telegraph about the National Office of Statistics having cocked up its figures for small businesses for the past few years. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/
8533491/Britains-enterprise-revolution-exploded.html and http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=419640&NewsAreaID=2
The figures had been overestimated by around 400,000 'as a result of some sole traders operating as one-man companies being counted twice', statisticians explained.

'Some'? That's a very big 'some'. Assuming the NOS is coming entirely clean which I suspect it isn't. Plus it's normal practice; I've never seen a reliable set of statistics in my life.

Furthermore, as the vast majority of business-folk who are registered as sole traders in the UK are also home businesses, that just about sums up the mediatised delirium surrounding the so-called home business and home working boom of the 21st century.

Still, not really an 'explosion' of the real state of play, as regulars of this column and eBOSS will appreciate. We have been challenging these figures, on the record, for years. (As recently as our posting below at 03.05.2011.)

Another exacting challenge to independent and respected scientific opinion the past few years, has been exposing the health risk posed by mobile phones and similar applications. Consequently, it is more than ironic that one of the world's bastions of corporate self-interest, France, has been hosting a summit in Lyon where rather embarassingly, its official stance in support of ill-advised mobile phone usage, especially among the young, looks to be on the brink of becoming another 'Mediator' affair. In other words, what's a few hundred dead consumers when corporate profits and political sponsorship are at stake? More on this story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/cell-phone-radiation_n_864799.html?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk1%7C214719 Will the world take note?

Take care. With our usual gratitude and thanks to BAD News and Cobweb Info.

Len Tondel

Things You Say

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