Keltruck’s Chairman & MD, Chris Kelly, has written to The Birmingham Post regarding misspending of taxpayers’ money.

How soon will dead hands stopping talent forget wisewords?

Dear Editor, Your comments in the Post’s editorial were spot on (Frustrated Birmingham businessmen call for the dead hand of bureaucracy to be swept away in order to unleash the entrepreneurial talent bubbling beneath the surface), coupled with Bennie Gray’s remarks.

It will be interesting to see how quickly these comments will be forgotten by the very dead hands that are actually stopping this talent from emerging.

The Government and its agency Advantage West Midlands, are, of course, hanging their hats on Business Link fulfilling this vital role. It will be interesting to see if the new people there will respond, following the report “that more than 20 advisors at Business Link West Midlands face the axe, after a review that they were under achieving, and not serving the best interests of the organisation or the business community” (Post 16/08/08).

After 12 years of New Labour, it is surely too late now for them to ever understand that quangos, and the dead hand of any Government run organisation cannot generally deliver anything like real value.

If only they had realised early on, that if a small amount of the money, currently being wasted on ventures such Business Link, went into the private sector, to organisations like Sir Bernard Zissman’s Business Angels based in the city, then the taxpayer would get a far better return. But what does a hard-nosed businessman know compared to a bureaucrat.

Chris Kelly
Chairman & MD, Keltruck Ltd, West Bromwwich

Andrew Bentley, MInst SMM
Head of Vehicle Contracts and Marketing