A survey of 10,000 UK small businesses on the eve of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral reveals that more than 65{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} blame the Coalition Government’s lack of courage to take on vested interest than Margaret Thatcher’s ‘big bang’ reforms for lack of investment and credit available to do them during the recession.

In a blow to David Cameron, the survey, released by Freelancer.co.uk, the UK’s largest small business outsourcing marketplace, suggests that lack of support for small businesses is a direct result of the Government’s lack of Thatcher’s qualities. An overwhelming 82{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} of small business revealed that the weight of Thatcher’s personality and commitment to small businesses would have forced banks to lend to small businesses.

Asked whether after the state bail out of the banks, would Thatcher have been furious with the banks once she found out that they had kept the money and not passed it on to small businesses, 82{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} said yes.

The same number thought Thatcher would view the banks as a vested interest to take on if they received a Government handout and didn’t pass it on to small businesses.

89{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} thought that Margaret Thatcher’s personal experience of helping to run a small business made her a more passionate and better advocate for their interests than David Cameron.

“It’s clear that the love affair between Thatcher and the UK’s small business community is far from over. UK small businesses saw in Thatcher a no-compromise champion that would have taken on the banks once she saw them as a vested interest threatening the free market principles and entrepreneurship she cherished” said Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer.co.uk.

“It isn’t possible to conceive that Margaret Thatcher would have sanctioned a state bailout of the banks and let them run off with the proceeds, while the small business community would have been thrown the wall. It would have enraged her and she would have dealt with it. In the 1980s she took on the miners, in the 2000s, she would have taken on the banks and prevented so many small businesses going out of business,” he said.
Credit: onrec.com