Does the new business secretary understand the realities of running a small business, asks David Soskin
Should entrepreneurs be welcoming the new coalition government or should we be afraid, very afraid?

The woeful lack of business experience found in all parties and the rise and rise of a political class with limited knowledge of the world outside Westminster (and in Clegg’s case Brussels) remains an issue.

I hope the coalition succeeds, really I do. Entrepreneurs are born optimists. You have to believe things will work out, however difficult, or you would never do anything as insane as start a new business with all the risks and pressures which such an activity entails.

So, notwithstanding its lack of experience, I want to believe that the coalition will be better for business. Ace-speechmaker George Osborne made a wonderful start when he told the CBI ‘Let us tell the world loud and clear that Britain is open for business’. But will the action match the rhetoric?

Many Tories were incandescent at the appointment of Vince Cable as business secretary. Maybe they are right to be unhappy. Mr Cable did work at Shell it is true. And Shell is a fine company. But he was an economist there, not a manager. And working at multinational Shell, with its market cap of £110bn, is far removed from the harsh realities of working in small business.

Mr Cable has made his name attacking the banks. Fair enough: but you need to balance criticism with the danger of damaging a vital component of the economy, that is the City, especially at a time when the country is bust. You do not want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

But what really worries me about Mr Cable are his early years. He clearly signalled his political ambitions as a student becoming president of the Cambridge Union, Cambridge University’s debating society, a nursery for budding politicians. He became a Labour councillor in Glasgow and a Labour candidate in that city for parliament in the 1970 General Election.

Call me paranoid if you like, but Old Labour of the ‘70s was a toxic, nasty party which, incredibly, still advocated Clause Four:‘To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.’

So the question now is has Mr Cable fully renounced these presumably strongly-held beliefs and was this just youthful indiscretion? Is he now genuinely comfortable with the enterprise economy?

When he advocated the ‘Mansion Tax’ last year (note ‘Mansion’, a wonderful reminder of  Old Labour’s obsession with class) on homes worth over £1m, was this a sign of what Mr Cable really thinks about the ownership of assets and the accumulation of wealth – both core to a successful entrepreneurial economy?

Small business needs: lower taxes (especially on capital gains, the reduction of which would be a huge fillip to investment as well as to employees’ incentivisation); a bonfire of regulations, especially relating to employment; a much smaller public sector; and a healthy transport and communications infrastructure.

So far what have we got: some very sinister rumblings about increasing capital gains; precious little about a root and branch reform of employment legislation; and a quick announcement terminating the third runway at Heathrow, which will indeed result in a nice boost for business – in France, Germany and Holland.

It is early days; but to me it is hardly Britain open for business, more like Britain gridlocked for business.