On Tuesday the Conservatives organised a series of regional seminars based on the party's approach to dealing with the recession. I attended the West Midlands event in Birmingham which was co-chaired by our candidate for Edgbaston, Deidre Alden, who puts me to shame by blogging daily.Along with local business people, councillors and candidates we considered how the government's approch isn't working with the billions handed out to the banks failing to make their way to where they are most needed, namely to businesses who are struggling. Being the West Midlands much of the discussion revolved around manufacturing and Jaguar Land Rover in particular as being a candidate for our proposed loan guarantee scheme. As someone who ran a business, I see much more merit in this approach than the 70s style bail out that is being talked about although currently in this area it is the govenment who are the "do nothing" party. What must be protected is the R&D that this company is carrying out to make their products greener, which will give them a competitve edge in the market place and is often a first activity to be cut and so difficult to get started again. From senior business people we heard many postitve proposals and ideas many of which I intend to present in Rugby at a future event.
