Labour’s red tape turns running a small business into a pantomime

It’s pantomime season here in Helmsley — Jack and the Beanstalk, seats available at all prices — but this year I’m not the dame. The ladies in charge said they wanted a wholesome family show, so that ruled out a re-appearance of the Les-Dawson-does-Dame-Edna persona I developed last year — to some acclaim from rowdier elements of the audience — as Cinderella’s ugliest sister.

The consolation for being a resting actor, however, is that I am free to devote more attention to my other role as director of the arts centre in which these extravaganzas take place. I have held this voluntary part-time job for the past 12 years, in which the centre has grown into a thriving hub of creativity. Though it runs as a charity it is also a business, turning over several thousand pounds in a good week. That gives me a very direct view of the impact of all the new regulations for which the government is castigated by the Federation of Small Businesses and the CBI.