I don’t know about you, but whenever I look back at old photographs of my youth and innocent years(!), I am struck by a number of things particularly:-
· Who is that young handsome, dashing man with all that hair.
· Despite all the hair what an awful look.
· How could I possibly wear clothes like that.
There is absolutely no question that what once seemed fashionable and trendy so quickly just simply looks naff. Our feelings at the moment of a particular incident are so different when we look back in hindsight.
As I write this a few hours before the 2008 Budget, I have similar feelings about the whole budget process. When I was a fresh, young accountant in the early days of joining Westbury circa 1986, the budget seemed to be almost akin to the FA cup final. Tremendous build up, and great excitement surrounded our office as we prepared to crowd around a radio or at a later date, watch it on television. I remember quite clearly a number of times when we tried to make a client event out of the budget only to fail miserably. On one occasion, when the budget used to be at 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon, we invited clients in for tea to watch the budget. Very few turned up. Worse, there was the time when we hired an expensive hall, speaker and laid on canapés and drinks for a post-budget evening event commencing at 6pm. The preparation was military style. Everything was organised, name badges, pens, pencils, handouts, champagne was iced. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the dullest budget on record and we literally had 3 guests in a room for a 100 people.
Looking back now with a mixture of horror and sentimentality, I realise that the budget may have some attraction for us boring accountants, but most of the rest of you out there just treat it as another day in the year. You know that one way or another you won’t really understand much of what is said, (or care) and you just know that its simply going to cost you more money.
When I was younger, I couldn’t understand why the focus in the newspapers was on tobacco and alcohol. From my supposedly lofty position, I thought the budget was far more important to just focus on these trivialities. Now I realise that it’s all so complicated and distant for most people, that these are the only things that grab any headlines and are really understandable.
Worryingly, I am starting to feel the same way about the budget. I wont say I “don’t give a damn”, but the whole thing has really lost its attraction. Perhaps a mixture of age and cynicism has led me to this position, but all I really feel about it is that in my role as an accountant, it just means more work while I get to grips with a whole new set of rules.
Wearing my hat as a champion of small business, what I do realise is the budget is just another event that will generate more challenges for the SME sector.
As I sit here waiting for the Chancellor to rise, I was reminded of the quote about death and taxes. I decided to check its origin and interestingly, found that in fact it had been separately quoted by 3 people. It was first used by Daniel Defoe in the political history of the devil in 1726. Subsequently, it was mentioned in a letter by Benjamin Franklin in 1789. However my favourite is from Gone with the Wind in 1936 “death, taxes and childbirth! There is never any convenient time for any of them”.
Hear hear!