The Second Word is “Off”

I see Timmy has also picked up on Liam Fox’s comments about British business.

“If you want to share in the prosperity of our country, you have a duty to contribute to the prosperity of our country,” he is reported as saying, hinting that companies that do not take advantage of new export opportunities could face sanctions.

Wow! Just wow! There is no such duty. None whatsoever. It is up to the business owner to decide whether they wish to expand their market overseas, not some jumped-up, has-been politician. Once again, we see these charlatans for what they are; bossy, interfering authoritarians who think that  we work for them and not the other way around. The very idea of imposing sanctions against organisations that choose not to expand overseas is deeply repugnant to any civilised society.

He added: “We’ve got to change the culture in our country. People have got to stop thinking about exporting as an opportunity and start thinking about it as a duty — companies who could be contributing to our national prosperity but choose not to because it might be too difficult or too time-consuming or because they can’t play golf on a Friday afternoon.”

Mr. Fox can take his “duty” and insert it where the sun don’t shine.  His idea of a changed culture has more in common with Mussolini than it does with a modern, liberal democracy. If people have earned enough to enjoy some time playing golf on a Friday afternoon, that is their business not his. If businesses choose not to risk exporting to other countries, that is a matter for them and their shareholders, not the state. The only fat, lazy, arseholes I see, reside in the Palace of Westminster.