Time to realise our true wealth
"Let the Government declare a 12-month VAT holiday for new tourism-related businesses," suggests Paul Dudney of Alexander's Café, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
He is half-way through his first year as a restaurateur, and his views have been prompted by my recent Viewpoint on the campaign to lower VAT.
He has a point. All the economic arguments for lowering VAT that have been so forcefully marshalled by the British Hospitality Association apply here.
But helping to start up new businesses would bring a new dimension to the campaign.
It would certainly be a tactful way for the Government to introduce VAT cuts on tourism services to a country paying 8% tax on fuel bills.
The move would affect the pace of commercial enterprise and job creation and would be a step towards the highly desirable, long-term aim of lowering VAT generally on all tourism-related businesses.
But in the light of the whole BHA campaign, this hardly paints a very hopeful picture.
And, honestly speaking, what chance is there that its charms will move the Treasury or the Department of National Heritage to reform?
Perhaps the problem is that we are simply campaigning for some form of action, rather than acceptance and understanding for the industry.
Is there perhaps a larger job to be done in persuading the Government of the importance of hotels and restaurants? This is an importance that extends not just to the economy but to the welfare and happiness of the people.
It has to be said that eating out has never been as much a part of lifestyle as it has in the USA, France or Italy. But it is difficult to find any reasons for not aspiring to the same lifestyle.
To return, for the moment, to Paul Dudney and his wife Alison. They have, in Alexander's, created a 40-seat café-bistro, open from 10am with last food orders taken at 9pm. Their coffee the is best espresso, the cakes are supplied by a professional London pâtisserie, the food is cooked by a young and enthusiastic chef, and there is a short yet imaginative wine list. The waiting staff are young, friendly and enthusiastic. In short, the place is fun.
Alexander's provides direct employment for eight people. Locals now have a meeting place and, more importantly, tourists have the chance to find somewhere that is open all day, seven days a week, where they can find a well-prepared meal or snack.
How aware is the Government of the benefits that high street businesses such as Alexander's bring to the way we live and present ourselves to overseas visitors?
Does it know or care that on top of the economic benefits of being able to attract more domestic and overseas tourists, a café society must be good for the self-respect of a civilised country such as ours?
If the Government could help more small businesses like Alexander's to open and provide services of a similar sort, it would be a small but significant step toward improving morale. This would have a positive effect not just on a key industry, but among its customers, who also happen to be the electorate.
The message is that our industry is even more important than sometimes we, let alone the Government, believe. An army, said Napoleon, marches on its stomach. It is not unreasonable to argue, in like mind, that today an advanced nation progresses on its restaurants, pubs and cafés.
