Tories turn to LinkedIn for business consultation

Shadow business secretary Ken Clarke is using online social network LinkedIn to gather views from business owners about re-introducing a scheme which helpd the unemployed set up businesses.

Introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, the Enterprise Allowance Scheme (ELS) provided £40 a week to people who wanted to get off the dole and start a their own company. Among those who used it were Julian Dunkerton, founder of the Superdry fashion label and Alan McGee, who set up Creation Records.

The Conservatives are currently exploring a revival of the initiative and Clarke is using LinkedIn to gather feedback from the business community.

At the time of writing his post on the network had received 59 responses.

Among those who have commented is Simon Carrier, chief designer at SPC Design. He said: "I did set a small business in the early 80s under the Enterprise Allowance Scheme.

"Although that business was fairly short-lived – I went into full-time employment about a year later – I did consider it to be useful and worthwhile. Without that incentive, I doubt I would have had the impetus to attempt such a daunting task. It also gave some financial security to help survive beyond the critical first few months."

Using social networks to interact with the public is becoming increasingly common among politicians. Many MPs are registered with Twitter and several have Facebook pages. In August last year, the Labour Party appointed Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy as its new media spokesperson and David Cameron uses video under the 'Webcameron' brand.

Commenting on the Tories' latest use of social media, a spokesperson told BusinessZone.co.uk: "It's vital that we engage with the business community online and get feedback and suggestions for policies that affect UK firms.

"LinkedIn is one of the business to business networks that we use for this conversation, providing a very high quality of response, as can be seen from the number of people who have either told us about their experience of the Enterprise Allowance Scheme or suggested ideas for a successor scheme."