Andrew Dickson’s article on the Tory government’s Enterprise Allowance Scheme brings back memories of the policy’s successful application (‘Everyone wanted to get one over on Thatcher’ – the artists who raided the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, 26 July), although in my case this was certainly unintended.
Early on, I became involved in the anti-poll-tax campaign in Aberdeen. Concurrently, I also joined the Enterprise Allowance Scheme. I soon realised that my business plan was a non-starter. But why waste a good opportunity? Most of my year on the scheme was therefore devoted to full-time campaigning against the poll tax.
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• By coincidence I was talking a few days ago to my friend Sid about the Enterprise Allowance Scheme. He used it to start a secondhand book business that is still going. I used it to help fund Lobster magazine, which I cofounded, and which led on to me becoming a writer on the intelligence services.
If only the Labour party had the sense to revive Margaret Thatcher’s only successful policy, and at the same time build a new generation of art schools. Young people might then have had a chance of also following their creative dreams.
Stephen Dorril
Holmfirth, West Yorkshire
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