I was at Portcullis House earlier this year to hear The Secratary of State for Communities & Local Government,Eric Pickles, anounce some funding initiatives to help roll out the business & intellectual property programmes formatted by The British Library in London where I am Entrepreneur in Residence. Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham and Leeds City Libraries have become part of what we at The British Library hope will become a national programme adopted by many libraries throughout the UK. Unfortunately my home City of Bristol decided last year not to adopt the programme, which for one of the Countries oldest libraries is a shame.
I intend to write or ring Bristols new mayor George Ferguson at some point to ask him to review Bristols position on this because with new business start ups nationally,failing at 8 in 10, compared with businesses we assist through our advice & mentoring programme at The British Library business and IP Centre where the figure is more like 2 in 10 which shows the power of mentoring which in turn results in more jobs being created, less families whose lives are wrecked by business failure and who often lose their homes as a result, and a better “feel good” factor all round, so come on George show some of that entrepreneurial flair you showed when getting elected and get behind Bristol becoming part of what will inevitably become an important role for libraries across the UK.