(openPR) - London-- Serial Entrepreneur and ex-Dragons Den Investor demands better, smarter, voice for UK entrepreneurs in May 6 Elections. Doug Richard and ten of England's leading entrepreneurs, startup and small business owners will discuss specific elements of the Entrepreneurs Manifesto on April 22 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Richard, with regard to the event, said "We decided to get together, competitors though we may be, and act as one."

He went on to say "It is time to make government support, or lack thereof, national news. Whether people love current business support programs or hate them, whether they think Labour or Conservatives do a better job of supporting them, it is time for them to be heard. It is time for them to pick champions to carry us out of this recession and into a new era of UK global business leadership and domestic prosperity."

Doug Richard launched the Judgement Day 2010 poll, and discussed the upcoming debate, publicly on Sky News April 9th.

Over the last decade Doug Richard has been an active advocate for small business to government leaders on both sides of the aisle. He has won numerous awards over that period, including becoming an Honorary Recipient of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2006, and a fellow of the RSA in 2007. He served as chair of the Conservative party's small business task force, and penned the nonpartisan Richard Report which panned government support in 2008.

In a July 2009 interview Doug called UK government small business support paternalistic, based on meaningless metrics and a severe burden to startups and small businesses. He suggested new laws effecting business should require an economic impact report, like an environmental impact report, so that those with too damaging an effect could be rejected prior to implementation. He has stated that many government officials, with the best of intentions, are enacting badly designed policies that attempt to deliver "social goals none of us can afford because they are killing the businesses that create the wealth." (www.youtube.com/watch?v=a11SSDH_R1k#t=03m20s)

Within the last month Richard has attacked the Digital Economy Bill that recently passed into law as extremely ill-considered and entirely unworkable.

Doug Richard's owns and operates a very active social enterprise called School for Startups which has delivered practical instruction to more than 9000 entrepreneurs since 2008. School for Startups is sponsored by O2, the Royal institution of Great Britain, University of Essex, the British Library, and the University of London among others. It's stated objective is to train more than a million entrepreneurs in the decade ahead.

Those interested in participating in the Judgement Day 2010 poll, or wishing to attend the debate on April 22 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, should visit www.schoolforstartups.co.uk.

About the Royal Institution:

The Royal Institution is an independent charity dedicated to connecting people with the world of science. We're an events space, a museum and a place to eat and drink. But we're more than that as well. We're also a philanthropic organization that has been actively supporting many of the world's leading scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs for more than 200 years. For more information on all that we do, please visit www.rigb.org.

About O2 UK

Telefónica O2 UK Limited is a leading communications company for consumers and businesses in the UK, with 20.7 million mobile customers and 457,000 fixed broadband customers as of 30 June 2009. Telefónica O2 UK Limited is part of Telefónica Europe plc which is a business division of Telefónica S.A. and which owns O2 in the UK, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic, and has 46 million customers.

O2’s UK mobile network covers 99% of the UK’s population. O2’s 3G network covers over 80% of the UK population and is fully HSDPA-enabled, providing speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps for customers with an HSDPA-enabled device.

O2 was ranked highest in customer satisfaction for both UK mobile and fixed broadband customers according to the J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile and Fixed Broadband Studies 2009. For more information on O2, please visit www.O2.co.uk.

About Doug Richard's School for Startups


School for Startups was founded by Doug Richard in 2008 to provide accelerated instruction to entrepreneurs. Visit our site at www.schoolforstartups.co.uk. Follow us on Twitter @s4startups.


School for Start-Ups
Wellington House, East Road
Cambridge
CB1 1BH
+44 (0) 207 099 7000