This morning Radio 4, Today Programme is holding an outside broadcast from a Reading based Small Business which Manufactures perforated metal sheets. It is part of the focus on todays Budget, and one of the relatively predictable set piece broadcasts that takes place every year (albeit from different businesses). During the election Campaign we can be sure that similar visits will take place when the Chancellor and other politicians pop into a few local businesses. Another similarly predictable broadcast takes place on the day that A level results are published when TV cameras and Radio Microphones visit Sixth Form colleges, along with the Education Ministers. The challenge for broadcasters and the Politicians is to accept that these visits are not the whole picture and that these businesses or teenagers have lives beyond their short broadcast stereotypes. As far as todays programme is concerned there was an interesting interview with Nick Bion, the MD of the business being asked about business changes over the last decade and how he has managed to maintain the business size despite a down turn in orders from existing customers. We also heard from some of his workers on the shop floor, talking about how they turn their hands to various roles to ensure the work gets done. However when Nick was interviewed alongside Ronan Dunne, CEO of O2 later on in the programme it was clear which of the two men has the ear of Government when it comes to policy making. The challenge for our next Government is to find ways of listening and responding to people like Nick Bion as well as the views of the likes of Ronan Dunne. Sadly the only experience of business within the current Government comes from people who have second jobs on the board of organisations such as O2. This coupled with the failure to engage effectively with Small Businesses like Robert Bion and micro enterprises such as the one I work in means that the parts of the economy which generate most new jobs and real wealth is overlooked when the Government policies are formed. The same is true when it comes to our teenagers, if the Government only listens to those who emerge from certain Schools and who participate in Youth Parliaments, the views of the rest of society will go ignored and all of us, across the whole of the nation will suffer as a result.