BUSINESS for all? It may be a bit late, but it’s a positive step for a task force to be set up by City of York Council to promote and help young graduates from the universities in York establish new businesses.

This, though, reflects our national obsession with exam results.

I would add: why only graduates?

There is no guarantee that only graduates are capable of succeeding in starting a new business.

The council should be helping even ordinary mortals who have a good idea: a good idea is a good idea.

Most of our best captains of Industry and entrepreneurs never went to university; Richard Branson and, in Yorkshire, Paul Sykes, who built Meadowhall, are but two.

One obstacle to starting a new business is the draconian lease system operated by landlords which must frighten off many an idea, and it should be a priority to correct this restriction.

I always remember a friend who achieved first-class honours at Cambridge. His mother’s cylinder vacuum cleaner failed and he spent a week completely stripping it down. He found nothing wrong and put it all back together.

For those who can remember, a cylinder vacuum had two ends: a suction and and blow. He’d connected the pipe to the blow end.

Keith Massey, Acaster Malbis, York.