The post you are reporting:
"... he hasn't replied.." Hasn't yet replied, might have been a better way of putting it.
How many appellations, buzz-words, characterisations, daemonisations, expletives, on through to zoologisms are to be used to refer to our fellow man before we use the word 'brother'?
Speaking for myself. I divide the world in two: Self and non-self, I do not leave things there though. I realise that 'I' need 'they' every bit as much as they need me, perhaps even a little more so.
The UK is a Nation and not a Plc,
Those who would build a castle of isolation will, as likely as not, die before completion or be killed along the way, and all shall become a part of the walls they wish to construct to shield them from the harsh reality of Life
Some say it is they who take the risk, in starting up a business, employing others and in keeping the whole thing going. Their employees carry none of this risk, these same some say, because benefits shall keep them in a manner to which they have become accustomed, through work. [Strangely, this is never because wage levels are low, but because Spartan benefit levels have risen to be a match for (Spartan) wages.]
To put it all simply. The people we all need to invest in are the same people who shop with the small business and on whom the small businessman must surely rely. This fact is at it's most stark, in the corner shop and on the high street, when pressure is put upon benefit levels to the exclusion of increased employment. What goes around comes around.
e.g.
Who shall be required to print; the Menus for Restaurants that have no diners, the fliers for retail outlets that have no custom?
As with the UK Pension Funds that invest in the UK the small businessman can ask, Where is my 'money' to come from?
From you!
Is the only answer.