Wednesday, September 28, 2011 Feet In The Concrete I am on record as being a stern critic of the stupid 'Silicon Roundabout' concept in London. The idea that you can create 'hubs' or 'incubation destinations' is tripe, and would only ever happen to the detriment of other areas of London and the UK. The whole idea that a roundabout in north central (not east!) London is a focus for development is naive and stupid and shows how out of touch not only our politicians, but pretty much anyone in the UK involved in promoting tech is. (For the record, I built a 500 person tech company in the area in the distant past). Of course, the likes of Microsoft and Google have piled in, in order to gain anti-monopoly points, no doubt. The real irony is that it is these companies, and our Government's unedifying nose up their American backsides approach that stifles innovation - and certainly growth - in the UK is the very reason for the failure and lack of investment in UK tech companies. US tech hubs, in California, New Jersey and Texas, have all been built around defence spending, and we don't have any of that in the UK (or at least, all of it has gone to Fujitsu, a company from a country with no military, for decades). I have recently been involved in fundraising for a world class UK tech company. In the time that we've been trying to get any interest from the