ABSTRACT
The national enterprise board's (NEB) reports show various ‘types’ of profit. Thus the reports from 1976 through 1983 supply, among other things, a ‘consolidated profit and loss account’. The 1984–1985 figures are particularly important because they make us aware of a crucial point neglected by those critics of the NEB23 who attacked it bitterly for being a money loser. In 1978 the NEB’s consolidated profit before taxation declined to £30.7 million. The NEB’s profit record as venture capitalist was in some respects not that weak even when compared to that of American venture capitalists, especially in the sense that it had about the same proportion of real triumphs and dismal failures as did the average US venture capital fund. If the government-backed NEB had had such a disastrous average, the beams of Parliament would still be tottering from the roars of angry Tories.
