Despite Tube strikes, the QCA Annual Dinner celebrates UK small and midcap success while urging the government to scrap stamp duty, rethink ISAs, and boost liquidity to strengthen public markets and drive economic growth, says James Ashton

It will take more than an irritating Tube strike to stop hundreds of business leaders, their advisers, investors, regulators, politicians and the media from converging on the British Museum tonight.

When tariffs, taxes and the tussle for talent impact daily decision-making, I know the ever-resilient small and midcap business community that makes up the Quoted Companies Alliance membership won’t be put off by a bout of pesky industrial action.

Our QCA Annual Dinner is a chance to celebrate great British success, from the City of London to the companies supported by the UK’s capital markets that are based right across the country. And we do it without hurriedly handing out a dozen gongs in 20 minutes to a techno backing track. Everyone is a winner tonight, including our much-decorated after-dinner speaker, the Olympic rower Baroness Katherine Grainger, and AIM itself, the growth market that has been a launchpad for thousands........

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