This is my column that will feature in Saturday's Financial Times, which can be found in the entrepreneurship pages of the Money section. You can also find my columns on the FT web site here: http://www.ft.com/mikesouthon

One of the major advantages of an economic downturn is that there are great deals to be had; the challenge is that many of us are very bad at negotiating.

There is clearly an element of 'nature vs. nurture' some of us are clearly genetically more inclined to haggle, while for others the process is more unpleasant and degrading than having teeth pulled.

EC in setting up the article 230 they deemed essential that member states could challenge an act that they have passed. This established a wait and see approach that gave member states the possibility to alter an act and to say that in practise it does not work for them. It provided a check and balance on the legislative capacity of the EC.

Unfortunately EU law has not been recognised for its full potential and legal rights it bestows upon its members. All too often in the press hearing negative stories about how the EU is interfering in our daily lives. Nothing could be further from the truth, politicians often used EU law to cover up their own mistakes or to put the blame elsewhere. They have in general failed to give full perspective to what Britain signed up to in 1971.