I cannot recall the end of a year when so much of the business landscape seems, at best, obscured or - more accurately - exceptionally difficult.

The liberal economic values which have brought prosperity to millions around the globe are in danger of being not just thwarted but reversed.

Free trade, free and competitive markets, social cohesion and mobility, free movement of people, the rule of law, political decency, sound Government and personal finances. Are any of these in better shape than they were 10 years go - or even a year ago - I think not.

At an individual level is it easier or harder to run a business and make a profit than it was - unless you are unusually lucky, again, I suspect you would say definitely not.

After 10 years of trudging through the economic mud we all hope for easier times. Almost certainly we are not going to get them.

The reality is the key factors on which business relies to operate effectively are largely going the wrong way. Around the world Governments have been trying to keep the show on the road by pricing money as though it was free and allowing the stock of debt to rise through the jiggery-pokery of Quantitative Easing. This has boosted the value of assets, benefiting the well-off, but does nothing for the purchasing power of the ordinary person in the street.

So us ordinary people have started to do foolish things. Elect Donald Trump, accidentally almost elect Jeremy Corbyn, vote to leave the EU, nearly vote to leave the UK , vote for Marine le Pen or Alternative For Deutschland. These things will mostly achieve the opposite of what people hope for in economic terms which tends to be a decent job, pay which rises in real terms, a home they can afford.

Businesses want stability, investment in infrastructure, at least a pause in the endless onslaught of regulations and social engineering which they have to both deliver and pay for, a simple life where they can sell goods and services to people who want them. The opposite of nearly all of this is happening. The result is that business, the provider of the dynamism and growth which people and Governments need to get out of the current doldrums is increasingly struggling to deliver. Politicians don’t learn though - they keep on heaping costs and taxes on businesses because they can’t vote.

Business as a collective whole and each individual business needs to stand up and battle for what is needed to underpin a prosperous future. Even if it is unpopular at first, the message has to be got across that economic growth is overwhelmingly what counts in creating not just economic prosperity but political and social stability.

Business needs to lead the charge for Free Trade. That means forcing support for the World Trade Organisation up the agenda. It means continuing to make the case for not leaving the EU if we can possibly find a way to reverse the biggest political error of the last 50 years. It means constantly reminding people that Scotland leaving the UK would be an even bigger mistake.

Business needs to articulate better the drag on growth and therefore the cost to jobs, health and education budgets of gender targets and over-bearing health and safety rules.

Above all business needs to ensure that capitalism delivers for the many not the few. Employee buyouts are to be applauded. If your company doesn’t have an employee wide share option scheme - why not? When your company does well does that reflect in its workers pay packets? - it should - and not just because it’s Christmas.

Pinstripe is a senior member of Scotland's financial services community.