What actually does "peer to peer finance" mean?

I'm probably going to get this thrown back at me because I'm being too simplistic but, wanted to comment on 2 things.

-NHS, I think is a wonderful concept, esp when you compare it to other so called world powers like the US. Such a super power that you do not equality in healthcare unless you can afford it (Does the job come with a full dental? comment springs to mind)! The problem with our system is that it is run very bureaucratically, inefficiently & with very little accountability on those at the top. The little minions are the ones that actually do all the hard work. The higher you are, the easier life you get & less accountability placed on you. A bit like politics really. It should be put back in the hands of health professionals who can bets balance the clinical, ethical & financial aspects of the system.

-Communism, risking opening a can of worms here, part of the concept is sound in the sense of 'All for one & one for all' (sorry for plagiarising Dumas' work here!). Our failing as societies is that the more we have, the more we want (both money & power). It is the people who tend to ruin good social concepts & not the other way round. You can see in microcosms that when people don't get greedy, good things happen. Probably too much idealistic line thinking though, I admit.

My tuppence worth anyway

Life expectancy is leaping ahead in UK.   Disposable Income has risen enormously between the advent of the welfare state and, Thatcher or 2007, depending on how much you believe in house prices.

It was my intention to stick with that opening point actually but then I went all scrooge for some reason. Its my luck to be able to see both sides of an argument and feel strongly about both as well. Drives the missus up the wall sometimes.

A certain platform has now snuck in buy-to-let through the back door. The question "what IS p2p" is more relevant than ever.
What's the limit? I mean could a 'business' simply be some guy paying for a holiday and a new car? Could a 'business' be US Treasury Bonds through a middleman?
There's really no limit.

It's very interesting from an Austrian perspective: the boundaries of our aggregated definition are utterly fluid. Individual human action is infinitely varied and unpredictable.

ITYM "What is P2B?", since P2P personal loans on some platforms could quite legitimately be for a new car or a holiday.

Where there's a limited company or an LLP in place, it's obvious.
Where it's a sole trader, yes, the lines can become a bit more blurred - but that's hardly unique to lending questions. It's not just a question of investment activities, such as BtL - or even P2P lending - but far wider. Let's say somebody orders or fabricates some minimum-order-quantity batch of widgets for a hobby, then sells the surplus to their fellow hobbyists. Is that a business?

P2B platforms would normally require sufficient formally-prepared accounts to make the line fairly clear, I'd have thought.

I think it depends. The existence of a minimum order quantity suggests the person could not get what they wanted for their personal use without getting the surplus as well. This gives some support to the "non trading" view. If it's a one off, and the objective of the sales is to cover costs, it's not a business (even IMO if they end up making a profit, which could be the case if they are unsure how many of the surplus they will sell, and set their price accordingly). But if they do it regularly, with a view to profit, then it's a business. HMRC's guidance is here: www.hmrc.gov.uk/guidance/selling/income.htm