Posted by Gav on July 13th, 2006
“David Cameron today fulfilled his pledge to withdraw the Conservative Party from the European People’s Party (EPP) Parliamentary Group and form a new group in the European Parliament.
“Today he will sign an agreement to form the new group with the Czech Prime Minister-designate and leader of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Mr Topolanek. At Mr Topolanek’s explicit request, the new group will be formed at the beginning of the next European Parliament in 2009.
“In addition, the Conservative Party and the ODS will immediately establish a new Movement for European Reform, which will campaign to tackle the challenges that Europe faces. Other political parties which share our objectives, and are dedicated to our ideals of a more open, modern, flexible and decentralised European Union, will be welcome to join the new movement.”
Posted by Gav on July 13th, 2006
As yesterday’s post clearly shows, I believe there are major, major issues that need to be dealt with:
- State-sponsored racism
- Erosion of what should be rights
- The devolution-related lack of democracy (Link)
- The EU-related lack of democracy (Link)
But there are some issues which are not so major, not such great hulking pieces of legislation that the demand much blog time or news time. These issues, though, strike at the very heart of England. Company ownership is one of these.
Businesses are the second most important part of a society (people being the first). Without businesses people are completely incapable of accruing wealth. Without wealth people do not enjoy their lives or live in the same luxury as they would otherwise. The recent emphasis on quality of life over GDP is right, of course, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need money!
All this is obvious, so why am I saying it?
Well, Alan Duncan can put it far better than I can!
Suffice, if you own a part of a company but hold the shares in a nominee account (for HMRC reasons or whatever) then you still own part of a company and should be afforded the same rights as everyone else who owns part of that company.
The stock market is not something that is taught at school and it requires a conscious effort to go and discover how it works (and I did GCSE Economics which didn’t teach it!). So to talk about the necessity of share ownership; to separate share ownership from the supposed misplaced emphasis of some companies; and to talk of the rights of shareholders — is all very difficult.
It is of fundamental importance that shares are bought because that investment inevitably grows the economy and benefits everyone in the country (and the world if it weren’t for the EU). Let’s make share ownership as accessible as possible by encouraging share ownership. The best way of doing that, right now, is to join Alan Duncan, Gavin Oldham and Mark Hanson “to ensure that nominee shareholders are granted rights to obtain Company Reports and Accounts, as well as attendance and speaking at meetings, information about bids for the company and the right to vote on an informed basis.”.
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