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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#1 by The Big Issue on July 14th, 2006 - 10:05 am
Couldn’t have put it better myself – about time the Tories started to stand up for the little man – I remember Gordon Brown talking about creating a shareowning democracy at the last Labour Party Conference – Cameron simply has to steal that back for the Tories.
#2 by Jackart on July 14th, 2006 - 10:14 am
Many People chose nominee accounts precisely because of the anonymity granted (shareholders, especially in small companies get hassled by boiler-rooms). If you want dematerialised share dealing and reports and accounts and votes at the AGM (and unwanted contacts from foreign brokers), then you can have Crest sponsored membership.
This is a campaign for a non-existent problem
#3 by bruno de la villarmois on July 17th, 2006 - 3:19 pm
I recently discovered an excellent book by Baums and Wymeersch called ” Shareholders voting rights and practices in Europe and the USA” . London -Institute of advanced legal studies .
Each country has a logical legal system , but basically in all countries the person who is taking the financial risk is the beneficial owner not the legal owner . The probleme boils down to this : is there a political will to recognize the voting rights to the ones who are taking the risks ?
All the debates about dematerialization, unique Central Security Depositary or not, internalization of instructions , post market clearing and settlement , shareholders rights may find an easy solution if all shareholders are granted equal rights of vote, of information and to the dividend .
Don’t be frightened by costs or technical problem : if on google you put your name and search, you will get the answers in some 0.35- 0.45 seconds . And google during that time searched 10 billions pages
Don’t forget there are at max 600 millions shareholders in the world with an average 10 different stocks in portfolio
Bruno
#4 by Gav on July 17th, 2006 - 10:01 pm
That’s six trillion stocks… Wow