In the news today: “Nick Clegg plans more employee ownership”, based on a speech to an audience in the City, citing John Lewis as a model of employee participation. John Lewis goes beyond simple employee share ownership, I own shares in Unilever – sadly this hasn’t enabled me to prevent them from cutting my pension. Channel 4’s Fact Check blog has confirmed that employee-ownership often makes for better companies.
Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, Chuka Umunna response was:
…Mr Clegg was following Labour’s lead on responsible capitalism…
he should really check out the 2010 Liberal Democrat General Election Manifesto 2010, on p27 it says:
We believe that mutuals, co-operatives and social enterprises have an important role to play in the creation of a more balanced and mixed economy. Mutuals give people a proper stake in the places they work, spreading wealth through society, and bringing innovative and imaginative business ideas to bear on meeting local needs.
(source)
I’d argue that Labour was following the Liberal Democrats on this.
Chuka Umunna is also the chap, who said on twitter of Ed Miliband’s Radio 4 interview:
Very strong, assured performance from @Ed_Miliband on@BBCr4today this a.m
Funnily enough, Peter Hain said exactly the same thing:
V strong and assured performance by @Ed_Miliband against Humphreys @BBCr4today
Not strong evidence for original thinking.
Footnote
Screenshot here, if you don’t believe me.
