Author Archives: Prateek Buch

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Opinion: One last chance to achieve far-reaching libel reform

By Prateek Buch | Fri 19th April 2013 - 3:42 pm

The Defamation Bill is nearly law. Several key reforms needed to protect free debate are already included in the Bill, thanks to the tireless work of the Libel Reform Campaign (declaration: I have acted as an adviser to the campaign), the heroic defence of free speech by individuals in the face of financial ruin, and Parliamentarians from both Houses, with Lib Dems leading the charge.

At the very last, however, a Tory attempt to scupper one of the most important provisions that was included in the bill needs to be defeated if the ensuing Act is to achieve …

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Posted in News | Tagged adrian sanders, david allen green, defamation bill, greg mullholland, john hemming, john leech, julian huppert, libel reform and tim farron | 11 Comments

Clarifying the press regulator’s relationship with the web

By Prateek Buch | Wed 20th March 2013 - 3:30 pm

A furore has broken out over whether the Royal Charter on press regulation, and the amendments to the Crime and Courts Bill that accompany it, would mean that bloggers and tweeters would be subject to ‘exemplary damages’ in the event of successful complaints brought against them.

The Guardian’s live blogger Andrew Sparrow initially thought that blogs and Twitter might be subject to regulation by the newly created press regulator – the independent body recommended by Lord Justice Leveson. He was swiftly corrected, and the correction sheds light on the source of confusion – the definition of “relevant publisher” in both the Royal Charter and amendments to the Crime and Courts Bill.

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Posted in News | Tagged crime and courts bill and press regulation | 14 Comments

Opinion: AllTrials.net – a crucial campaign on data transparency that will save lives

By Prateek Buch | Thu 10th January 2013 - 1:26 pm

Medicines save and improve lives, can also cause great harm if inappropriately deployed. To decide which drugs are safe, and which might work in which circumstances, regulators, doctors and scientists need access to all the results from all trials conducted on all drugs that are in use – but this data is all-too-often missing as a result of commercial practices that put millions of lives at risk. A new campaign seeks to bring this largely hidden scandal in medical science, revealed in Dr. Ben Goldacre’s book Bad Pharma, to an end – and with it the needless harm …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged ben goldacre | 1 Comment

Opinion: The trouble with George – you can’t argue on economics with such a political Chancellor

By Prateek Buch | Mon 10th December 2012 - 12:53 pm

Now that the flurry of graphs, snapshot analyses, spin-heavy briefings and counter-briefings is dying down, how to judge George Osborne’s Autumn Statement in the cold winter light?

For me it is a microcosm of Osborne’s time in No. 11 – a smattering of politically calculated and superficially populist measures, masking a dangerously thin grasp of what an economically successful Chancellorship looks like. Moreover, his claim that his mini-budget is fair because it is fiscally neutral doesn’t hold much water.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged economics | 14 Comments

Opinion: Are we being taken for a First(Group)-class ride?

By Prateek Buch | Thu 16th August 2012 - 10:55 am

As someone who has used the west coast mainline regularly for the past fifteen years (and would have done so more if the cheaper fares were more readily available), I can testify to a significant improvement in reliability and levels of service in recent years. Much of this was of course down to the £9bn and more of public investment in upgrading the line, and much was down to Virgin themselves – I carry no torch for Sir Richard but there’s little denying that Virgin trains, expensive though they undoubtedly can be, ran what became a reliable, punctual, comfortable service.

But …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged FirstGroup, railways, richard branson, trains and transport | 19 Comments

Wealth taxation is now firmly on the government’s radar

By Prateek Buch | Fri 24th February 2012 - 12:09 pm

As part of the long-standing Liberal Democrat commitment to fair taxation, expressed so clearly by David Laws, the party has often called for a greater emphasis on wealth taxes.

As a direct result of these calls, it is now clear that the government is considering some form of wealth taxation to help deliver another long-standing Lib Dem tax policy – giving millions of low- and middle-earners a welcome boost by raising the income tax threshold to £10,000.

The precise nature of increased taxation on wealth is a topic of much discussion. Radio 4′s Today programme carried an interesting discussion of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged david laws, mansion tax, raising tax threshold, tax and wealth taxes | 8 Comments

Nick Clegg on being Nick Clegg in The House magazine

By Prateek Buch | Fri 3rd February 2012 - 3:00 pm

Deputy Prime Minister gave a wide-ranging interview to The House magazine, in which he discusses how it’s right for the two coalition parties to differentiate themselves once a stable government was formed:

In the run-up to the general election, you may remember, the tabloids were screaming, saying that if there was a hung Parliament locusts would descend from the sky and the sun would be blotted out, you know… so we needed for those first few months to show the most important thing of all, which is this is a government that works, and actually works rather well.

Of course,

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged coalition, lords reform and nick clegg | 1 Comment

New Lib Dem appointments to government

By Prateek Buch | Fri 3rd February 2012 - 1:39 pm

According to the No. 10 website, Ed Davey MP will replace Chris Huhne as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with Norman Lamb to replace Davey in his role at the Department for Business.

Completing the changes, Jenny Willott becomes an Assisstant Government Whip, and Jo Swinson replaces Norman Lamb as Nick Clegg’s PPS.

Congratulations to those Lib Dem MPs taking up new positions in government.

Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, ed davey, jenny willott, Jo Swinson and norman lamb | 6 Comments

IPPR: making the Third Wave of Globalisation work for us all

By Prateek Buch | Fri 27th January 2012 - 12:30 pm

A new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), headed by a foreword by Lord Peter Mandleson, takes an in-depth look at the positive and negative impacts of the increased internationalisation of trade – what they characterise as the Third Wave of Globalisation.

IPPR’s Will Straw and Alex Glennie set out how the modern increase in global commerce is distinct from those seen around the Industrial Revolution and World War II that were dominated by the UK and the USA respectively. Today’s growth in global trade is lead by developing economies in the East with a …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged globalisation, industrial strategy, ippr and Lord Mandleson | 4 Comments

What’s the most effective way of ensuring fair wages for low earners?

By Prateek Buch | Fri 20th January 2012 - 3:27 pm

The question arises from James Graham’s excellent blog on how raising the personal income tax allowance, a central plank of Liberal Democrat influence in the Coalition, makes it more likely that large companies will pay fairer wages.

James was responding to Zoe Williams in the Guardian (well worth a read), who rightly highlights the negative societal impact of companies paying their employees wildly differing amounts – sky-high executive salaries at one end of the spectrum, and sub-living wages at the other that have to be topped up by complex and costly welfare spending.

Of late there has been …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged fair pay, james graham and living wage | 16 Comments

Labour’s stance on high pay leaves the ball firmly in Vince Cable’s court

By Prateek Buch | Fri 13th January 2012 - 1:30 pm

The appearance of cross-party consensus in politics usually makes me welcoming and wary in equal measure – welcoming as it signals a weakening of the fierce discord between political tribes, wary because the sheen of consensus often betrays a deep underlying suspicion of the ability of any party to take on the challenges they face.

Excessive remuneration appears to be the latest issue on which the three main parties appear to agree – it apparently unites the hitherto unlikely trio of Vince Cable, Ed Miliband and, latterly it seems, David Cameron around the recognition that extremes of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged chuka umunna, high pay commission, inequality, ippr and vince cable | 7 Comments

Lib Dem council candidate in trouble over online comments

By Prateek Buch | Sun 8th January 2012 - 3:00 pm

Oh dear…

A number of posts on Facebook page were seemingly calculated to deliberately offend Muslims — including spreading outright smears. Stones claimed that the Royal British Legion were “not selling poppies in certain areas of the UK”, implying that objections from Muslims were behind the decision

The comments have since been removed and an apology issued:

We welcome Mr Stones’ unreserved apology and acceptance that the comments he copied and pasted were completely unacceptable.

Posted in News | Tagged dave stones and redcar and cleveland council | 4 Comments

Nick Clegg’s priorities for 2012

By Prateek Buch | Fri 6th January 2012 - 9:30 am

The Voice’s Mark Pack has been writing about the Party’s challenges in 2012 – as if on cue, leader Nick Clegg set out his priorities for Lib Dems in Government in a Radio 4 Today interview which you can hear in full here.

As reported in The Guardian, these priorities include tackling tax avoidance by both corporations and wealthy individuals, clamping down on excessive and undeserved top pay, and re-engaging with governments and business in Europe following the Prime Minister’s unhelpful showing in Brussels at the end of last year.

Pressed on how that re-engagement would materialise, Nick …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bbc radio 4, high pay commission, Mark Pack, nick clegg, tax and tax avoidance | 8 Comments

What Lib Dem members make of drug reforms and regulations on alcohol and tobacco sales

By Prateek Buch | Fri 30th December 2011 - 4:25 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 564 party members responded, and we are publishing the full results here over several days.

Seeking to assess the support amongst the party membership for reforms to how alcohol, tobacco and currently illicit drugs are regulated, the latest LDV members survey has thrown up some interesting results – we’ll start by looking at what respondents make of the current regulatory regimes for alcohol and tobacco.

Most LDV readers back status quo on

…

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Posted in News | 12 Comments

Huhne: Tory right wants UK to be semi-detached member of EU

By Prateek Buch | Fri 23rd December 2011 - 9:00 am

Politicshome points us towards an interview in The Independent with Lib Dem Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, who warns that the Tory eurosceptic (or should that be europhobic) right wants nothing more than the UK to become ‘semi-detached’ from the EU.

Criticising the Tory right’s approach to the EU, he says:

I am worried there is a tendency on the Conservative right wing, a significant part of its parliamentary party, that does not appreciate the importance of being at the table in Brussels when it comes to negotiating the rules for the single market – and does not understand the strength

…

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Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, eu, eurosceptics and Tory | 5 Comments

LibLink: In defence of the Lib Dems

By Prateek Buch | Fri 16th December 2011 - 3:00 pm

Yours truly has a post on the New Statesman rolling blog The Staggers, responding to Mehdi Hasan’s rather provocative question, “What’s the point of the Liberal Democrats?”

Hasan pointed out five areas in which the Lib Dems had (in his view) “sacrificed their distinctive beliefs and principles and received little in return.”

I responded with my own 5 points, including:

1) Ask the nearly 1 million low-paid workers who have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether thanks to a Lib Dem manifesto commitment delivered in government. With the prospect of further significant reforms to come to make

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged Lib Dems, mehdi hasan, new statesman, prateek buch, pupil premium and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 4 Comments

LDVideo: Ending the War on Drugs

By Prateek Buch | Fri 16th December 2011 - 12:34 pm

This video is a short film made by reason.tv and covers a measured, reasoned debate on why and how we should end the global war on drugs that took place at the libertarian Washington D.C think tank the Cato Institute: Ending the global drug war

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Posted in News | 2 Comments

Lords Rennard, Carlile, and Lester, with Lynne Featherstone, defend rules on religious civil partnerships

By Prateek Buch | Fri 16th December 2011 - 10:20 am

The House of Lords yesterday dismissed fears surrounding new regulations allowing religious institutions to celebrate same-sex civil partnerships on their premises. Some campaigners hard argued that such rules could force them to do so against their will, an argument that was laid to rest by Peers. In doing so, they gave the green light to liberal religious organisations to allow same-sex couples to register their civil partnerships under their auspices.

The Lords debated Conservative Peer Lady O’Cathain’s motion to have new regulations on civil partnerships delayed because of fears that equality campaigners could use the Equality Act 2010 or the Human …

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Posted in News | Tagged chris rennard, civil partnerships, gay equality, lynne featherstone and religion | 4 Comments

Opinion: troubling times in the jobs market

By Prateek Buch | Fri 16th December 2011 - 8:30 am

Despite uncertainty over the statistics (don’t worry, this isn’t a post about p-values and standard deviations), we can say with some confidence (say, 95%) that the UK jobs market remains in a volatile state with many people out of work or underemployed. With public sector jobs being shed rapidly as a result of austerity measures, and the private sector unable or unwilling to create more jobs than it sheds due to falling demand (going against Chancellor George Osborne’s expectations), the net result is a devastating lack of work for millions of people, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged co-ops, regional growth fund, trade unions, unemployment and youth unemployment | 3 Comments

Opinion: Lynne Featherstone’s defence of evidence-based translational medicine is welcome

By Prateek Buch | Fri 9th December 2011 - 4:00 pm

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The sparsely-attended adjournment debate on Wednesday secured by Conservative MP David Amess, saw a rare thing – a genuine discussion based around the merits of peer-reviewed scientific research and a robust defence of an evidence-based approach to translational medicine from Lib Dem Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone. For a biology nerd interested in the application of scientific knowledge to public policy it had all the ingredients of a pre-Christmas gift – I can fully recommend the Hansard transcript for a full picture (yes, I am that sad…).

Mr. Amess has some track record of Parliamentary campaigning against animal cruelty, …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged animal welfare, european union, home office, life sciences, lynne featherstone and research | 1 Comment

Opinion: Shareholders start to flex their muscle on high pay in banks

By Prateek Buch | Fri 9th December 2011 - 8:50 am

The Association of British Insurers, whose members are significant shareholders in UK banks, has written of its concern over remuneration in the banking sector in the most stern terms. The ABI’s Director General Otto Thoresen has highlighted the

need for all banks to fundamentally restructure their remuneration practices.

This follows on from the independent High Pay Commission’s report into executive remuneration, which emphasised the need for shareholders to play an activist role in setting top pay – the letter appears to be a first step towards a large number …

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Posted in Op-eds | 6 Comments

Conference gets its wish – drug policy review announced

By Prateek Buch | Mon 5th December 2011 - 9:00 am

Liberal Democrats are always looking for distinctive ways to show that the party is making a difference in government – things we can proudly point to and say “look, we made this happen.” This week’s announcement that the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee is to launch a new inquiry into drugs policy is one that activists, MPs and Peers alike can rightly point to as an example of the positive influence Lib Dems have on public policy.

There is now widespread recognition that the UK’s drugs laws are ineffective and expensive, with MPs of all parties signing …

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Posted in News | Tagged drugs, evidence-based policy, julian huppert and science | 7 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems should welcome and put into practice most of the High Pay Commission’s recommendations

By Prateek Buch | Wed 23rd November 2011 - 2:27 pm

Some bald statistics before the ranting begins: In 1979 the top 0.1% of earners took home 1.3% of the national income; by 2007 this had grown to 6.5%. In 1979 the top 1% took home 5.93% of the national income; by 2007 this had grown to 14.5%. In 1979 the top 10% took home 28.4% of the national income; by 2007 this had grown to 40%. In 2010 alone, executive pay in FTSE 100 companies went up by an average of 49%, against a 2.7% rise amongst employees in these firms. Top bosses now take home nearly 7% of total …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged boardroom pay, fair pay, high pay commission and will hutton | 9 Comments