Author Archives: Prateek Buch

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Nick Clegg on being Nick Clegg in The House magazine

By Prateek Buch | Published 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,

…

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

New Lib Dem appointments to government

By Prateek Buch | Published 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, norman lamb | 6 Comments

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

By Prateek Buch | Published 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 …

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

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

By Prateek Buch | Published 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 …

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

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

By Prateek Buch | Published 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 …

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

Lib Dem council candidate in trouble over online comments

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

Oh dear…

A number of posts on [Liberal Democrat council by-election candidate Dave Stones'] 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, redcar and cleveland council | 4 Comments

Clegg’s priorities for 2012: showing how Lib Dems are making tax fairer, tackling excessive pay, and re-engaging with Europe

By Prateek Buch | Published 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

…

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

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

By Prateek Buch | Published 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

…

Posted in News | 12 Comments

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

By Prateek Buch | Published 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

…

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

LibLink: In defence of the Lib Dems

By Prateek Buch | Published 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

…

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

LDVideo: Ending the War on Drugs

By Prateek Buch | Published 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

It’s heartening to see such a clear-cut call for a more humane, evidence-based drugs policy as part of a widening debate on the matter. As we reported recently the government has taken positive steps towards reviewing the UK’s stance on drugs, and this type of discussion will only bring forward …

Posted in News | 2 Comments

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

By Prateek Buch | Published 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 …

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

Opinion: troubling times in the jobs market

By Prateek Buch | Published 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, …

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

Author Archives: Prateek Buch

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