Employee Ownership in the UK

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, called yesterday for what he called "responsible capitalism," observing that "Firms that have engaged employees, who own a chunk of their company, are just as dynamic, just as savvy, as their competitors. In fact they often perform better. The 1980s was the decade of share ownership. I want this to be the decade of employee share ownership." Clegg is the leader of the Liberal Democrats, which is part of the governing coalition along with the Conservative Party. Specifically, Clegg appears to be promoting tax incentives and a "right to request," which Rowena Mason described in an article in London's Telegraph as giving employees "an automatic opportunity to ask their employer for shares." The other two major parties appear to be advocating similar ideas, with the Conservative Party's David Cameron calling for a "genuinely inclusive and popular capitalism" and the Labor Party claiming that Clegg's proposals are based on their own earlier ideas.