Adrian Sanders
Main Page: Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)(12 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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Vince Cable
Yes, this is about different types of society, but of course there are many wider issues than the remuneration policies of public listed companies and many aspects of fairness and inequality. I simply make the point that many other private enterprise economies —Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Japan—have a much more disciplined approach to executive pay than has been the case in the UK, and many of their companies do very well commercially.
Mr Adrian Sanders (Torbay) (LD)
The Secretary of State will be aware of the book “The Spirit Level”, which suggests that the most successful economies and societies are those in which the gap between the richest and the poorest is the narrowest. Does he believe that the announcements that he has made today will widen or narrow that gap?
Vince Cable
They will certainly narrow it, in contrast with the trend over the past decade that was identified in a recent OECD survey. It showed that almost uniquely in the developed world, the big disparities between the top and bottom are widening in Britain. Today’s announcement is one key element in rectifying that adverse trend, which we have seen particularly in the past decade.