Articles & Publications
Most read articles
- by Phillip Blond 5
It is now clear that we are at one of those epoch-changing moments in British political history. Just as the 'Winter of Discontent' in 78/79 marked a paradigm shift, an utter and complete reversal of the pre-existing order and the arrival of something new, something revolutionary and something transformative - so the present unprecedented debt crisis of 2008/2009 is doing the same.
- by Phillip Blond 11
- by Phillip Blond 36
What is conservatism? Various derogatory claims are often propagated. Firstly some claim that it is a mere pragmatism – that it has no ideas, guiding theme or undergirding foundation, that it is doing what works without direction or belief. Such a vapid managerialism is indeed ubiquitous, but its reach does not extend to modern conservatism. Others say the Tories are the party of vested interest – they represent the status quo, they will always defend the rich against the poor, the strong against the weak and the haves against the have-nots. Again this description captures a position, but it is not one occupied by modern conservatism. Others still say that conservatism is best expressed by a pure libertarianism, that extreme individualism, the glorification of self-interest, and the hatred of society is what best represents Tory philosophy. That again captures much, but not modern conservatism.
- by Editor 10
‘The Venture Society’, a flagship report from ResPublica's Civil Society and Social Innovation Unit, was launched at the SHINE UnConference on 13th May 2010. Since the publication of this report we have been inundated with ideas and messages from social enterprises who are making the ideas happen in practice and whose ideas go with the grain of ours. These include London Creative Labs and the SHINE hub in Leeds. The big society will not happen unless we create the infrastructure that allows those who do such great work to scale and expand even further.
We are about to undertake the second stage of the Venture Society work where we platform and work with similar incubators so as to create government programmes that can help make the Venture Society a reality. If you run or have been benefited by one such, please leave a note in the comments or contact report author Asheem Singh at asheem.singh@respublica.org.uk
- by Phillip Blond 4
Over the last 30 years the Anglo-Saxon world has adopted the most disingenuous of economic systems. Under the guise of capitalism for all, we have produced monopoly benefits for the few and wage serfdom for the many. Via an undue focus on nominal speculation rather than real investment, an extraordinary amount of wealth has been generated by capital and exchange rate arbitrage, but rather than trickling downwards to nourish the real economy this wealth has leveraged upwards further enriching the already wealthy and pricing out of the investment market all those who cannot amass such advantage.
- by Editor 13
ResPublica Director Phillip Blond has been speaking to American audiences about Red Toryism, his ideas have drawn the attention of columnist David Brooks of the New York Times, who has written about his visit and ideas here.
We have posted a collection of some of the media surrounding Phillip's tour at our Alternative Media Wrap on our blog, The Disraeli Room, which can be found here and further blogs can be found here.
- by Editor 3
Acclaimed thinker and ResPublica fellow John Seddon's sustained campaign to get rid of the 'dangerous nonsense' of targets, benchmarks, quangos and assessments in the public sector has alarmed central government officials and civil servants but delighted chief executives and managers in local government, the NHS, police and elsewhere. ResPublica hosted the launch of his new book, 'Delivering Public Services That Work/Systems Thinking in the Public Sector: Case Studies’ on 9th March, to a packed house of innovators across management, academia and government.
- by Phillip Blond 2
Phillip Blond's talk on "The decline of civil society and what it means for society" focuses on the New Civic Settlement: outlining a new politics of civic association. The talk outlines how civic society has been eroded, and what we can do to rebuild it and how a reconstituted associative culture can help solve public policy problems which neither the state nor the market have the ability to solve.
- by Phillip Blond 3
"...Our society has become like a ladder whose rungs are growing further and further apart so it is increasingly difficult to ascend. Those at the top have accelerated away from the rest of us by practicing a self-serving and state-sanctioned capitalism that knows no morals and exists only to finance its own excess..."
- by Phillip Blond 7
"...Of course, Cameron hadn’t entirely ditched his better plans. In the same months the party slipped back into its old habits, it also launched more radical measures—for instance giving all public sector workers the right to take over the services where they work. But a negative message about a negative situation is never good politics, and such things went unnoticed against the backbeat of austerity conservatism. Without a positive account of how the debt could be cut more smartly, the Tories seemed like they were driving the ship of state onto the rocks to avoid an oncoming storm. Brown seemed like the safe option..."
