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Disraeli Room

The Liturgy of Finance

...as initially Maurice Glasman and now George Monbiot have pointed out, certain freewheeling banking practices which helped to cause our current global recession were only made possible by a routing of even American monetary activity through the City of London. This is because it is uniquely independent of the normal scope of national law, while the power of corporate financial bodies over its local self-government was deliberately increased under Tony Blair. Yet far from this representing a survival of medieval corruption into the modern era, as Monbiot implies, it is rather...

Professor John Milbank New Economies, Innovative Markets
7
Community Franchising: Local innovation for national practice

...At times in history the Church has been pivotal in delivering our country’s social welfare system and, contrastingly, there are other periods when the Church has been woefully disconnected from the needs of our society. Today the country’s 30,000+ local churches are increasingly involved in social action and serving people through thousands of Community Franchise projects...

Matt Bird Models and Partnerships for Social Prosperity
3
The subtle skill of match-making

'Upon the education of the people of this country, the fate of this country depends'. Disraeli's conviction still rings true today, and indeed, resonates loudly in the public ear. The quality of education, the level of graduate skills, the standard of achievement in schools, etc., are all topics of everyday debate and controversy. Indeed, comparing performance of the British sector against international benchmarks is becoming a kind of national obsession commensurate to the passion expressed by Disraeli...

Dr Patricia Kaszynska New Economies, Innovative Markets
11
Reforming Immigration Policy

It is undeniable, especially from where I sit, that the amount of heat generated by immigration debates significantly surpasses the amount of light produced. One reason, I suspect, is that none of the UK think tanks that devote a significant amount of their time to the subject come to it without an existing agenda. Whichever one you agree with, Migration Watch or the IPPR are unlikely to surprise you with their conclusions faced with any particular piece of evidence. The new think tank at Oxford University has not developed the authority of a body like the Institute of Fiscal Studies....

4
Firing up the speech-writers, firing up society

...You might assume that David Cameron made more mentions of ‘society’ because everyone knows that Margaret Thatcher thought there was no such thing. Except that her 1980 conference speech actually said a great deal about ‘society’ even though she was quoted, seven years later, as declaring that society does not exist. The score is something like a 8-5 victory to Margaret Thatcher....

Professor Simon Lee
3
Can the Economy Recover with almost 2.5 million people out of Work?

...The recession has been tough for everyone and people continue to struggle. Inflation is still above the two per cent mark and is likely to rise to almost five per cent before the end of 2011. In part, those has to do with the VAT increase at the start of the year pushing prices up, but with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development suggesting that only 25 per cent of workers will get a payrise in 2011, things are likely to stay tough....

0
Supercharging Social Finance

...Policy thinking in this area has focussed, understandably enough, on the ‘supply side’: creating the products to be invested in, and the infrastructure of intermediaries to link investors with those products. But the fruit of these labours could go unrealised unless equal attention is paid to the ‘demand side’: will investors really be eager to dip their toes in the waters of social investment?...

0
Skills for better economic outcomes

...Of course there will always be small anomalies in a huge and diverse labour market, but this is taking place on far too large a scale and we have to ask why this is happening and how we can ensure that public and private investment in training actually leads to economically valuable skills....

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Powering Urban Economies

...it can be no accident that we now have a Minister for Decentralisation and Cities, in the shape of the Rt Hon Greg Clark MP. This is a significant step forward in the recognition of cities as solutions to economic growth, sustainability and social cohesion. We are on the cusp of change, but also at a moment of real economic need. There is much to be done and a short time in which to do it if cities are to play their full role in driving economic growth and productivity and rebalancing the economy....

5
The Ageing Time Bomb

As a woman born in 1967 I have a 16% probability of living until I am 100 according to latest research from the Office for National Statistics. Compare this to my mother, 30 years my senior, whose probability is just 6%. Whereas 26% of my daughter's peer group, 30 years younger, are likely to see their hundredth birthday. With each generation, the changing demographic due to ageing compounds the stresses on pension funding....

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