The Disraeli Room
The Disraeli Room
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On The Eve Of Our Launch
Here we go...
At ResPublica we are hugely excited about the official launch of our think tank. We have been overwhelmed by the interest shown and look forward to having a really good time and commencing our work with a flourish. In advance of all that, here is a small selection of some of the nice things that some of the newspapers have said about us so far...
Provocative Little Platoons
ResPublica's Blog launches Monday 15th February
"...Great things happen when people come together. Where would that irascible, brilliant - yet increasingly blind - old liberal, Milton, have been without his much put-upon aides and his beleaguered kin, who wrote down his verse as he spoke it from memory, word for word. Verse so rich and perfect because of the lucid separation of blind genius - yet useless and lost to time were it not for the simple, human kindnesses of that little platoon around him? ..."
The Disraeli Room Goes Live
Launching ResPublica's Blog on an exciting day for the New Centre Ground
"...We begin today with a post from Ed Mayo, ResPublica fellow and Secretary General of Co-operatives UK and follow up with a post by blogger and thinker, Michael Merrick. Tomorrow, among others, we welcome to The Disraeli Room the man who, according to the BBC, is the 'World Authority on Referendums,' Dr Matt Qvortrup. But first we will have Phillip Blond, ResPublica's director writing about the radical new centre ground being forged ahead of the coming election - and what it means for both left and right..."
Are We About To Remake The Broken Middle?
ResPublica's Director, Phillip Blond, on why the debate is shifting towards ownership
"...The lack of self-critique on both left and right underpins the lack of economic vision and the dearth of transformative thinking. Where for instance will future British growth come from? Consider that the majority of our economic growth over the last ten years was in financial services, housing and the public sector, and this precisely is why radical public sector reform is a sine qua non of a transformative economic platform, and why today's news on the Conservatives' approach to co-operative ownership in the public sector is so exciting..."
The Local 'Local'
Secretary-General of Co-Operatives UK, Ed Mayo, on how co-operatives are getting the rounds in
"...The pub closure rate has increased over recent years, from 316 net closures in 2006, to 1,409 in 2007 and 1,866 in 2008. The UK currently has around one pub for every 1,100 people, but pubs stand or fall by being local. Research I have put together for Co-operatives UK shows that consumers are less concerned with what drinks are on offer than that the ‘local’ is in fact local..."
Social Localism, Not Local Socialism
Guest Contributor, Michael Merrick, on the perils of unthinking devolution
"...the notion I am trying to explore is whether a localism that confines itself to tinkering with political structures and processes ('from Whitehall to town halls'), and neglects to argue the positive case for local involvement in formal and informal social institutions, runs the risk of further entrenching precisely that which those exasperated with the burden of an over-mighty state have for so long sought to counter. In short, could it be the case that localism without a coherent notion of 'society' risks becoming that which it seeks to repudiate?"
'Gender Equality' - But Not For Daddy
ResPublica's Sandra Gruescu, on equal rights and responsibilities for fathers
"...Mothers are paid for 39 weeks, fathers for 12 weeks. No equal rights here; when it comes to 'gender equality,' fathers in the UK do badly. Currently, they can only claim two weeks paternity leave on £123 per week. Mothers can get up to nine months. Even when you deduct the two months or so for a mother to recover from birth and settle with the baby, the difference in leave entitlement is still stark..."
Opportunity Beyond Equality, Part One
Professor John Milbank speaks to The Disraeli Room on why the liberal consensus on 'inherited inequality' is broken
"...What is the problem with the Rawlsian model as regards delivering equality? The following I think: Rawls is bound to be limited to equality of opportunity and this leads to an aporia. It’s true that he expands liberalism to include levelling out of disadvantages of birth etc but only in the interests of a Lockean or Kantian equality of negative freedom. Why is this aporetic? Because logically it would require one to abolish in every generation for the children the acquired and legitimate meritocratic differentials established by their parents..."
Cameron@TED
Author and ResPublica Fellow, Jules Peck, in a provocative post, urges David Cameron to be more radical on general wellbeing and economic sustainability
"...In an attempt to wash away the Thatcherite ‘nasty party’ epithet, Cameron has in the past nodded towards the Big Idea of wellbeing-economics and that “there is such a thing as society,” but soon let the concepts slip back into the shadows... It's also notable that this week's ‘Never Voted Tory Before?’ campaign has zero mention of sustainability, climate change, energy security or wellbeing. Clearly these issues have fallen well off the party’s agenda and vision..."
Little Platoons For Peace
How ResPublica's commitment to the associative society can foster transformative approaches to security studies
"...It is interesting that representatives of the military... realise that this is as much about wielding “soft power” as it is about destroying the Taliban. What form does soft power take? Consider, more than 80% of working-age males in Afghanistan are small-scale farmers. Consider, drug traders are often able to exploit the negative choice architecture which confronts these farmers, by frequently providing cash advances for poppies at the beginning of planting season, routinely committing to buy the crop at a set price, and on occasion even offering technical assistance to farmers. This is soft power as realised through civil society..."
About the Disraeli Room
The Disraeli Room is ResPublica’s blog, dedicated to radical, progressive ideas and analysis. ResPublica’s experts, fellows and friends of all political stripes from the worlds of policy making, social innovation and entrepreneurship meet here to swap ideas, debate and provoke.
Tag Cloud
Most read blog posts
- by Alan Riley 17
"...Too many Conservative commentators look back to the glory days of Baroness Thatcher and assume that all is required is a return to the eternal Thatcherite verities of sound money, low taxes, a strong defence, tough on Europe and tough on immigration to deliver a substantial Parliamentary majority.
This recipe did not work in 1997, 2001 and 2005, and only the more progressive message of David Cameron in 2010 delivered substantial gains, which despite being considerable left the Conservatives still short of an overall majority..." - by Asheem Singh 40
"...A small, social start up finds that its biggest competitor is the state it is trying to help. Not only that but the state attempts to crowd out its competitor by using the very same domain name. She would be entitled to ask: whose side are they on?..."
- by Phillip Blond 5
"...The existing First Past the Post (FPTP) system is creaking at the seams, it was defensible when the threshold for winning an election was around 45 per cent of the vote and the two parties that alternated in power could each rely on 40 per cent or more..."
