The Disraeli Room
The Disraeli Room
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Opportunity Beyond Equality, Part Two
Professor John Milbank speaks to The Disraeli Room on what he means by virtue - and how it can transform our society at every level for good
"...virtue is to do with ethos and education (politics for the sake of paideia and not the other way around); the alternative is virtue as tarted-up merit - and so any idea that there might be a 'national virtue panel' is hardly exhaustive! What Blond and I are talking about is a total shift in ethos at every level. This would include trying to build good ethical practice into the way the market operates. Such could be achieved partly by example – firms that are co-ops between owners, workers and consumers can win out in the long run by crowding out bad practice. This is because people will support fair treatment, better products at fairer prices - and so on..."
Bring Back The Machine
Guest Contributor, William Brett, on why localism is nothing to do with virtue and everything to do with organised power
"...But the machines also performed another task: they created a communal and civil political culture that stretched its sinews down into every last street and tenement building. They were the cardinal element in the process of naturalisation for new immigrants, and they performed a micro-level public service by providing for those in need (in exchange for votes, of course, but a service is a service). This was community outreach in action, but without the whiff of elitism that often accompanies such work. And it was above all political, ensuring that residents were deeply enmeshed in the civic fibre of their home towns and cities..."
Get With The Programmers
ResPublica's Deputy Director, Asheem Singh, on where left and right are getting it wrong on the 'Post-Bureaucratic Age'
"...Foucault called 'good practice'... the systematic collection of data by a Government or business about its service users, so as to be able to offer them products they want at moments of weakness – but products that they may not need or may not even be in their own interests. Consider the civil liberties implications of the new 'terrorism-busting,' 'naked' airport scanners, and we arrive at something approaching an example of what I mean here... And neither left nor right has made the semblance of an effort to seriously engage with these issues...."
Safeguarding Children (Or, My Son’s Bottom)
ResPublica's Sandra Gruescu on the how the 'rules' really don't help working parents
"...The next morning I spoke to the staff and they told me they are not allowed to wipe my son’s bottom because of ‘safeguarding children’ guidelines. One told me it is a national guideline, another told me it is a guideline that is in place just at this school. I asked her, “are you expecting me to leave work and come in to clean my son and then go back to work?” The answer was of course not a yes or a no, but “these are the rules...”
Innovative Ownership
Ownership, Self-Organisation and the Post Bureaucratic Age: the ambient conditions for a radical New Centre Ground?
"...This part of the Cameron agenda is an exciting one for anyone who cares about spreading ownership more widely. While we have argued that the Conservatives' thinking on the post bureaucratic age is at times too evangelical and pays too little attention to the possible pitfalls, there can be no doubt that tying the issue of ownership into the vision of a world beyond bureaucracy presents us with a powerful statement of ethos for our nation..."
Adult Economics
Chief Executive of the Urban Forum, Toby Blume, explains the logic of intervention in a market where irrationality is sometimes rational
"...Although it is seen as acceptable to lose money in a declining market, failing to match profits in the midst of a bubble is regarded by financial institutions (and their investors) as a cardinal sin. So instead institutions blithely follow the herd in offering products they know to be of dubious quality. It may be rational for an individual institution to follow this path in order to retain their investors, but the overall effect is anything but rational. The only way to sort out these perverse incentives is through positive, measured government intervention..."
AV It!
The Great Electoral Reform Debate Part Two: Director of Research at the Electoral Reform Society, Lewis Baston, with a withering piece directed at opponents of real electoral reform
"...Qvortrup points out that AV in Australia sometimes produces elections in which a party wins more votes but fewer seats than its main opponent. This is not an argument for keeping FPTP, whose track record in Britain on this is appalling. In three of the four close elections (margin of victory less than 2 percentage points) since 1918, the party with fewer votes won more seats (1929, 1951, February 1974). A system with a 75 per cent failure rate in testing conditions is unfit for purpose..."
The Climate Conundrum
Why discourse on climate change needs to step away from the scandals - and the stereotypes
"...The uproar around these scandals comes in part as a result of the perception that the environment is sacred and we have an associated duty to protect it. This view places the issue of ‘climate change’ on a pedestal, removed from the everyday and ordinary. For those of us living in cities, ‘nature’ is often removed from the ordinary everyday experience of our lives, which only goes to elevate the pedestal. In fact, scientists themselves hold a rather 'pedestalistic' position in our discourse and so the second part of the uproar/shock is tied to a more general shock that scientists, too, improvise, extrapolate, hold prejudices - or even guess..."
The Assault On British Liberty
Where left and right are getting it wrong on civil liberties - and how an approach that places civil society at its heart could be the answer
"...Despite the Government’s woeful record on civil liberties, the Conservatives have been for the most part silent on their substantive views towards this crucial issue. As Francesca Klug notes, it remains unclear how the promise for a British Bill of Rights will redress these faults. There is little discussion from the right of rescinding Labour’s more illiberal laws, and then-Shadow Home Secretary David Davis’ principled-if-confusing resignation over 42 days was treated with indifference or embarrassment by the Tories..."
Civil Partnerships: An Opportunity And A Test
Oxford University Don and NextLeft contributor, Stuart White, opens a Disraeli Room cross-party debate on the equalities bill, civil partnerships and religious liberty with a call to action
"...The proposed amendment is not intended to place any obligation to host such ceremonies on those faith communities who are unwilling. The supporters of the amendment believe in religious liberty. Those faith communities who wish to be able to host civil partnership registrations on their premises should be free to do so. And those communities with a corporate view against allowing this should be no less free to refuse to do so. Thus, the amendment, placed by Lord Alli before the Lords this Friday afternoon, states that: ‘For the avoidance of doubt, this clause does not oblige any religious organisation to host civil partnership ceremonies if they do not wish to'..."
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.
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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..."
