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Disraeli Room

What is international aid for?

"... not enough research has been conducted to ascertain whether aid projects do in fact ‘win hearts and minds’. The research that has been done suggests that this is not the case and that perceptions are to a great extent based on wider issues of foreign policy. After the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan, the US pledged $50m and took an active and visible role in the relief. A widely-cited poll taken a month after the quake showed that the percentage of Pakistanis with a favorable opinion of the US had doubled, from 23% to 46%. However, it took o

Samuel Middleton
5
Three ideas for mutualising Britain

"... Tessa Jowell has continued to advance the mutualism agenda within the Labour Party, most recently convincing Labour leadership forerunner David Miliband to propose that the BBC be run as a co-operative.This is a welcome proposal and one which will hopefully push this debate forward, raising the further question: where else could we open the public up to the mutual? ..."

Adam Schoenborn
37
Big Society - Small State?

"... Some of the leading players in the Government seem to be saying that there is a role for the state in empowering community flourishing. This rhetoric is all very well. But often what has come hand in hand with a neoliberal free market approach has been a strong belief in low taxation, especially for the wealthy, and in cuts in the size, nature and extent of the welfare state ..."

Jules Peck
13
AV: No BNP

"... All is not lost for the AV Referendum. What has been overlooked is the potential for AV to raise the barriers to extremism in British politics. Extremist parties like the BNP know that the first past the post system can potentially deliver a Westminster seat to the BNP with only a minority of voters supporting them. AV kills that opportunity. Labour cannot afford to give the Liberal Democrats free rein to campaign amongst part of its ethnic minority core vote on an AV: No BNP platform. Labour may be forced for moral and political reasons to support AV-and that could be a gamechanger ..."

Professor Alan Riley
24
Why monarchy matters

"... Indeed, it is precisely this emerging consensus that has enabled a crooked Commons to earnestly urge ‘reform’ of a rather less crooked House of Lords, and an even less crooked Monarchy, and all in the name of making the system less crooked ..."

Michael Merrick
114
100 Days

"... the Prime Minister needs to clarify whether state spending on early intervention services (particularly Sure Start), asset-building devices (the Savings Gateway and Child Trust Funds), culture and regional development is, in principle, bad or good – and therefore if these particular cuts are, in principle, permanent or temporary. If he won’t take pledge the latter, the n

Adam Schoenborn
3
A cross between Pol Pot and Attila the Hun, or more Mother Teresa?

Jules Peck
9
How much should we reform council housing? Part 2

"... This is an area where a Liberal Democrat concern for tenant rights and a Conservative desire to grow the ownership state can, as they should, move hand-in-hand. Disregarding the current proposals because they go too far rather than not far enough will kill any possibility of this discussion bearing fruit ..."

Simon Beard
1
How much should we reform council housing? Part 1

"... Most troublingly, the effect of removing life tenure will be both to remove some of the long term residents, who often have an important role in providing community cohesion through so called ‘linking capital’, and reducing the economic diversity within estates, meaning reducing the ‘bridging capital’ that might connect those with few opportunities to others who could offer them more. Either of these effects alone could be profoundly damaging, but together they will significantly harm people who are already the socially worst-off ..."

Simon Beard
1
William Hague's softer side

"... Against this global and historical backdrop, William Hague recently made his first major speech as Foreign Secretary, promising a new and strategic approach to foreign policy in order to increase British influence in the world. Hague argued that in an era of global information, soft power has become crucial for Britain to achieve its desired outcomes ..."

Florinda Pjetri
17

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