Our People

Our People

Phillip Blond

Director

Phillip is an internationally recognised political thinker and social and economic commentator. He bridges the gap between politics and practice, offering strategic consultation and policy formation to governments, businesses and organisations across the world. He founded ResPublica in 2009 and is an academic, journalist and author. Prior to entering politics and public policy, he was a senior lecturer in theology and philosophy, teaching at the Universities of Exeter and Cumbria. He is the author of Red Tory (Faber and Faber 2010), which sought to redefine the centre ground of British politics around the ideas of civil association, mutual ownership and shared enterprise.

His ideas have strongly influenced the agenda around devolution and public services, and have helped to redefine British and international politics. Phillip’s recent reports, such as Restoring Britain’s City States: Devolution, public service reform and local economic growth (2015), The Missing Multipliers: Devolution to Britain’s Key Cities (2015), and Devo Max – Devo Manc: Place-based public services (2014), have driven policy change in city deals and health devolution.

Further papers he has authored and co-authored while at ResPublica include A New Bargain: people, productivity and prosperity (2018), Devo 2.0: The Case for Counties (2017), Ticket to Ride: How high speed rail for Liverpool can realise the Northern Powerhouse (2016), Make or Break: Why Britain needs a manufacturing resurgence and how we can help it to take place (2015) Holistic Mission: Social action and the Church of England (2013), Marriage: Union for the future or contract for the present (2013), Military Academies: Tackling disadvantage, improving ethos and changing outcome (2012), Asset Building for Children: Creating a new civic savings platform for young people (2010), To Buy, To Bid, To Build: Community Rights for an Asset Owning Democracy (2010) and The Ownership State: Restoring excellence, innovation and ethos to the public services (2009).

He has written extensively in the British and foreign press including The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, the Financial Times, Prospect, the New Statesman and The New York Times. As a renowned speaker and communicator, Phillip is a frequent broadcaster, appearing on the BBC and Sky as well as in foreign media. Through both his writing and speaking, he argues for a new economic and social politics based around free association and group formation, new forms of capitalisation and market entry.

COVID-19: Are we truly free or merely enslaved to ourselves?

‘Through discipline comes freedom’. Over two thousand years ago Aristotle warned that freedom means more than just “doing as one likes”. Ancient Greek societies survived...

Airtight on Asbestos – A campaign to save our future

On the 24th of November 1999, the United Kingdom banned the use of asbestos. Twenty years later and this toxic mineral still plagues public health,...

Rationality & Regionality: A more effective way to dealing with climate change | by Hamza King

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The Disraeli Room
What are the Implications of proroguing Parliament?

During his campaign, Boris Johnson made it very clear that when it comes to proroguing Parliament, he is “not going to take anything off the...

ResPublica’s submission to CMA

Download the full text of the submission On 3rd July 2019, the CMA launched a market study into online platforms and the digital advertising market...

The Disraeli Room
Productive Places | WSP and ResPublica

On Wednesday 31st October ResPublica and WSP hosted a panel discussion in Parliament to launch WSP’s Productive Places paper and debate its findings. The report...

ResPublica’s Response to the Autumn Budget 2018

The 2018 Budget delivered by Philip Hammond was the first since 1962 to be delivered on a day other than a Wednesday, and was moved...

ResPublica Response to changes to the National Planning Policy Framework

The Government’s housing announcements on the 5th March were the first substantial change to the planning system since the Coalition reforms six years ago. The...

Food poverty: Time to lift the veil?

A century on from Charles Booth’s famous Poverty Map of London, accurate information on poverty has never been more important. So the findings of...