‘Noisy bishops’ know more about meaning of marriage

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The conclusion of the week was in The Guardian’s balanced blog by Michael White: “Noisy bishops aren’t always wrong”. High praise indeed for the Church from that quarter.

Comment: Cable's university coup threatens fairness

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Following a political storm, Les Ebdon has been appointed the new chair of the Office of Fair Access. The controversy over his appointment has been presented, or rath......

Phillip Blond & Graham Allen: We need a magna carta for true local government

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

What if everyone everywhere cou............

What do we want capitalism to do for us?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday [Sunday 15th

Britain can build a Europe outside the euro

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Common purpose

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Mutualism represents perhaps the most flexible and beneficial way of transforming our public services. Happ......

Dave must take the Red Tory turn

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The “big society” was the Tories’ chance to remake a broken society and economy. The opportunity was missed. Now, unless Cameron tackles the excesses of those at the top, he will be betraying those at the bottom. In many ways, ......

Putting the 'social' back into social housing

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Social......

Britain's Liberal Riots

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

.........

England's Riotous Values

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The riots that swept England in early August shocked the country, mainly because there seemed to be no guiding m...

The Future of the UK-US Relationship: Essential, not just Special

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

They both came of age in the 1980s. They played table tennis at a school in South London. They took their jackets off and served burgers off a barbecue at a garden party. They joked with each other; they reminisced about their relationship; they smiled for the cameras. Their wives too seemed to bond perfectly well. The air was filled with such hope and possibility that it was hard to imagine that only three years ago, the taller of the two allegedly dismissed the other as a “lightweight”. The two had obviously made considerable progress in their relationship, but was this the blossoming of a new and genuine romance, or was it just another ins...

The absent foundation: Conservatism in Australia

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

On arrival in Australia, the political visitor is immediately confronted with cries and commentary about an absence of leadership, a dearth of political vision and governance by focus group.The ruling Labor party seem to have abandoned one technocrat in Kevin Rudd for a single issue autocrat in Julia Gillard - the absence of ideology on the left appears compounded by a similar confusion on the right with pragmatism giving way, as it always does, to the politics of personality.While Australia seems rudderless, the country is being buffeted by one of its most fundamental economic restructurings in years - a commodity and res...

The Future of Conservatism in the UK

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

What is conservatism? Some claim that it is a mere pragmatism - that it has no ideas, guiding theme or undergirding foundation, that it is doing what works without direction or belief. Such a vapid managerialism is indeed ubiquitous, but its reach does not extend to modern conservatism.Others say the British Tories are the party of vested interest - they represent the status quo, they will always defend the rich against the poor, the strong against the weak and the haves against the have-nots. Again this captures a differing position, but it is not one occupied by modern conservatism.Others still say that conservatism is b...

The Art of Skinning Cats: On Social Innovation and Evidence

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

When Welshman John Toshack was head coach at Real Madrid Football Club his post-match conferences became the stuff of folklore. Not because they were particularly feisty or insightful; rather because he had the habit of transliterating obscure British phrases into Spanish and thus wildly reinventing for better or for worse his adopted language. One of his most famous literary inventions was received with a huge roar from the assembled press, for it was a Spanish take on the common British proverb, 'There's more than one way to skin a cat,' which means that there are several ways to achieve the task you need to achieve. That proverb...

The ‘Big Society’ is here to stay – but we must be patient with its intentions

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

To build a ‘Big Society’ we require first a shift in culture. In Britain, more communities are becoming fragmented, more people are living alone and trust between individuals has plummeted – all within the past fifty years. Further, too few people are supporting those left behind by the state – only 31% of UK citizens contribute 90% of all volunteer hours – and volunteering itself has recently been on the decline. But blame should not be weighted on certain individuals; both the rising dominance of the state and the (supposedly) ‘free’ market have had a large part to play.Of interest is the philosophical root from which both an over...

Working up a sweat: Giving people a share in a property they do up could help increase homeownership

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This article originally appeared in Inside Housing on 13th May 2011.Last week’s announcement by housing minister Grant Shapps of new support for self-build housing will provide valuable opportunities for those with the skills, time and commitment to invest in building their own homes. But if support for self-build is limited to new development, government - and housing providers - will miss an important opportunity to radically expand access to ownership while investing in our existing housing stock.Growing interest in building the ...

Why housing associations are at the heart of 'big society'

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This article originally appeared in the Guardian Professional on Monday 16th May 2011.In the past 35 years housing associations have transformed from a relatively small, diverse sub-sector of civil society into a big business. After decades of stock transfer and comparatively generous grant funding of new development, housing associations now provide a vital public service to over 2 million households across England - one in every ten homes across the country - and turn over some £4bn a year.Surprisingly, at a time when the...

A true Tory economy embraces both supermarkets and communities

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This article first appeared on ConservativeHome on 15 April 2011.In response to ResPublica's new report on how localism can save Britain’s small retailers, Tim Montgomerie laid out his vision for a true Tory economy, a “Tesco capitalism” where:“Our only job is to ensure competition,...

The first Free School on its way to opening in London

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Free Schools are non-profit, independent state-funded schools set up in response to what local people say they want and need in order to improve education for children in their community. The first free schools are opening in September 2011. The West London Free School has been the first to sign a funding agreement with the Government, and will open next autumn with 120 students, starting with Year 7s and then filling up year group by year group. Parents will contribute by finding contacts with other schools and clubs for sports, finding visiting speakers and volunteering in other extra-curricular activities. In addition, the Parent...

Better for less?

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

This article is part of a feature exploring how innovation will be vital over the coming years to ensure public services can achieve better for less. But where is it most needed and how will it be achieved? Nick Pearce, Joyce Moseley, Brian Bowsher, Lucy Neville-Rolfe and Susan Anderson also share their views.This article appeared originally on the website of Ethos Journal, published by Serco....

Stephen Lloyd

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:09:57 GMT

Stephen Lloyd is senior partner of Bates Wells & Braithwaite London LLP, the leading firm of charity and social enterprise lawyers in the country. He is also chairman of the Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action and vice-chairman of Global Cool. Over the years he has served on the boards of sixteen other charities and is currently Chairman of CaSE – Charity and Social Enterprise Insurance Management LLP and Trustees Unlimited LLP. Stephen has been in the forefront of UK charity law development and was instrumental in getting the promotion of sustainable development recognised as a charitable purpose, a concept he became interested in while setting up his own enterprise,The Community Interest Company, with a friend. He is the author of numerous publications, including: "Charities – The New Law"; "Charities, Trading and the Law"; "The Fundraiser’s Guide to the Law"; and "Keeping It Legal". He is especially interested in fostering social change through legal innovation. ...

Big Society agenda

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

“….the Big Society is about achieving a fundamental change in both public expectations and the ways that we live and work, in order to gradually create a society characterised by stronger links between individuals and within communities, with greater levels of social cohesion and equity between individuals, and a reduced reliance on diktat from or intervention by the state…”. Click here to read full article.....

The Big Society: innovation or slogan?

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Hopes and fears for 2011

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT

ResPublica Deputy Director Asheem Singh is one of a baker's dozen of movers and shakers featured in 'Hopes and Fears for 2011'.......

Lawrence Bloom

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:31:15 GMT

Lawrence Bloom is Executive Chairman of Bhairavi Energy. His current activities also include Chairman of the UN Environmental Programme, Green Economy Initiative, Green Cities, and Buildings and Transport Council. He was the first Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Davos, Global Agenda Council on Urban Management and is currently an Alumnas of the whole network of Global Agenda Councils. \r\n\r\nHe is a Vice Chair of the Climate Prosperity Alliance, a Senior Fellow and member of the Board of Directors of Global Urban Development, Co-Chair of the GUD program committee on Generating Sustainable Economic Development, and Vice Chairman of Climate Prosperity Strategies LLC. He is also an advisor to the Sustainable Technologies Development Foundation and a Member of the Jury of the Globe Award for Sustainable Cities, held annually in Stockholm, Sweden.\r\n\r\nAmong a number of senior positions held in the past, Lawrence sat on the Executive Committee of the Intercontinental Hotel Group from where he managed their $3Bn global real estate portfolio. In 1989, his passion for sustainability led him to assist David Gershon in creating the Global Action Plan, the first initiative to recognise the impact individuals could make by choosing sustainable lifestyles. \r\n...

Big Society: What does it mean for environmental action?

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"...the source of real environmental change is local communities, not government..."...

Speak, Unquelled Spirits

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"...The UK has a dynamic and vibrant potential of social entrepreneurship waiting desperately to be recognised and supported financially..."...

The austerity drive must not derail winning the 'big society'

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"... The "big society" can also address market failure – it can and should begin with local pubs, shops or post offices, the government is encouraging community right to buy, making saving what matters a financial possibility. Co-ownership is becoming central to the coalition and with mass mutualisation being enacted for the post office, the extension of this to private sector is now becoming thinkable and desirable. Rebuilding society through economic equity is how social capital and real capital converge and create the world we want ..."...

Reclaiming a Liberal legacy

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"...There is a transformative Toryism – founded on a broad economic and social account of the "big society" that can and should be allied with Grimond's original insights of free association and participative economics..."...

Cameron: a new radical

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The full article is available here. Britain needed a radical Government: the economic crisis, the scandal of corruption in the P......

We won't help the poor by increasing benefits

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"...So the coalition must be genuinely progressive, they must help the poor, but how? What is it that really helps those at the bottom of the income scale? Here, the basic assumption of the IFS report can legitimately be questioned. Is it so self-evident that giving benefit recipients slightly more actually helps to tackle poverty? We now know that relative inequality is just as socially damaging as absolute inequality. Why? Because we measure ourselves not against some abstract standard of life in the past but against those in our own society; as status-seeking creatures, how we are in relation to others is hugely important..."...

Beyond Localism: rethinking British governance

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The latest edition of the British Politics Review features an article by Senior Researcher Adam Schoenborn arguing that the Coalition Government must devolve to deliver:"Political decentralisation alone will not give people transformative power to shape their lives and communities, economic decentralisation will be every bit as important to this goal. Despite inhibiting the growth of income inequality, New Labour allowed meaningful asset-ownership to become the preserve of the rich…"...

Analysis: Government should create jobs and use 'bounty hunters'

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"...The Coalition government's announcement that it intends to use private sector "bounty hunters" to help weed out benefits fraudsters is both encouraging and troubling. While the proposal has enraged civil liberties campaigners, it is undoubtedly innovative and of its time..."...

Respublica Membership Form

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:24:08 GMT

Keep thinking Big

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Focus groups didn't like the Big Society, allowing Labour to make rare comedy capital in an otherwise drab election campaign by caricaturing it as a DIY state. We perform open-heart surgery on our neighbours, collect the bins, provide victim support on the telephone and then rush off to teach economics at the local school. The coalition could have put the idea to bed, along with the politically difficult commitment to raise the inheritance tax threshold and the bizarre idea to give a £3 weekly bonus to married couples (a rare, rather post-modernist example of policymaking by “sign”). Yet the Big Society remains. For what failed as a slogan co...

The Mutual Way To Put Britain Back On Its Feet

Tue, 04 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"...That new model could and should include an updated version of an old one: co-ops. A new, modernised mutualism is one of the ways we can escape the present economic crisis..."...

Shattered Society

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"...Our society has become like a ladder whose rungs are growing further and further apart so it is increasingly difficult to ascend. Those at the top have accelerated away from the rest of us by practicing a self-serving and state-sanctioned capitalism that knows no morals and exists only to finance its own excess..."...

Anthony Browne

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:41:02 GMT

Anthony Browne has worked for the Mayor of London since October 2008. As well as giving general policy advice to the Mayor, he leads on economic and business policy. He has responsibility in the Mayor's office for the London Development Agency, and is an LDA Board member. He was previously director of Policy Exchange, the largest centre-right think tank in Europe. He was an award winning national journalist for nearly twenty years, having been economics correspondent of the BBC and Observer, health editor of the Observer, and Europe correspondent and chief political correspondent of the Times. He has written a wide range of publications, mainly for think tanks, including Civitas, the Adam Smith Institute, Localis, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Social Market Foundation. He has written on issues ranging from the European single currency, social evils, NHS reform, consumer policy, environment and welfare reform. His publication “Do we need mass immigration?” won Prospect Magazine’s Think Tank Publication of the Year award. Anthony has a degree in mathematics from Cambridge University, and lives in London with his wife and two children....

Greg Clark MP

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:41:01 GMT

Greg Clark is a Minister of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government, with responsibility for overseeing decentralisation, and the Member of Parliament for Tunbridge Wells. Born in Middlesbrough in 1967, Greg attended the local St Peter's Comprehensive, South Bank. He went on to study Economics at Cambridge University and was awarded his PhD at the London School of Economics. Before entering politics, Greg worked for the Boston Consulting Group, one of the world's top business strategy firms, and was posted to the USA, Mexico, South America and Iceland, as well as working for clients in the UK. Greg was Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Trade & Industry - the Rt Hon Ian Lang MP - from 1996 until the General Election in 1997. Subsequently, he was appointed the BBC's Controller, Commercial Policy. He entered the Shadow Cabinet in October 2008, having previously been Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering 2006-2008. Before becoming an MP, Greg was Director of Policy for the Conservative Party from March 2001 for three successive Leaders - William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard - before being elected to Parliament in 2005. He was a Member of Public Accounts Committee from 2005-2006....

Stuart Etherington

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:40:02 GMT

Stuart Etherington was appointed Chief Executive of NCVO in 1994. NCVO is a membership organisation that represents the interests of charities and voluntary bodies. It has over 7,500 member organisations. Previously he was Chief Executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, a major UK charity. He has four degrees: BA in Politics, MA in Social Planning, MBA from the London Business School and a MA in International Relations and Diplomacy. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Brunel University, and is an Honorary Visiting Professor at South Bank University and City University London. Throughout his career he has been involved in the leadership of voluntary organisations and policies surrounding them. As such he has become a leading commentator, both through his writing and his media profile. Stuart is Pro-Chancellor of Greenwich University and a Council Member of the Institute of Employment Studies. He has been a trustee of Business in the Community, the Chair of the BBC Appeals Advisory Committee, a member of the Community and Social Affairs Committee of Barclays Bank, former Chair of Guidestar UK, Chair of CIVICUS Europe, and Treasurer of CIVICUS, a global civil society organisation. His Government appointments have included the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit. He has also served on the Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit’s Advisory Board on theVoluntary Sector and HM Treasury’s Cross Cutting Review on the role of the Voluntary Sector. His leisure pursuits include reading political biographies, going to the theatre, opera and film, watching Surrey County Cricket Club and Charlton Athletic. He is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Institute of Strategic Studies, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Dickens Society.\r\n...

James Forsyth

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:39:02 GMT

James Forsyth is political editor of The Spectator. Previous to that, he was web editor of The Spectator and assistant editor of Foreign Policy magazine in Washington DC....

Zac Goldsmith MP

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:38:02 GMT

Zac Goldsmith was the Editor of the Ecologist Magazine for 10 years. He is the Conservative MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston. He remains Director of the Ecologist. In 2005 he was asked to oversee a wide-ranging review of environmental policy for the Conservative Party. The Quality of Life Policy Review was delivered to David Cameron in September 2007. Many of the recommendations have since become Party Policy. In between his work with The Ecologist and his political campaigns, Zac raises funds for groups around the world dealing with issues ranging from agriculture and energy to conservation and climate change. In 2003 Zac was the recipient of the Beacon Prize for 'Young Philanthropist of the Year'. In 2004, he received the Global Green Award for 'International Environmental Leadership’. In September 2009, Zac’s book, 'The Constant Economy' was released. It looks at the key environmental problems we face, and provides a workable programme for action....

Why Cameron shouldn’t lurch to the right

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"...Of course, Cameron hadn’t entirely ditched his better plans. In the same months the party slipped back into its old habits, it also launched more radical measures—for instance giving all public sector workers the right to take over the services where they work. But a negative message about a negative situation is never good politics, and such things went unnoticed against the backbeat of austerity conservatism. Without a positive account of how the debt could be cut more smartly, the Tories seemed like they were driving the ship of state onto the rocks to avoid an oncoming storm. Brown seemed like the safe option..."...

Simon Caulkin

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Simon Caulkin is a writer on management and business. He was for 16 years the Observer’s management columnist, contributing nearly 800 articles on subjects ranging from the birth of rock ‘n’ roll to Baby P and the banking crisis. A former editor of Management Today, he is a fierce critic of modern management methods and their effects on both private and public sector organisations. He is a council member of TWIN, the producer-owned fair trade organisation. He won the Management Consultancies Association/Management Today award for best management article of 2005 and was named the Work Foundation’s columnist of the year in January 2010.\r\n...

Arianna Capuani

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:50:31 GMT

Arianna Capuani is a researcher at ResPublica. A graduate in Foreign Languages and Literature from Università degli Studi Roma Tre, she began her career translating essays and novels into Italian, and wrote a political blog, subsequently founding - along with other conservative bloggers - the first Italian right-of-centre online community, Tocqueville. She subsequently became a journalist, writing articles and interviews for some of the best-selling newspapers in Italy, and became involved in the world of think tanks, where she developed her interest in the economics of culture, writing an essay on the management of Italian opera theatres that was covered by Italy’s leading business newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore. She has since worked as a journalist and teacher, and developed her interest in politics and human freedom, moving towards the social doctrine of the Church as part of the movement Communion and Liberation. She is also liaison between ResPublica and Fondazione per la Sussidiarietà in Milan.\r\n\r\n...

Adam Coutts

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:48:31 GMT

adam.coutts@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nAdam Coutts is a senior research fellow and head of the Welfare and Public Services Unit at ResPublica. Prior to this he spent over a year in Syria and Lebanon working as a policy consultant with UNICEF, WHO, ILO, and the European Union. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has held post doctoral research positions at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. Whilst at Nuffield College, Oxford he co-authored a series of publications: Options for a New Britain and Options for Britain II with Professor Iain McLean and Dr David Halpern. He has a multi-disciplinary set of research interests concerning the design of active labour market programmes, the health impacts of government social interventions, the social determinants of health, and policies aimed at tackling poverty and ill health amongst lone parents....

Asheem Singh

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:48:31 GMT

asheem.singh@respublica.org.ukPlease note, Asheem has been away on sick leave since the end of January and will remain so until the end of March. In the mean time, please direct all enquiries to Alan Robinson, alan.robinson@respublica.org.uk...

Joshua Glinert

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:35:32 GMT

joshua.glinert@respulica.org.uk\r\n\r\nJoshua Glinert is a research assistant at ResPublica. His previous research has focused on a range of issues, in particular, mechanisms to strengthen accountability towards the community in the provision of services. He has worked as a researcher for Kumi Naidoo, recently appointed director of Greenpeace International and contributed research to Overseas Development Institute, Jubilee Debt Campaign and Community and Family Services International in the Philippines. His interests lie in strengthening community assets and the advancement of conscientious citizen participation.\r\n...

No equality in opportunity

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Traditional Toryism justified social inequality. Old Labour believed in equality of outcomes. But today both parties have eschewed their earlier approaches and aspire instead to "equality of opportunity". For Gordon Brown, it is "the whole of social justice"; indeed equalising opportunity has captured progressive thinking and legislation for the last 30 years....

Review the sell-off of great British companies

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Britain has never taken the issue of ownership seriously enough under governments of every political hue. The story is that we are open for business including foreign hostile takeovers, whatever the cost to the national interest. As evinced by English football, our watchdogs are poodles, blind to the well-being of our great businesses, the wider community they serve and deaf to the intentions of new owners....

Tim Cowen

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:07:32 GMT

Tim Cowen is CEO of T.R.W.Cowen Limited, a consultancy company set up to advise on Public Policy/Regulation, Competition and Commercial matters in the information technology sector. Tim is a member of the EU Business Affairs Council, and Chairman of the Competition Panel at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Chairman of the International Association of Commercial and Contract Management (IACCM), and a Visiting Fellow of the British Institute of international and Comparative Law (Biicl). He was awarded the title of ‘Distinguished Visiting Fellow’ at the European Business School in London in November 2008. He is a Visiting Professor at the City of London Law School, the largest law school in the UK. From qualification as a Barrister in 1986, Tim worked in private practice and industry; from joining BT in the early 1990s he held a variety of roles including General Counsel for BT’s international businesses. He is currently working on the formation of The Open Computing Alliance, an Alliance of companies in the information technology sector dealing with issues of common concern in Public Contracting, Competition and data transfer and interoperability between platforms and systems with particular reference to the shift to Cloud Computing. ...

John Hayes MP

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:14:33 GMT

John Hayes is Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Member of Parliament for South Holland and The Deepings. He was born in 1958 and married Susan Hopwell, who he has two sons with, in July 1997. He was educated at Colfe’s Grammar School and University of Nottingham, where he graduated with a BA Hons Politics and a PGCE in History/English. John was elected as Member of Parliament for South Holland and The Deepings in 1997, following 12 years as a Conservative Councillor in Nottinghamshire. Following his election he was appointed Secretary of the Agriculture Select Committee and Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Backbench Education Committee before becoming a Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party until July 2000. Since then John has been appointed an Opposition Whip, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Shadow Minister for Local & Devolved Government, with particular responsibility for Housing and Planning and Shadow Minister for Transport. He has served as the Shadow Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, and has developed a reputation for assiduously progressing the skills and widening participation agenda. John has also been the chairman of the All Party Group on Disability, and secretary of the all party group on brain injury. In his spare time he enjoys travel, reading, history, tennis and jam-making. ...

Nick Hurd MP

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:13:48 GMT

Nick Hurd is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering and the Member of Parliament for Ruislip-Northwood Pinner. Since entering Parliament, Nick has specialised in environmental issues, serving on the Environment Audit Committee which scrutinises the effectiveness of the Government’s policy towards the environment. He was on the Board of the Conservative Party’s Quality of Life Policy Commission, chairing the Climate Change group (2005-2007), and served on the Joint Parliamentary Committee that scrutinised the draft Climate Change Bill. In 2006, Nick successfully took through Parliament a Private Members Bill, the Sustainable Communities Act, which was supported by over ninety national organisations. He was awarded the PRASEG Parliamentarian of the Year Award in 2007 in recognition of his work on the Act. Nick served as an Opposition Whip and member of the Shadow teams for Justice, Communities, and Local Government from 2007 to 2008. In October 2008, he was invited by David Cameron to become Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering.\r\nNick represents the fourth successive generation of his family to serve as an MP. Nick was born in 1962 and is a graduate of Oxford University. He has four children, two sons and two daughters, by his marriage to Kim. Outside politics his interests lie in sport, music and helping young people realise their potential. Before entering politics he developed a business career over 18 years which gave him the experience of running his own business and representing a British bank in Brazil (1995-1999)....

Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:38:50 GMT

The Rt. Hon. Oliver Letwin MP is Minister of State for the Cabinet Office and the Member of Parliament for Dorset West. He is the son of Professor W Letwin, and Dr S R Letwin. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (MA, PhD). He married Isabel Grace, daughter of Professor John Frank Davidson, FRS in 1984. He has one son and a daughter. He was a visiting research fellow at Princeton University from 1980-81; a research fellow Darwin College, Cambridge 1981-82; a special adviser Department of Education and Science in 1982-83; member of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit from1983-86; director N M Rothschild and Sons Ltd in 1991-2003; non-executive director in 2005-9; MP (Conservative) Dorset W 1997-; opposition front bench spokesman on constitutional affairs from 1998-99; Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1999-2000; Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2000-2001; Shadow Secretary of State for Home Affairs in 2001-3; Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer 2003-5; Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs June-December 2005, Chairman of the Conservative Party Policy Review and Chairman of the Conservative Research Department since December 2005. He was appointed to the Privy Council in June 2002; FRSA 1991. His publications include 'Ethics, Emotion and the Unity of the Self' (1984), 'Privatising the World' (1987), 'Aims of Schooling' (1988), 'Drift to Union' (1990), 'The Purpose of Politics' (1999); numerous articles in learned and popular journals. Recreations are philosophy, walking, skiing, tennis. \r\n...

Diane Coyle

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:49:54 GMT

Diane Coyle runs the consultancy Enlightenment Economics. She is a BBC Trustee and member of the Migration Advisory Committee and the Independent Review of Higher Education, and was for eight years a member of the Competition Commission (until September 2009). She is also a visiting professor at the University of Manchester. She specialises in competition analysis and the economics of new technologies and globalisation, including extensive work on the impacts of mobile telephony in developing countries. Recent projects include work on the wider conditions for innovation, on the effects of mobiles in India, and (for the United Nations Foundation) on the uses of new technologies in emergencies and conflicts. Diane is also a member of the advisory board of ING Direct UK and of the stakeholder advisory panel of EDF Energy. She is the author of several books, including 'The Soulful Science' (Princeton University Press 2007), 'Sex, Drugs and Economics' (2002, Texere), 'Paradoxes of Prosperity' (2001, Texere), 'Governing the World Economy' (2000, Polity) and 'The Weightless World' (1997, Capstone/MIT Press), all translated into many languages. She has also published numerous book chapters, reports and articles, and was formerly a regular presenter on BBC Radio 4's Analysis. She is currently working on a new book to be published by Princeton University Press in 2010. She was previously Economics Editor of The Independent and before that worked at the Treasury and in the private sector as an economist. She has a PhD from Harvard. Diane was awarded the OBE in January 2009.\r\n...

Will Davies

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:44:23 GMT

Will Davies is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Science Innovation & Society, Oxford Business School. His research is in political economy and economic sociology, with a particular focus on competition, corporate governance and economic policy. He has published a number of think tank reports, including Reinventing the Firm (Demos 2009) and Public Innovation: Intellectual Property in a Digital Age (ippr 2006). He has written for Prospect, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The New Statesman. He is also a Fellow of the Young Foundation, an Associate of Demos and an editorial board member of Renewal. His weblog is at www.potlatch.org.uk ...

Gail Greengross

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:44:23 GMT

Gail Greengross is the Strategic Communications Director of Business in the Community, a unique movement of more than 800 companies across the UK committed to improving continually their positive impact on society. Gail was appointed to Business in the Community in 1994 where she established an employee volunteering programme and later set up the first central communications team. Under Gail’s leadership in Strategic Communications the collective activities of Business in the Community have expanded to impact across local communities, support positive environmental activity, promote diversity and best practice in the workplace and encourage ethical operations in the wider marketplace. During this period Gail has established a reputation as an innovative and creative director in communicating Business in the Community’s aims and aspirations for corporate social responsibility and has personally been responsible for achieving the current high profile of the organisation having established the first Business in the Community Annual Awards for Excellence in 1997, which have expanded to being recognised as the UK’s leading Awards within the business community. Prior to joining Business in the Community, Gail worked for The Bodyshop in the Communications Team, before moving onto the Industrial Society as the inner city co-ordinator, later heading up the London Team where she was seconded to Shelter to develop a linked employment scheme for young homeless. During this time The Industrial Society became the leading provider of management training for education and voluntary organisations. Gail was asked to join the Talent and Enterprise Taskforce as Campaign Director in 2007, and has been working on projects and programmes which will bring alive the importance of using the best talent and ingenuity to create a new role for Britain in the competitive global economy. Recently , she has been working on the The Big Conversation campaign which brings together 100 young people and 100 employers to agree a new approach to experiencing the world of work . The first event was held at Old Spitalfields market on 15 September 2009, supported by The Sunday Times, the BBC and the UKCES, which was the first of many planned events around the UK. Gail lives in London and is married to Tony Perry, Headmaster of Bacons College, and has three sons and a daughter. \r\n...

David Hawkins

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:44:22 GMT

David Hawkins has spent nearly 15 years of working in government relations, corporate affairs and the arts. Following an internship at Number 10, he started his career at the leading lobbying company Westminster Strategy before moving to technology PR Agency of the Year GBC; working for Energis, Computer Associates and Concentric Network. After a short period working for the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 (concentrating on the new chapter of the strategic defence review and the future of NATO) he worked at Business in the Community (BitC), one of HRH the Prince of Wales’ charities, where he led on policy and public affairs, particularly championing the removal of the many blocks that the homeless and other excluded groups faced. Concurrent to BitC he advised and wrote speeches for John J. Studzinski CBE, global head of M&A for leading private equity house, Blackstone. After a year at Blue Rubicon, PR agency of the year 2007-9, working for Land Securities, Unilever and City & Guilds he moved to Arts & Business where he consults on philanthropy (working with partners such as the Ambassador for Philanthropy), public policy and strategy. He has recently co-authored a report on branding and authenticity 'Beyond Experience.' David is a member of the development committee of Benjamin Franklin House, the development committee of the Central School of Ballet, a development committee member of the Concordia Foundation, an advisory board member of the New Culture Forum (where he has led on development and advised on their recent report on the arts council: 'Managed to Death'). He is also a board member of Isaiah 61 a social enterprise which produces faith-based merchandise in Kenya and Findafountain.com a campaign group to restore drinking fountains to the UK. He is also an advisor to art curator and consultant Meredith Gunderson and her agency MG and together they run the arts philanthropy group Culture House. David is a retained advisor to Satish K Modi, Chairman of Modi Global Enterprises and is assisting Mr. Modi’s team in a fundraising campaign to build capacity and teaching networks between the Modinagar-based International Institute of Fine Arts, the University of the Arts London and New York Academy of the Arts. He is also working to realise the construction of a second city at Modinagar which will be an eco-green development. His interests include: reform of arts funding, philanthropy, public sector delivery, welfare reform. He has previously advised the think tank Politeia.\r\n\r\n ...

Indy Johar

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:24:14 GMT

Indy Johar is a qualified architect and place strategist. He co-founded 00:/ [zer’o zer’o] in 2005, a research-driven design practice focused on re-imagining, re-thinking, re-designing and re-organising place. The practice’s work supports physical and spatial interventions catalysed by the synthesis of quantitative & qualitative research with a community & market generative approach. Project range from the scale of bespoke place shaping strategies to the detailed design & delivery of prototypes such as low-carbon homes, world class – co-working & learning institutions, community led neighbourhood retrofits and ‘self-commission masterplans’ - amongst others. Indy has taught at various institutions from Columbia University New York, TU-Berlin, University of Bath, Architectural Association and University College London. He has given lectures and led discussions on the issue of community generative urbanism at various forums from Said Business School Oxford, DEMOS, European Parliament, LSE, Royal Academy, Royal Society of the Arts to the Royal Institute British Architects. He is also a Demos Associate and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts....

Danny Kruger

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:24:13 GMT

Danny is the chief executive of Only Connect creative arts company. He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1997 with an MA in history and from Oxford University with a DPhil in 2000. He was successively director of studies for the Centre for Policy Studies, chief leader writer at The Daily Telegraph and chief speechwriter to David Cameron, before leaving politics in 2008 to work full time for Only Connect, the charity he set up with his wife Emma to work with prisoners, ex-offenders and young people at risk of crime. He is the author of\r\n'On Fraternity: politics beyond liberty and equality' published by Civitas in 2007....

Ed Mayo

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:14:53 GMT

Ed Mayo is Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, the membership network for co-operative businesses. He is a long-term co-operator and has a track record of innovation and impact in his work to together economic life and social justice. Ed was one of the team who founded the Fairtrade Mark, which sources products from co-operatives and small-scale producers in developing countries, and is on the Board of the Fairtrade Foundation. He rose to prominence as director of the New Economics Foundation (NEF) from 1992 to 2003. He led NEF from two to fifty staff, creating an award-winning 'think-and-do tank', looking at ethical market activity, local economies and public service reform. He helped to start the London Rebuilding Society as its first chair. He also chaired the Jubilee 2000 campaign over this period, bringing together a wide coalition. The campaign led to billions of dollars of debt cancellation, helping countries like Tanzania and Uganda to raise their primary school enrolment rate. From 2003 – 2009, he was Chief Executive of the National Consumer Council, merging this with two other bodies to found a new statutory consumer champion, Consumer Focus, in 2008. He was described by the Independent as "the most authoritative voice in the country speaking up for consumers", while the Guardian has nominated him as one of the top 100 most influential figures in British social policy. Ed Mayo is nominated a ‘Young Global Leader’ by the World Economic Forum and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the London Metropolitan University in 2007 for his work to build an ethical economy. His original degree is in philosophy from Cambridge University. After a short period as a management consultant at Accenture, Mayo joined the World Development Movement, serving as acting Director until 1992. He has co-written a book, “Consumer Kids” with Agnes Nairn on marketing to children, published by Constable in 2009. ...

John Milbank

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:12:53 GMT

John Milbank is Research Professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics and Director of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham. Previously he held a Readership at Cambridge University and a named Chair at the University of Virginia. He is the founder of the Radical Orthodoxy Movement and the author of many books, including 'Theology and Social Theory' and 'The Future of Love.'...

Margareta Pagano

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:56:59 GMT

Margareta Pagano is business editor of the Independent on Sunday. She is one of the UK's leading financial journalists and has worked for the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, the Times and the Sunday Times. A founding editor of the Financial News, Margareta helped turn this specialist newspaper into one of the City's premier online news services which is now part of Dow Jones. She also writes for the Spectator and the First Post and appears on TV as a financial commentator.\r\n\r\n...

Jules Peck

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:55:59 GMT

Jules is a recognised international authority in the field of sustainability and wellbeing. He has over twenty years experience as a strategic advisor and entrepreneur, uniquely bridging the worlds of politics, business, NGOs and civil society. As well as having worked in business, Jules spent two years advising the UK Conservative Party and has worked at the EC in Brussels. Jules is a founding of Abundancy Partners, which specialises in strategic innovation in sustainability and wellbeing. He is also a member of Edelman’s Strategic Advisory Board. Jules is active in the NGO and think –tank communities as a Trustee of the think-tank nef (the new economic foundation) and a Fellow of ResPublica, Chairman of the Bulmer Foundation, a Board and Trustee of a number of charities and a judge of the annual Green Awards. He is also actively involved with the Transition Towns movement....

Nicholas Rengger

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:55:59 GMT

Nicholas Rengger is Professor of Political Theory and International Relations at St Andrews University. He has just stepped down as editor of the Review of International Studies (2006-2010), the leading UK Academic Journal of International Studies and has served on the executive of the British International Studies Association and the International Studies Association and on the Governing Council of the Royal Institute for International Affairs, Chatham House. He teaches and publishes on many aspects of intellectual history, political philosophy, international relations and philosophical and political theology. His most recent book is Dealing in Darkness: The Anti-Pelagian Imagination in Political Theory and International Relations (forthcoming). He is currently working on a study of Individuality and Civility....

Alan Riley

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:53:59 GMT

Professor Alan Riley is one of the leading competition law scholars in the United Kingdom. He chairs the Competition Law Scholars Forum www.clasf.org . He has written widely on competition law issues in major law journals such as the International & Comparatively Law Quarterly, the European Law Review and the European Competition Law Review. His principal interests are in regulatory reform; effective enforcement of the competition rules against international price-fixing cartels and due process. Professor Riley has advised a wide range of British and European companies and governments in respect of competition law issues. Professor Riley's other major area of interest is energy law and policy, particularly EU energy market liberalisation, opening up of the EU and Russian gas markets and the supply security issues arising from the market dominance of Gazprom in certain EU Member States. Professor Riley has written extensively on energy security issues in academic journals and more widely. He is currently working on a book on EU energy security and liberalisation. Professor Riley writes regularly in the Wall Street Journal on energy and competition issues. He holds a PhD in competition law from the Europa Institute, Edinburgh University, is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales, a Associate Research Fellow of the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels and is a Professor of Law at the City Law School, City University, London....

Roger Scruton

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:53:58 GMT

Roger Scruton is an adjunct scholar of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC. Prior to that he was a research professor for the Institute for the Psychological Sciences. He is a fellow of Blackfriars Hall in Oxford and a member of the Philosophy Faculty. He is also Visiting Professor at the University of St Andrews.\r\n\r\nHe is a writer, philosopher and public commentator who has specialised in aesthetics with particular attention to music and architecture. He engages in contemporary political and cultural debates as a powerful conservative thinker and polemicist. He has written widely in the press on political and cultural issues defending a conservative position. His recent books include:\r\nEngland: an Elegy (Continuum, 2006), an attempt to give identity to the idea of England and a tribute to its values and institutions. \r\n\r\nBeauty (Oxford University Press, 2009) in which the place of\r\nbeauty for the modern world and its value to individuals is explored. He then presented a BBC 2 documentary on the subject of Beauty.\r\n\r\nHis most recent book is The Uses of Pessimism (Atlantic Books, 2010) in which he argues that the tragedies and disasters of the history of the European continent have been the consequences of a false optimism and the fallacies that derive from it....

John Seddon

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:35:51 GMT

John Seddon is an occupational psychologist and management thinker, credited with developing the systems approach to the design and management of service organisations. He has been an ardent critic of public-sector reform, arguing that the reform agenda has worsened public services and driven up costs. Those who follow and apply his ideas achieve performance improvements that make official targets look un-ambitious. John’s campaign for freedom from command and control in the public sector generated huge press interest in August this year when he called for the Audit Commission to be axed. He argues that dismantling the inspection regime would replace compliance with responsibility in the public sector. John is the author of: 'Systems Thinking in the Public Sector,' Triarchy Press, 2008 and 'Freedom from Command and Control,' Vanguard Press, 2003....

Barry C. Lynn - Fellow

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Barry C. Lynn is an expert in the political and economic dangers posed by monopolization. His groundbreaking work detailing how monopolists can destabilize vital industrial systems has attracted the attention of governments in Tokyo, London, Berlin, Brussels, and Beijing, as well as Washington. He is a leader of the growing movement to use traditional republican language and frames to analyze contemporary political economic problems. He is author of 'Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction' (Wiley 2010), and 'End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation' (Doubleday 2005). Lynn directs th...

Roger Steare

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:30:30 GMT

Professor Roger Steare is Corporate Philosopher in Residence and Professor of Organizational Ethics at the Cass Business School, City University. As well as teaching ethics, he conducts extensive research on human character, judgement and behaviour, and has published papers based on over 20,000 “Moral DNA” profiles of people in 162 countries. Roger is a leading thinker and practitioner in the development and delivery of moral leadership, governance, culture and ethics programmes for organizations such as BP, Citigroup, HSBC and PwC. Regulators and law enforcement agencies including the FSA, the SFO and the US Department of Justice have endorsed the effectiveness of his virtue ethics and moral community approach. Roger is the author of "ethicability®: How to decide what’s right and find the courage to do it."(2006), which has been endorsed both by David Cameron and President Jimmy Carter. He is a recognized media expert on ethics issues, appearing regularly on the BBC, CNBC and in the FT and The Times. Roger was a member of the Expert Drafting Committee for Rights and Humanity, invited by the British Government to prepare recommendations for the G20 London Summit in April 2009. Roger studied the History of Western Philosophy with the late Lord Conrad Russell, son of the great British philosopher Bertrand Russell. He draws on a wide range of professional experience as a banker, a social worker, an executive coach and CEO of a UK subsidiary of Adecco, the world's largest employment agency. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts; and a Fellow of the Institute of Recruitment Professionals....

Diogo Vasconcelos

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:29:30 GMT

Since February 2007, Diogo Vasconcelos has been a Distinguished Fellow with Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), the global open innovation and strategy group of Cisco. He chaired the Business Panel on Future EU Innovation Policy, set up European Commission in January 2009, which called for a radical change in European innovation policies and co-authored the report on “Europe and Social Innovation” for the BEPA. He Chairs SIX - Social Innovation eXchange, a global community of NGOs, global firms, public agencies and academics committed to improve the methods with which our societies find better solutions to challenges such as ageing, climate change, public services and healthcare. He also advises the EU on innovation. He chairs Dialogue Café a global network that will bring people together from cities across the globe to learn, share and collaborate on projects which support people and planet, through state of the art video conference technology. In May 2008, Diogo he was elected Chairman of APDC, the association that represents all the ICT industry in Portugal and, one year later, elected member of the Executive Board on DigitalEurope , the voice of digital industry in Europe. Diogo is also non executive member of the board of Catholic University of Porto. Before joining Cisco, Diogo was the Knowledge Economy Advisor to the Portuguese President of Republic Cavaco Silva. From 2003 to 2005, he leaded the Knowledge Society Unit, where he created and implemented the Information Society, eGoverment and National Broadband Initiatives, reporting to PM Jose Manuel Barroso. He was also a member of the board of the Portuguese Innovation Agency. Before that, he was elected member of the Parliament and was Vice-President of centre-right party PSD and its spokesperson for innovation. Prior to that, Diogo founded a multimedia company and published the first magazines in his country on both the internet and entrepreneurship and launched the Entrepreneurs Academy. He has a Law degree and post-graduate degrees in Communications Law, Management and Political Science. In 2006, Diogo received from the former President Jorge Sampaio one of his country’s highest honours for his work, the “Commander of the Order of Prince D. Henrique”. Born in 16th May 1968, Diogo is married and lives in London....

Simon Willis

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:29:29 GMT

Simon Willis attempts to orchestrate a distinctive and unruly global open innovation group focusing on public good projects and public sector reform at networking and collaboration company Cisco while trying to keep up with four children, two cats and a few friends. Some of the group’s projects can be viewed and criticized at www.planetaryskin.org , www.connectedurbandevelopment.org , www.dialoguecafe.org, www.theconnectedrepublic.org . Others on ageing, policing, rethinking innovation clusters, democratic engagement and the future of work cannot yet. Simon, in rough date order, was an Australian, a stockhand at a travelling circus, apprentice pastry chef, CND street theatre performer, amnesty international researcher, !st in PPE from Balliol College, Oxford, computer programmer at British Gas, civil servant who equalized pension age for DWP, unsuccessfully ran a group on operational reform, was PS to Sir Nicholas Scott, Director of charity Motability and head of Financial Crime Branch at Her Majesty’s Treasury. Worked on new product design at Unisys before joining Cisco’s open innovation group in 2001. He has worked one third of his career in Government, one third in the private sector and one third in the voluntary/trouble-maker/other sector and is now seeking to justify that approach....

Steve Wyler

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:25:30 GMT

Steve Wyler has been Director of the Development Trusts Association since 2000. The Development Trusts Association is a fast growing UK-wide movement, bringing together over 450 community-led organisations, which use self-help, social enterprise, and community asset ownership to bring about long-term social, economic and environmental renewal, and transform their communities for good. Over the last twenty years Steve has worked for voluntary and community agencies and independent grant-makers. For example in the 1990s, working with homeless agencies, he ran Homeless Network, co-ordinated the Rough Sleepers Initiative in London, and set up Off the Streets and into Work. Steve is a member of various Government advisory groups on social enterprise, community organisations, and the third sector (Cabinet Office, CLG, Ministry of Justice). Steve is also vice-Chair of the Social Enterprise Coalition, and Board member of the Adventure Capital Fund, Glass House Community Led Design, the National Communities Resource Centre, and Thames Reach....

Rowena Young

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:25:30 GMT

Is the Chief Executive of Urbivore. After a spell in journalism and working at the think tank Demos before the change of government in 1997, Rowena played a formative role in the social entrepreneurship and innovation fields. First she gained operational experience overseeing the London bureau of Children’s Express, a national news agency producing news and comment from young people for publication in the national media. Then she cut her commercial teeth, developing the business at Kaleidoscope, an agency with an international reputation for innovative approaches to drug rehabilitation. There she launched Simplyworks, a company hiring long-term and unemployed drug users to deliver intuitive web solutions. Her work with the Foreign Policy Centre helped nudge national drug policy to address underlying causes.\r\nOver the past decade, she has focused on helping establish new methods and institutions to help social ventures, and the people developing them, to grow in number and effectiveness. She was Chief Executive of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, then went to the Sa?d Business School at Oxford University to establish the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. Latterly, she joined NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, to establish an experimental social innovation lab which runs major programmes on climate action, tackling long-term health conditions and an ageing society. After ten years, the call of the enterprising life became too great. Today, Rowena splits her week between running Urbivore, a start-up social venture which promotes urban agriculture, and helping The Reader Organisation – which uses great literature as a tool for social change - to grow.\r\nRowena chairs the Fair Trade fashion company, People Tree, and serves on the board of the C4 British Documentary Foundation. She consults for the NHS Regional Innovation Fund Advisory Service and is an advisor to the Open Film Club, run by and for homeless people. She grows vegetables, fruit and herbs, and keeps chickens and bees at her north London home....

Nicolas Clark

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:57:08 GMT

nicolas.clark@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nNicolas Clark is a research assistant at ResPublica. Since graduating from Warwick University with a degree in History and French he has been training as a public law barrister. Nicolas is currently fighting a council seat in Islington for the Conservatives and is the Conservative Future Area Chairman for North-East London. He is particularly interested in behavioural economics and looking into how competition law can be developed to favour local businesses....

Emma Gordon

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:57:07 GMT

emma.gordon@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nEmma Gordon is a research assistant at ResPublica. She is a graduate of King's College London where she obtained a BA in War Studies. She has previously worked with the charity BeadforLife and as an EU Presidential and Parliamentary Election Observer in Uganda. She has published a paper entitled ‘What motivates and sustains the Lords Resistance Army of Northern Uganda?’ Her main interests lie in the armed services and international development....

Angelo Erbacci

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:08 GMT

angelo.erbacci@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nAngelo Erbacci is a research assistant at ResPublica. He has a degree in Economics from the University of Bologna, and is currently studying towards a PhD in Public Economy at the Politecnico of Milan. He has previously worked as an intern at the Italian Antitrust Authority in Rome. Whilst at university he was involved in student politics and was a member fo the University of Bologna Board for three years. His research interests include public policy, managment of public services, local transport, liberalisation and privatisation processes and the application of subsidiarity.\r\n\r\n...

Ben Hancock

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:07 GMT

ben.hancock@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nBen Hancock is an events assistant at Respublica. He is also an MA student in Political Communication at City University London, and previously graduated from the University of Northumbria with a BA degree in Politics. His interests lie in political marketing, communication, and public relations....

Greg Fisher

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:07 GMT

greg.fisher@respublica.org.ukGreg Fisher is Chief Economist at ResPublica. After growing up in the West Midlands, he studied Economics & Politics at St John’s College, University of Cambridge. Greg joined the Bank of England as a graduate entran...

Sandra Gruescu

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:06 GMT

sandra.gruescu@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nSandra Gruescu PhD is leading our work in the Children and Families Unit at ResPublica, where she recently co-authored with Director Phillip Blond 'Asset Building for Children'. She previously worked as a senior research fellow at the Social Market Foundation. Before that, Sandra worked extensively in public policy research and consultancy, especially in the areas of pension policy and family policy for the German government. The ground-breaking new set of family policy provisions introduced in Germany in January 2007 is based on a report that Sandra co-authored with the then Chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Prof. Dr. Bert Rürup. Sandra’s research interests cover a wide range of social policy areas such as social capital, behavioural economics in social policy, pensions and savings behaviour, and family-friendly policies....

Gina Lovett

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:06 GMT

gina.lovett@respublica.org.uk \r\n\r\nGina Lovett is a research assistant at ResPublica. She has a background in journalism, and worked for Design Week for over three years, specialising in design, sustainability and social innovation. She has written for Design Week, Marketing Week, Sideways News, Veer Magazine, Future Laboratory and Phaidon. In 2009, she undertook a nine-month research trip, visiting sustainable social enterprises across South-East Asia and Brazil, writing about her findings for consumer news website Sideways News. Most recently, she worked with sustainable design start-up Veer Magazine! on its launch, and works in a communications capacity with design for social change social enterprise Seed Foundation. She is a graduate of University of the Arts London. ...

David Harding

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:05 GMT

david.harding@respublica.org.ukDavid Harding is an events assistant at ResPublica. He has previously worked for London Probation, Reform, as a parliamentary assistant and for The Liberal Democrats after graduating with a degree in Sociology from...

Caroline Julian

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:04 GMT

caroline.julian@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nCaroline Julian is a research assistant at ResPublica. She has recently graduated with an MA in Philosophical Theology from the University of Nottingham, during which time she focussed particularly on political theology and the philosophical questions regarding justice. Her current interests lie in the connection between Catholic Social Teaching and the Big Society, social capital, education and the role of welfare....

Matt Leach

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:03 GMT

matt.leach@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nMatt Leach is associate director of ResPublica and Head of Health, Housing and Environment Unit. Prior to joining ResPublica, Matt has held a range of senior policy and leadership roles at the interface between state and not-for-profit sectors, including as Chief Executive of Capacitybuilders and Director of Policy and Communications at the Housing Corporation, and played a leading role in the establishment of the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation and the Greater London Authority. Matt has a strong interest in practical approaches to building the strength of communities at a local level, and is a Board member of the Accord Group and of Caldmore Area Housing Association....

Nicola Kelly

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:03 GMT

nicola.kelly@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nNicola Kelly is the executive assistant at ResPublica. She has previously worked for Keltruck Limited, Scania distributor as a Personnel, Training and Communications Manager. She is a graduate of Newman University with a First Class Honours Bachelor of Education degree (having had experience within the teaching profession), has a Postgraduate certificate in Management from Leicester University and has a BTEC National in Business and Finance from Staffordshire University....

Animesh Kumar

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:03 GMT

animesh.kumar@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nAnimesh Kumar is an economics researcher at ResPublica. Prior to this role, he worked as an analyst specialising in development of Technical Analysis indicators for the UK, European and Japanese equity markets. He studied computer science at the University of Liverpool before enrolling in master’s programme in economics from the Plymouth Business School. He was awarded the outstanding innovation honour by the DTI in March 2010, for successfully building innovative tools for market momentum and pricing analysis. His interests lie in the field of macroeconomics....

Kim Mandeng

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:55:08 GMT

kim.mandeng@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nKim Mandeng is a researcher at ResPublica. She is currently contributing research to forthcoming projects on social innovation and safeguarding children, as well as public health and obesity. Kim has also worked as a researcher in parliament and as a freelance editor for policy projects on a range of criminal justice issues (prison reform, policing, courts), housing, family law and benefits reform. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics, where she obtained her MSc in Comparative Politics and her BA in Social Anthropology....

Simon McMahon

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:53:10 GMT

simon.mcmahon@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nSimon McMahon is a research assistant at ResPublica. He is a PhD candidate at the Centre for European Studies at King's College, London and has a MA in Democracy and Government at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. He has previously worked in community development and empowerment projects in Guadalajara, Mexico, and as a researcher at The Big Opportunity, based at London Civic Forum, and is interested in migration, political competition, social capital and community empowerment....

'John Lewis' policies are in store

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

When our office learned of shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley's largely overlooked announcement at the NHS employers conference in Birmingham last week, a big cheer went up. According to Lansley, under a Conservative government, healthcare providers would be restructured locally along the lines of a John Lewis-style partnership model, giving staff collective ownership of the service they delivered....

From Spend to Investment

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Over the last 30 years the Anglo-Saxon world has adopted the most disingenuous of economic systems. Under the guise of capitalism for all, we have produced monopoly bene?ts for the few and wage serfdom for the many. Via an undue focus on nominal speculation rather than real investment, an extraordinary amount of wealth has been generated by capital and exchange rate arbitrage, but rather than trickling downwards to nourish the real economy this wealth has leveraged upwards further enriching the already wealthy and pricing out of the investment market all those who cannot amass such advantage. ...

Poverty impoverishes us all

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

David Cameron wants to reposition the Conservatives as the party of the poor. At the same time, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, talks of the coming fiscal nightmare - of the cuts and public-service pay freezes that will have to be made and of a future Conservative government operating in a time of severe austerity. Therein lies the difficulty for the new Conservatives: how to reduce poverty as well as enhance the general well-being of the population, while grappling with a crushing fiscal deficit. It is only by squaring this circle that the new Conservatism can flourish and grow - if, that is, the party is elected. Cameron's enabling C...

Matt Norton

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:53:07 GMT

matt.norton@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nMatt Norton is a research assistant at ResPublica. He has obtained a BA in History and an MSc in History and Theory of International Relations from the LSE. His research interests include poverty alleviation and social mobility and voting reform. Prior to joining ResPublica Matt worked as a parliamentary assistant and completed a research internship at The Week magazine.\r\n\r\n...

Phillip Blond

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:52:04 GMT

phillip.blond@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nPhillip is an internationally recognised political thinker and social and economic commentator. He is the director and founder of the award winning public policy think tank ResPublica and 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 social enterprise. His ideas have influenced the agenda around the Big Society and have helped to redefine British politics. Papers he has authored while at ResPublica include 'The Ownership State', 'Asset Building for Children' (with Dr. Sandra Gruescu of ResPublica) and 'To Buy, To Bid, To Build: Community Rights for an Asset Owning Democracy' (with Steve Wyler of the Development Trusts Association). He has written extensively in the British press including The Guardian, The Observer, The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, Prospect and the New Statesman. He is a frequent broadcaster – appearing on the BBC and Sky as well as foreign media outlets. His ideas have attracted attention both nationally and internationally and he speaks all over the world on the idea of a new economic and social politics based around free association and group formation....

David Cameron's 'philosopher king' explains how his party will help those betrayed by Labour

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The lasting image of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester was of the two spontaneous and moving standing ovations for David Cameron during his speech. In years gone by, such emotional outbursts by Tory delegates were often the result of an appeal to the hang-’em-and-flog-’em brigade, exhortations to leave the EU, or calls to restore fortress Britain by shutting the borders to all immigrants....

The new Tories will stop class becoming caste

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As the camera pans around the Conservative Party conference hall in Manchester today, the traditional stereotypes are guaranteed their 15 minutes of TV fame. Women wearing Thatcher blue with pearls; aged and angry country squires in tweed; and vaguely frightening young men in City suits and alpha male haircuts will be portrayed as the party’s rank and file....

Labour’s betrayal of society

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Some electoral defeats are merely episodic; others are epochal. The defeat of New Labour in the spring of next year will be both. The coming rout is a function of natural intellectual exhaustion and unprecedented external revulsion...

We are the new radicals

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In a speech last week, Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne argued that the Conservatives represent the best hope for the poor, the excluded and those languishing on permanent welfare in Britain....

The new Conservatism can create a capitalism that works for the poor

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Over the last 30 years the Anglo-Saxon world has adopted the most disingenuous of economic systems. Under the guise of capitalism for all, we have produced an extraordinary amount of capital but an ever diminishing number of capitalists. Rather than trickling downwards, wealth has leveraged upwards – denying increasing numbers of people the ability to truly own, trade and prosper....

Without a concept of virtue our politics and our banks are doomed

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In all the clamour and rage of the expenses crisis, the fundamental issue remains wholly unaddressed: that of the value system that allowed such abuses in the first place....

The true Tory progressives

Sat, 30 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

For the left, the Conservative party has always been a political organisation whose sole raison d'etre is the defence of the rich and privileged. In these pages both Peter Wilby and Jonathan Freedland have argued that the new Conservatives represent little more than Thatcherism mark II. As such, the very idea that the Conservatives could offer a new opportunity and govern in the progressive interest seems a contradiction in terms....

Rise of the Red Tories

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We live in a time of crisis. In such times humans retreat to safety, and build bulwarks against the future. The financial emergency is having this effect on Britain’s governing class. Labour has withdrawn to the safety of the sheltering state, and the comforts of its first income tax rise since the mid-1970s. Meanwhile, the Conservatives appear to be proposing a repeat of Thatcherite austerity in the face of economic catastrophe....

Alison Meldrum

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:53:10 GMT

meldrum.alison@respublica.org.ukAlison Meldrum is the communications manager at ResPublica. She returned to the UK in 2009, having spent the previous 25 years in the US, Spain, Hungary, Russia, the UAE and New Zealand. During that period, she w...

Dwayne Menezes

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 16:53:09 GMT

dwayne.menezes@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nDwayne Menezes is a researcher at ResPublica. He is also a PhD candidate in the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge, where his research areas are broadly the history of the British Empire and the Commonwealth. Originally from India, Dwayne graduated from the University of Mumbai with a MA in History and St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, with a Bachelor of Management Studies. He has also studied International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science and is currently the governor of a London school. Previously, he had been the founding director of a leadership and management consultancy in the UK and the director for youth development at a community development charity in India. His research interests lie in the strengthening of civil society, the protection of civil liberties, the integration of ethnic minorities, religion in the public sphere and the welfare of children and families....

Alan Robinson

Sun, 24 Nov 2002 16:53:06 GMT

alan.robinson@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nAlan Robinson is the business development director of ResPublica. He is responsible for operations and business development. He has extensive experience of strategy, business development and consulting having worked in the corporate strategy department of BT, been a Partner in the strategy division of Accenture and worked in Cisco's thought leadership and services businesses. Originally from Belfast, Alan was educated at schools in Ireland and the US and studied PPE at Balliol College, Oxford and economics at Sussex University....

Adam Schoenborn

Sat, 27 Oct 2001 16:52:07 GMT

adam.schoenborn@respublica.org.uk\r\n\r\nAdam Schoenborn is a senior researcher for ResPublica, where he has led research on a range of subjects including savings policy, asset welfare, public sector mutualism, economic localisation and political localism. Adam is also the editor of the Disraeli Room blog. Before joining ResPublica, Adam worked for the Progressive Conservative Project at Demos as well as the Centre for Social Justice, where he authored 'A Force to be Reckoned With', a report on re-establishing traditional forms of policing by consent and local policing in England and Wales. More recently, he served as lead researcher for ResPublica's flagship report on public sector reform, 'The Ownership State.' He has degrees from McGill University in Montreal and the London School of Economics and his primary research interest lies in localism and civic association as a means of delivering poverty alleviation, civic engagement and public service reform. ...

Jonathan West

Thu, 26 Oct 2000 16:52:07 GMT

jonathan.west@respublica.org.ukJonathan West is a research assistant at ResPublica. He graduated with a BA (Hons.) in History from Queen Mary, University of London, concentrating primarily on the post-1945 period with specific focus on Western E...

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After Rowan: The Coherence and Future of Anglicanism

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Dave must take the Red Tory turn

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Stephen Lloyd

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Lawrence Bloom

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Arianna Capuani

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Asheem Singh

Joshua Glinert

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