Latest thinking

The Guardian on Liberalism

Blog

03 Oct 2011

Good to see The Guardian launching a series of reflections on Liberalism.  Nice also to see Giles Fraser contrasting his approach with the idiocy that passes for debate about Liberalism in the States and also admitting that he has "shifting instincts" on the topic. But the most hopeful sign is that Fraser acknowledges that lots was said about freedom for centuries before Liberalism even emerged as a coherent ideology - ties in nicely with my own recent Freedom Misunderstood blog posts.  So, all in all, planning to keep a close eye on this one.

Deep crisis, shallow politics

Blog

01 Oct 2011

Matthew Taylor

Son Joseph is sitting SATS in Hastings so I travelled down with him. Last night saw the town at its worst. The streets seemed to be full of drunks staggering in and out of loud, ugly bars. As well as the inevitable bouncers, there seemed to be police outside almost every bar. At one point I counted eleven police officers in the small town centre area - all this when people are supposed to be out to have fun! 

Biomimicry in Architecture

Video

29 Sep 2011

Michael Pawlyn is the director of Exploration Architecture and an author

The longest journey starts with a single step

Blog

29 Sep 2011

Matthew Taylor

Regular listeners to the Moral Maze(hi Mum) will spot the connection between Michael Buerk and David Aaronovitch. The former has been the long-time presenter and chair of the programme, the latter was a very accomplished stand-in earlier this year. But this week there is another connection – immigration and jobs.

Are Chronic Diseases Killing our Competitiveness?

Video

29 Sep 2011

with Deborah Jamieson OBE, Dan L Witters, Cary Cooper CBE, Peter Choueiri and Matthew Taylor

Broken Britain, Unhappy Britain: Charles Taylor to the Rescue?

Blog

27 Sep 2011

In my continuing trawl through various bits of political philosophy, to discover whether we have misunderstood freedom by focusing too much on external constraints at the expense of internal constraints, I have now read Charles Taylor’s 1979 essay What is Wrong with Negative Liberty? Taylor’s argument is primarily philosophical but, it seems to me, it has wider resonances which make it worthy of closer consideration today.

Maximum impact

Blog

27 Sep 2011

Matthew Taylor

Often an issue engages us because over a short period of time it has come up from different angles in different contexts. For me themost recent example concerns the way the RSA describes social impact. The issue cropped up at a recent Trustee meeting in relation to different views about how we should judge the success for RSA projects. For some Trustees the most important thing is impact on the ground, others would like to see evidence that we are influencing policy makers and breaking through more consistently into the national media.

Is it time for an independent fiscal policy?

Blog

26 Sep 2011

Back in 1997, Gordon Brown gave the Bank of England independent control over monetary policy.  A move Labour has used ever since to display their economic credibility.

Stop blaming the politicians for local services, poll says

Press release

26 Sep 2011

Just over half of the public seem to support one of the key ideas underpinning the government’s flagship Big Society initiative.