Latest thinking

Corporate responsibility - it's a matter of desire

Blog

02 Jun 2009

Matthew Taylor

I chaired a seminar here this morning jointly hosted with the up and coming brand communication consultancy TLG. The focus was sustainable and ethical business, but as is often the case with these things, it was hard to get past the motherhood and apple pie declarations of corporate goodwill. I came away thinking that it is in the sphere of product development and marketing that the real test of corporate responsibility lies. 

MPs' expenses - did it have to be this bad?

Blog

01 Jun 2009

Matthew Taylor

I thought I would share an argument I have now had with quite a few people. In it I say it would have been possible to frame the MPs’ expenses saga to make its impact more manageable. Just about everyone I have spoken to disagrees, maintaining that the expenses claims were so intrinsically awful they were bound to be lead to this seemingly endless crisis.

Results of the Tomorrow’s Investor Pension Survey

Report

31 May 2009

Results of the Tomorrow’s Investor Pension Survey

My wife’s gone to the West Indies…

Blog

29 May 2009

Matthew Taylor

Over the years I have had a number of criticisms of my blog; too political, too opinionated, too little about the RSA, too much about the RSA, much too much about me. But one of the first was a Fellow who included in a lengthy list of my misdemeanours the allegation that I had ‘used the Society’s website to make jokes’. This was a reference, I think, to an early post in which I proudly clamed to have made up my own witticism.

Mr Lansley's tough assignment: the update

Blog

28 May 2009

Matthew Taylor

As promised: my update on the speech this morning. We had a packed audience for Andrew Lansley and a very good question and answer session.

Mr Lansley's tough assignment

Blog

28 May 2009

Matthew Taylor

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is speaking here in a couple of hours. I will post again after I’ve heard what he has to say. He has a tough job. In a system as big as the NHS there will always be problems, but Alan Johnson has less to worry about than any of his recent predecessors.

Life and death issues hidden by the fog of indignation

Blog

27 May 2009

Matthew Taylor

Yesterday I suggested that the big problem with politics is neither MPs’ expenses nor the conventions of the constitution (although I am a reformer), but the content and tone of the conversation between the people and their representatives. There is something febrile and disconcerting about the state of public opinion. A few days ago I described an arc of indignation starting with Ross and Brand travelling through Fred Goodwin and Sharon Shoesmith and landing now on MPs. Daniel Finkelstein is, as always, very sharp on this today.        

Democractic reform: we still aren't having the right discussion

Blog

26 May 2009

Matthew Taylor

David Cameron’s lengthy Guardian essay about democratic reform is welcome, even if there isn’t much in it that is both new and a concrete commitment. As a long standing supporter of electoral reform, I also supported Alan Johnson’s call this weekend for a referendum on the day of the next General Election - indeed, I advocated exactly this policy in my blog a few days days earlier.

Why our leaders may be making a bad situation worse

Blog

22 May 2009

Matthew Taylor

As if the daily revelations about MPs expenses weren’t enough, the way Gordon Brown and David Cameron have chosen to handle the affair guarantees it will have many more downhill twists.  Running scared of the media and seeking political advantage, the leaders have tried to appear uncompromising in their condemnation of MPs accused of misdemeanours, and in their determination to act against wrong-doers.