I spoke today to the Young Briton’s Foundation, setting out the social, political and economic factors behind our present crisis and what might be done about it. Via About Us | The Young Britons’ Foundation: The Young Britons’ Foundation is a non-partisan, not-for-profit educational, research and training organisation that promotes conservatism […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Society"
Occasionally, there are uplifting moments
This evening, I met Esca Hayek, FA’s daughter-in-law, at the IEA and I was invited to attend the Mont Pelerin Society next year in Istanbul. I also learned of a range of initiatives to spread good ideas about the principles of civilised society. From the MPS website: After World War […]
Read MoreSteve Baker, MP: “The People are the World’s Influencers” | Global Thinkers
Via Global Thinkers, an interview on social networks: Q: Being connected: There is a surprising power in social networks. They seem to shape our lives one way or another. How do you view this trend? A: I’m deeply encouraged by people’s desire to associate with one another more broadly and more […]
Read MoreBritain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story
Further to my recent post, Britain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story will be transmitted on Channel 4, next Thursday, 11 Nov at 9pm: Film maker Martin Durkin explains the full extent of the financial mess we are in: an estimated £4.8 trillion of national debt and counting. It’s so big that even […]
Read MoreThe hopeful path between denial and despair is the reinvention of Britain
Via BT ruling could open pension claim floodgates – Telegraph: Taxpayers could be on the hook for tens of billions of pounds to cover a string of privatised companies’ pension schemes after the precedent set by BT’s landmark “crown guarantee” victory. What next, I wonder? Between the Institute of Economic Affairs, […]
Read MoreThe Big Society message in Wycombe today
There is such a thing as society – it’s just not the same as the state. — David Cameron Today, the Big Society message went out powerfully in Wycombe. I spent this morning visiting Coffee Nation‘s HQ, where Chief Executive Scott Martin and I discussed enterprise as the basis of […]
Read MoreCentreRight: Surely the Big Society is about more than volunteering?
Yesterday, I received a sneering email from an obviously partisan campaign group which implied that the Big Society is about nothing more than people giving their time. I beg to differ. If society is “the sum of human conditions and activity regarded as a whole functioning interdependently” (Concise OED), then […]
Read MoreThe altruistic individual in society
In preparation for an article to be published in the Autumn, I just reread The Open Society and Its Enemies – Volume 1: The Spell of Plato. The book traces mankind’s opposition to change and the consequent rise of the myth of destiny, technically, historicism: the belief that history unfolds […]
Read More21st Century Welfare – DWP
Via 21st Century Welfare, the Coalition seeks views on proposals for welfare reform. Since I gave time to work for the Centre for Social Justice, these reforms are close to my heart: we must take people out of the present intergenerational cycles of broad spectrum poverty. Iain Duncan Smith’s statement in […]
Read MoreOn self-ownership – whose property are you?
In response to my remarks on the illegitimacy of banning particular items of clothing, I have been criticised for asserting the concept of self-ownership: the idea that each of us has an inviolable property right in our own person. It turns out this is a difficult concept: Property is the […]
Read More
