This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain – with Will Hutton
Monday 22 April 2024, 6.30pm to 7.45pm (UK time) 8th Floor (North Side), Bush House, 30 Aldwych, London WC2B 4BG (and online)
In his new book, This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain, political economist and Observer columnist Will Hutton analyses how the left and right have gone wrong over the course of the last century.
He believes the nation’s continuing inability to invest in itself is at the heart of our problems, which have their roots in a fixation on free markets and a minimal state.
To ward off the wave of nihilist populism sweeping the world, we need an alternative economic and political philosophy, Hutton says.
He argues that two great traditions, ethical socialism and progressive liberalism, can be brought together to offer a different way forward and help shape a better Britain.
Through the reforming Liberal government of 1906-14 and, later, the 1945 Labour government that was influenced by Keynes and Beveridge, history has shown great things can be achieved when the two progressive strands fuse, he says. Now it’s time to do it again.
The Policy Institute and the Fairness Foundation co-hosted an event in our Fair Society series to mark the publication of This Time No Mistakes.
Speakers
- Will Hutton, Observer columnist, President of the Academy of Social Sciences and author of This Time No Mistakes
- Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London (chair)
- Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, Barrister and broadcaster, was due to take part but had to pull out at the last minute in order to participate in the debate in the House of Lords on the Rwanda bill
Summary of the discussion
Will Hutton on key arguments from This Time No Mistakes
- The talk covered philosophical underpinnings, an analysis of Britain's problems, and wide-ranging proposals for reform across the economy, politics and society.
- He argued for fusing ethical socialism (focused on fellowship and the collective good) with progressive liberalism (allowing for individual opportunity). This blends the "we" and the "I". He pointed out that the text of New Labour’s revised Clause IV, written by Tony Blair, captures this fusion of individual potential with opportunity for the many.
- He was critical of the free market fundamentalism that has dominated since Thatcher, leading to underinvestment, inequality, and decline. He cited four major "disasters" flowing from this: monetarism/deindustrialization in the 1980s, financial deregulation preceding the 2008 crash, austerity policies after 2010, and Brexit, arguing that "we have a society in real trouble."
- He argued that capitalism needs to "hardwire social obligation into its DNA" and that companies should recognise their obligations to the society that they are part of.
- He quoted Francis Bacon ("wealth is like muck, not good except it be spread") and argued that the wealthy need to pay their fair share, saying "there is some proportionality required and some obligation to pay into the common weal."
- His proposals included a major public investment programme to crowd in private investment, reshaping finance to support businesses, making companies more purposeful with obligations to society, and investing more in areas like housing, education and health to heal our fractured society.
- He portrayed this agenda as breaking from the failed approaches of the past and creating a new model that can make Britain a progressive economic and social example for Europe.
Q&A
- He criticised New Labour for not going far enough on corporate governance reform with the 2006 Company Act and for not doing enough to challenge the Thatcherite settlement, and argued that the Iraq war was a huge mistake, but gave them credit for a broad range of achievements such as Sure Start.
- He advocated for some form of proportional representation to have Parliament better reflect public opinion, observing that first-past-the-post has given us unrepresentative results, and argued that we shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good on the specific system.
- He was hopeful that cultural division over "woke" issues is fading and that the geopolitical situation creates opportunities for pro-European defence and security co-operation.
- He argued for higher taxes on the wealthy, such as reforming council tax and inheritance tax, because the wealthy have become too divorced from obligations to society. Inheritance tax has been with us for centuries and we must not allow it to be abolished, which would lead to unlimited untaxed wealth transfer between generations.
- He pushed back strongly on the notion that the British state cannot be effective and that money is always wasted, citing examples such as wartime production during the Second World War and the COVID vaccine rollout.