A blog following the UK general election 2010, as part of the Institute of Ideas election intervention, 21 Pledges for Progress.

All power to the soviets?

There are two major problems with the Conservatives’ approach. The first is that it sidesteps the many things the government can and should be doing, abdicating responsibility before the party even forms a government. The second is that governments can’t create or even foster civil society, which is defined by its independence from government. The political class is the worst-placed section of society to start talking about this.

Could do much better

The Institute of Ideas’ Education Forum thinks education has lost all meaning and that in the election debate politicians from all parties must do better! Professor Dennis Hayes outlines the reasoning behind the Education Forum’s forthcoming Election Statement.

Breaking out of the grey

The election campaign so far merely confirms that the current crisis is not merely ‘economic’, but societal. With no substantial debate about the nature of contemporary capitalism, let alone any alternative, the political class drifts along in a dream world, while the rest of us can only hope things are not as bad as we fear they might be. Who needs catastrophic climate change?

The power is ours!

Politicians offer up various reforms, seemingly plucked from thin air, which they offer as the palliative cure for restoring ‘trust’  in the political system (and, of course, trust in them, the political class that manages it). But, so often, these reforms are touted with little regard for how they affect our democracy as a whole and not even a flickering recognition that the people themselves may like more than just a walk on part in this important discussion.