Champion of better capitalism
This month marks 30 years since we launched the RSA report Tomorrow’s Company, the role of business in a changing world. [i] What difference have we made? It’s hard to tell. Nothing stands still. Success has many parents while failure is an orphan. Sometimes the … Continue readingThe Swirling Tides – Tomorrow’s Company 30 Years On
Scratching the Surface with the Partridges at Anthropy 2025 Picture the scene. You are part of a small group sitting in a large tropical atmosphere. You’re discussing how lost our young citizens feel as they move from the world of school to life beyond. The … Continue readingConversation enriched, senses heightened, imagination stirred
Last week, in a speech entitled ‘The fundamental reform of the British state’ the Prime Minister announced the abolition of NHS England. It was generally welcomed. Yes, people said, it will be disruptive in the short term but the previous arrangement was disruptive in the … Continue readingPrime Minister: your health strategy must first be embedded in all your other missions and ultimately be local to its fingertips
Telegraph poles. You see them sometimes by the side of the road. They carry – or carried – telephone signals, and electricity. In our part of Suffolk they are currently being replaced. There is, I learn, a modest market for second hand poles. Yet buyer … Continue readingWhat’s your idea for transforming our system of wealth creation?
What Ed must say to Rachel There is tension between Energy Minister Ed Miliband and Chancellor of The Exchequer Rachel Reeves. An inevitable tension in the conflict between a commitment to faster economic growth and a commitment to Net Zero? The month of January 2025 … Continue readingThe only growth we want is the growth that enhances our wellbeing
An open letter to Keir Starmer Dear Keir Happy New Year. So Elon Musk wants you removed as UK Prime Minister before the General Election. What presumption! I have no right to offer advice. You are a winner and, in party-political terms I am a … Continue readingTrust the people – the only way to put the populists back in their box
Charles Handy, the man who inspired the foundation of Tomorrow’s Company has died. Many members of the Tomorrow’s Company community will have heard him speak. I recommend the tribute to him in the Financial Times by Andrew Hill, and the comments that follow. Many people … Continue readingRemembering Charles Handy
Four more years of Trump? Around me people are depressed. I too am discouraged and anxious. So why do I feel a tiny bit less pessimistic than them? I am a slow reader of fiction. It’s ten pages a night at best. On the day of … Continue readingFour more years of Trump? Don’t get mad – get imaginative
Introduction: In November 2022 I heard Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor, speak at the Anthropy Conference. Her speech – and the discussion at that conference – stimulated me to suggest a new kind of Autumn Statement. It was published under the title ‘What if the Chancellor … Continue readingWhat the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer might have said… and should say next year
“The burden of regulation is too high” said Kemi Badenoch MP as she set out her case in front of Conservative Party members at their party conference last month. How short memories can be. Only a month ago, we heard from the final report of … Continue readingMessage to boards – get off the fence and start arguing for the regulation that the wellbeing of future generations demands