Tag Archives: Politics and Philosophy

The government must do more to “widen ladders of opportunity, smash glass ceilings and back the British underdog” says Conservative MP Dominic Raab in his new pamphlet The Meritocrat’s Manifesto, to be published by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) think tank on Wednesday 11th June.

Predicting the UK’s growth trajectory has become a notoriously tricky game. When the coalition came to power, the OBR was expecting to see the economy start recovering during 2010, and growth of 2.8% in 2012. Instead, GDP barely grew at all in that year.

This morning’s growth figures are the latest set-piece dust-up on the Government’s growth strategy. And as innumerable pointy-heads have made clear, the positive or negative sign on the front of the growth figure is really only of political significance. The broad picture remains one of stagnation. So we remain where we’ve been for a long time, debating what to do to get growth going.

On 15 April, Social Market Foundation Director Ian Mulheirn took part in a Political Quarterly debate on the social market framework in public policy.

The stakes are extremely high for the Government as the Universal Credit nears the implementation stage. Get it right, and the Government can boast that it has cracked welfare reform. Get it wrong, and the chaos that will ensue could consign many to socia

Beyond all the debate about targets and rules, the message from the Autumn Statement is that public services face years of deep retrenchment.

Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP has today delivered his third and final lecture marking the 70th anniversary since the publications of the Beveridge report.

Leader of the Opposition Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP has today delivered a speech to the Social Market Foundation to launch the SMF's latest publications, Markets in a State.

Former advisor to Gordon Brown, John Woodcock MP, today criticises the Coalition Government for taking too soft a line with unemployed benefit claimants. Woodcock argues that 'work for your benefit' programmes should be mandatory and permanent for long-term jobseekers.