About this Lecture

Please join as at 6pm, Thursday 21^st of November in the King’s Building, room -1.56, Strand, at King’s College, London. for our seventh lecture and discussion, focusing on water, food and forest regulation.

We will cover:

• the rules on combatting water pollution, and putting failing water companies into “special measures” including making them lose their licences in “special administration”;
• the costs and benefits of privatisation vs. the costs and benefits of public ownership, and how much the UK stands to gain or lose based on evidence and international data;
• the possible solutions for companies like Thames Water or United Utilities, and the governance structures in good water utilities worldwide;
• the role of food and forest regulation, including methods to deal with farming pollution for rivers, lakes and beaches.

We have a brilliant, leading campaigner Jo Robb from Henley Mermaids and South Oxfordshire District Council joining us as a discussant. You can download the full programme with sources and background here. This is part of a series on Current Issues in Labour’s Economic Policy, and coming up next are the NHS (28/11), universities and nurseries (5/12), and big tech media (12/12).

About this Event Series

How should Labour achieve its economic objectives, for growth, prosperity and equality in Britain? This series is based on Labour’s economic policy and legislative plans. There will be a one hour lecture with Prof Ewan McGaughey, followed by seminar discussion, joined by expert discussants including from the Institute for Employment Rights: see the Eventbrite pages. Attendees will participate in formulating a policy note for each topic, and draft amendments to Bills to fulfil the goals in each policy field.

Sources include Keir Starmer’s pledges, the Labour Manifesto, official policies, and Bills. We compare these to human right treaties that bind the UK, including the Universal Declaration (ratified by the two International Covenants of 1966), the European Convention and Social Charter. We compare existing UK legal sources to these goals, to international models, and to empirical data. Full background for each topic is in Ewan McGaughey,Principles of Enterprise Law: the Economic Constitution and Human Rights (2022) chapters 3-5, 8-17 and 20 (McG), available on the Cambridge Uni Press website.