The Policy Institute has partnered with the newly established Fairness Foundation to explore issues of fairness, inequality and meritocracy with some of the world's leading thinkers. In a series of online events, they'll discuss their ideas and work with other leading experts and look at how we can move closer to a world in which everyone has equal chances in life.
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Seven Children: Inequality and Britain’s Next Generation – with Danny Dorling
What does declining prosperity mean for Britain’s next generation? In his latest book, author and professor Danny Dorling constructs seven “average” children from millions of statistics – each child symbolising the very middle of a parental income bracket, from the poorest to the wealthiest. Seven Children explores the realities facing Britain's youth in the aftermath of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis.
Dorling's seven children were born in 2018, at a time when the UK faced its worst inequality since the Great Depression. As they turned five in 2023, their country had Europe's fastest-rising child poverty rates, and even the best-off of the seven is disadvantaged.
The book provides insight into the lives of British children living between the extremes of wealth and poverty. It examines questions around parental income, the middle class, and the trends affecting the next generation.
Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It – with Sam Freedman
In his bestselling new book, Sam Freedman outlines how it feels like nothing works in Britain anymore. It has become harder than ever to get a GP appointment. Many property crimes remain unsolved. Rivers are overrun with sewage. Wages are stagnant and the cost of housing is increasing. He asks why it feels like everything is going wrong, at the same time?
It's easy to blame dysfunctional politicians, but the reality is more complicated, he says. Politicians can make things better or worse, but all work within our state institutions. And Failed State argues ours are utterly broken.
In this event from the Policy Institute and the Fairness Foundation, Sam Freedman – a leading policy expert and writer of the UK’s most popular politics Substack – offers his analysis of how our governance has fallen behind and what can be done to pave the way for a fairer and more prosperous Britain.
Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places – with Paul Collier
Left behind places can be found in prosperous countries – from South Yorkshire, integral to the industrial revolution and now England’s poorest county, to Barranquilla, once Colombia’s portal to the Caribbean and now struggling.
More alarmingly, the poorest countries in the world are diverging further from the rest of humanity than they were at the start of this century. Why have these places fallen behind? And what can we do about it?
World-renowned development economist Paul Collier has spent his life working in neglected communities and lays the blame for widening inequality on stale economic orthodoxies that prioritise market forces to revive left-behind regions, and on what he sees as the hands-off and one-size-fits-all approach of centralised bureaucracies like the UK Treasury. As a result, he argues that the UK has become the most unequal and unfair society in the western world.
How workers can reclaim the work ethic – with Elizabeth Anderson
Political philosopher Elizabeth Anderson argues that the 17th century concept of the Protestant work ethic has been perverted, and is now used to justify policies that promote the wealth and power of the richest in society, at workers’ expense.
In her latest book, "Hijacked: How neoliberalism turned the work ethic against the workers", Anderson says we should reclaim the original goals of the work ethic and better ensure that it promotes dignity for workers.
This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain – with Will Hutton
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 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.
Limitarianism: The case against extreme wealth – with Ingrid Robeyns
We all take notice when the poor become even poorer – when we witness more rough sleepers and longer food bank queues.
However, when the rich amass greater wealth, it often goes unnoticed in public, and for most of us, our daily lives remain ostensibly unchanged. In her book 'Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth', philosopher and economist Ingrid Robeyns sheds light on the alarming extent of our wealth problem, which has quietly escalated over the past 50 years.
From moral and political perspectives to economic, social, environmental, and psychological dimensions, she argues that extreme wealth is not only unjustifiable but is also detrimental to society as a whole, and proposes a radical solution - placing a hard limit on the wealth that any one person can accumulate.
The Inequality of Wealth: Why it Matters and How to Fix It
The super-rich have never had it so good – but millions can't afford a home, an education or a pension, argues former Treasury minister Liam Byrne MP in his new book, The Inequality of Wealth: Why it Matters and How to Fix it.
He says that unless we change course soon, the future will be even worse. Much worse. But things don't have to be like this. In the book, Byrne explains why wealth inequality has grown so fast in recent years; warns how it threatens our society, economy and politics; shows where economics has got it wrong – and proposes five practical ways to rebuild an old ideal: the wealth-owning democracy.
Peter Turchin on End Times: Counter-Elites and the Path of Political Disintegration
What factors drive political turmoil and societal breakdown? How do elites sustain their dominance, and why do ruling classes occasionally lose their hold on power?
Peter Turchin, an expert in researching the origins of political instability, uncovers a recurring trend. When the scales of power heavily favour the ruling elite, it leads to a surge in income inequality, enriching the wealthy and impoverishing the less privileged. As more individuals aspire to join the elite, dissatisfaction with the established order intensifies, often resulting in calamity.
Are we truly living in "End Times," or can history provide a glimmer of optimism for breaking free from past cycles?
The Spirit Level revisited – with Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson
In their influential and award-winning 2009 book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson argue that societies with the biggest gaps between the rich and the rest are bad for everyone, including those who are most well off.
They contend that everything from life expectancy, mental illness and obesity to violence and illiteracy is affected not by the wealth of a society, but its level of equality and propose solutions to move towards a future that is both fairer and happier.
In this session from the Policy Institute and the Fairness Foundation, we revisited The Spirit Level and its lasting impact on how we think about inequality.
How to create a fair society: can the left and the right find common ground?
How do politicians from the Conservative and Labour parties think about what a fair society looks like? Are their differences intractable, or are there areas with as-yet unrealised potential for cross-party consensus? If we can find common ground between the fairness principles and priorities of those on the left and the right, what might this look like in terms of concrete policy solutions?
In his new book, Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like? Daniel Chandler builds on the philosophy of John Rawls to argue for a society that protects free speech and transcends culture wars, limits the influence of money on politics, and builds a more just economy that operates within the limits of the planet.
Mark Carney & Nick Macpherson on Value(s): Building a Better World for All
In his recent book, Value(s): Building a Better World for All, former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney argues fundamental problems – such as growing inequality in income and opportunity, mistrust of experts, and the existential threat of climate change – all stem from a common crisis in values. In this webinar, Carney discusses his vision for a fairer and more humane society with Nick Macpherson, former Permanent Secretary to the Treasury and Policy Institute Visiting Professor with the Strand Group.
Sir Michael Marmot on The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World
Dramatic differences in health are not a simple matter of rich and poor – poverty alone doesn't drive ill health, but inequality does. Marmot and our panel explain why it’s more urgent than ever that we tackle inequalities in order to improve health, why more progress has not been made in the last decade, and how we can rectify this failure in the era of levelling up.
Selina Todd on Snakes and Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth
Travelling up or down the social ladder has been a British obsession for over a century, but can political leaders continue to claim that social mobility is a real and just reward for hard work? Professor Selina Todd and our panel discuss class and social mobility in modern Britain and how we can create greater opportunities for all.
Minouche Shafik on What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract
In What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract, economist and Director of the LSE, Minouche Shafik, examines societies across the world and demonstrates that the urgent challenges of technology, demography and climate require a major shift in priorities – a social contract fit for the 21st century.
Michael Sandel on The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?
What accounts for our polarised public life, and how can we begin to heal it? Political philosopher Michael Sandel offers a surprising answer: those who have flourished need to look in the mirror.
In his book, The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?, Sandel explores how "meritocratic hubris" leads many to believe their success is their own doing and to look down on those who haven't made it, provoking resentment and inflaming the divide between "winners" and "losers" in the new economy.