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 that 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.

The Policy Institute and the Fairness Foundation co-hosted an event in our Fair Society series to mark the publication of This Time No Mistakes.

Speakers:

• Will Hutton, Observer columnist, President of the Academy of Social Sciences and author of This Time No Mistakes
• Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London (chair)
• Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, Barrister and broadcaster, was due to take part but had to pull out at the last minute in order to participate in the debate in the House of Lords on the Rwanda bill

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