Public policy issues
Social policy
Health, Education, Welfare, Social care, aged care, drug policy & addiction, animal welfare
Foreign policy
What should be Britain’s role in the modern world? Who are our partners and in what? Who are our friends? Who are our adversaries? How we can best help to solve the world’s many problems?
Science & research policies
Britain is supposed to be a science power-house. Are we, what do we do with that power and could we do better?
Energy policy
How do we ensure the UK has access to the energy it needs from sources that limit environmental damage at a price that it can afford?
Industry policies
Can the government pick winners? Should it try? Does it need to or is there a smarter way to approach development of viable industries? Can we address, even resolve, the UK’s productivity puzzle?
Education policies
Internationally standardised tests show that Britain performs well relative to other G7 countries in adult literacy, numeracy and adaptive problem solving skills, exceeded only Japan. However, advanced skills and productivity comparisons tell a different story. Advanced education is obtusely and inconsistently funded, under-valued socially and fails to reflect investments made in terms of subsequent economic performance. Why?
Markets & competition policy
How best to promote freer markets and competition for the benefit of consumers
Technologies policies
We must wean ourselves off the delusion that technologies are ethically & politically neutral. Which technologies are beneficial, which are not and what can we do about it?
Infrastucture
The UK’s transport infrastructures, water and waste infrastructures have failed to keep pace with demands, suffer from chronic under-investment and are barely fit for purpose. How, afforably, can we fix this?
Migration policies
No other area of public policy generates more controversy than policies on migration? Is a multicultural Britain really socially viable? If so, what do we need to do better? If not, where to from here?
Specific, contentious areas within social policy
Welfare policies
The UK’s welfare system is really only a transfer payment system. Even that is poorly designed and poorly integrated with the tax system. Welfare is untargeted and does not reach where it is needed most. It is increasingly unaffordable and contributes to social pathologies we would do better to avoid. How can we improve it?
Constitutional policy
The UK is caught in an invidious position of poorly-conceived and partially implemented reforms that work practically for no-one. We need to sort out this mess of compromise and incrementalism.
Urbanisation & planning
How we think about space and the use of space needs to adjust to the changing needs and demands of users, in urban, peri-urban and rural settings. Planning must be clearer, quicker and fairer. But how?
Government operations
The government does too much and, in many cases, not very well. How do we improve the focus, performance and efficiency of government operations?
Natural resources policies
Managing the country natural resources sustainably and beneficially for all.
Justice policy
The operation of the state’s systems of law, justice, enforcement and punishment.
Arts & Culture policies
What is art? What is culture? Whose culture? Who decides, who needs it and who should pay?
Health policy
Broadly put, the UK’s over-riding policy on health is, somehow, spend more. The health results are not encouraging with the UK falling behind comparator countries on many measures. The NHS is a bureaucratic gordion knot. Is the solution to this the Alexandian one from Phyrgia in 333 BC? Or are there more subtle methods of reform that can garner public acceptance?