"Bright Blue and its contributors have been tireless in bringing forward new ideas and fresh thinking to the conservative cause."
The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP
Centre Write
Friday, 07 December 2012 22:04
SOLD?
Katy Wright is Oxfam's UK Advocacy and Parliamentary Officer. Follow Katy on Twitter: @katywright A new film from the excellent Why Poverty series focusing on 'The great land rush' is a fascinating look at the range of perspectives, interests, hopes and fears, power relations and money that accompany a large-scale land acquisition in the developing world – in this case an enormous sugar plantation in Mali’s most arable region. The picture is complex because the issue of land rights and…
Saturday, 01 December 2012 22:04
Making AIDS History: Achieving an HIV-Free Generation
Dr. Alvaro Bermejo is Executive Director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. Despite economically challenging times, and urgent humanitarian crises, research has shown that the British people continue to think it is important to maintain spending on HIV programmes. The understandable tendency right now would be to focus entirely on domestic concerns and deep-freeze our humanitarian impulses until a stronger economy permits us to think big again. But if we do that, we may miss out on one of the greatest…
Friday, 23 November 2012 17:09
Cash counts when it comes to improving the lives of children in poverty
Graham Whitham is UK Poverty Policy Advisor for Save the Children. He leads on their work on family incomes, including work on welfare reform, work incentives and child poverty measurement. Follow Graham on Twitter: @GrahamWhitham Save the Children’s work has shown that children are all too aware, despite the best efforts of parents, of poverty and the impact it has on their families. Our September report, It Shouldn’t Happen Here, shows that too often the burden of getting by on…
Friday, 16 November 2012 21:42
Children in school, ready to learn?
Jan Tallis is the Chief Executive of School-Home Support. Follow Jan on Twitter: @jantallis Education is the ticket to improved life chances and principal route out of intergenerational poverty. Yet there is a substantial body of oft-cited evidence that children from poor households are unlikely to fulfil their potential at school. Regular absence from school is a key driver in this tragic cycle preventing a fair start for all children. Once a child reaches ‘legal 5’ (the educational jargon for…
Friday, 09 November 2012 16:05
The Fastest Billion and $29 Trillion
Charles Robertson is Global Chief Economist and Head of Macro-strategy of Renaissance Capital. He is the lead author of The Fastest Billion: The Story Behind Africa’s Economic Revolution, published in October 2012. Follow Charles on Twitter: @rencapman Listen to Bright Blue blog editor Jonathan Algar in conversation with Charles & Razia Khan at the Royal Institute of International Affairs:
The most sophisticated cement production plant in the world is a two hour drive from Lagos, the booming commercial capital…
Friday, 26 October 2012 01:27
A tale of two aspiration nations
Jennifer Brindisi is Conservative Friends of Turkey's policy officer. It is often overlooked that the UK and Turkey are united by the Conservative vision of an “aspiration nation”, powered by an entrepreneurial, innovative, highly-skilled workforce. This isn’t an original observation. David Cameron recognised this shared drive back in 2010 when he signed a ‘Strategic Partnership’ with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Since then, UK ministers have made six trips to Turkey, including Nick Clegg’s delegation earlier this month when…
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Friday, 19 October 2012 17:59
In Praise of Big Society
Gracia McGrath OBE is the CEO of Chance UK. Follow Gracia on Twitter: @ChanceUK Whenever I speak to someone about the Big Society, especially members of the Conservative Party, they often slink away in embarrassment as if I had just said something distasteful. And yet I really don’t understand why – our Big Society is something as one nation we should be really proud of. Last year, even before the shock of the riots had gone away, the Big Society…
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Friday, 12 October 2012 11:02
Freedom of Expression: is Cameron getting it right?
Kirsty Hughes is the Chief Executive of Index on Censorship. Listen to Bright Blue blog editor Jonathan Algar in conversation with Kirsy & Mark Stephens about the globalization of political protest at the Institute of Contemporary Arts:
The political hue of a government by no means tells you where it will stand on defending freedom of expression when the chips are down. The signals from Cameron and his team so far are mixed but by the end of 2012,…
Friday, 05 October 2012 16:47
Dear Mr. Osborne,
George Buckley is Chief UK Economist at Deutsche Bank. He writes in a personal capacity. Follow George on Twitter: @georgebuckley Something odd has been happening in the UK economy. Normally, when output contracts as much as it did in the 2008-09 recession - and for that matter recovers as weakly as it has done since - you'd expect unemployment to rise and employment to fall sharply. Well, the unemployment rate is certainly higher and employment lower than when the crisis…
Friday, 28 September 2012 16:42
The Antarctic matters to us all
Neil Carmichael is the Member of Member of Parliament for Stroud and sponsor of the Antarctic Bill 2012-13. Thirty years ago, we successfully reclaimed the Falklands, reaffirmed our sovereignty over the territory and began to strengthen our ‘presence’ in the region. Throughout the 1980s, measures were taken to enhance our military capacity in the South Atlantic in terms of providing sufficient deterrence against further aggression and - less well known but just as significant - investments were also made to…
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