Posts Tagged ‘industrial policy’

Time for policy in the pub with Iain Wright

17/10/2012, 02:48:49 PM

Yes, it’s that time of the month again: time to go to the pub and talk policy. Tonight it’s all about industry with shadow minister for competitiveness and enterprise Iain Wright.

So, if you want to know how we can get this country moving again, get yourself down to the Barley Mow pub on Horseferry Road SW1P 2EE this evening. The fun kicks off at 1830 and runs till 2030.

For those that haven’t been to one of these Pragmatic Radicalism events before, it’s a quick fire format with 90 seconds for speakers to present a policy idea, 2 minutes for questions and answers and then a vote at the end on the best policy.

Tonight as a special bonus, if the whole pub chants “Iain Wright, Wright, Wright,” the winning policy will be automatically adopted in the next manifesto.

OK, that last bit isn’t true, but it wouldn’t it be fun?

See you in pub.

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Labour needs relentless focus on private sector growth

08/06/2011, 07:00:36 AM

by John Denham

Over the last few months, Ed Miliband has set out three key challenges facing the country:

The problems faced by the “squeezed middle”, on low and middle incomes, who feel that the rewards of working hard are too little compared to those whose stellar salaries are not matched by results.

The threat to the British promise; our expectation that our children will enjoy better lives than we have done, because we cannot now pay our way in the world and create opportunities for them.

And the need to strengthen our communities, recognising that in myriad ways, not least in the way workplaces and working lives have changed, our confidence in a society of strong social institutions is being eroded.

We cannot deliver for the squeezed middle, revive the British promise or deliver strong communities without building an economy which looks and feels very different, with more opportunities to get better jobs.

We have developed an economy that is dangerously dependent on too many low skilled jobs. We cannot promise a better future for the next generation unless we can pay our way and create the skilled, well paid jobs which make the most of, and properly reward, their skills and abilities.

In building a different and stronger economy, the growth and jobs we need will be private sector growth and private sector jobs. The next Labour government will need to have a relentless, single-minded focus in creating the conditions for private sector growth. That means creating the conditions in which companies compete within fair markets and make profit by being the best in those competitive markets.

The Tory-Lib Dem notion is that support for market-led growth means that the ideal state is one in which government does as little as possible. In truth, markets are inevitably and unavoidably shaped by what governments do, and by what government doesn’t do.

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