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Previous EventsSearch for: in: Westminster Fringe Debate: Public Services
Date: 09 February 2006
Location: One Great George Street, Westminster, London Speakers: Chair: Edward Carr. Speakers: Tim Gosling, Matthew Hancock, Margie Jaffe, Henry Pitman The motion: If Britain wants decent and efficient public services, it should hand them over to the private sector.
The government spends more than Ł2 billion a week on public services. But still we complain about the state of our schools and hospitals; and still our cities are blighted by poverty. Isn't running public services simply too important to leave to timeserving bureaucrats? Surely the best way to ensure that public services are decent and good value is to turn to the best managers we can find. Company executives understand how organisations work and what people want, whether they are hospital patients or aircraft passengers. Or would the profit motive end up poisoning the commitment and dedication of our teachers and doctors? Wouldn't a system geared towards making money inevitably line executives' pockets at the expense of ordinary people? As one of Britain's great achievements, doesn't the Welfare State need defending rather than dismantling?  A flat tax system is the best way forward for Britain
Date: 26 January 2006
Location: One Great George Street, Westminster, London Speakers: Chair: Paul Wallace. Speakers: Allister Heath, Susan Kramer, Ondrej Socuvka, Prof. Lord Richard Layard Flat tax systems now dominate much of Eastern Europe, and over here, the Tories are investigating whether Britain can follow suit. The hope is that a flat tax system would galvanise the economy by making it pay for people to work harder; also it would take many people out of the income tax system altogether; and could help to combat the increasing complexity of the tax system. But would it work? Is it a fairer system for all, not just in theory, but in practice? Or is it just a disguised tax cut for the rich which would hurt middle Britain and leave the least wealthy of us even worse off?
Will European transport take us too far?
Date: 24 January 2006
Location: Hotel Amigo, rue de l'Amigo, 1-3, Brussels, Belgium Speakers: Dr. Guoda Stepanoviciene, Mr. Olivier Charon There is a raging debate about transport policy in Europe - made more visible as the EU admits 10 new member countries. Everyone complains that long vehicles clog our motorways, yet how else can we supply what consumers demand?
Digital technology will strengthen, not weaken public service broadcasting
Date: 24 November 2005
Location: One Great George Street, Westminster, London Speakers: Chair: Edward Carr. Speakers: Jocelyn Hay, Helen Weeds, Eben Wilson, David Levy Can tax-financed public service broadcasting survive the infinite choice and variety presented by digital technology? Are the public goods it offers increasingly available elsewhere, or increasingly scarce? Or is the real danger that the digitisation of public service broadcasting will create online media so powerful that they crowd out their for-profit competitors?
European Dawn launch
Date: 23 November 2005
Location: Brussels, Belgium Speakers: Johnny Munkhammar An intense debate is raging in Western Europe. Growth is slowing, employment is falling, the number of people living off the state is increasing, and welfare services are deteriorating. Why? Who is responsible? What should be done?
The problems have been obvious for a long time and new ones are now being added: an ageing population, ever-more-expensive services, international competition, an international labour market and a heterogeneous society. Some reforms are taking place. Taxes are being lowered, public commitments limited, private initiatives admitted, and deregulation measures introduced. But the reforms in Western Europe are far too modest, and the politicians in charge are keeping quiet about the aims – in fact, they often argue the opposite. This is dangerous because citizens are being kept in the dark about the purpose of the changes. The Great Paradigm Shift: Health Care as a Driver of Growth
Date: 22 November 2005
Location: Brussels, Belgium Speakers: Dr. Arne Björnberg and Sonia Teughels "What is driving health care demand? What to do with an ageing society? How can we ensure a "fair" distribution of dwindling health budgets? How do we administer shortages?" These issues erroneously dominate the current debate and present health care as a "cost" to society and a problem for decision-makers. Rather than focussing on budget cuts or rationing, a report presented at this event demonstrated why the cost control paradigm is a fallacy and revealed why health care has the potential of becoming the largest service industry in our societies.
Lunch for Vesna Škare Ožbolt
Date: 16 November 2005
Location: Vesna Škare Ožbolt The Stockholm Network and Policy Exchange would like to invite you to attend a private, on the record briefing with the Croatian Minister of Justice, Vesna Škare Ožbolt.
This is a rare opportunity to sit face to face with the Croatian Minister of Justice and discuss important current European political issues. Talks between Croatia and the EU over accession only began recently after a long and laborious investigation determined that Croatia is cooperating fully with the International Criminal Tribunal in chasing down suspected war criminals. However, a key former Croatian general remains at large. Equally, corruption remains a huge problem in Croatia, and judicial reform remains a key area if Croatia is ultimately to accede to the EU. IP Debate - Unregulated free riding on others' ideas will harm consumers and cripple innovation
Date: 15 November 2005
Location: London, England Speakers: James Nurton, Dr Meir Perez Pugatch, Dr Birgitte Andersen, Phil Evans, Dr Alan Story, Professor Stefan Szymanski Growing competition from the Asian giants is making Western economies ever more reliant on the development of knowledge-based products and services. Yet ideas are unique among resources because they are potentially limitless, but possess no monetary value until realised and utilised. Should, therefore, ideas be treated as public goods because of their ephemeral nature? Or does the very difficulty of transforming an idea into reality merit some reward? Are consumers best served by allowing all to profit from the reproduction of another's original work? Or can the fruits of an idea reach their largest potential market if their reproduction is restricted?
A Future for Retirement? Lessons and Perspectives on US Social Security Reform
Date: 25 October 2005
Location: Brussels, Belgium Speakers: Dr. Michael Tanner, CATO and Dr. Johan van Overtveld, Belgian Association of Christian Employers, Frans Crols, Trends Magazine (chair) The Bush administration promised to introduce the “ownership society”. A centrepiece of this policy is individual empowerment for retirement, by means of personal accounts for every citizen. This would bring both responsibility for savings, greater wealth and reduction of government debt.
Rendering Social Security to its beneficiaries will also contain the ultimate choice: those who prefer greater risk and returns in the form of investment on capital markets are free to opt out; whereas risk-averse citizens may choose to remain in the current system, albeit with lower benefits. But with expanding federal expenditure, some fear that retirement reform may stall. Democracies should bypass the UN rather than wait for its reform
Date: 20 October 2005
Location: London Speakers: Chair: Christopher Lockwood. Speakers: Rebecca Tinsley, Jan Kavan, Joshua Moravchik, Edward Mortimer Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Darfur: all these agonies of the post-Cold War landscape are examples of places where the United Nations failed to act as it should. Few people doubt that the UN's ability to guarantee international security stands in urgent need of reform, but there is no real prospect of agreement on how to do it. In the absence of a credible international system for security, do individual countries have the right to take international law into their own hands? Is it better if a democracy, which is at least subject to some form of accountability, does it than if a dictatorship does? Does the existence of a broad coalition make action outside the UN more acceptable? Or are these just steps towards the old doctrine of 'might is right'?
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