David Cameron’s Hugo Young speech is really well worth reading – rather than assume that the state gets in the way and needs to get out, he asks how the state can act in order to be able to get out of the way. It is not a speech about concrete action, which is a shame because actions are louder than words, but it is about ideas and core philosophy and very important for it – he cites for example the co-operative theorist and Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom. I would say that if the thinking here spreads across the Conservative Party, there is a genuinely interesting set of conversations to come.
for a slightly different take on Ostrom have a look here http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/2009/11/elinor-ostrom-has-transformed-economics.html
The very influential Cuban environmental activist Roberto Perez told me that Ostrom’s ideas were behind economic reform in Cuba, Ostrom’s defence of the commons is as much about challenging the market as calling for a small state.
Comment by Derek Wall — 11 November, 2009 @ 11:12 pm |