Labour politician Dame Margaret Hodge and ethics expert and broadcaster David Edmonds ask whether the worlds of politics and business are in need of a guiding philosophy today. Can philosophy contribute to good moral behaviour in governments and corporations and encourage decent values and better decision-making?

Hodge has been MP for Barking since 1994, served as a minister in the Blair and Brown governments, and was chair of the public accounts committee between 2010 and 2015. In Called to Account:  How Corporate Bad Behaviour and Government Waste Combine to Cost us Millions, she argues that too much money needed for public services is misspent and that too many corporate giants get away without paying their fair share.

Edmonds is a senior research associate at Oxford’s Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, an award-winning radio broadcaster and part of the team behind the popular Philosophy Bites podcasts. In Philosophers Take on the World, he brings together and edits a series of essays by philosophers tackling the moral questions raised by issues in society today from abortion to gun control and drinking alone.

Discussions are chaired by Daniel Susskind, an economics fellow at Balliol College and a former Downing Street policy adviser.