Zoe Strimpel and Jonathan Portes chaired by Stephen Law

Journalist Zoe Strimpel and economist Jonathan Portes debate whether Britian is broken and, if it is, how do we go about fixing it?

Our waterways are contaminated by sewage. Social services are collapsing, and infrastructure appears to be rotting. It can take more than three weeks to get a GP appointment, and a train ticket from London to Manchester can cost more than £100. Three in four people say Britain is becoming a worse place to live. Does our political and economic system just need managing better, or has something more fundamental gone wrong, something requiring a more radical solution?

Strimpel writes regularly for both The Spectator and The Telegraph. She is an author, historian and journalist who specialises in gender, relationships and sexuality. She has published three books, her most recent being Seeking Love in Modern Britain: Gender, Dating and the Rise of ‘the Single’. Her next book is about why money, sex and power are, after all, and always have been, good for women.

Portes is professor of economics at King’s College London. He began his career at the Treasury, and was chief economist at the Cabinet Office and at the Department for Work and Pensions. His research concentrates on immigration, labour markets and the economic impacts of Brexit. His books include 50 Capitalism Ideas You Really Need To Know and Immigration: What do we know and what should we do? 

Discussion is chaired by Dr Stephen Law, philosopher and academic, and author of bestselling introductions to philosophy for adults and children, including The Philosophy Gym. Law is also the editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal, Think, and the festival’s major projects director.