Torsten Bell | Great Britain?
Sat 23 Nov 2024 | 8:00pm - 9:00pm
Things haven’t been going great for Britain. With wages flatlining and public services collapsing, it’s no surprise our children can’t afford to buy homes, our parents aren’t receiving acceptable social care, and our neighbours rely on foodbanks.
Torsten Bell MP wants to change Britain’s trajectory. Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, an enormously respected and influential economic research charity working to raise the living standards of households on low to middle incomes, Bell offers lucid diagnosis of Britain’s decline.
This treasure trove of original analysis is a much-needed antidote to the pervading sense that Britain’s decline is inevitable or irreversible. Join Bell as he presents his hopeful vision for a future worth fighting for.
In conversation with writer Melissa Benn
Venue: Old Divinity School & Livestream
Duration: 1 hour
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Author Biography
Torsten Bell is the Labour MP for Swansea West, and the former Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, an enormously respected and influential economic research charity working to raise the living standards of households on low to middle incomes. His focus is on where economics meets the real world – on better jobs, affordable housing and a more equal country. The Resolution Foundation heavily influenced two of the biggest government interventions in recent times: the Coronavirus Job Retention ‘Furlough’ Scheme and the Energy Price Guarantee. Prior to leading the Resolution Foundation, Torsten worked in HM Treasury, as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers during the financial crisis, and as Director of Policy for the Labour Party. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, school governor, trustee of the Child Poverty Action Group and an Honorary Professor at UCL. He has a column in the Observer, and writes regularly for the Guardian and Financial Times. Great Britain? is his first book.
Chair Biography
Melissa Benn is a writer, journalist, and campaigner. As a freelance writer, her essays and journalism have appeared in a wide range of publications, including The Independent, The Times, Public Finance, Marxism Today, The London Review of Books, and Cosmopolitan. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian and New Statesman. She has published eight books, including two novels. One of Us, published in 2008, was widely praised and shortlisted for a British Book Award in 2008. In September 2013 she published What Should We Tell Our Daughters? The Pleasures and Pressures of Growing Up Female, an exploration of young women’s lives from the perspective of a mother and feminist in mid-life, which was shortlisted for a Politico’s Book of the Year in 2014.
