Overview

'This Time No Mistakes is a brilliant book... an intellectual, historical, political read with some strong themes... read it if you haven’t already.' Keir Starmer 'Represents the beginning of a new, urgent debate. The era that defined economics since the end of the Cold War is now giving way to more activist governments and a very different kind of globalisation, necessitating new economic strategies. At last we are beginning to discuss what they might look like.' New Statesman Every thinking person knows that a great change is needed in our country. Will Hutton’s passionate book shows how the right and left have gone wrong over the course of the last century – and how we can remake a better Britain. Britain’s inability to invest in itself is at the heart of our problems. The malevolent thread linking the grievous errors of the last forty-five years is the attempt to create the utopia of free markets and a minimal state. The terrible consequences scar our country today. We need an alternative economic and political philosophy, especially if we are to ward off a nihilist populism. Two great traditions – ethical socialism and progressive liberalism – can be brought together to offer a different way forward. Hutton describes the views of their major thinkers, and their common vision of what he calls the ‘We Society’ – combining the ‘We’ and the ‘I’. The two strands of thought both believe in the duty to treat people fairly in a capitalist system that, without guiderails, spirals into inequality, monopoly and exploitation. Out of this shared worldview came the great reforming Liberal government of 1906–14, supported by Labour MPs who’d been elected in industrial areas with Liberal backing. This alliance, Hutton argues, was the great opportunity of modern British history. It was destroyed by the First World War. In 1945 a Labour government, informed by great Liberal intellectuals like Keynes and Beveridge, showed once again what can be achieved when the two progressive strands fuse. Since then, our deeply unfair electoral system has allowed Conservatives to dominate government and commit a long series of great, avoidable errors. The Labour Party, fatally divided between socialist purity and timid pragmatism, must rediscover the ingredients that made for the success of the great reforming governments of the twentieth century. This failure to uphold the ‘We Society’ has betrayed Britain. Capitalism must be repurposed to work for the common good. And our degraded democracy, the necessary means for such change, must be reformed. Hutton’s proposals are inspiring and rooted in values held by the overwhelming majority of us. Above all, they are achievable.

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9781804549377

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Reviews

PRAISE FOR WILL HUTTON: 'His optimism is unquenchable, his excitement exhilarating and his creativity awesome' Observer. 'Passionately sane, rich in ideas, The State We're In breathes human sense back into economics and eloquently embodies the spirit of a new optimism' Ian McEwan. 'When the British left is so bereft of vision and so tentative about the modest ideas it does have, Hutton comes as a breath of fresh air' Guardian. 'A commendable effort: ambitious, passionate, imaginative, decent and thoughtful... Read the book: be inspired; be provoked; be annoyed' Financial Times. 'If Will Hutton were a political party I would vote for him' -- David Aaronovitch, Independent

PRAISE FOR WILL HUTTON: 'His optimism is unquenchable, his excitement exhilarating and his creativity awesome' * Observer * OTHER REVIEWS: 'Passionately sane, rich in ideas, The State We're In breathes human sense back into economics and eloquently embodies the spirit of a new optimism' Ian McEwan 'When the British left is so bereft of vision and so tentative about the modest ideas it does have, Hutton comes as a breath of fresh air' Guardian 'A commendable effort: ambitious, passionate, imaginative, decent and thoughtful... Read the book: be inspired; be provoked; be annoyed' Financial Times * Financial Times *

Author Information

Will Hutton is a British journalist and author. He writes a regular column for the Observer, is the President of the Academy of Social Sciences, hosts its We Society podcast and is Co-chair of the Purposeful Company. He was formerly Economics Editor of the Guardian, Editor-in-Chief of the Observer and Principal of Hertford College Oxford. Hutton’s books include the bestselling The State We’re In, How Good We Can Be, The World We’re In and The Writing on the Wall.

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