Will Hutton speaks passionately about the state of Britain in 2014. Will Hutton Principal of Hertford College, Oxford and a leading political economist spoke passionately about the state of Britain in 2014 to Ruskin College Law Society members and the College community. He reflected back to the time when his book “The State We’re In” actually changed his life by virtue of selling at that time over 300,000 copies of it. He looked at the privatisation of the Royal Mail making comparisons with that of the selling of Thames Water in the 1980s drawing to the audience’s attention the fact that in 2003 they raised £4 billion in dividends, did not pay tax and such funds were paid into Luxembourg. The Royal Mail having gone the same way as public utility companies did under the Thatcher administration. He spoke of the current working practices that of zero hour contracts framework where people are paid the minimum wage of £6.31, have no holiday entitlement nor pensions and sick pay. That there is no security or permanency in today’s employment and highlighted how the National Health Service was under threat largely because of how people react to such a large organisation. He told the audience that at the end of the day “we have to pay taxes” and to be able to flourish bringing to their attention the hard facts in connection with growing inequality which has been and continues to frustrate him in 2014. A telling comment which has much meaning to Ruskin College related to “the acquisition of knowledge and applying it”. In concluding his talk he spoke about refashioning and capitalism saying that Britain faced a bleak future that did not bode well for people in British society. There followed after Will Hutton’s talk a question and answer session where members of the audience posed striking questions to him which were well answered.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 13:22:43 +0000
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