Author Archives: Tom Frostick

The Orange Book 2004-2014

By Tom Frostick | Fri 7th March 2014 - 9:24 am

To mark the ten year anniversary of the Orange Book, CentreForum is commissioning a new publication ‘The challenges facing contemporary liberalism: 2015-2025’ which will be launched at a special conference in June.

As part of this initiative, we are running an essay competition inviting participants to focus on a particular challenge confronting liberals over the next decade.

Contributors are asked to set out an effective response to the challenge they identify and assess the impact this response might have on government and public policy.

Our door is open to any liberal from any camp – economic, social or otherwise.

Selected contributors will see their …

Posted in News | 15 Comments

The Independent View: CentreForum’s three headliners for an alternative Queen’s Speech

By Tom Frostick | Wed 8th May 2013 - 10:45 am

The Queen’s Speech today looks set to be a relatively sedate affair. As Stephen Tall observes, “the Coalition is now pretty much intellectually dead” when it comes to its legislative agenda. Enthusiasm for pushing new ideas has been replaced with a business like determination to deliver what is already underway.

The content of the Queen’s Speech is nonetheless important. It will shape what happens over the course of the next parliamentary session, and will therefore influence the outcome of the General Election. If CentreForum had the privilege of writing the Speech, we would focus on three headline issues in particular: …

The Independent View: A Queen’s Speech that liberals can get behind

By Tom Frostick | Tue 8th May 2012 - 12:20 pm

ConservativeHome is busy putting out its own version of the Queen’s Speech. The point of the exercise is to map out what the Conservatives’ legislative agenda might have looked like had they won a majority in 2010.

The leading liberal think=tank CentreForum has done something similar. Last week, we came up with nine measures that we would like to see enacted by a big ‘l’ liberal government. I have listed them below, and placed in brackets the government department that each of them would fall under. With the exception of Lords reform, we don’t expect to hear any …

Posted in The Independent View | Tagged centreforum, queen's speech and tim montgomerie | 30 Comments

Opinion on Nick Clegg’s speech today: Employee share ownership is classic liberalism

By Tom Frostick | Mon 16th January 2012 - 2:24 pm

Last week David Cameron and Ed Miliband both sounded their commitment to tackling excessive payouts in the financial sector. Today was Nick Clegg’s turn. The speech he delivered to CentreForum and the City of London this morning was all about ‘responsible capitalism’ and ‘unlocking shareholder power’.

He talked about vested interests in the British economy and the need to shine a light on boardroom practices. He also expressed a desire to see wider employee share ownership – trust in people, rather than the “interventionist state” – and the move towards a “John Lewis economy”. Clegg said: