Economist Torsten Bell MP explains how to fix Britain

Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Channel 4 News

Society & Culture, News, Politics

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Economist-turned-Labour MP Torsten Bell knows all too well that things have not been going great for Britain - but is optimistic that a different future is possible.

The UK’s economy has been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons in the last few years: wages are flatlining, taxes are on the rise, and public services are on the brink of collapse. The younger generation can’t afford to buy a home, the old aren’t receiving the social care they need and an increasing number of people are reliant on food banks. So what’s at the root of all these problems - and crucially, how do you fix it?

In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Torsten Bell, the Labour politician and former Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, talks to Krishnan Guru Murthy about Britain’s “catch up potential” to turn things around and build a more equal and better off country.

Produced by Silvia Maresca.

Transcript

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0:00.0	One of the things that really scares me is it's not just that people start thinking things
0:07.0	haven't got better because they haven't, that's just a fact.
0:10.0	The really scary thing is that that failure feeds into people thinking things can't get better.
0:16.0	So I might as well roll the dice. I might as well vote for some really extreme people.
0:20.0	Why are you actually an optimist?
0:23.9	So I've seen policy make a big difference. Britain's got catch-up potential. So we could feel
0:28.8	a lot better relatively quickly? Yeah, let's stop messing out.
0:42.4	Hello and welcome to Ways to Change the World. I'm Christian Guri Murthy, and this is the podcast in which we talk to extraordinary people about the big ideas and their lives and the events
0:46.8	that have helped shape them. My guest this week is certainly a big thinker.
0:51.8	Torsten Bell was one of those bright young things
0:54.4	who helped run the country behind the scenes.
0:57.6	In the last Labor government, where he worked in the Treasury
1:00.7	and then as an advisor to the then-Chancellor,
1:03.2	Alistair Darling, he then ran policy for Ed Miliband
1:07.3	at the Labour Party, when Ed Miliband was the leader,
1:10.6	became the chief executive of the
1:12.7	Resolution Foundation think tank, and is now a Labour MP for Swansea West.
1:18.1	He's one of those few people who people often sort of speculated would become an MP who
1:23.5	ended up doing it.
1:25.1	But before he became an MP, he wrote a book called Great Britain
1:29.2	How We Get Our Future Back, which is your big ideas on how to transform a gloomy and failing
1:37.8	Britain into something that works. And actually, I mean, in response to the sort of the make Britain
	...

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