S&T - A New National Purpose: a joint report by Tony Blair and William Hague
Leadership in innovation through science and technology as the core of national success.
I’m delighted to be a co-author on a joint report by Tony Blair, William Hague and their teams.This includes @benedictcooney, Jess Northend, @Nitarshan, @lukeWStanley, @Tom_Westgarth15 and @jeegarkakkad.
The UK is clearly adrift, lacking purpose, and having failed to reinvent itself despite multiple shocks such as the financial crisis, Brexit, and COVID.
The report argues for a new national purpose of leading the world in creating and harnessing the ongoing science and technology revolution. In my view, this is the only path the UK has available to it. The report has many bold recommendations that should taken as a package - they are interdependent.
For international readers - William Hague and Tony Blair used to do battle weekly as leaders of the two major political parties when Tony Blair was prime minister. The report is like Obama and Romney coming together to issue a major joint report calling for a new national purpose of focussing on science and technology.
If you care about this agenda, I encourage you to read it. I am very happy with the end product, which came from a great team effort.
This tweet thread I wrote is a summary of some highlights.
The full report is here in pdf form:
A New National Purpose: Innovation Can Power the Future of Britain
And the lead editorial by the Times today is coverage of it: