London Thinks – Who’s Looking After The World?

This is a unique and very timely event in which two distinguished speakers will address the fundamental challenge facing humanity today, not least those embroiled in the immigration crisis, Who’s looking after the world?

Charles Clarke – outspoken politician, former Education – and Home – Secretary and author of the highly regarded The ‘Too Difficult’ Box: The Big Issues Politicians Can’t Crack, will set the scene.

Simon Anholt – visionary, international policy advisor and recipient of the Nobels Colloquia Prize for Economics, whose Berlin 2014 TED talk went viral, presents a novel approach, which addresses this flaw in the way we live.

There are ominous prospects for humanity, brought about by self-centred behaviour. In a world which is changing rapidly – migration, international conflict, economic crisis and climate change which are particularly hot topics are all international in nature and require well-constructed international approaches. Clinging to our UN, EU, NATO security blankets, designed half a century, won’t work.

The old habit of nation-states behaving as competing tribes looks like a fatal error. The time has come when collaboration and cooperation between nations must reign supreme. The Good Country is a global movement instigated by Simon Anholt, to empower ordinary citizens to get this message across to their governments. Without this the consequences are dire.

Charles Clarke was Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 to 2010. He joined the Cabinet in 2001 and served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills and then Home Secretary until 2006.

He now holds several Visiting Professorships. His publications include The ‘Too Difficult’ Box: The Big Issues Politicians Can’t Crack, an analysis of the problems which need to be overcome in promoting change (2014. He read mathematics and economics at Kings College Cambridge and was then President of the National Union of Students.

Simon Anholt is founder and publisher of the Good Country Index. He also works as an independent policy advisor to Heads of State and Government including on their engagement with other countries. He has published several books on nation perception.

He read Modern Languages at Oxford. As well as winning the Nobels Colloquia Prize for Economics in 2009, he was awarded the Prix d’Excellence du Forum Multiculturel pour un Développement Durable in 2010. He is Honorary Professor in Political Science by the University of East Anglia and Chairman of the Anholt Institute in Copenhagen.

The discussion will be chaired by Helen Lewis, Deputy Editor of the New Statesman.