Sharon Squires, Director of the Derby Community Safety Partnership was the 2007 winner of the Ashridge Public Leadership Centre’s essay competition, in partnership with the Guardian (read the Guardian’s excerpt from her essay here). Her essay looked at the changing relationship between citizens, politicians and public servants, using her own career history to argue that public services should not be led from London: ‘public services have become too distant from local communities; micro management has deskilled local leaders and innovation has been lost.’ Her essay resonates with a book I am currently reading about Catholic Social Teaching and the market economy. Read More
For me, sin has a technical and a moral basis. Given that, in spite of Genesis, we are not omniscient, we will inevitably make the wrong choices, not being in full possession of the facts. For me this is ‘original sin,’ and a massive argument for a free market economy, which is more ‘intelligent’ than a command economy. This is different from ‘moral’ sin, which comprises sins of commission and omission. This is a massive argument for an interventionist economy, provided that it is lead by a ‘moral’ authority. So we are at an impasse. Another arbitrating doctrine or principle is required to provide guidance. Read More
