Substack

Following the publication of report into Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), the Prime Minister committed to reviewing materials used in schools. Watch her question to the Prime Minister here.

We were delighted to support the dedicated campaign to see the establishment of Community Wealth Funds for long term investment in our communities. Last autumn, we called for the fund in our publication ‘Social Capitalism’, along with a dozen MPs. On Tuesday 7th March, the government

Thanks for reading NSCU News ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Today we launch A Manifesto for a New Social Covenant which outlines three key policy priorities for stronger families, stronger communities and a stronger nation.

We can agree the politics has been… unsuccessful. If the Government hoped for a boost in public opinion from its tax-cutting mini-budget it has been disappointed. To be fair to the PM and Chancellor, they weren’t focused on the politics. Liz Truss said all along that to fix the UK’s chronic economic problems, especially our […]

The New Social Covenant Unit exists to tackle old problems in new ways. This week, we launched a paper that proposes a new way to navigate the housebuilding impasse. We urgently need more homes, but many fear that the cost of development is too high – damaging to the countryside and to the fabric of […]

Listen now to The Tribes of Westminster

This month Steve Baker MP speaks to Danny Kruger MP, online editor of the Critic, Sebastian Milbank, and Imogen Sinclair, Director of the NSCU

This week a seasoned speechmaker proved his emerging covenantal potential once again. Having previously won this award for his reference to Aristotle’s ethics of virtue, the Prime Minister opened the Address to Her Majesty with a speech oozing with national pride on behalf of Her subjects.

Each year, the State Opening of Parliament brings together the Commoners and Lords to hear the Monarch set out the government’s legislative agenda for the year ahead. This year Prince Charles read the speech, which detailed a range of bills that will come before both houses over the coming year.

This week Lisa Nandy MP, Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, reveals her own covenantal instincts. They have long dwelt in Nandy. In the wake of Brexit, she set up the ‘Centre for Towns’ which found that attachment to local places drove non-metropolitan areas to vote Leave in the 2016 Referendum.

The New Social Covenant

Miriam opened with an account of recent social history: …not so long ago, when the welfare state was born, life expectancy was 65, people started work at 15, and few lived long into retirement, while the state was not required to pay for childcare or adult social care because women and the wider community provided […]

The Unit is increasingly spotting covenantal credentials on Whitehall as much as in the Commons. In his ‘Mais Lecture’ the Chancellor set the record straight on Adam Smith’s oft misunderstood 'invisible hand’. Smiths account of the market economy, is not as some have suggested a values free construct which rationalised social choice. Markets do not […]

We are delighted to finally share the Government's response to Danny Kruger's report of 2020 here. The response was published on Wednesday, the same day as the Levelling Up White Paper which also reflects many recommendations in the report. You can read that too

Each week the New Social Covenant Unit recognises Members of Parliament for their covenantal credentials as spotted on the green benches. This week, the debate on the new Covid-19 regulations saw MPs from across the House venture into new political territory. Could a new radical consensus be emerging from the fall out over the restrictions?

Jane Stevenson said that a mandatory approach to vaccination defies conservative principles. The vast majority of my constituents and the British people will do everything asked of them by the Government, without it needing to be mandated. They have been incredible throughout this pandemic; they have acted in the interests of themselves, their families, their […]

Each week the New Social Covenant Unit recognises Members of Parliament for their covenantal credentials as spotted on the green benches. Restore local pride in place, says Paul Howell MP Speaking to his Ten Minute Rule Motion on a ‘Community Wealth Fund’, Paul argued that both places and people are matter – social as much […]

Each week the New Social Covenant Unit recognises Members of Parliament for their covenantal credentials as spotted on the green benches. This week, we found a Tory MP, Labour MP and even Mr Speaker endorsing the ideas of the new social covenant. Individuals are more than mere automata, says Steve Baker

A critique from Novara Media describes our campaign for community power as a ‘cynical power grab’, rehearsing tired lines about the ‘Big Society’ handing liabilities, not assets, to communities. We address this head on in our report ‘Trusting The People’

Each week the New Social Covenant Unit recognises Members of Parliament for their covenantal credentials as spotted on the green benches. This week, James Daly MP called on the Minister for Sport to help his constituents buy Gigg Lane, the home stadium of Bury Football Club.