Bright Blue, the independent think tank for defending and improving liberal society, today launches its new online magazine, Centre Write, with an interview with the Shadow Chancellor, the Rt Hon Sir Mel Stride MP.
Centre Write is a new online magazine – published and produced by Bright Blue – with daily contributions from high-profile and emerging authors from across the political spectrum, offering commentary, interviews and debates on politics, policy, philosophy and culture.
Centre Write will be a home for centrist, liberal and conservative readers searching for thoughtful writing and radical ideas.
Upcoming contributors include:
- Nicholas Boys-Smith, Director, Create Streets
- James Crouch, Head of Policy & Public Affairs, Opinium
- Edward Davies, Policy Director, Centre for Social Justice
- Madsen Pirie, President, Adam Smith Institute
- Andrew Lilico, Telegraph columnist
- Albie Amankona, Former GB News presenter
- Luke Robert Black, Chairman, LGBT+ Conservatives
- Alexander Stafford, Former PPS to Boris Johnson and Kemi Badenoch
In Centre Write’s first interview, the Shadow Chancellor, Mel Stride, told Editor-in-Chief Bartek Staniszewski:
“I don’t think we should be indulging in populist politics in the sense of going out there and promising stuff that we know people want to hear but we don’t have any proper plans for. We have to emerge, if we are to win the next election, as the grown-ups in the room that have done the deep thinking to come up with the answers to meet the challenges that we face – and demonstrate that to people.
“As the future unfolds, and possibly the economy continues to go through very bumpy moments and possibly some very difficult moments in the future, I think the space for more thoughtful debate will actually open up. … We have to fight harder for the kind of things that I think are important, including thoughtful, deep debate, rather than populist, apparent solutions.”
On how to tackle Reform UK, the Shadow Chancellor argued:
“Our role is to shine the light of truth on Reform and expose the fantasy economics that they peddle, the ideas that don’t add up; that sound great, but don’t add up.
“You could start by saying they deal in fantasy economics … You can then work your way into a discussion about why it’s important that parties don’t peddle that kind of policy agenda and start to deconstruct in a thoughtful way some of the things that they say.
“Reform might say, we’re going to take everybody earning up to £20,000 out of Income Tax altogether. Thoughtfully, we should observe that that would cost about up to £80 billion … Reform has a duty to explain how it’s going to fund that. Otherwise, it’s left peddling fantasy demands that would be extremely dangerous and very damaging to our economy; and that would have real consequences.”
Responding to whether the Conservatives should do a deal with Reform UK, Mel Stride MP said:
“I don’t want to have any coalition or arrangement with Reform. Why would I want to have a coalition, or something about a merger, or whatever it may be, with a party whose economic prescription for our country will be completely ruinous?”
On the Conservative Party’s prospects for the next general election, the Shadow Chancellor commented:
“What Nigel Farage has got to do is keep spinning all those plates and letting off all those fireworks for another four years. That is a very long time. Anybody who predicts that Reform is going to win the next election – or we’re not going to win the next election – four years out, in a very volatile electoral environment, needs to think again.
“If you were interviewing me in 2019 and I was a socialist, you’d be saying, ‘Mel, the Labour Party’s had its worst election results since the 1930s. You won’t be back for a generation!’”
“Look what happened. Largest landside in our history. Look at Canada. Pierre Poilievre. He was a shoo-in, right? Twenty-three points ahead in the polls. Not only lost the election, he lost his own seat. We live in very volatile times. The poll that will matter will be the one that will be held in about four years’ time.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
To arrange an interview with a Bright Blue spokesperson or for further media enquiries, please contact Ryan Shorthouse at ryan@brightblue.org.uk or 07754 672233.
- Bright Blue is the independent think tank for defending and improving liberal society.
- Centre Write is a new online magazine for daily commentary, debates and interviews on politics, policy, philosophy and culture, produced and published by Bright Blue.
- The Editor-in-Chief of Centre Write is Bartek Staniszewski. The Deputy Editor is Will Prescott. The Commissioning Editor is Omar Mahometes-Nathoo.
