Oliver Penrose

24 July 2009

What is it about your political beliefs that put you on the Left rather than the Right?

To say that I am on the left means (to me) that I am in favour of using the power of the state to try to redress the balance between rich and poor, between the haves and the have-nots.

What do you consider made you Left wing?:

the influence of my parents; and, as I was growing up, the terrible example provided by Nazi Germany of the damage the Right can do

How would you describe the sort of society you want Britain to be?

friendly, fair, honest, interesting, …

What one or two changes would make the biggest difference to bringing that about?

Right now, sorting out the economic crisis would make an enormous difference. That means treating the steadily increasing trend of unemployment and the steadily decreasing trend of investment as priorities, which it is the State’s responsibility to exercise some control over. (For a more detailed proposal, see my article “How to beat the recession: public enterprise, not fiscal stimulus” , Thinkpiece number 51 on the Compass web site compassonline.org.uk )

What most makes you angry about the way Britain is now?

At this moment, the Government’s failure to deal effectively with the economic crisis, including the way they wasted around 50 billion of our money buying shares in failing banks and then risking around 500 billion more insuring these banks’ toxic assets, when they could have taken these banks into public ownership and control, using them to finance the new investment that is so urgently needed.

Which person, event, era or movement from the past should we look to for inspiration now?

Aneurin Bevan and the creation of the welfare state

George Orwell for his uncompromising honesty and his brilliant essay “politics and the English language” .

John Maynard Keynes, particularly his book “The general theory of employment, interest and money” — to inspire us to understand clearly the economic system we are immersed in and to work out effective policies for making it work properly.

Position: Emeritus professor (mathematics)

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