Radix highlights of 2020

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It’s not been the easiest of years for any of us, but (slightly to my surprise) Radix has gone from strength to strength.  While our opportunities for face-to-face events were limited to the first few months of the year, we published more pamphlets, held more webinars and grew our network like never before.   A huge thank you to all those who helped us to achieve this and, if you enjoy what we do, please spread the word.  Here are just a few of my personal Radix highlights from 2020…

January

  • Tickbox, a new book by Radix Policy Director, David Boyle, on the insidious bureaucracy of the Tickbox culture, is one of the FT’s business books of the month and becomes a basis for Radix’s analysis of the health service later in the year

February

  • Politika, an independent think tank for 16-22 year olds, formally becomes Radix’s youth wing
  • Rebooting Capitalism, a policy paper on a different approach to economics by Sir Norman Lamb, is launched in City AM

March

  • Sir Ed Davey addresses Radix meeting on the implications of Covid for Radical Centrism

April

  • Politika hosts the first of a series of ‘in conversations’ for young people to talk with senior Parliamentarians, starting with Kate Green MP, Shadow Education Secretary
  • Former Business Secretary, Vince Cable, former editor-in-chief of the Wall St Journal, Patience Wheatcroft, and former Chair of the Bank of Cyrus Prof Panicos Demetriades are amongst the first to ask how to set about Paying for Covid at Radix’s April Webinar
  • Radix’s take on Lifting the Lockdown by leading physicans, Drs Michael Pelly, and Anton Pozniak, and Covid clinical trial chair, Guy de Selliers, sets out a plan very similar to that later adopted by HM Government 

May

  • Conservative Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Tom Tugendhat MP, joins Shadow Foreign Office Minister, Stephen Kinnock MP, businessman Charlie Du Cane and journalist Isabel Hilton to debate the UK’s future relations with China
  • The Radix Centre for Business, Politics and Society hosts its first event on Responsible Capitalism post-covid with business and academic panellists from across Europe

June

  • Radix hosts the first of its series of discussions on constitutional reform with former Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger, Sir Simon Jenkins, Lord Alderdice and Charlotte Aldritt

July

  • Radix Board member, Lord Lansley, writes in the Daily Mail on the government response to Covid and the latest Radix’s paper on the pandemic’s lessons for the health service, Localise, Equalize, Untick

August

  • Politika publishes Resilient Education, a young person’s take on the educational response to Coronavirus

September

  • Radix webinar on Modernising Property Taxes with former estate agent and Housing Select Committee member, Kevin Hollinrake MP forms the basis of a policy paper on the same topic to be published in early 2021
  • Guy de Selliers succeeds Nick Bowers as Radix chair

October

  • Radix and Politika hold their first joint webinar on intergenerational fairness chaired by broadcaster and commentator Ayesha Hazarika, and later reported in the Evening Standard

November

  • Radix’s Annual Conference on the Covid lessons for the Health Services attracts politicians and health leaders from across the country.  Keynote speaker is Mark Britnell, Chairman and Senior Partner for the Global Health Practice of KPMG, and former senior NHS Executive 
  • Radix’s Centre for Business, Politics and Society publishes its first full policy paper Building Digital Finance in Europe, Fintech for Social Value

December

  • Vince Cable launches his Radix policy paper on the Return of Industrial Strategy at a webinar with Times Associate Editor and Conservative Peer, Lord Finkelstein, and former EU Trade Commissioner, Lord Mandelson.

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Radix is the radical centre think tank. We welcome all contributions which promote system change, challenge established notions and re-imagine our societies. The views expressed here are those of the individual contributor and not necessarily shared by Radix.

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