Whitehall Group members and guests welcomed Emily Maitlis (The News Agents & Ex BBC Newsnight) to moderate a panel discussion “Britain, Failed State – Can It Be Fixed” on Tuesday, 10th June at 6pm. We are grateful to Carter Jonas for hosting this event.
Panellists included Sam Freedman – Senior Fellow, Institute for Government; Martin Wolf CBE – Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times; The General The Lord David Richards of Herstmonceux – former Chief of the Defence Staff
A post discussion article written by Dominic McGrath of the Business Post – Without economic growth, the UK will not be stable’, British government warned _ Business Post Article
Moderator – Emily Maitlis
Award-winning journalist and broadcaster Emily Maitlis was recognised by GQ Magazine as one of the most influential people in Britain. She presents the Gold Award winning daily podcast, The News Agents and the weekly The News Agents USA for Global Media. Having covered elections in the US and UK for the BBC, she also fronted Newsnight, becoming a stalwart of the broadcaster’s news output and a trusted voice with the viewing public.
Emily anchored the 2024 Ch4’s General Election live coverage – Britain Decides which was widely acknowledged as the most enjoyable and critically acclaimed. She also anchored Ch4’s US live election coverage from Washington, their first in 32 years.
Panellists
Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government. He is also a senior adviser to the education charity Ark.
Previously Sam was CEO of Education Partnerships Group, which supports governments in sub-Saharan Africa to develop education policy and was an executive director at Teach First. He worked at the Department for Education as a senior policy adviser to Michael Gove between 2010 and 2013. ‘Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It’
Martin Wolf CBE is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”. ‘The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism’
General Lord Richards of Herstmonceux is a former Chief of the Defence Staff and led UK and NATO operations in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and Libya. He is best known for his decisive action in Sierra Leone in 2000 and later commanded NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Appointed Chief of the Defence Staff in 2010, he advised the Prime Minister and played a key role in the Libya campaign and UK strategy for Afghanistan. He retired in 2013 and was made a life peer in 2014.
Lord Richards holds advisory and academic roles and is author of The Retreat from Strategy.‘
