It’s time to rethink the future of the British economy

The political pundits are having a field day this weekend, chewing over what the votes on Thursday meant for the future of the parties, parliament and the prime minister. But the question on every ballot paper last week was a simple one: how to make Britain work for people. That question is, essentially, about the economy.

The populist right sloganeer about growth, invoking Thatcher and Reagan, promising Singapore-on-Thames and unleashing animal spirits in the economy. But the British people have paid the price. The right’s recent record has been disastrous and expensive: Brexit and an 8% hit to GDP; more than a decade of higher costs and lower living standards; government borrowing at its highest levels in peacetime.

What, then, is the progressive plan for growth, one that champions the creation of wealth, spreads prosperity widely, cares for society and sustains the natural world? Over the coming pages and in the months to come, The Observer is asking people to help us find the answers.

It is, as you know, not a new problem. It’s not even new to The Observer: in 1952, this paper published a collection of articles titled “Re-thinking our Future”. At the heart of them were plans to renew the British economy. It’s time to “Re-think our Future” again.