Event on Wednesday 8th November 2006, LSE New Theatre

Speakers: Satish Kumar, Geoff Mulgan, Baroness Rabbi Julia Neuberger, Baroness Shirley Williams.
Chair: David Held

What is the relationship between morality and power? Are governments inevitably amoral? Is the idea of moral progress meaningful? Prompted by the publication of Geoff Mulgan’s book Good and Bad Power: the ideals and betrayals of government (Penguin, 2006) this evening of discussion brought together well known thinkers from both political and religious backgrounds to talk about what, if anything, can be done to raise ethical standards in politics both in the UK and across the world.

Satish Kumar is the editor of Resurgence magazine, which is celebrating it’s 40th anniversary this year. Resurgence have been described by the Guardian newspaper as the ’spiritual and artistic flagship of the green movement’.

Geoff Mulgan is the author of Good and Bad Power: the ideals and betrayals of government (Penguin, 2006), director of the Young Foundation and former Head of Policy at 10 Downing Street.

Rabbi Julia Neuberger has been a Life Peer since June 2004 for the Liberal Democrats. She was rabbi of the South London Liberal Synagogue from 1977 to 1989 and is President of West Central Liberal Synagogue. She was previously Chief Executive of The King’s Fund (from 1997-2004) and has just been appointed Chair of the Commission on the Future of Volunteers.

Baroness Shirley Williams served as leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 2001-2004. Prior to this she was Public Service Professor of Elective Politics at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

David Held is the co-director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics