TMP Online

David Lammy MP, the Minister for Culture, has kindly let TMP have a copy of the speech he gave earlier this week on empowerment and the community.

In the speech, he points to the huge changes that have taken place under a decade of Labour in power and how, in addition to offering different challenges and opportunities, the world we now live in throws up uncertainty and insecurity for many, which needs to be addressed.

Lammy ponders the role of the market, stating that “the challenges of the next ten years point to a need to rethink the place of the market and the role of the state” and he warns that “we should be wary of politicians who are ideologically wedded to the market”.

He refers to the recent UNICEF report on young people and the fact that the countries which came out best in that report were Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, “countries that understand that we can’t rely on the market to deliver well-being on its own”. Whilst he acknowledges that markets are good at creating wealth, he says that they are not always good at providing “balance, well-being, support and care”.

To read a copy of the speech, click here - fabians-speech-david-lammy-may-2007.pdf