This post outlines our mission at Labour for the Long Term to help Labour tackle emerging risks for a brighter future.
What is Britain’s future in a world of emerging risks?
Britain faces significant challenges: climate change, pandemics, digital transformation and the resumption of great power conflict. Now more than ever we need to be planning for the long term. Yet our politics seems ever more short-termist, focused on the next year, if not the next few weeks.
The Covid-19 pandemic was not just predictable, it was predicted. However, our NHS did not have the long term investment it needed and our decision-making institutions proved woefully unprepared. While the dust has hardly settled, governments are already rowing back on plans to prepare for the next pandemic. With climate change, the story is the same: our short-termist politics means we’re not doing enough to avert and prepare for the damage we know it will bring.
We face other extreme risks. Without careful planning, geopolitical tensions could snowball into nuclear war. And rapid advances in technology could present new problems - for example, artificial intelligence could be used to exploit and exacerbate inequality, or become difficult to control safely. Our interconnected society needs resilient systems, including in health, energy, cyber, and key supply chains.
The chance that these risks come to pass in any given year is small - but if we wait until they materialise, mitigation will be costly or even impossible. As a result, we could see enormous damage to our livelihoods, public services and economy, with the poorest and vulnerable hit hardest. The next Labour government has the opportunity and responsibility to better protect the British people - and our grandchildren and their grandchildren to come.
Our activities
We are a network of Labour members who want to see our movement think more long-term, and our next Government take serious action to tackle these challenges. To do this, we produce written policy briefings, organise events and meet with decision-makers. We provide resources and expertise wherever we can to assist with policy development on long-term issues.
Committee
Our founding committee is formed of volunteer Labour members. We also have a network of Parliamentary supporters and external advisors. Both can be viewed on our website.
Join us
If you are a Labour member, please sign up to our mail list and we’ll be in touch about ways to get involved. If you are a Parliamentarian and would consider supporting us, please reach out to us at committee@labourlongterm.org.
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