Torsten Bell

great-britain

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more

source_10558

By signing up, I confirm that I'm over 16. To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our <a href="/company/about-us/notices/privacy-policy/">Privacy Policy</a>

Keep an eye out for a confirmation in your inbox

Stories, ideas and giveaways to help you spark young imaginations

source_10972

The latest books, activities and tips to help you grow little readers

source_10975

About us

About Us (Header 4)

john-le-carre-a-legacy-of-spies-960-2.jpg

Margaret Atwood

Richard Osman

Malorie Blackman

George Orwell

marian_keyes_mobile_320x200px.png

Elif Shafak

shonfaye

Authors (Header 3)

Books (Header 2)

Company

Features (Header 1)

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Great Britain?

A roadmap to the new normal … surprisingly hopeful … required reading for the new intake … this is an incisive, upbeat vision of how a Labour government could turn things around even in difficult times

An economic blueprint for a Starmer administration

An incisive, challenging and brilliantly researched agenda to deliver what Britain needs: inclusive and sustainable growth.

Bell is an excellent writer with a talent for putting things so clearly and crisply that they lodge easily in the brain ... Although Bell is pretty bleak about Britain’s condition, he is refreshingly optimistic about our chances of catching up with our peers

No one has done more to re-inject sanity into our national policy debates – Torsten Bell writes with optimism and clarity about the things we are getting right, as well as the stuff we should be desperate to improve. Authoritative, forensic and humane – a critical voice for our troubled times.

This is stellar: brilliant, incredibly pragmatic and serious about the country we are. It presents a wonderful opportunity for an incoming government.

Spiced with wit, this is a masterful, fact-packed indictment of modern Britain after its decade of decline. But there is also hope and optimism in its practical prescription for a great social and economic restoration.

“Essential background reading” doesn’t do justice to the brilliant Torsten Bell. Everyone - Labour or not - should read this book if they care about our country.

A dose of Torstenomics is the only thing that can give us hope

An economic playbook for the incoming UK government

Torsten Bell is an extraordinarily accomplished economist and thinker who not only speaks lucidly about what ails the British economy, but also offers upbeat, relentlessly sensible ideas for making things better.

Head of Economics and Government, Bloomberg

How and why did the British economy become both stagnant and unequal? What must be done to transform its current plight for the better? This book gives thoughtful and provocative answers to both questions. Anybody interested in securing a better future for the country should read it.

Compelling, engaging and meticulously researched. Excellent stuff.

Bell[’s]… a creative thinker whose ideas are often ahead of his time and focus on those others overlook: low and middle-income earners, not the wealthier middle classes, and renters, not homeowners … required reading for the new intake … its real achievement is in creating what he calls some “hardheaded believable hope” of better days ahead … There are original ideas here for everything from helping the low-paid build up emergency savings to making shiftwork less precarious, and perhaps most radically, for shifting the burden of tax from income to wealth.

A devastating account of the moth-eaten state of Britain

How We Get Our Future Back

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
*Thrilling and essential pre-election reading from one of our most influential economists* 
 
'No one has done more to re-inject sanity into our national policy debates' EMILY MAITLIS 
'Stellar ... a wonderful opportunity for an incoming government' RORY STEWART 
 
There are few who are better placed to investigate Britain’s plight than Torsten Bell, former Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation and current Labour candidate for Swansea West. 
 
In Great Britain? he offers both a clear-eyed diagnosis of the problems facing our country – a uniquely toxic combination of huge inequality and stagnant economic growth – and a hopeful, bold vision for the alternative. 
 
This treasure trove of enlightening and original analysis argues that our era of chaos and cynicism needs neither utopianism nor nostalgia, but a practical patriotism to raise living standards and create a more equal country. Torsten Bell passionately points us towards a Britain that we can actually build – a future worth fighting for. 
 
‘An incisive, upbeat vision of how a Labour government could turn things around' Observer 
'A dose of Torstenomics is the only thing that can give us hope’ AMOL RAJAN 
'Spiced with wit, this is a masterful, fact-packed ... prescription for a great social and economic restoration' POLLY TOYNBEE

Torsten Bell is the Labour candidate for Swansea West, and the former Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, an enormously respected and influential economic research charity working to raise the living standards of households on low to middle incomes. His focus is on where economics meets the real world – on better jobs, affordable housing and a more equal country. The Resolution Foundation heavily influenced two of the biggest government interventions in recent times: the Coronavirus Job Retention ‘Furlough’ Scheme and the Energy Price Guarantee. 
 
Prior to leading the Resolution Foundation, Torsten worked in HM Treasury, as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers during the financial crisis, and as Director of Policy for the Labour Party. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, school governor, trustee of the Child Poverty Action Group and an Honorary Professor at UCL. He has a weekly column in The Observer, and writes regularly for The Guardian and Financial Times.

Things have not been going great for Britain. Wages are flatlining, taxes are rising, and public services are collapsing. Our children can’t afford to buy houses, our parents aren’t receiving the social care they need and our neighbours are reliant on foodbanks. We are all yearning for a way out of the financial crises, generational wars and political dysfunction that dominate our lives. Most of all we want our future – and Britain’s – back. 
 
There are few who are better placed to investigate Britain’s plight than Torsten Bell, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation. In Great Britain? he offers both a clear-eyed diagnosis of the problems facing our country – a uniquely toxic combination of huge inequality and stagnant economic growth – and a hopeful, bold vision for the alternative. As he shows, the Britain of today contains the raw materials to build a better Britain tomorrow – an investment nation of good work and secure homes, and a society in which both burdens and prosperity are shared. 
 
This treasure trove of enlightening and original analysis is a much-needed antidote to the pervading sense that Britain’s decline is inevitable or irreversible. Torsten Bell argues that our era of chaos and cynicism needs neither utopianism nor nostalgia, but a practical patriotism to raise living standards and create a more equal country. He passionately points us towards a Britain that we can actually build – a future worth fighting for.

Great Britain?

Select a format:

Retailers:

Summary

Reviews

About the author

Torsten Bell

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter