I do mean horizons in the plural; conflicting utopias are the lifeblood of democracy, after all.

All we care about is “resolving problems,” as though politics could be outsourced to management consultants.

Her ambition, in a nutshell, is to “take the guesswork out of policy-making.”

Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what.”

The welfare state, which should foster people’s sense of security and pride, has degenerated into a system of suspicion and shame. It is a grotesque pact between right and left. “The political right is afraid people will stop working,” laments Professor Forget in Canada, “and the left doesn’t trust them to make their own choices.”

the real crisis is that we can’t come up with anything better.

Governing by numbers is the last resort of a country that no longer knows what it wants, a country with no vision of utopia.

What we need is a narrative that speaks to millions of ordinary people.

the welfare state has increasingly shifted its focus from the causes of our discontent to the symptoms.