In his lecture to UCL, RIchard Reeves argues that liberals in Mill’s mould hold the moral high ground; that liberalism, far from corroding morality and society and contributing to a ‘broken Britain’, in fact contains the moral resources needed to tackle the deepest challenges of our day. 

Reeves makes three key arguments: 

First, he defends liberalism against the three main criticisms made of it – that it is amoral, asocial and selfish;

Second, he debunks the myth that society is somehow ‘broken’, or in moral decline and show instead that liberal society is, morally speaking, in rather good health;

And third, he argues that liberal morality is best placed to animate political action to tackle the problems associated with climate change, international migration, family breakdown, and economic inequalities.