The ethics of capitalism is this year’s topic for the annual Bishop of Salisbury’s Debate, which will take place this evening (Wednesday 19 September) in Marlborough. I’ve been asked to be one of the speakers.

The title is “Can capitalism be made good?”. My answer will be “no”.

I’m very pleased to have been asked to participate in the debate, which I hope will relate general issues of ethics and economics to concerns that affect everybody’s daily lives. Other speakers will include Stewart Wallis of the New Economics Foundation. Arguing in favour of capitalism will be Will Morris (chair of the CBI’s tax committee, tax policy director for General Electric and a Church of England priest) and Hugh Pym (BBC’s chief economics correspondent). Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury, will be in the chair. I hope there’ll be plenty of time for audience engagement and discussion, as that tends to be the best part of any debate.

The event is free and open to anyone. There are details here. I’ll blog tomorrow about how the discussion went. Many thanks to people who have encouraged me so far!