John Kay

If unplanned social interactions are the key to a vibrant city, they are also the key to a vibrant organisation.

Probabilistic reasoning has become the dominant method of structured thinking about problems involving risk and uncertainty – to such an extent that people who do not think this way are derided as incompetent and irrational.

You can lower the marginal rate of tax on an individual without changing their average rate – and vice versa. Every politician who wants to help the low paid by reducing their income tax rate should write that sentence out 50 times.

The objective of monetisation has not been to put money in the hands of consumers and businesses but to put money in the vaults of banks.

Confronted with the specifics, rather than the principle, of constitutional change, many voters revert to the status quo.

The salient fact is that London could never have become a great business and financial capital if its residents felt an urge to vomit every time they went outdoors.

Social policy would, in the long run, owe far more to Eleanor Roosevelt’s claim that “everyone has the right to a standard of living” than to Beveridge’s assertion that “management of one’s income is an essential element of a citizen’s freedom”.

Prevarication and political posturing, the persistent incrementalism when bold actions are required and the readiness to oppose policies simply because they have been espoused by somebody else, are as characteristic of policy today as they have been for the past 50 years.

Commercial decisions often reflect policy-based evidence, not evidence-based policy. Doing the deal is what matters; justification comes afterwards.

A good checklist is selective – it doesn’t cover mistakes that are rarely made; no one goes on holiday without their suitcase. Or mistakes that don’t matter – toothpaste is available almost everywhere.