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My prepared remarks at a Liberal Democrat conference fringe meeting
Summary
Posted 18 January 2026
I regularly attend the Liberal Democrats spring and autumn conferences. On 23 September 2025, I was one of the speakers at a fringe meeting about the problems facing men and boys in Britain, and indeed in most other developed countries.
The fringe was organised by the Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys, with the title "What's happening to our men and boys?"
"From male suicide to boys’ school underachievement and male prison numbers to being a modern dad – there are many challenges facing men and boys. This panel discussion with MPs, councillors and campaigners will discuss how these challenges can be addressed."
The speakers were:
The event was not recorded, but I made a personal recording of my prepared remarks using my iPhone.
I was speaking from a prepared text, which I have edited to match the recording.
Good afternoon. I just want to explain why I’m here.
I subscribe to “The Economist.” If you don’t, I strongly recommend subscribing. Nobody paid me to say that!
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In 2022 I read a review of this book by Richard Reeves: “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to do about it.”
The review got me very interested in the book and it struck a very strong chord. But I didn’t buy it. The reason is simple. I’m drowning in books that I haven’t read.
But because I had heard of Reeves, when earlier this year the Centre for Policy Studies invited me to an event in London in May where Richard Reeves was speaking, I signed up for the free event instantly.
At the event, I listened to Richard Reeves and another guy from the states called Nicholas Eberstadt, and I also met Mark Brooks because Richard Reeves mentioned that he was setting up a think tank in the UK focused on the issue. I volunteered to help.
A few months later, I was surprised in my podcast feed, because I listen to lots of podcasts, to find a podcast in six parts called "Lost Boys," by Anthony Scaramucci, who I listen to religiously on “The Rest is Politics US” (he was President Trump’s communications director for 11 days in his first administration) and Professor Scott Galloway.
They spent the first two episodes to talking to Reeves, as well as then in the other four episodes talking to other people. I recommend listening to that series anywhere that you listen to your podcasts.
Now we mostly talk about this issue and think about this issue in the context of white working-class boys. It is a very real issue there. I know that from my own experience of speaking to schools in places like St Helens.
But it’s not just an issue affecting white Britons. I have seen the same issues in my large extended family. And in the British Pakistani community generally. Anecdotally, I knew that highly educated British Pakistani girls struggle to find suitable husbands, because they cannot find enough highly educated Muslim boys.
But you don’t need to rely on anecdotes. If you look at the government statistics for the academic performance of children in British schools divided by ethnicity it is quite clear. Girls are significantly outperforming boys from ethnic minority communities just as they are amongst white Britons.
It’s not just a British or American problem. The Muslim majority country I know best isn’t actually the country where I was born, Pakistan, its Malaysia for reasons that would take too long to explain.
My Malaysian contacts tell me that young women in Malaysia go to university at a much higher rate than Malaysian men. Again, I look up official Malaysian government data and it confirmed that.
Now while I’m concerned about this problem, I don’t have any easy solutions.
First of all I think it needs lots of small changes. Secondly its actually a really serious cultural issue.
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I’m 74, and I’ve reading about current affairs, politics etc. since about the age of 10. As a teenager I remember reading a book by a guy called Richard Hoggart called “The Uses of Literacy” that was published in 1957.
It was about white working class culture. It didn’t use the word “white” because then mentally everyone was supposed to be white. The lack of aspiration in working class culture has been an issue from then onwards. It’s not an easy problem to fix, but its an issue I do care about which is why I want to help and why I’m here.
Thank you.
Below is the handout given to those who attended. It contains a significant amount of additional background information about the issues discussed at the meeting.
