John Kampfner [Lucy Thompson]

HE’S a leading King’s Cross-based writer and journalist whose worldwide travels have resulted in an intriguing new book about how Britain can learn from other countries.

John Kampfner’s book Braver New World: The Countries Daring to do Things Others Won’t is being hailed for pointing to a way of improving Britain’s reputation for poor public services, particularly in health, housing and education.

Alastair Campbell, press secretary for former prime minister Tony Blair, described the book as: “A stunning dose of optimism.” And ITV’s political editor Robert Peston wrote: “Read this book as an antidote to fatalism and gloom.”

John travelled to 10 countries over three years to discover how they deal with important issues. Among them is Japan, which is at the forefront of one of the most important challenges facing mankind – the aging of our populations. The Japanese are providing an inter-generational system of care homes hopefully ensuring dignity for many oldies in later life. “If predictions ring true in Japan,” he writes, “they will have to look after half a million people over 100. If they are scared of the prospect, they are not showing it. They are instead planning away.”

Finnish classrooms prepare children for an uncertain world. Their system is founded on the principles of “meaningfulness,” “equity”, and “joy”.

“Along with maths and science, pupils also study health education, environment, ethics, business and media literacy. Classes usually take place outside the school environment, in a mocked-up business village. There they practise running a small company or café, working out budgets and holding mock town hall meetings.”

Then there are Vienna’s century-old housing projects, where 60 per cent of residents live in subsidised accommodation without stigma, and communities thrive. “In many countries the term ‘housing estate’ denotes something dilapidated, menacing even, implying failure or disadvantage. In Vienna it is the opposite: residents come from all walks of life and choose to live where they do.”

In Canada he met people who help new immigrants integrate with the population rather than make them feel unwanted.

Taiwan’s health system achieves 90 per cent patient satisfaction at apparently a fraction of NHS costs.

“Taiwan spends a mere 7.7 per cent of GDP on health, the equivalent of 2,500 dollars per person.”

He discusses Moroccan solar panels in the Sahara producing enough clean energy to power two million homes.

John grew up in Hampstead, and attended the local Halls school, and later Westminster School. He told Review: “My father was a Jewish refugee from Bratislava, who became a GP; my mother a Plymouth Brethren nurse from Chatham, Kent. They met at the British military ward in Singapore, where I was born.”

He moved to Berlin post-Brexit, in 2020, and wrote a book titled Why The Germans Do it Better, and more recently another, In Search of Berlin.

Did he like living in Berlin?

“Brexit was a dagger in my heart,” he said. “I was a citizen of everywhere who suddenly felt like a citizen of nowhere. Now I’m a dual national. I’m always coming back to London (our home has been in King’s Cross/Bloomsbury for many years), but there is something about Berlin, its incompleteness and its openness to all-comers that I love. The UK feels increasingly insular.”

What did he think of President Trump’s decision to remove US troops from Germany?

“German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is outspoken, and in that respect a breath of fresh air from his predecessors. But he does tend to shoot from the hip, and talking about the ‘humiliation’ of Trump over Iran – while correct – was also not too clever. Still, the Americans had declared in their National Security strategy document of last November to draw down forces from Europe. It’s high time we Europeans step up militarily.”

So, how can we in Britain learn from some of the countries he visited?

“The three virtues I describe in my book, which cut across all the countries and examples I feature, are resilience, imagination and political courage. Our politicians need to learn that long-termism, and being candid with voters, is the only way to meet the big challenges of our times. And voters need to respect boldness in decision-making.”

He said he decided to write Braver New World because “I had become a professional pessimist, always predicting the worst (Brexit, Trumps I and II) and sadly usually being right. So it was time to do something a bit more constructive and go looking for the good in the world, examples we can aspire to. I’m thrilled with the reception – starting with both BBC’s Start the Week and the Today programme on Radio 4.”

• Braver New World: The Countries Daring to Do Things Others Won’t. By John Kampfner, Atlantic Books, £22