Thread by @jonjalex

On Thursday I was at #FutureOfBritain conf hosted by @InstituteGC @BritainProject @mylifemysay

The pitch was ideas for a new politics, and there was some good stuff

But I came away deeply worried, by a SERIOUS lack of respect for our nation’s biggest asset

Its people

🧵

It started well, with a powerful challenge from @cloverhogan

“Voting is too often a choice between a climate denier and a serial procrastinator”

🔥🎯

Next up @monicabeharding with the polling data - and this one stood out

76% of us agree that “our political system is broken and the main parties don’t know how to fix it”

That tallies with global @pewresearch data which at end of last year found a median 56% across 17 nations see a need for major system reform

pewresearch.org/global/2021/12…

But was there then any discussion whatsoever of new approaches to democracy?

Of the growing phenomenon of participatory democracy around the world, from Paris to Taiwan?

No

What followed was some decent ideas, yes, but ultimately a big fat hero complex

This underlying sense came to the fore in one horribly dark moment

In a session on climate policy, we were told that a major part of the challenge was “herding sheep”

That’s us, apparently, on the right

Sheep to be herded

Let me make clear what gets lost in this

People across this country are doing brilliant things

From community-led development like @CoalvilleCANCBS to energy schemes like @briznrg to food pioneers like @IncEdNetwork

They are not f***ing sheep

THEY are the future of Britain

In fact on the SAME DAY

As this conference talked about how badly poor left behind communities need the amazing people gathered there to offer them a future they could believe in

@EastMarshUnited were closing a £500K community share offer to renew their town, their way

https://twitter.com/eastmarshunited/status/1542558932102692864

This really matters

I’m not against experts or against ideas

But there is expertise in life experience

And there are ideas in communities

Not just in big business and big tech and big universities

As per the subtitle of my book, the key to fixing everything is ALL of us

In the penultimate session of the day @pollymackenzie was the one voice in the room to call this out

Her call was for a politics where change is made BY people not FOR them

And she made it brilliantly

But it was like she was speaking another language

All @jonsopel wanted to ask her was how it felt to be a Lib Dem in 2015

Then Blair basically dismissed her in his closing royal interview, with no right to reply because the whole event format had zero participation

There is a whole world of democratic innovation out there

The tools and techniques to tap into the ideas, energy and resources of everyone

From Citizens’ Assemblies to participatory budgeting, from open innovation to civic crowdfunding, and so much more in between

The most positive political moments of recent years include:

2018 Irish referendum, which followed a Citizens’ Assembly

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Taiwan’s world leading Covid response, defined by its fundamentally participatory approach

jonjalex.medium.com/the-nation-you…

And Paris’ new and pioneering embrace of deliberative democracy, installing a standing Citizens’ Assembly in its governance structure

noemamag.com/a-movement-tha…

These sorts of structures and processes are essential if we’re to face the challenges of our time - because they are BOTH the only way to find the best ideas AND the only way to make adopting them legitimate

If we don’t do this stuff, you don’t change the frame that @cloverhogan set out

You can’t offer the change that @monicabeharding data demands

You have to try to tell people that you know what’s best for them

When you just don’t

And you will lose

This all starts with mindset

If we believe people are Citizens

Creative, capable, caring creatures who can and want to make the world better

Then we can involve everyone in this - every kind of expert

And we really can build our way out of this

We can “lead the world”

But if we believe they are Consumers, or Subjects

Or sheep

Then we can’t and we won’t

And however clever it is, our pitch will be rejected, as it has been for the last decade

And you know what?

We’ll deserve it

We’ll only have ourselves to blame

To be really clear, this is a YES AND argument

We do need ideas, and there was some good stuff in that room on Thursday

But we must involve people in the process of finding those ideas

@jamestplunkett @anthonyzach @SimonFParker @ClaudiaChwalisz @ICesnulaityte @landemore @HelenGou @adamjlent @matt_leach