As a political campaigner with experience as a candidate in 8 Local Elections and supporting other candidates and campaigns from Parish to Parliamentary level since the early 90’s, Adam offers significant depth and insight into the key considerations for anyone thinking of becoming and running as an election candidate with minimal or no support.
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First written and published in 2018, How to get Elected has now been updated to reflect the UK’s political landscape in 2025 and provides an extensive how-to guide of everything any candidate will need to know or consider further about running their own campaign effectively and building good, long-lasting relationships with voters, communities and everyone else who matters.
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The outcomes that we want from politics and government can only come by first embracing governance that takes us a very different way.
Introduction
There are few of us who remain happy with the way that politics, elections, politicians, government, public services and public servant’s work. And that’s when we are just looking at the bits of the whole sorry picture that we understand.
January 2025 saw much hope invested in the returning President and Administration in the USA – with many believing that the arrival of the man in the red hat will signal positive change throughout the world.
Meanwhile, the first 6 months of a new Labour administration in the UK, that has already caused so much public concern, is giving way to polls suggesting that the Reform Party may be on its way to forming the next government. Whenever the next general election comes.
However convincing these narratives may be, they are based only upon what people and the media see. Not what is really happening behind the scenes.
They are surface deep or taken at face value at their best. And because none of the key or leading players in this game have actually changed – but we being told they are, it is likely to be the case that we will all again be feeling very disappointed before long.
Nothing has changed. And as far as any ‘realignment’ is concerned, the only thing that’s realigned is that which has been necessary to change, so that we believe or will at least accept that there has been some kind of change.
Meanwhile, the same people, same motives and same plans are in charge and everything really has stayed the same.
For too long, a few people have been using groups and influence to shape our worlds to serve only themselves. We now need just one person to shape the world so that it serves not only every different group, but each and every person too.
Many will argue that no such thing as a Good Dictator exists and that the term itself is an oxymoron.
However, the world and the impact of systems of governance we are experiencing today are already being run by dictatorships. They are simply presented to us differently and sold to us with narratives, giving them different names which appear to mean very different things.
In the pages of Manifesto for a Good Dictator, I will explain why now is the time for us all to think differently; why it is becoming increasingly likely that only the right person can sort the mess out that we are now in, and what the policies would look like that they would need to implement, so that future generations will be able to experience living in a genuine democracy, that actually works.
Part 1: A Good Dictator is the only option if we want Freedom and a Just, Fair and Balanced world
The problem at the centre of all problems
Politics and the political system in the U.K. are broken.
This means that government and everything that government does is broken too, and that everything we understand as being a public service probably isn’t working for me, for you, or for anyone else that we know either.
It’s a simplistic way of putting it. But the chances are that you can relate to part, if not all of the above sentence.
Whilst few of us may be able to explain why, this is a statement that feels like it makes perfect sense.
Politics is fickle at best. And as far as the relationship that voters have with politics is concerned, we regrettably have very short memories about what politicians are doing. But most importantly about what our politicians have done.
Do you want what sounds good for your future, or do you need what works best?
The challenge we face today, is that no matter what happens next in politics, whether we have a General Election, have a different political party running the country, or even adopt a different system of electing politicians from the same pool of political parties, nothing is going to change.
We only need look back to July 2024 and the expectations that people had that Labour would be better because they were different, to see what lies ahead.
It really doesn’t matter what politicians say. It’s what they do that counts.
The problems that we have across society are set to continue.
In all likelihood, they are likely to get considerably worse. Just as they have since July.
But how did we get here? Why are politicians so poor? What would make them different?
Is it possible for the same people and the same system to deliver change?
There are key factors that are common for politicians across today’s political class, no matter which political parties they represent. They have all contributed to the situation that we are now in.
They are:
Anger
Ambition
Avarice
Control
Corruption
Fear
Greed
Ignorance
Lack of care, compassion, humanity and understanding of human value
Lack of life experience
Lack of self-awareness / awareness of others
Nepotism
Obsession with power
Self-aggrandisement
Self interest
Selfishness
Self-righteousness
If you stop to think about your experiences of anyone you know who you could attribute any, some or all of the above character traits to, the one thing that draws all of them together is the need to put themselves and what is important to them, first.
However, politicians have also become highly skilled in making it sound like whatever they want is in everyone else’s best interests – no matter what the cost of achieving what is important to them might be to everyone else.
Our so-called Democracy is a sham that is now failing each Person that needs it most.
We are already ruled by a Bad Dictatorship
The time has passed when it could be argued that any disquiet, concern and frustration with the political and electoral system that we have can simply be attributed to the Country or our Councils being led by people we didn’t elect.
None of the political parties we have today represent anyone other than themselves and whatever cause is most important to those who lead them at any one time.
Which will either be ambition, ‘job’ security or both.
Politicians representing the political parties themselves are told what to support and what they should vote for. Either by a very strong leader, or by the very small group of usually unelected advisors, experts and specialists that surround those who ‘lead’.
As the decisions on public policy that affect us all are being made by a very limited number of people, we can conclude that we are already living within a dictatorship.
We are therefore living in dictatorship that is hiding in plain sight, being led under false pretences by people we probably don’t know and would never elect.
Getting to this place has been a long journey.
Democracy can work well.
But democracy doesn’t work well unless there is a robust system of checks and balances in place that prevent it being taken over by the imposters who covet and then progress themselves and those they favour towards positions of power and influence.
The flaws of Democracy
Unfortunately, the problems with our democracy are neither new nor specific.
The rot extends throughout the whole thing.
The problems with our democracy have happened before and classical philosophers such as Socrates and Plato both talked about the flaws that exist within a democratic system.
A Democracy is only as good as the people who are appointed by it.
If a system of checks and balances cannot maintain an appropriate level of quality through the majority of the representatives, so that the majority of the representatives can hold the existence of that body fully accountable at all times, it is inevitable that democracy will fail in its democratic purpose.
The UK should be run only by those with the appropriate skills, experience, knowledge, attitude, ability and above all by those who are equipped with the morality and ethics and with the integrity necessary to always act in the best interests of everyone.
This holds true, even when decisions may outwardly appear to hurt or disadvantage some so that all can benefit or prosper from the outcome.
This is a very big ask when the UK is in a mess that is getting increasingly worse.
Unfortunately, the cost of failing to act is rising for everyone.
We must ask the question, ‘How long can things continue like this, in the hands of the same people and interests, before what we understand as freedom and the ability for us all to be happy, healthy, safe and secure finally collapses?’
Those who broke our Democracy and System of Government will not fix it
The point we have reached today, when we are aware enough to ask such a question about our so-called democracy is where things begin to get tricky.
All at a time when everything else is getting very tricky too.
Everything across ‘The System’ is broken or has been manipulated to serve specific interests so effectively, that the entire System must be revised, replaced, restored, reinvigorated, re regulated and completely transformed. So that ‘The System’ works for everyone in a Balanced, Fair and Just way.
The people who are today’s politicians or who are impatiently waiting at the electoral door to replace them will not change what really needs to be changed.
Because that would mean changing the politicians and that would mean them stepping aside so that they themselves can be replaced.
The politicians we have, whether elected or in waiting, will not take the steps necessary to change a system that they and their kind either created, facilitated, and even now continue to believe they will benefit from.
The change of politicians we expect to be able to make at the next General Election will not change anything
If we were to replace every one of the politicians that we have now – with The System that we have, through democratic elections, the politicians we have the ‘option’ or ‘choice’ to replace them with would not collectively possess the understanding of the current system that would be needed to instruct the process of change necessary.
Those ‘replacement’ politicians certainly wouldn’t agree upon the steps necessary to achieve that change, no matter how well they might be guided by those who know.
The complexity and interconnectedness of the problems that span every part of public policy require a level of vision, understanding, determination and leadership that cannot be achieved through a process of reaching collective agreement over every decision that must be made.
Yes, democracy requires that the support or agreement of the majority will make decisions upon who we elect and how we elect them. Whether that be as an individual or as a political party or group.
It then also requires that the ‘elected’ decide who leads them and then in turn how the decisions they are supposed to be responsible for are then made.
However, we are now in such a mess because the version of democracy we have is completely broken.
Our democracy has been so twisted and manipulated to work in the best interests of those who are elected and influence them, that our version of democracy or anything that resembles it cannot fix the problems that it has already created.
And the problems that we now have are snowballing every day, leading to many more.
Changing the electoral system will not change the outcome, for as long as the same people and ideas are involved
Whilst many will have sympathy for the argument that the flaw of our democracy is only the biggest group of voters are represented and that it would be fairer for every different view to be represented by the same percentage through Proportional Representation (PR), it’s not the existing First Past the Post (FPTP) system that is the problem.
It’s the ideas and the motives of the people who want and believe they would benefit from PR that are the problem.
Without changing the politicians themselves, PR would only ever appear to benefit many additional sets of ideas and thinking.
However, without changing the politicians and the political mindset, all PR would achieve would be to solidify a situation where even less people will get what they really need from government, the public sector and our system of governance.
Promises need majorities. Promises aren’t kept when everything is about compromise
With PR, there is even less likely to be a majority within our councils and parliament too.
Meaning that public policy will not resemble anything like that we are promised on the doorsteps and in the party manifestos in the weeks leading up to an election or vote.
The uncomfortable truth that those who want the political jobs but not the representative responsibilities is that as far as making the changes across the entirety of the public sphere that we all now desperately need are concerned, PR would simply give us more of the wrong politicians to make decisions ‘on our behalf’, which would in turn set the problems that we now have very firmly in stone.
It’s all human nature. We need a solution that respects humanity and doesn’t exploit it, without being weakened by human nature itself
A healthy democracy can only be maintained when everyone within that democracy is committed to being responsible for it.
This is not where we are today.
Many genuinely believe that the societal problems that we have will just get sorted out by someone else as they always have done. And that everything that feels uncomfortable at the moment, will soon be put right.
The problem with this approach to politics and surrendering the responsibilities that we have to the wrong people is that any belief that our responsibility ends with a vote, quickly disintegrates upon impact, with the reality that many of the politicians in The System understand and abuse how this situation works.
Those politicians go on to make decisions and take actions that are completely at odds with what anyone could reasonably expect that an honest public representative would do.
Because experience tells them that they can get away with it.
The mess poor politicians create easily gets hidden. Because when there are so many politicians arguing with each other and the system of government itself has become so complex, it is too easy for those with their own agendas to do whatever they want to benefit either themselves or the people they are influenced by.
Meanwhile, politicians hide what they are doing and the harm it is doing to all of us by answering any questions we have with responses such as ‘That’s just the way it is’, ‘That’s how it all works’, or ‘There weren’t enough of us to support the action we wanted to take in that vote’.
Is it all a big Conspiracy?
Regrettably, an increasing number of people believe the real reason so much seems to be going wrong and problems appear to be springing up everywhere, or public policy is always morphing into new ways that will hurt us, is because there is some kind of giant conspiracy at work.
However, the truth is much simpler.
In fact, the truth is so simple that it is very hard to believe.
The social problems that we have and the way that everything is being taken from us, is simply the consequence of how people with power and influence who are obsessed with money and material wealth, behave when they have become so insulated from the lives of others, they genuinely believe that what they are doing is a justified way to behave.
It is incredible just how quickly any person can lose sight of where they have come from and the role they used to play when they have been elevated to a platform that makes them believe that they are different to others and therefore special in some way.
When people have been insulated from the realities of the lives of others from birth, it makes the detachment and the lack of understanding they have for real life, even worse.
This is human nature at its worst. It’s how people can and will behave, based on the choices that they make.
The current democratic system doesn’t work because of the inadequacy of the ‘representatives’ within it
There are few people in positions of power and influence today who have experienced life from a range of different angles and pathways, who also have the ability, self-awareness and wherewithal to reflect upon what they have seen and how they have lived, and are then able to use that experience objectively for the benefit of others.
To have really lived and experienced the lives that so many are experiencing today, it necessarily follows that genuine leaders will have had to have endured difficulties, challenges and pain, as well as what we might all recognise as being good times.
A genuinely Good Leader would be able to rationalise and take the real learning away from their experiences in ways that would be of genuine help and benefit to others.
More importantly, they would be able to represent those who need proper representation and a real voice.
The attributes of good Leadership are currently scarce
There isn’t one person alive in the world today who has experienced the same life as anyone else.
There certainly isn’t anyone alive who possesses the life experiences of all other people.
However, there are some who can see how life, business and government works for everyone, who are able to cut through and see what is genuinely just, balanced and fair for everyone.
Beyond the temptation of considering only what is best for themselves.
The saying and acting vs doing ‘trap’
Let us be very clear. It is not as simple as suggesting that whoever leads us and makes decisions on our behalf needs to be someone who can empathise and cares.
Politicians being seen to be nice to everyone and requiring everyone to be nice to each other is a key part of the problems that the world currently has.
The kind of leadership that we now need must be able to recognise the influences and prejudices of their own human nature, in everything that they do.
A Good Leader will step beyond the restrictions, prejudices and barriers formed in isolation by their own experiences, even when their emotions tell them to take a different path – IF that is the RIGHT thing to do, for everyone who is ultimately involved.
Finding even a small number of people with these kinds of qualities who would be prepared to take on a political or leadership role would be almost impossible with the way that the world works and conditions everyone today.
This means that if such a leader or politician were available and ready to serve in this capacity, we might soon find ourselves having to accept that the Country isn’t led by many people democratically elected.
It may need to be run for a period of time by just one.
Democracy isn’t over and will return. But Our Future Democracy will not be anything like its current form
We must keep working for anything that’s worth having in our lives.
The same principle works for everything that benefits us at community level too.
It’s because we no longer value real democracy that our democracy is now broken beyond repair in its current form.
Decision making on public policy should always be conducted at the closest level it can be to the people and the communities who will be affected by the decisions being made.
That way, the people making the decisions on our behalf have real understanding of the issues that the community they represent faces.
People making decisions on public policy at local level within our Communities are equipped to consider the idiosyncrasies of the situation, and are close enough to be kept reliably informed in relation to matters that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to understand at the experiential level.
We are so used to the parade or circus of political party candidates – for 6 weeks before an election, that we have lost sight of how important the selection of candidates to run in democratic elections really is – no matter the level or tier of government that they will be elected to represent us.
Posting one-size fits all newsletters through our doors, or people who may not even live locally suddenly becoming all-knowing in the issues that are important to us may be able make candidates look and sound good.
But candidates presented to us on ballot papers as a choice that was made by people from outside the Community with their own agendas is not how credible, reliable and robust public representation can be assured.
It will take time to change a system that has been choosing the people we elect for us, for decades.
Regrettably, we have surrendered the right to check the qualifications, motives, abilities, skills and suitability of the people we elect and left that choice to political parties who generally choose candidates based on whether or not they will toe the party line and do exactly what they are told by the political parties they represent.
Our Communities will need time to adapt to a very different approach to political candidate selection.
An approach that will put power back at the heart of the smallest of our Communities and reverses the damage that has increasingly been done by years of candidate selection driven by people who we don’t know and are likely to never visit the streets or the villages in which we live.
As much power as possible must be brought back to our communities from Westminster.
This will not be achieved through the current political policy of ‘Devolution’, which is Regional Centralisation by another name.
Bringing so much power back and placing it in local hands means we must have a robust system in place to select those people who will use it on our behalf.
This is a process that will take time and careful design to create and implement.
The most pressing issue we have is that we cannot continue to allow poor politicians to operate at any level whilst that change takes place.
But neither can we just assume that people who are completely new to public representation and what that responsibility really means will be ready to take all the steps necessary, when the only example of politics that they have experienced is one that doesn’t work.
The direction politics is taking us today isn’t a good one
There are still too many of us who believe that change will be achieved simply by changing the people who we elect to political office.
Meaning that change will continue to be based solely on the political parties and therefore the ideologies and agendas that they represent.
Many genuinely believe that the problems that the Country faces today have been caused in a matter of months.
Perhaps since the Ukraine War began. Perhaps because of the Covid Pandemic. Or perhaps because of Brexit and the way that the Government responded to that before.
The more political among us might also suggest that problems have only existed in government since Labour were elected in July 2024.
Whilst none of them are wrong in a manner of speaking, or from a particular point of view, they are also far from being correct.
Equally, the way the period of history that we are already experiencing is being referred to in different ways and with names such as The Age of Consequence, The Age of Disorder, The Great Reset and even World War 3 are not correct. But neither are they wrong.
All of these are someone else’s truths.
Politics and political decisions can impact People and Countries for centuries
The study of politics and current affairs will quickly demonstrate that events can be influenced either directly or indirectly by public policies that were implemented and adopted perhaps centuries before the event or issue in question.
It can be argued that the majority of the problems that we face today are built upon an economic theory called Neoliberalism and the adoption of a related monetary system and policy called FIAT throughout the western world in 1971.
However, the reality that we face is that many of the behaviours visited upon the poor and vulnerable by the wealthy and those in power, have also been visited upon the poor and vulnerable for centuries before now.
A process with different names such as capitalism, industrialism, socialism, neoliberalism, corporatism, globalism and communism, that we associate with centuries of history, all relate to the acceptance, adoption and maintenance of a system that is neither fair, just or balanced.
Just as the ability for the elites to influence politics, government, money and manipulate laws exists today, what has always been a very unjust situation for those at the bottom of the wealth pyramid has steadily headed upwards through the classes and the demographics, as the distance between rich and poor has grown.
The wealth divide has become increasingly and progressively worse. Because The System we have can only make the few fantastically wealthy, by making everyone else progressively poor.
The System is over. It just hasn’t ended yet
The difference between the centuries where change and deterioration was slow and what we are experiencing today, is that the whole period or cycle is now coming to its end.
As it does so, events like Brexit, the response to the Covid Pandemic, the War in Ukraine and the Fiscal and Public Policies of the Labour Government (and the Tories before them…) have simply speeded the process up – much like an overrevving engine will run fastest in the moments just before it explodes.
The political parties that we have to choose from today have nothing new between them that they can offer us or anyone else.
The existing political parties are all committed to the establishment-driven neoliberal model and the free-market idealism that it promotes.
That is why we hear politicians from every side telling us that the success of the country can be measured by ‘growth’.
What many, perhaps even all of the politicians that we have today do not realise is The System that that has been so good to them and all the various interests that have been making huge financial gains by exploiting others and inflicting so much pain, hunger and expense, cannot and will not be able to continue in its current form.
Life cannot continue as it has: The System will collapse
We are and have been living unsustainably across the planet for decades.
Not because we need to.
But so that those who have much already, can make more and more money, without any care for the true cost.
There is no money left.
The Country has technically been bankrupt for years.
Politicians have been creating money out of thin air using little more than accountancy tricks, that have made it necessary for them to make highly damaging policy decisions to justify what they are doing.
The only reason that the financial system hasn’t collapsed yet, is because so many of us still believe that the pretend money that bankers, financiers and governments have created is actually real.
The Coming Collapse
‘The System’ that we have is likely to collapse at any time.
The Collapse could come from any one of a number of different directions, and be set in motion by any one of a range of different things.
It could be because of another pandemic. It could be because of a war. It could be because the FIAT monetary system falls apart first in a country such as the USA.
It could also be because we end up with people on the streets rioting in the UK. Because the Basic and Essential food that they and their loved one’s need for meals each day is no longer something that they can afford.
It won’t matter who we elect when the next General Election comes.
The direction of travel will remain the same. The end result or outcome that results directly from being led by people who couldn’t do anything to help us if they even wanted to, because of the way that the system around them now works, will end up with the same outcome, with everything collapsing just the same.
The threat of tyranny – from doing nothing or from allowing anyone who is able to seize control to do so
We already know what the results of having a bad dictator or dictatorship look like.
Because with the broken form of democracy that we have in the UK today, a bad, albeit hidden dictatorship is what we have already got. A Bad Dictatorship is what we are experiencing already.
Even if we can accept that we only have a democracy today in name, the number of us who are ready to accept that the situation that this Country faces is very serious and that events could take over at any time is remarkably small.
This lack of acceptance has led to a lack of preparedness for the future, to uncertainty and a resistance to beneficial change that is directly related to the way of thinking that could be best described as being ‘It couldn’t happen here’.
When public trust in politicians and the establishment is as paper thin as it is today, it will not take much for a majority of people who appear to be completely bought-in to the gaslighting and mind games that the establishment have been playing, to realise that ‘The System’ is no longer one that we can trust.
If and when that happens – and the chances are that without there being significant change, it certainly will – it will happen quickly and is likely to create a political void into which anyone could step in.
The future of the world could change by accident, in little more than a moment
Whilst we look back at history as if every event that has taken place was destined to be, or was just a guaranteed thing even before it happened, this certainly has never been the case.
Timelines most definitely exist and in some of their most obvious and basic forms, find their way into our lives as choices that the people who lead us have or will make at key moments in time.
The 1917 Russian Revolution could very easily not have turned out the way that it did.
Because many of the key moments and actions taken were based upon Lenin and the key people around him being bold enough to exploit opportunities at very specific moments in time and in circumstances that others did not.
Had the sequence of events been different, the Russian Royal Family may never have been slain. The Cold War may never have happened and Putin might not have invaded Ukraine.
Pivotal, epoch-changing choices could be made and exploited by people in the future, just because they are in the right place at the right time to do so.
People who we would never want to have in charge of our lives will quickly do everything they can to prevent anyone who opposed them from being anywhere near power over everyone ever again, once they have the power to stop them.
The hidden dictatorship dressed up as democracy that we are experiencing now is bad enough.
Freedom will be gone in every conceivable way, if we should accidently find ourselves with an openly bad dictator who sees everything ahead of them as being about them and their own personal choice.
Part 2: Why We need a Good Dictator
We have discussed why our current system of government and the way that we elect people to represent us as politicians is no longer working.
We have also discussed why the current political system cannot and will not deliver the change that the UK now needs.
Before we discuss the purpose of this book, or the outcomes we can expect from having a Good Dictator, let’s take a moment for a quick review of the reasoning that has led to this Manifesto for a Good Dictator.
The reasons we need a Good Dictator include:
The flaws that exist within our democracy have now taken over and overwhelmingly influence the system of politics and governance that we have.
The political system in the UK is broken.
The politicians that we have and those who wish to replace them will not change the relationship that they have with The System unless they are doing so to solidify their position.
Changing the electoral system from First Past the Post to Proportional Representation would only make the issues we have with politics and politicians even worse, if the way we select candidates for elected office hasn’t been changed.
Everything in politics today is about a level of compromise that only serves the best interests of the people we elect.
Compromise won’t deliver the changes that we now need.
The interconnectivity and complexity of the issues surrounding public policy will take too long for any multiple-member council, parliament or other body to address.
Changing the public representatives we have just by changing the political party will be no better than keeping those we already have. Because their inexperience will leave them as vulnerable to the advice of civil servants, advisors and specialists as those ‘in power’ now.
The level of change necessary now requires a level of commitment and leadership that cannot be delivered on the basis of which argument wins.
The risk exists that with a political and leadership void opening up, a dictatorship is now inevitable in some form.
If Dictatorship is indeed inevitable, we should make the choice between outright tyranny and leadership that is driven for the right reasons, so that the net outcome for everyone will be A Good Future for Everyone.
Only sheer bloody-mindedness, vision, belief and unquestionable integrity on the part of one leader, supported by people who have also left their egos behind, can drive and make the changes necessary to save and expand our freedoms, secure the future and give everyone a Fair, Balanced and Just experience of life.
The Noise of ‘No’
As you progress through the Policies that follow in this Manifesto for a Good Dictator, you will notice that they are geared towards people and more importantly, towards systems, ways of being, rules and regulations that deliver a system of governance that treats everyone as being equal. Or, that puts People First.
Some will argue that such an approach would be ‘socialist’ or ‘utopian’. And that this form of governance or model for our future society is impractical or chimeric.
However, whilst those voices lined up against the need for change use labels as a simple argument against change that they perceive as likely to result in loss for them, what is proposed in this Manifesto does not restrict creativity, entrepreneurial spirit or freedom in any way.
In fact, it encourages all of it.
Manifesto for a Good Dictator proposes that industriousness is harnessed for the good of all. That any material or monetary reward for doing so will recognise the effort made and the risk taken, without being excessive or coming at unforeseen or deliberately overlooked cost to others.
Those who have exploited people they will never meet, and caused misery, just so that they can accumulate profits and wealth, to levels that they would never need just to live very comfortable life, have no right to prevent anyone else from achieving either the same.
Nor do they have the right to stand in the way of any Person being able to live a life and to experience a standard of living that means they can be content without looking to the community for support, for charity or having to resort to debt, just so that they can survive.
Nobody has the right to make a profit
Profit will always come from doing the right thing by everyone.
But profit can be measured in multiple ways.
The majority of the ways that any Person can profit from their actions and ideas, do not relate to money.
The right thing for everyone is for the community to ensure that every person has the opportunity to enter life without immediate financial disadvantage.
It is then the responsibility and choice of the individual that determines where and what steps they will take.
Disadvantage has been used as an excuse for punishment and actions that are no better than punishment against others by those who see themselves as being different for too long.
No Person who finds themselves with advantages in life, should ever be able to exploit those experiencing disadvantage, by choice.
Whether that decision be conscious or without thought.
Anyone who says ‘No’ directly, to a fair, just and balanced system, through the words that they use or the actions they take has forfeited the right to enjoy any privileges that advantage them over others.
Aiming for the best Outcomes without being tied to a fixed plan to get there
Beware any Person or politician with a leadership role who says they have a plan or spends time getting people or other politicians to approve or agree to one.
Plans for government and the public sector are notorious for the failures that they are and that they become.
Simply because any plan made today cannot account for the issues that will arise along the way.
Politicians have either fallen into the trap that fixed plans or strategies inevitably create or have deliberately hidden behind them as a way to apportion blame when anything they cannot avoid committing to isn’t going to work out.
Even a satnav has to deviate from the preferred route that it might provide when we begin a journey. Because the events and issues like accidents and maintenance that get in the way, cannot always be predicted.
Changing the way that public policy and The System works for the better, is very similar to the Satnav. Albeit the complexity and interconnectedness of all the issues that need to beaddressed almost guarantee that nobody and not even AI could create a perfect working plan or strategy that would never have to change. Simply because there are going to be so many different unforeseen factors or ‘working parts’ involved.
However, when we use a satnav, the destination always remains the same, no matter the route that we use that actually gets there, or the time that it takes for us to do so.
It’s the outcome that is most important. Not how we get there
The desired end result or outcome from using and trusting that satnav, is that we want to reach that certain destination.
We now need a very special kind of satnav for the journey that our Country is on so that we reach A Good Future for Everyone.
We can no longer afford to keep getting lost because somebody somewhere is changing direction along the way.
In order that we achieve the outcomes that we need so that we can achieve a Just, Fair and Balanced way of life for everyone that has genuine equality at its very core, it is essential that we dedicate ourselves to a journey that focuses on the destination, rather than getting bogged down by ridiculous arguments on the best way to get there from the very start.
Today’s political parties and the politicians have proven they cannot do this.
Because their own aims, ambitions, motives and ideas always influence the route that they want to take. With the outcome inevitably being very different from whatever they tell us it is or is going to be.
The drive, determination and dedication necessary to delivering the results and outcomes that will be good for all of us can only be delivered by singlemindedness.
That level of singlemindedness will only be possible and achievable through the acceptance of just one person as leader.
And it is essential that the Leader we have is Good.
Timeline
It is foolish to believe that change of the magnitude now required can or will be achieved overnight.
The quickest that any form of meaningful change can be achieved would be as the direct result of an event or series of events that make change for everyone necessary.
Meaning that real change will be something that even those who would never consider change otherwise, would then be willing to accept.
This kind of event is not something that any of us should knowingly or willingly wish for.
Such an event is a real prospect however, given the state of the world today and the mess that we are now in.
We are currently heading for a date with destiny
There is considerable risk that if the void in leadership and governance is extended beyond the political void that we have today, someone or a group will willingly step into it and take us on a path or trajectory that could prove to be even worse than the one that we are already on.
Opportunists rarely take opportunities for anyone other than themselves.
Because doing so at the speed required means that they can only relate the situation faced in terms of the benefits to themselves and what the future would mean for them, if the steps they take were to be successful.
Preventing the intervention of a tyrant, if the future should unfold in this way will be hard enough.
And there are plenty who would argue that we are already beginning to experience such a situation right now.
However, embarking on journey of massive change will also lead to many moments when other opportunists will try to step in and take whatever opportunities they can for themselves.
These interventions will be based on impatience and what may be perceived as a lack of progress, to anyone who cannot see that progress will not always resemble anything and that the progress necessary will be underway as a process over a prolonged period of time.
A civic term in local government today is 4 years.
In parliament, the maximum term of any government cannot extend beyond 5 years.
5 years is not enough time to do anything with the structure of government that exists today.
Because the structure of government that we have today is being used to say no to anything helpful or puts People First at every turn.
We face a situation where government, every part of the public sector and the governance it provides needs to be revised.
Whilst immediate steps can be taken to halt the problems that so much mismanagement has caused, it will take a much longer period to restructure and reform everything and then implement the replacement systems and processes.
All whilst the country continues to function and ideally thrive, and before a new model of democracy is operational and ready to step in.
The timeline of a Good Dictatorship could easily be a period of 20 to 25 years.
20 – 25 years will seem like an eternity to the young who will be the leaders and politicians of tomorrow, by the time that this work has been done.
But it will seem like no time at all to the older generations who have either experienced the realities of time, or have ignored them when they have been the main contributors or architects of all the problems and pain that have been caused.
The Watershed: Everything for All
Whilst it will come as a great shock to those who believe wisdom can only come with age, young people have been taking the lead in recognising that the answers and the solutions to our problems aren’t going to come from anything that we’ve already got.
Many young people like the idea of having a Good or Beneficent Dictator.
When older generations can see from history what Dictatorship could mean, they may well wonder how it could possibly be that younger, inexperienced people are right.
Even though it is older generations that have already allowed a dictatorship to exist that masquerades as a form of democracy that shows it doesn’t work, the moment that you begin to look at how it really functions.
The young are the Future. Our Future.
Those who will lead us when the change that we need has been created and delivered will be those we know as millennials, generation Z and then generation alpha.
Older generations are quick to dismiss young people, and the world today gives many reasons why they should.
However, the change that is coming is about everyone.
The change that delivers A Good Future for Everyone will be within everyone.
By the time the process of change is complete, the world and the way that our responsibilities are structured will not be anything like they are or as we understand them to be today.
The model for living and the design for life that we embrace will be crafted for the benefit of everyone as they will expect A Good Future for Everyone to look.
But our future will also be designed with careful consideration of how with age and the addition of experience our perceptions of the world and everything we experience will change.
Part 2: Creating a Democracy and future for each Person that today’s phoney democracy cannot
The Reestablishment
There are no easy choices, halfway houses or hacks that we can fall back upon when it comes to fixing everything that is broken in the world that we know today.
Change of the magnitude required will take time. It cannot be rushed.
But change will be happening continually throughout the period of time we require A Good Dictator, so that everything and every part of the new system and our new democracy is ready to work, when the Good Dictator steps down.
This period or chapter of our time will not be a revolution as such.
Even though that’s how history will see it.
This period will be a Reestablishment of a System that actually works beneficially for all, and for the purposes of the policy outcomes that follow.
It will deliver A Good Future for Everyone.
Democracy (Policy 1) [P.1.0]
The key outcome and meaningful change that will result from the Good Dictatorship, benefitting everyone in a Balanced, Fair and Just way, will be the replacement of the existing phoney democratic system, electoral system and system of government that exists today.
With the system of Governance that we have working only for itself and for those who benefit from it, The System has passed any point of good it could reach.
The existing system has proven to be too easily corrupted for it to be able to provide the assurance of impartiality that will ensure a truly Balanced, Fair and Just System of Governance for the future, that can be fully accessible to all, and for it to be maintained as such.
The public policies that will provide the foundation of the new democracy:
[P.1.1] The Foundation of The New Democracy
Democracy will begin at Community level and flow from the Grassroots Up.
Existing tiers of government (Parish, Town, Borough, District, County, Unitary, Assembly, Parliament, Mayorships, Police & Crime Commissioners etc) will cease to exist.
ALL today’s ‘sitting’ politicians are representatives of the old world. The ‘seats’ they were elected to represent will cease to exist.
Today’s elected Politicians will no longer hold any responsibility – assumed, or otherwise – for anything in the public realm.
Political parties will be prohibited because they pursue ideologies and motives not shared by the majority.
No former politician who was a member of any former registered political party will be eligible to become a candidate for election as a Community Representative or to any public office for a minimum period of 12 years.
The creation of the New Democracy shall not rely upon the guidance or ‘expertise’ of today’s establishment figures or any advisor, expert or specialist who has played their part or have been directly responsible for the problems that the UK faces today.
All former establishment leaders will relinquish their posts.
All public policy decisions and the weight of responsibility and power placed by the people under trust shall be placed upon Local Assemblies.
Responsibility for public policy decisions shall only be deferred to a level of Community covering a larger geographical area and include public responsibility for more people where it makes practical sense to do so.
The functional, operational or service delivery aspects of all existing tiers of government (with the exception of what are stand alone or non-government public organisations) shall continue under the management and guidance of the relevant Community Assembly until such time as those services have been removed, reformed, revised or redefined.
Responsibility for the provision of public services provided by stand alone and non-government public service providers will be allocated to Community Assemblies under Public Interest Companies (PIC).
[P.1.2] Local Assemblies
Local Assemblies will be opened to the membership and democratic participation of all adults who reside within a Community or locality.
Local Assemblies shall be responsible for all decision making on public policy that can be carried out and implemented at Community Level.
A Local Assembly area may be defined by what were previously known as Parish or Town Council Wards (Not the whole area of an existing Town or Parish Council catchment – as these may be significant), or by the geographic boundaries of a small village, hamlet or definable suburban or Town area, whichever is smaller.
Where Parish or Town Councils currently do not exist, equivalent areas shall be defined and used as the catchment area for its own Local Assembly.
The Community shall appoint no less than 5 and no more than 7 Community Representatives to take decisions on behalf of the Community, when there is not sufficient time for a Local Assembly to be called.
Community Representatives will be elected to Local Assemblies for terms of 3 years.
Community Representatives can be re-elected to a Local Assembly no more than 6 times (allowing them to ‘sit’ as a Community Representative within a Local Assembly for no more than 21 years in total).
Community Representatives shall possess appropriate skills, knowledge and experience that will enable them to answer questions and discuss public policy matters objectively and without bias in a Local Assembly.
Community Representatives will each be appointed to research and gain understanding of public policy areas that fall outside the remit of the Local Assembly itself.
Local Assemblies will meet monthly or as frequently as necessary to ensure that no Community business is carried over for a period exceeding 30 days from when it became known.
With the exception of emergency decisions – which will themselves be defined by the Local Assembly, ALL decisions will be made by majority vote, by all members of the Community present at the relevant meeting of the Local Assembly.
Local Assemblies will elect an Assembly Facilitator for each Year.
Local Assembly Facilitators can be re-elected twice (and able to Facilitate for up to 3 consecutive years).
Local Assembly Facilitators will not be permitted to volunteer to for the role again, once they have stepped down.
Local Assemblies will make all local decisions on public policy, with delivery itself undertaken under the operational management and guidance of Community Assemblies.
Local Assemblies shall elect 2 Community Representatives to its Community Assembly.
Community Representatives will become eligible for election to a Community Assembly after serving no less than 54 consecutive months on one of the Local Assemblies that form the same Community Assembly.
Community Representatives will be elected to Community Assemblies for terms of 3 years and can be re-elected to a Community Assembly no more than 5 times (allowing them to ‘sit’ as a Community Representative in Community Assembly for no more than 18 years in total).
[P.1.3] Community Assemblies
Community Assemblies will be opened to bring together Community Representatives from all of the Local Assemblies within an area defined by what were previously known as Counties or County areas.
Community Assemblies shall take legislative responsibility for any matters that fall between the Local and National Level for purposes of practicality and no more.
Community Assemblies will meet monthly or as frequently as necessary to ensure that no Community business is carried over for a period exceeding 30 days from when it became known.
Community Assemblies will elect an Assembly Facilitator or Chairperson for each Year.
Community Assembly Facilitators can be re-elected twice (and able to Facilitate for up to 3 consecutive years).
Community Assembly Facilitators will not be permitted to volunteer to for the role again, once they have stepped down.
Community Assemblies will take responsibility for operational management of all Local Service Provision and provide all relevant services through Public Interest Companies (PIC) which shall function on a not-for-profit basis.
Community Assemblies will have the joint role of being the relevant legislative body for decision making that sits between Local and National Assemblies, whilst also being the facilitator or provider of all Local Services.
Community Assemblies will have no ability or remit to refuse, change or adjust directives for service provision provided by Local Assemblies.
Community Assemblies shall elect 2 Community Representatives to the National Assembly.
Community Representatives will become eligible for election to The National Assembly after serving no less than 84 consecutive months on one of the Community Assemblies.
Community Representatives will be elected to The National Assembly for terms of 3 years and can be re-elected to a Community Assembly no more than 4 times (allowing them to ‘sit’ as a Community Representative in Community Assembly for no more than 15 years in total).
[P.1.4] The National Assembly
A National Assembly will be opened to bring together Community Representatives from all of the Community Assemblies from across what is known as The United Kingdom or Great Britain.
The National Assembly will be convened with a membership of Community Representatives elected from each Community Assembly.
The National Assembly will elect an Assembly Facilitator or Chairperson for each Year.
National Assembly Facilitators can be re-elected twice (and able to Facilitate for up to 3 consecutive years).
National Assembly Facilitators will not be permitted to volunteer to for the role again, once they have stepped down.
Community Representatives will be appointed to research and gain understanding of specialist National and International public policy areas that have been delegated to The National Assembly.
Community Representatives with allocated National or International Briefs will be able to provide any or all members of the National Assembly with detailed analysis, advice and where appropriate solutions, to inform before any vote is taken.
All decisions of The National Assembly shall be taken by majority vote, with the exception of emergency matters, which will be temporarily delegated to The National Assembly Facilitator and all Community Representatives appointed to the relevant Briefs.
Emergency decisions will be reviewed at the next sitting of The National Assembly, where they will either be endorsed, changed or rescinded by majority vote.
IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, The National Assembly can only pass emergency decision-making powers to The National Assembly Facilitator for a period not exceeding 1 (one) calendar month.
The delegation of emergency decision making powers to The National Assembly Facilitator must be approved by a majority of The National Assembly and can be rescinded by a majority vote of attending Members at any time.
The National Assembly will appoint members of the National Assembly as representatives to all international bodies that have relevance to the pursuit of collective collaboration, mutually beneficial trading arrangements and National Security.
The National Assembly may not confer legislative or decision-making powers to any other power, assembly, council, meeting or parliament, whether constituent with the UK / Great Britain, or outside, in any circumstances or at any time.
[P.1.5] Lobbying
All forms of closed lobbying by Community members, businesses and interest groups will be prohibited.
No Community Representative may accept gifts or hospitality of any kind from any type of organisation seeking to influence public policy, during their tenure, or for a period of no less than 5 years previously, or 10 years thereafter.
Community Representatives shall enter details of any relationships with any organisation that has or may have reason to seek to influence public policy both before and following their tenure, in a public record.
Where any individual or business has a matter of public or Community interest to share, this will be raised within the Local Assembly and where necessary escalated across to the Community or National Assembly where it is in the interest of the Community to do so.
[P.1.6] The Monarchy and ‘Hereditary Position’
The Monarchy and ‘Hereditary Positions’ as we have known them are at their end.
Today’s Monarchy and Hereditary Position structure is representative of the Old World, Top-Down hierarchical order and forms of hereditary power and influence that are not aligned with new earth and Grassroots-Up Governance of any kind.
No person shall be able to influence the life of another, simply because of their birth or their relationship to any other person.
A Referendum or Plebiscite will be held during the process of change where the full UK / Great Britain Electorate shall be asked to choose between complete removal of The Monarchy, or its transformation into a small, figurehead organisation where a.) Members of the House of Windsor will continue to provide a strictly ‘figurehead’ role, or b.) Any future ‘monarch’ or ceremonial leader shall be selected for set periods by a system of voting through Local Assemblies and Community Assemblies before being administered by The National Assembly.
In any case and in all circumstances, members of the existing ‘Royal Household’ will not be protected by position or relationship and shall be treated the same as any other UK / Great Britain resident if they are accused and/or convicted of any crime, or of the misuse of their privilege.
[P.1.7] Honours & Titles
Hereditary Titles, Positions and all associated benefits shall cease to hold any deferential value during.
The existing ‘Honours System’ shall cease to exist.
A new Community Honours system will be created, with awards made for recognition of service to the Community by those who have done so voluntarily, without seeking recognition, and outside of their normal professional roles.
There will be no appointments or honours made politically, or by ‘public figures’ of any kind.
Frameworks (Policy 2) [P.2.0]
[P.2.1] Frameworks for Freedoms
The solutions to the majority of the social problems that we face are not for any one of us, as individuals, to find answers to, or to come up with the right ‘fix’.
Today, we have specific groups, including politicians, banks, businesses, elites and others, attempting, and in many cases succeeding in dictating public policy and so-called solutions to problems (that their behavior has usually created).
For no better reason than they believe their ideas are best for everyone, when they are only best for themselves.
Meanwhile, although many of the speakers and publicly known influencers who recognise the need for change have their own ideas and solutions, and often appear to provide alternatives, these ideas are also made in isolation, represent their own agendas and will rarely if ever, address any major issue in a fair, just and balanced way.
This means that the result of electing an alternative set of politicians might appear different.
But if we were to simply exchange what we have now for what many loud voices and false prophets are offering us instead, we would inevitably end up with many more problems that would only get progressively worse.
The outcome would at best be exactly the same as what we have and are experiencing now.
Freedom can only exist when everyone has influence and power over their own future
People and their Communities must be supported to make all of the decisions that affect only them.
Amongst those decisions must be the selection and appointment of public representatives who will represent each Community when decisions are made about anything else.
As long as any person’s behaviour does not hinder the freedom of others, they themselves must be free and unhindered to do and behave in any way that they wish.
The obligation of the Community will only ever be to manage and to provide resources, rules and regulations that work for and are in the best interests of that Community. Nothing more.
These ‘Frameworks for Freedoms’ overseen by the Community must always be universal in nature. So that they treat each and every person exactly the same.
Frameworks for Freedoms will ensure that no person is given either an advantage or disadvantage, if they should find themselves with nothing in terms of material wealth, or if holding no material wealth should indeed be their voluntary choice.
In its simplest and most easily describable form, an example of a framework rule would have some similarities with what we today understand as the Minimum Wage. A universal framework that is similar as EVERY PERSON must be paid that minimum hourly rate, no matter what job it is that they do.
Universality does not entertain prejudices. Nor does it recognise the differences and therefore the prejudices that today’s social conditioning has created or indulged.
So, no matter how we might have been previously conditioned or required to identify someone – whatever the reasons might be, those reasons that we have used to attribute social value to other human beings in the past, must now be discarded and left behind.
EVERY PERSON enters and leaves this world the same.
Frameworks for Freedom must exist to ensure that no rules exist which allow anyone to define themselves as being different to others through any position or wealth that they have attained or have been gifted in other ways.
Success and the appearance of happiness do not make anyone better than anyone else.
Genuine success and happiness are defined by the individual and their own reflections. Not by anyone else or by the world outside.
Frameworks for Freedoms are the doorway that allow everyone to thrive and achieve happy, healthy, safe and secure lives – if they so choose.
The real power and responsibility of community centred governance is to provide these Frameworks and to protect them. Nothing more.
[P.2.2] Why frameworks can be relied upon, but rules, regulations and laws cannot.
Every Community must be able to make rules that are considerate of the different dynamics that relate to it.
These rules must always sit outside and beyond making specific requirements that suggest how every individual will enjoy their own freedom and the related right to exist in tangible forms.
These Community rules might relate to very practical measures such as the infrastructure that exists, the types of foods that can be grown or produced in the area, or other ways in which the Community’s Economy or Local Marketplace works.
Every Person must always be treated and respected as an individual and given every opportunity to express their freedom to choose how to live. Without unnecessary rules, regulations and laws that seek to control – that would only exist for the benefit of those who write or set them.
Genuine frameworks are principles that do not need to be changed.
Whereas rules, regulations and laws tend to be dynamic and must be updated to reflect changing times.
Rules, regulations and laws are always open to interpretation and to abuse.
If we want A Good Future for Everyone that works in a Balanced, Fair and Just way and always puts People First, it is the principles that need to work, to be consistent, universal and reliable, before anything else.
It is not the detail or the control of any detail that matters.
[P.2.3] The First Framework for Freedom: (The Basic Living Standard)
There is nothing insignificant about the process of change and the transition from a money, wealth, influence and power-based culture, to one that values and puts People First.
Frameworks that allow everyone to act, think and to behave like the adults that they are will be the very best way to help us all to survive and thrive through the transition into A Good Future for Everyone and to play our part in establishing a new system that is waiting for us beyond.
We may not be able to see how a very different way of living and relating to others would work from where we are looking at the future right now. As the culture we are experiencing today has taken over every part of life and even influences the way that we think.
Considering anything contrary to or beyond what we believe to be ‘normal’ today can easily leave us feeling overwhelmed.
This is another reason why we need to place our trust in the hands of someone who can see how so many interconnected things will need to be changed. So that the benefits of transition into A Good Future for Everyone will quickly begin to reach us all.
The relationship that we all have with money is the most important element of the change or transition process and will be resisted by many in ways that no other change will.
This is why changing our relationship with money is so important.
Every societal problem we have today relates to our relationship with money.
This can only be fixed with the surety and direction that can be delivered under the leadership of a single mind.
The First Framework for Freedom (or The Basic Living Standard):
A happy, healthy and balanced life will be affordable and sustainable for everyone, without the need for debt, subsidy or government handouts of any kind, when receiving the minimum, most basic or living wage for working the equivalent of a full working week.
If you remain tied in your beliefs to the old-world system and money-based culture, it is unlikely that you will be able to see the defining value of the First Framework.
Indeed, you may not even conceive that The First Framework is viable and would certainly not be something that would be supported by choice.
However, if we take the time to consider the dynamics and impact of The Basic Living Standard in its fullest context, and picture the reality that people, businesses and all organisations must consider this obligation in each and every action or transaction that they make or undertake, we will begin to see how this is a central framework rule that has the power to influence and impact upon them all.
ALL people must have the ability to be able to sustain their lives fully on the lowest full-time wage without handouts from the Community, without relying on Charity and without having to rely upon debt.
Within the people-first economic model that A Good Future for Everyone offers us, everything will point in that direction and contribute to making it work.
The 11 Principal Frameworks: (Policy 3) [P.3.0]
We must accept that for many today, a world that focuses on living life differently to how everything appears to work and revolve around money today, simply doesn’t make any sense.
However, just because we cannot see a different future, doesn’t mean that it does not exist.
Likewise, just because we may only be able to see the future in the same context of how we understand everything in the World around us works today, doesn’t mean that we cannot think differently, putting values and our relationships with other People at the heart of everything to embrace what will soon become necessary for everyone – no matter what we might currently believe.
Governance should always be light-touch and government should always be as smallas it can be to fulfill its requirements.
In so far as it is possible, People must always be allowed to set their own rules for life.
However, the success of A Good Future for Everyone will be based upon us all agreeing upon, working with and committing to Governance frameworks that provide the necessary direction, standards and security, so that people and our Communities can thrive.
There are 11 Principal Frameworks, where Governance Frameworks will exist:
People First
Economic Localism
Freedom will not hinder and will not be hindered in any way.
No Hierarchies. Top-Down is at its end
Local People MUST make Local Decisions Locally & influence from The Grassroots-Up
Local Businesses buy, sell and promote Local Goods first
Every link of the supply chain must add value.
Money or currencies have a fixed value and can only be used as a medium of exchange
Technology must only be used as a tool to improve life, not to end or replace it
The Internet is a tool for life, not an alternative to it
In a People First system, the people will always be the first to speak.
In the 11 chapters that follow, we will go through each of these Principles, one by one.
1. Economic Localism [P.3.1]
If you cannot see it, be in the presence of it or directly engage with it, you cannot trust that it will be in your best interests – whatever it might be.
In a world where everything has been telling us to place our trust and belief in people, businesses, Governance, manufacturing , production and services that are somewhere else – either out of our locality, our presence or somewhere online, it does indeed sound counterintuitive to suggest that a better life and way of living for everyone can only come by redirecting the way we live and have relationships with everything in a completely different way.
Yet that is exactly where we need to be.
Easy living, based upon processes and the input of people that we will never meet or see, mean that we have lost sight of responsibility, whilst we have also surrendered our control.
To live well, to live freely, to live healthily and to live happily, the focus of life, living and of everything that feeds into life and supports it must be as local as possible.
Everything must be transparent and be completely under our own control.
Every commercial activity that exists relates to a business, service or process that serves the interests of people in some way.
When commercial activities of any kind are placed in the service of specific interests and interests that are either deliberately hidden or kept out of sight, whatever they do will never be in the interests of us all. The balance between us and the sense of justice and fairness is quickly lost.
The priority for all Communities must be to meet everyone’s basic needs so that everyone has the food, the clothing, the transport, the technology, the education, the work and the means to be self-sustaining without the need for help or support, in return for the work they do or the contribution to the Community that they make.
This means that the growing of food, production of goods, manufacturing, supply of services and all the supply chains that support normal life and that exist to meet everyone’s basic needs, must be returned to their most locality focused and people-centric forms.
2. Freedom does not hinder and is not hindered in any way [P.3.2]
We think that we are free today, and that any fight that might lie ahead is to maintain that freedom.
This is not correct.
The fight ahead is the fight for freedom itself. That’s why we need single-minded leadership.
The alternative is to accept further forms of control and tyranny from an establishment or system that still insists that everything it does and will do will be done with our best interests at heart, whilst it seeks to profit from and exploit us all at every turn. All the time, reducing every one of the freedoms that we have today, whilst also seeking to continually reduce and remove our own individual forms of control.
Some might relate this statement to issues like the arrival of new generations of AI and the growing digital tyranny that we are being increasingly controlled and oppressed by. But nothing is so simple as that.
The reality is that we have forgotten what freedom really is.
By being so beholden to and manipulated by the consumer mantra ‘you can have whatever you want, it will always be available, it will always be affordable and we’ll always give you money to pay for it – as long as you behave’, we have collectively become shackled by always wanting more.
We have forgotten what it is to live life in way that centres only upon what we actually need.
Today, we are slaves to a values set based upon wealth, money, power and influence being the only things that are important.
We have become so addicted to this way of being and thinking, that we cannot even see how badly we are being hurt by what we already have. Yet we remain desperate for the same self-interests that brought us here to reach out and offer us even more.
True freedom does not hinder us or restrict us in any way.
True freedom only ends when our actions and behaviour become a genuine hindrance to others.
Freedom will always be freedom. Freedom is not something that depends on what people with power and influence dictate.
We must create and maintain a culture, understanding and framework that allows each and every one of us the freedom to be ourselves and who we believe ourselves to be. But at the same time does not restrict or hinder this same freedom in others so that it can contradict its own legitimacy, or force change upon the freedom of anyone to be.
3. People First [P.3.3]
We are led to believe and to accept that The System that we have today is run on behalf of the people, by the people and for the people.
It is not.
Most people understand that the system is run in the best interests of those who either run it, or those that they look up to or receive favour from in some way.
But that is not the whole truth.
Everything that we know and understand today revolves around and is focused upon a values set based upon money, wealth, influence and power, along with the processes and actions that help everyone – no matter who they are – to gain and accumulate more of it.
We put money and the value we place in it before people and everything else.
The rise of the internet, the smart tech revolution and now the evolution of AI have made the downward spiral that has existed for over 50 years even worse by creating more and more devices and processes that dehumanize relationships.
Today’s internet creates the impression for anyone or any organisation with a platform that the people they interact with online aren’t actually real.
As far as real life is concerned, people in the digital world simply do not even exist. Yet in return we listen to and respect them as if they are.
This way of living is already unsustainable. But it is set to get even worse as we embrace the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), without any ethical framework or rules being set up that recognises the negative impacts and outcomes from profit-driven and control-driven misuse.
We must flip or completely turn this situation on its head and create a universal environment that puts people at the forefront of everything and every relationship instead of money.
Using benchmark frameworks that ensure fairness, balance and justice for all such as The Basic Living Standard, which will guarantee the ability of all people to support themselves without going into debt or without having to call on charity or government support, we will have the ability to provide a self-sustaining standard for a happy, healthy, safe and secure life for everyone.
With frameworks that are focused on People, we can also create a light-touch system of Governance that uses transparency as an open tool for the new earth system to police itself too.
Today, humanity as a value set has been lost.
We can and will regain our true and most beneficial value set by focusing on the benefits of new earth and putting People First.
4. No Hierarchies. Top-Down is at its end [P.3.4]
Whilst some of us will understand the concept, none of us alive today have known a world without hierarchies.
Yet hierarchies are one of the most effective tools that exist for the dehumanisation and distancing of humanity and human relationships.
Hierarchies are the reason that societies and industries ultimately fail.
The intrinsic reason for the failure of all hierarchies – where the failure itself can take centuries to reach those at the top – is because hierarchies instantly make decision makers out-of-touch with those they rule.
The System that is failing and collapsing around us today is a classic example of a hierarchy. It is a textbook example of a system that operates from the top-down.
Today’s system is so complex, that the tiers or levels of the hierarchy are not only top-down.
The way that we have evolved culturally has meant that we have also extended these tiers or levels from side to side.
This means that the responsibility for decisions that affect our daily lives are not only made by people and organisations or bodies that we will never have contact with.
It also means that their role, responsibilities and influence are also heavily – and all too conveniently obscured from our view.
Leadership has become synonymous with hierarchy. Yet the interchangeability of the two words or terms must no longer be considered as meaning the same thing.
We most certainly need leaders to shine and take responsibility for leading us.
But leadership does not come by right. It does not appear through career progression. It certainly doesn’t come through position or assumed power – even though the elites want us to believe this – try as they might.
Poor leaders who have no appreciation of the mechanics of leadership, nor any understanding of what leadership genuinely is, usually surround themselves with leaders who are even weaker, who then do exactly the same thing when it becomes their turn to lead.
Likewise, the accumulation of wealth or apparent success with a certain kind of business is no guarantee of anyone’s ability, the ethics or the morality that will drive them if they find themselves in a position where deference and the way that society works would enable them to take a lead.
Today, we have reached a position where everything we know in terms of Governance and the way that the rules governing the way society, business and culture function has such people at the top and intrinsically involved.
We must end these hierarchies. We must end everything that functions in the sense of decisions being made by any form of power and influence that is remote and that we can identify in any way as being top-down.
5. Local People MUST make Local Decisions Locally & Influence from The Grassroots-Up [P.3.5]
When we have a problem, we look to the people closest to us or those who are around us and in our lives for help. We quite literally reach out to our local support networks.
So why do we always reach outside of our local support networks for everything else and believe that the people, the businesses, the politicians and whatever else we interact with will value us at a personal level and with our best interests at heart, just the same?
Whilst there must always be an objectively created framework of rules that establish and maintain equality in all things that will be equal and that there is equality for all, the creation of such rules and regulations must be undertaken by people who understand what life is really like for all.
If decision makers do not interact with the people, the area, the Community for which any set of rules are made, they cannot make those decisions in the most informed manner.
True equality of opportunity must exist for society to be balanced, fair and just.
But equality of opportunity and one-size-fits all are never the same thing. That is, unless you are the one with all the power and you sit in isolation at the very top.
In new earth Communities, it will be Local people – that’s the people we talk to and see regularly or could call on easily and without difficulty – who will always be making the decisions on public policy and Governance that will have any effect upon us and the people we care about.
There are very few decisions made by any of the existing levels of government today, that could not be returned, along with the power that enables them, to the most local or Community level.
Instead, rules are today being made that have a real impact upon the quality of life that we all experience, by people who will never visit or understand our areas and Communities, and who we will never have reason to know.
Lawmaking powers must be returned to the level nearest to the people possible to do so. In the majority of cases, this will always be within a local or Community framework.
Cost or political expedience is in itself no excuse for rules to be passed to anyone or to any organisation outside of our local frameworks. The reality is that excuses like these are quite literally all they are – excuses that sound beneficial to everyone.
The truth is that they are all about taking power away from us so that someone else can better serve their own self-interest, by taking and misusing our control.
Local people will always be best equipped to make local decisions. There is no need for anyone else, any group or political party to be involved.
We can only return power to the people by rejecting the phony democracy that it will take a Good Dictator to replace.
6. Local Businesses buy, sell and promote Local Goods first [P.3.6]
We shouldn’t trust what we cannot physically experience, even if it physically exists somewhere else.
Just as it will be in the interests of our health to avoid foods that don’t resemble their basic, raw form – unless the processing used is simple, such as was traditionally undertaken by hand (e.g. Bread, Butter, Cheese), we will learn to avoid and distrust the processes of growing, manufacturing and production that are not accessible or cannot be accessed, viewed and assessed by people who are known to us and that we can trust.
People with money, influence and power today have abused the trust that so many of us have placed in them by exploiting the rationale that out of sight is out of mind.
They do this because they remain confident that if we cannot see it, we do not care about it, we are not interested in it, and that we will take the provenance and care for our best interests that go into it for granted.
Corruption is not only a term that relates to financial payments, favours and backhanders that skew decisions today that should always be impartial and fair.
Processes of all kinds have become corrupted by the self-interest and profiteering that drives them.
There is no reason why the basic goods, foods and services that we all need for life cannot be grown, produced, manufactured and supplied locally – IF we are putting people and a values-based way of living first, using methods that will quickly resolve some of the biggest issues that society currently has.
Yes, there may always be a need to trade local goods that exist in excess, for those that cannot be locally produced. Or to create a regulated currency for the purposes of being a medium of exchange that can do the same.
But if we work locally, with local people, in the interests of the locality and the local Community, a balance for this will always exist.
It is only when greed and the self-interest of the few enter the equation that a process begins where balance, fairness and justice is lost. Selfishness is where it all begins to go wrong.
Local Businesses must always prioritise local suppliers for their services, raw materials and goods.
Quality and experience are always the key, and by chasing profit or by attempting to avoid rules that achieve the same, transparency, provenance, authenticity and everything good will always be lost.
7. Every link of the supply chain must add value [P.3.7]
Whilst it is the money system and the way that money creation and circulation are managed that are the fundamental problem with the way that the worldwide economy works today, this mismanagement itself has encouraged a cultural mindset that focuses on saving costs and making more profit. Not as a consequence of what the business does; not because there is some kind of rule requiring them to do so; not because circumstances demand it of them. But because they can.
We have reached a stage where businesses that we could argue have a legitimate involvement in supply chains that provide a service or supplies to the people, such as supermarkets, already use every excuse that sounds plausible to convince retail customers that prices need to keep rising.
Meanwhile, supermarkets push producers and growers at the other end of the supply chain to sell at prices where they can barely continue to exist (and increasingly don’t).
However, the problem today reaches way beyond businesses such as those we would recognise as having a legitimate role in production and supply to play.
There are also many other companies, ‘agents’, speculators, and other ‘interests’, who buy and sell raw materials, components, ingredients, fuels, minerals and even currencies, who do nothing to add value to the product or whatever it is they are buying and selling.
But in whatever way they become involved, they nonetheless add and take a fee for themselves.
That excess profit, made without adding value to the supply chain – when adding value could be refining, making an engine out of components, or even selling to the customer at the end of the ‘chain’, raises the costs of all of these goods and even services unnecessarily.
In every circumstance within a supply chain where anyone takes a margin without adding any value to the process, it makes the end product or service more expensive for everyone to buy and makes it more difficult to live.
There must always be a reward for input, whether that be growing, mining, processing, refining, delivering or selling.
But nobody and no business will be able to take a reward, just because they can afford to insert themselves into any part of any supply chain that exists or may be under discussion ahead of time – pushing up prices as they do so, and then selling on at a profit which pushed those prices up further.
Regrettably, the historic greed of growers, producers and all the different companies that in some cases also carry out unnecessary cost-raising activities or roles, has surrendered the ability of whole industries to take back control of their own marketplace because they are today tied into commercial relationships they feel unable to leave behind – even though they are being progressively broken by them.
Supply chains must be as short as it is possible. No unnecessary business, agent or entity of any kind can be allowed to be involved in the growing, production, manufacturing, storing, transport or selling of foods, goods and services that are essential to life – of any kind.
Of those businesses or entities that have involvement at any stage of any supply chain, they MUST add value to the chain with whatever it is they do.
No other interests other than those that are adding value to the chain must ever be allowed to be involved.
Speculation or ‘futures’ must be prohibited for any raw materials, foods or goods that are part of any supply chain that provides essential goods, services or supplies that are essential to basic life.
Speculation and ‘futures’ selling or handling is nothing more than gambling and no one has the right to gamble with anyone else’s life.
8. Money or currencies MUST have a fixed value and only be used as a medium of exchange [P.3.8]
Money isn’t real. Yet we have been conditioned to believe that it is.
Money is a unit or medium of exchange.
Yet we have been conditioned to believe that money is a thing. That money holds value of its own, and that the value that money holds is variable in its own right – well beyond the basic principles necessary for currency exchange.
Money has become the benchmark that dictates the value of life and the value of every individual’s existence.
For as long as this money-based order, reality or culture that we have today continues to exist, the values that underpin humanity and human existence will matter less and less.
Money and currencies of any kind are useful to us, as long as they are only used as the medium of exchange that they are. Rather than being believed to be or considered to be an accumulation of material wealth in itself – as it is today.
For as long as we continue to allow the value of anything and everything to be determined by the value of money, which itself can then vary from day to day, the power of any individual, business or Community to regulate, manage and sustain healthy lives will be compromised.
Until 1971, when neoliberalism fully took over, the value of the money that existed was always pinned or anchored to the value of gold.
‘The Gold Standard’ was far from being a perfect system or system that was balanced, fair and just in itself – as any good study of economic history will demonstrate. But what its existence did demonstrate was the benefit of having the value of money restricted, which meant that there was considerably less opportunity for the system to be ‘played’ – as it has been, to our considerable cost, ever since.
A fair, balanced and just economic system that puts People First, must rest its economic base upon the people that exist within that system, along with the fundamental value we can associate with what those people then put in or take out of it.
That value may indeed be translated into money or a form of currency or digital currency of some kind.
But there is no requirement or need for that value to ever be variable in a system that puts People First and does not accept that non-essential or basic goods that it cannot itself produce must be secured, no matter the price.
The value of human existence and the value of the work or effort that any individual puts into the system must be the benchmark which everything to do with monetary exchange and value must be pinned.
For life to be valued and for that value of life to be maintained as it will always be, money or currencies of any kind must always be a unit of exchange that holds no value of its own that can be bought, sold or exchanged.
It would be foolish to not recognise the value of the advances in technology that humanity has experienced throughout the industrial age.
Those technological advances have increased exponentially as we have picked up speed through the digital age, with advances that we have experienced in just the past few years alone, already providing us with the opportunity to look at life in a very different way.
Technology has always had the power to do much good. To improve life in many ways and to remove all kinds of risks from the workplace for everyone who may be involved.
However, technology and its development has also been increasingly abused.
Technological advances are used by industries to increase profits and are today increasingly seen as a way to reduce the numbers of people employed to work. All without any due regard for the impact on individuals, Communities, entire countries and the industries that are involved.
It is true that no business or organisation exists purely to employ people.
Employment and the need to employ people to carry out any function that the development of a business or organisation and the products or services that it delivers, has and always will be a happy consequence of organic growth from the provision of goods and services of a quality that are essential to life and which people and Communities genuinely need.
Profit should always be a happy consequence of good delivery and management. Never the primary aim.
The power of good in technology rests in its ability to be used to improve and enhance working practices and quality of life.
Not to make work or employment unnecessary for anyone, or to be used as a functional device to control or restrict people or humanity in any way.
There are and always will be negative consequences when technology of any kind is used and harnessed for purposes other than to improve life or working conditions.
Those who lose out will always lose out badly.
Whilst those who believe they are using technology to benefit themselves or their business will only every experience a pyrrhic win.
In a people centric or people-first economy and World, technology must always be used to improve the experience of everyone. Not as a tool that can only ever benefit the few.
10. The Internet is a tool for life, not an alternative to it [P.3.10]
Many neither realise nor appreciate that the arrival of the internet and the functionality that it has offered us, has never been governed or regulated by governments and those that govern on our behalf in ways that benefit us.
The internet and the online world that is developing with it is and always has been a two-edged sword. It has brought as many downsides or dark aspects with it, as the positive or good aspects that it has given us – and potentially a lot more.
Many of the social problems that we experience today can be attributed to behaviour that was deemed acceptable online before it then found its way into the real world or the mainstream.
From early on, people and businesses using the internet – whatever the purpose may have been – didn’t recognise the same social etiquette, politeness, manners, morals, standards or behaviour that we considered to be the cultural norm in ‘real life’ outside. Principally, because there was never any real system of Governance in place and so none of those same rules appeared to exist.
The rate of behavioral change in social conditioning from locality to online has been confined to within what might only be one generation.
Young people today take all of their social cues and conditioning from the world online. Rather than from the young people, adults and Community figures around them.
The effect has been massively profound.
Today, upcoming generations and those above them who follow common narratives take these social cues into ‘real life’ without realising the parallel universe or pretend world that the internet or online world offers, is dictating or rather destroying rules and the remaining values for life.
This reconditioning is helping to dehumanise every aspect of life that we experience, as it progresses.
Like all technology, the value of the internet and all things online cannot be understated. Just as long as it is used and operated within a framework, with rules and restrictions that are always based upon and maintained for the common good.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and all online technology will prove to be bad for humanity if it is programmed, created and driven by motives and designs that are in the interests of the few, rather than being in the best interests of all mankind.
The internet is a tool. It must be respected as such.
The online or digital world must always reflect or mirror the rules and practices that we use in real life. Rather than having the ability to completely reset life and every agenda, as it and all the technology that feeds into it, does today.
11. In a People First system, the people will always be the first to speak [P.3.11]
We have been told over and over again that we live and enjoy freedom that can only come from being in a Democracy.
The political system and the system of Governance or administration that we have today could certainly operate in a very democratic way. But only when the incumbents within that system or the politicians and officers respect Democracy and democratic practices themselves.
Whatever system of government or administration we may have, there will always be a dependence upon those who have been entrusted with the responsibilities of public representation having the integrity to respect and work diligently with that trust.
Today, politicians simply do not do this. Not least of all because once elected, politicians of the existing political parties are inevitably expected by their party to vote and support policies as they have been told.
But also, because very few politicians today are able to discern the difference between what is right for them and what is right for us all.
Many of us regrettably still think that change can be achieved just by voting for a different party, or by changing the way that votes are counted. So that smaller parties will get elected as they pick up alternative and second preference votes.
What those who believe this fail to see is that the way that we elect politicians doesn’t matter one bit, if the politicians don’t care for or consider the people they have been elected to represent.
It would be foolish to believe that any of us can trust that every politician we elect can be relied upon 100% of the time to make decisions on our behalf that are always 100% right.
But there is a colossal difference between where we are today, and where we will be when we have created a very different democratic framework that requires all public representatives to establish and qualify themselves at Community level. Then live the principle that true Democracy will always operate from the Grassroots Up.
Yes, we must have politicians and public representatives to represent us and make decisions on our behalf.
But the perversity of a system where just a few thousand people from a group that has very specific interests and motivations can select the next Prime Minister of the UK, should never have existed.
The people who represent us all must be selected and appointed by us all, first.
It may neither be possible nor appropriate for us to appoint a Prime Minister in the same way that the United States does.
Our Communities will all be able to take an active part in selecting the people who will represent us and take the majority of the decisions that will affect us all locally.
The people who represent us at Regional, National and potentially international level, will always be selected from those who have been successful and demonstrated their suitability as a public representative, to the people they represent, from this pool.
Part 3: What we can expect from The Future
Keeping it real: Managing our own Expectations
An openly acknowledged Good Dictatorship would fail as quickly as an openly bad one and continue to be as bad as the hidden one that we have now, if policy were only to focus upon the next steps and then what follows immediately afterwards.
Whilst todays politicians cannot see it, one of the greatest flaws in creating legislation and in policy making today comes from the fact that so many of the decision makers that we have now believe that they can control what will happen. Or rather, that they can control the outcomes of what will happen, not just after one decision, but perhaps after many different decisions have been made along the chronological line.
This is a reflection of the poor quality and ineptitude of the people that we have in elected office and running every part of government across the UK today.
Taking the next decision, as if it is the only one, and making the right choice based on what we know to be so and what is in the best interests of everyone, is the only way that any decision that will have an effect upon others or indeed everyone should ever be made.
Making decisions based upon bias or personal choice may appear to work out well for the person taking the decisions.
But there will always be negative consequences for someone, somewhere. And sooner or later, the impact of every bad decision will find its way back to the decision maker, whether they believe that to be the case when they made their choice, or not.
Begin with the end in mind. But not as the next step
You can be sure that the more we hear today’s politicians use a particular word or term, the greater the chances are that they are trying to convince themselves of the value of whatever policy they might be chasing. It’s not just the case that they will be attempting to convince everyone else that they really know and understand what they are on about, and that they are competent too.
The most common word we are likely to hear spoken by todays UK Politicians is ‘growth’.
Growth is important to this entire political class. Because in the sense that ‘growth’ is being used, which for politicians relates directly to the size of the economy or the amount of money that exists or is in circulation, growth of this specific kind immediately devalues the value or size of the existing national debt.
‘Growth’ as a political narrative used by all of today’s political class therefore allows politicians to print and spend more money. When spending money is the only thing that inept politicians know how to do.
The second word we are likely to hear spoken by todays UK Politicians is ‘plan’.
‘We have a plan’, ‘There needs to be a plan’, ‘The government needs to explain its plan’.
Yet plans really are no use to anyone or anything other than as a mission statement or statement of intent. One that can be used to demonstrate to anyone who is interested, what those who have made that plan are aiming to achieve.
What plans don’t account for is the reality that in a world like the one that we live in and where everyone involved in putting any plan into action has free will of their own, is that events, choices and influences, that can often turn out to be remarkably small, can change the direction of a policy, project or just about any plan, no matter how well constructed, in what might be a very short period of time.
Plans are for those who are more concerned with the journey, the method of getting there and who gets all the credit for every step taken along the way, than they are about reaching the destination itself.
Plans create a trap of their own that requires stopping to plan all over again – or to even give up, as soon as anything is perceived to go wrong – which it inevitably will, many times over.
Real leadership might use plans or strategies as tools to bring different working parts of a situation together.
But the endgame, outcome or result will always look the same. That destination will just be the driver behind everything that a good leader will do. Much as the allies planned for the manpower and logistics that enabled the Invasion of Europe to take place in 1944, whilst defeat of the Nazis was always the required outcome all the same.
Wartime or not, good leadership doesn’t fall into the trap of slavishly sticking to or relying on plans.
The fact that we have a political culture today that has been so obsessed with plans and the bureaucratic systems that sit behind them is in no small part responsible for the problems that the work of the UKs public sector now has, and that have been growing for so long.
A single-minded, good and effective leader will always be driven by the outcomes that are in mind, rather than all of the details of how the journey will take place that will get the UK there.
That’s what good public servants who are dedicated to public service rather than to only themselves will do.
We all have a part to play in this equation.
Each and every one of us can adopt a mentality that is congruent with the outcomes that need to be achieved that will be better for us all.
We have the power to take steps and decisions along the way that may seem small or even irrelevant. But they will help the bigger picture and the desired outcome at every step along the way.
We all must be committed to making those choices, each and every day.
The Destination: Policies of a Balanced, Fair & Just Society
The following pages focus in on the public policy areas and the public policies that a Good, Beneficent Dictator, who has the right motives and understanding, will set out to achieve as recognisable outcomes, by the end of their term in office.
Reading these with eyes in front of a mind that takes for granted everything that we believe we have and how everything appears to work within ‘The System’ today, is likely to meet comment that suggests such policies are impossible to achieve. Or that they would never work.
The key to understanding such views is that these comments are made in the context of today. Without a full understanding of the perilous situation that ‘The System’ that such people love and benefit from is in. And without recognising the increasing levels of harm that ‘The System’ is doing to people who have done nothing wrong and just want to be able to afford to look after themselves and the people they love – whilst leading normal lives.
In ‘The System’ we have today, nobody gains anything without there being a cost to someone else. More often than not, that cost is directly to ourselves, even though we might not even realise this until the damage has been done and it might be too late to do anything about it.
We must take responsibility for ourselves and the people whose lives our actions will impact. Whether they are within our family, our circle of friends, our community, our country, in another country or they haven’t even been born yet.
Only a single minded Good or Beneficent Dictator can drive through the changes that will be necessary to deliver a world that works for and benefits everyone.
But the responsibility for supporting, embracing and helping to implement that change is one that belongs to us all.
Policy 4: An Economy that puts people first (Policy 4) [P.4.0]
[P.4.1] Principle Values
The impact and consequences of our decisions and actions upon others are the principle guide for life.
Each Person and their Communities will always consider the consequences of any behaviour or action and only proceed when there will be no involuntary cost or impact upon anyone who has not voluntarily and knowingly involved themselves within the process. No matter how many times removed those persons might be in terms of the existence of any impact chain.
Each Person and their Communities shall not engage in any activity or process where the decision to do so will inflict harm or consequences upon any other person, whether alive today or yet to come, that those persons have not consciously, knowingly and voluntarily agreed to.
Each Person shall always have Freedom to speak. Freedom to learn. Freedom to hear. Freedom to be upset. Freedom to remove ourselves from the debate. Freedom to not have the ideas of others physically imposed upon them.
Each Person will be free to do, to be and to say what they please, when doing so will have no physical implications or offer no physical threat to the physical existence of others.
[P.4.2] Putting People First
The value of the Economy shall be tied to the number of people living within the Country, National Community or Community at any time.
Each member of the National Community shall represent a Fixed Base Value to the National or Universal Currency and be directly proportional to the total value of that Currency in circulation – whether digital or in cash.
A system of values to The Economy shall exist that relates to the input and productivity of each Person to the Economy itself.
The only circumstances in which money or currency can be created during the process of the establishment of new earth and thereafter is from key life events such as the birth of a child, a child beginning school, a child qualifying in standard proficiency at 14, and then a young adult finishing academic or vocational pathways at the age of 21.
Money created upon these key life events shall be payable to the individual, their parents or guardians, with an equal sum being added to the Local Assembly balance sheet.
The creation and deletion of money shall be the responsibility of Community Assemblies.
Responsibility for the creation and deletion of money shall not be deferred to any bank, financier, private or other interest at any time or in any circumstances.
At the point of any death, the economic value of that Person to The Economy must be taken from the overall circulatory value of The National Currency, with the value payable by priority to the local Community Assembly from the deceased’s estate.
Economic Value within The People First Economy will be created through a) earnings in exchange for labour, skills and experience of the individual b) the production of basic foods and goods c) the manufacture of goods and equipment and the provision of services that add value.
The payment or accumulation of Monetary or Financial Interest payments of any kind shall be prohibited.
Money or currency will only be borrowed for a fixed transaction or facilitation fee, which under no circumstances may exceed the value of 10% of the total loan.
Transaction or Facilitation fees shall be repayable on a proportional basis with each repayment.
Bankers, Lenders or Financiers of any kind shall not regulate or police their own activities, in any way, and shall have no influence upon any organisation that does.
Any form of credit worthiness monitoring will be provided by an impartial service, where basic ratings will be offered and no more.
The purchase and sale of personal financial data shall be prohibited, with financial penalties and lifetime industry bans applied to anyone directly or indirectly involved.
Any device or mechanism created by industry or private interests to ‘qualify’ lending, finance or insurance of any kind shall be prohibited.
[P.4.3] The Basic Living Standard & The Basic Living Wage*
The Basic Living Standard and the corresponding Basic Living Wage shall be the benchmark policy of The People First Economy.
The prices of all foods, goods and services that are deemed essential to providing a happy, healthy, safe and secure lifestyle shall relate, proportionally, to the total value of the Basic Living Wage.
The Basic Living Wage shall equate to the value apportioned to one full working week within the lowest paid employment, or what is known today as the minimum wage.
All Companies / Businesses providing essential provisions or contributing to their supply, will be registered with the Community Assembly.
It will be the duty of all retailers, manufacturers, growers etc, to maintain the prices of essential provisions at each stage of the supply chain.
Any individual or business directly or indirectly seeking to manipulate prices or add additional profit during the process of providing essential provisions within their relevant supply chains shall be fined a minimum of 3x the potential gain they would make, and will be banned from the industry for life, with all assets relating to production forfeited to the Community Assembly.
*Please see the Section on ‘Frameworks’ [P.2.3] above, for a description of The First Framework / The Basic Living Standard.
[P.4.5] Community Services (Formerly Public Services and Charity Organisations)
All Community services shall employ the minimum number of full or part time staff necessary to ensure continuity in management and streamlined operational delivery.
Staffing of all Community Services shall in the main part be provided directly by Community Contributions made by each Person within the Community.
Where members of the Community have ‘opted out’ of Community Contributions, their Community Contribution Tax will be paid into a ringfenced fund held by the Community Assembly and redistributed to the Community services network according to need.
[P.4.6] Community Contributions
Every working Person shall be required to give 10% of their working time or the equivalent of each and every working week to supporting the provision of Community services and operations.
No person below the age of 40 years may opt out of actively contributing 10% of their working week to Community service provision.
At the age of 40 or above, each Person may opt to pay the equivalent of 10% of their weekly income as an alternative tax, to the local Community Assembly, when they are earning at least 2x the equivalent of the Basic Living Wage.
All employers shall be required to support Community service provision without prejudice to the employee.
Where possible, all persons shall offer and provide experience, skills and knowledge to a related Community service on a like-for-like basis, equivalent to the role they undertake during a normal employed working week.
[P.4.7] Welfare & Benefits
The Basic Living Standard shall be the accepted benchmark for the level of income required for any individual unable to work for any reason.
Benefits shall be administered by Community Assemblies.
Benefit Payments will be made directly to a Restricted Benefits Current Account held with the Local People’s Bank.
Payments to essential service providers such as landlords, phone companies and transport providers shall be made directly to those essential service providers from each Restricted Benefits Current Account.
All other payments made from each Restricted Benefits Bank Account shall be digital and will only be made to recognised providers for the purchase of essential goods and services.
The Balance of any Restricted Benefits Bank Account shall have no redeemable cash value.
There shall be no assumed right of Benefits Payments to economic migrants.
The Assemblies shall only be obliged to meet the basic essential needs of any unqualified migrant.
The Assemblies will prioritise the care and support of UK / Great Britain residents who are ‘vulnerable’ before assisting unqualified migrants.
The National Assembly shall endeavour to return all unqualified migrants to their home country as early as possible, and in so doing take every action to facilitate this.
Unqualified Migrants will not become naturalised UK / Great Britain Residents
Disability payments shall be qualified by a G.P.
Qualified recipients of The Basic Living Standard Payment with disabilities that prevent them working shall receive payment directly to a Bank Account of their choice.
Unqualified or ‘malingering’ recipients of The Basic Living Standard Payment shall be treated the same as any normal benefits payee.
[P.4.8] Poverty
Each Person shall be valued before money, profit and technology.
No company shall replace any employed role with technology unless each Person displaced is moved to alternative permanent employment with that company of the same level of responsibility or higher.
Companies using technology to complete tasks that can be completed by employees shall be obligated to employ suitably qualified staff from within the Local Assembly Area to complete those tasks, where they are available and claiming Welfare or Benefits.
The Basic Standard of Living, based upon ensuring that every adult will always have available what it costs to feed, cloth, house, transport and cover all basic essentials to ensure a happy, healthy, safe and secure life will be introduced universally, as a Framework Policy.
All benefits will relate to the value of the Basic Living Standard and value of the Basic Living Standard Wage.
[P.4.9] Homelessness
A system of Community Hostels and services for the homeless shall exist, with provision and management being the responsibility of Community Assemblies.
Community Hostels will offer a tailored approach to individuals and arms-length care and support for those who choose not to use any accommodation offered.
Large Companies and Agricultural Estates that have reduced the numbers of non-technical roles as part of profit-led mechanisation will be required to provide ‘bunk room’ housing and related support, and to reemploy staff, where the essential supply chain system will not be compromised.
[P.4.10] The Right to be Forgotten
Each Person who has not committed a crime that has impacted the welfare or wellbeing of other people will have the opportunity of a ‘second chance’, and to begin adult life anew, again, if it will be beneficial for their own mental health and state of mind to do so.
Each Person shall have the Right to be Forgotten at least once during their natural lifetime.
The Right to be Forgotten can be applied at any time from the age of 18 years or upon leaving full time education (at whichever point is latest)
To qualify for The Right to be Forgotten, each Person must be assessed by no less than 3x impartial mental health specialists.
The Right to be Forgotten will erase names, history, and all legal ties to their formal life, including post age 14 qualifications.
The Right to be Forgotten will require the individual to break all family ties and associations with any people or Community / Communities known to them.
Each Person who has exercised their Right to be Forgotten shall be able to apply to their new Community Assembly to have former qualifications rewarded by a different education provider (reinstated), where such qualifications are in short supply, and it will be beneficial for the Community for such an award to be made.
Any Person who has successfully exercised their Right to be Forgotten and breaks the requirements made of them will immediately relinquish the rights and protections associated with their Right.
Any Person convicted of identifying or of making the details of any Person who has exercised their Right to be Forgotten known to others, without good reason, will be charged with compromising a Person’s Right to Freedom, and shall be judged in a Community Court.
Policy 5: Financial Levelling (Policy 5) [P.5.0]
[P.5.1] Reestablishing the True Value of Money
The establishment of new earth shall see and/or act upon the devaluation and end of the British Pound and the values associated for anything it is used for.
This necessary and unavoidable devaluation will either come naturally, through the collapse of the current or FIAT monetary system and end of the neoliberal economics model, or as a direct consequence or unavoidable need created by other events.
Monetary wealth that exists before the Reestablishment shall not be directly exchangeable to the new National Currency or any Local Currency, and shall have no redeemable cash value.
Monetary wealth that exists before the Reestablishment will not be transferable, proportionally or in relative terms to the new National Currency or and Local Currency.
No form of compensation shall be paid to those who have failed to invest only in what they need, and/or have willingly sought to enrich themselves further by making investments that have encouraged or facilitated the exploitation of others – whether such acts be conscious or otherwise.
The value of the UK / Great Britain economy shall be valued in relation to the number of People resident in the UK / Great Britain during the process of The Reestablishment.
All property owned / held* at the commencement of The Reestablishment process shall be owned by the occupant, person or business in possession of that property** at the time, with the exception of social and privately let housing, which shall be passed to the ownership of the Local Assembly.
*Squatting of illegal occupancy shall not qualify any persons, business or other to receive ownership of a property at The Reestablishment. Properties under illegal occupancy or possession shall be transferred to the ownership of The Local Assembly.
** No person shall own more than one home for their own use and businesses shall only own the minimum number of properties necessary to conduct their business within their Community Assembly area of operation.
[P.5.2] Financial Resetting & Restoration
During the process of The Reestablishment, the prices of all goods, services and transactions within the UK / Great Britain shall be revalued and reset with their real, true or uninflated value.
Following The Financial Reset, all prices will realign to their ‘natural’ or true value, in line with the People First system of economics that shall be implemented by The Reestablishment.
Where values are attributed to a material object or to property of any kind, their value shall be proportional to the value of The Basic Living Standard and The Basic Living Wage.
These basic or ‘essential values’ shall continue to be the benchmark value of all goods and property that carry value, as they are essential to use and shall be deemed to be a public good.
[P.5.3] Money
Money and all forms of currency, whether cash or digital, shall be deemed legal only as a unit or method of exchange (a promissory note).
Money, nor currency of any kind shall hold no value of its own.
Trading of money or currency speculation of any kind shall be prohibited. Financial penalties and lifetime industry bans shall be applied rigorously to anyone directly or indirectly breaking this rule.
Money shall not attract Financial Interest payments of any kind.
For the loan of money or the facilitation of a necessary purchase, the lender or facilitator shall be able to charge a fixed fee for the duration of that arrangement, payable proportionately with each repayment for the lifetime of the loan or facilitation.
No fixed charge for lending or payment facilitation shall exceed the value of 10% of the total monetary value of that loan at any time.
No form of money or currency based and in circulation or use within the UK / Great Britain may be bought or sold as a commodity or with any form of foreign currency within the UK / Great Britain marketplace.
The value of foods, goods or services shall only be permitted to vary as part of an exchange process between any UK / Great Britain company, or Public Interest Company / Community Assembly and a Foreign organisation to facilitate necessary exports and imports.
Any external trade shall not influence the value of the UK currency itself.
[P.5.4] Local Marketplace Exchanges
Self-sufficiency and home production are an integral part of the People First Economy.
Local Assemblies and Community Assemblies shall create, operate and manage a system of Local Marketplace Exchanges (LMEs)
Local Marketplace Exchanges (LMEs) shall allow all local producers, whether businesses or home producers, to buy, sell or exchange their goods, produce and services either for money/currency, or in exchange for other goods, produce or services that they may themselves offer and which the other party requires.
The Local Assembly and Community Assembly shall be responsible for ensuring that the value of basic essentials will remain fixed and not open to variation at any time and shall as such create and maintain necessary protocols and local legislation to do so.
Any foods, goods or services that are non-essential may be exchanged or bartered at any rate agreed between the two parties, unless the goods or services offered contain an essential element, in which case the value of the transaction may not fall below the related basic essential value at any time.
Any app or online software used to provide the online version of the Local Marketplace Exchange (LMEs) must be maintained, managed and based within the Community Assembly area, with no form of remote management or updating required following purchase and instalment.
A fixed fee shall be payable for access to LMEs by all parties at rates to be determined by the Community Assembly.
A fixed transaction fee shall be payable for both purchase/hire and sale/provision transactions within LMEs that shall be determined by the Community Assembly.
[P.5.5] Taxation
The administration of Tax Collection will be Regionalised and provided by Community Assemblies.
All Taxes will be paid directly to the Regional Tax Office, located with the local Community Assembly.
Tax Codes will be applied universally, with no exceptions for individuals or organisations.
The only ‘tax breaks’ that will apply in any circumstances will be for the purposes of supporting the establishment of new businesses within a Local Assembly area that provide goods or services that do not already exist within that area.
‘Tax Breaks’ will not be given to any business new to a Local Assembly area, that have operations elsewhere.
The value of any ‘Tax Breaks’ will be awarded by the Local Assembly, transparently and with a majority vote of the Community, and shall be renewable annually for a period of up to 3 (three) years and no more.
No form of income tax will be payable on any earned income, up to the equivalent rate of the Annual Basic Living Wage.
Savings and Cash held for a period of 12 Months or more will be taxed at the rate of 50% (Fifty Percent) per annum.
Tax will be applicable from the income gained from sums invested of at the equivalent of 10x (ten times) the Annual Basic Living Wage or more, from interest, dividends or any payment in return for investment made of any kind at the rate of 50% (Fifty Percent) per annum, where those sums are accessible with notice or on an any time basis.
Tax will be applicable annually to the ownership of non-essential property, or proportionally to the ownership of any non-productive property which is in excess of that necessary for personal use, or proportionally for the number of people using or sharing it.
All Land and resources owned and not in use for the production of essential foods, goods, services and infrastructure shall be taxed at the rate of 25% of market value, per annum.
All Commercial Property will pay a Variable Utility Tax (VUT), based on the location, access and publicly owned infrastructure that supports its use.
The rate of Variable Utility Tax (VUT) shall be set by the Local Assembly and will not exceed 25% of the annual rental or lease value of the property, paid annually.
A Consumption & Use Tax (CUT) shall be applied to the sale of all goods, services and high value items that are non-essential – or to the excessive proportion thereof, of 50% of the purchase value.
Pension Fund Account Income shall attract Tax when it reaches the equivalent of each Persons annual earned income. Thereafter, this income shall be taxed at the rate of 50%.
Following the sale of assets or the cash out of pension plans or any other protected forms of investment, each Person shall have no tax liability for a period of 12 months. Thereafter, all other Taxation rules shall apply.
No form of devaluation, amortisation or write-down for the purposes offsetting Business Tax or benefits of any kind shall be permitted.
All Taxation shall be payable to the Community Assembly on a monthly basis.
The Tax year shall commence on the 1st day of January of the calendar year. The Tax year shall end on the 31st day of December of the calendar year.
The Tax month shall commence on the 1st day of the month. The tax month shall end on the last day of that month (28th, 30th, 31st etc.).
Policy 6: Business & Finance (Policy 6) [P.6.0]
[P.6.1] General Business
All business shall operate on the Local Economy model.
All Businesses shall function and operate on the basis of putting People First and will adopt and maintain the ethics and practical requirements of The Basic Living Standard.
No business shall be permitted to provide functions or operations to supply chains providing essential goods or services unless they add value to the supply chain e.g., growing, transporting, refining, engineering, milling, production, localised retail.
Companies that sell to the UK / Great Britain Market at any level, will be required to grow, source, produce, manufacture, store, transport and conduct all administrative functions within the UK / Great Britain area as a wholesale or B2B supplier, or within the Community Assembly area where their retail business resides.
Resources not available to the UK / Great Britain market, must be sourced from the nearest available location.
Seasonality shall not be an excuse for maintaining year-round supply of any goods or services from outside of the UK / Great Britain.
Taxation equivalent to the balance between the highest local price and the lowest price from out of area shall be payable at the rate of 110% for products or materials that are readily available within the most local area to the UK / Great Britain.
UK / Great Britain based businesses shall be owned only by UK / Great Britain residents or other companies owned by UK / Great Britain residents.
No company may exist only for the purpose of growing, manufacturing, transporting, assembling or retailing non-essential or basic goods or the provision of non-essential services.
Where trade with Countries or Trade areas outside of the UK / Great Britain is necessary, such transactions will be carried out directly by the business sourcing the resources or goods, or by a not-for-profit function of The National Assembly, which shall also have responsibility for monitoring all direct transactions.
[P.6.2] The Local Economy Model
The post Reestablishment UK / Great Britain shall adopt an unashamedly protectionist, UK first approach to all industries and services.
All businesses shall prioritise localised supply chains from end to end.
No retail business will operate outside of 1 (one) Community Area.
No more than 2 (two) retail businesses offering the same products or goods may operate in any Local Assembly Area.
Retail Businesses will be licensed to operate for periods of up to 5 (five) years.
Retail Business Licenses shall be renewable, by majority vote of The Local Assembly.
Independent, stand-alone businesses will be prioritised.
Basic and Essential Foods will be grown as locally as possible.
The resources and basic materials for all manufacturing and production will be sourced as locally as possible.
Taxation equivalent to the balance between the highest local price and the lowest price from out of area shall be payable at the rate of 110% for products or materials that are readily available within the local area.
[P.6.3] Ownership & Management
All businesses shall be managed and operated with the benefit to the end user and the role that the business plays and contributes to the Community in mind.
No shareholder in any commercial enterprise shall have or place expectations upon management of receiving payment, profit or a share thereof, in return for any investment based purely upon share ownership.
No commercial business or shares thereof may be owned in full or in part by any bank, financial institution or other commercial entity which has and maintains voting rights.
[P.6.4] Profiteering
No business shall be able to retain Net Profit above the rate of 10%.
All Net Profit above 10% shall be Taxed at the rate of 100%.
Companies or Business Owners convicted of Profiteering and/or undertaking any activity that will result in the same will be fined at the rate of 3x the value of the excess or profit made and will be punished with a custodial term where an impact upon the supply of any basic or essential foods, goods or services has been made.
[P.6.5] Finance
Privately owned or managed credit agencies or services offering credit worthiness checks shall be prohibited.
All financial transactions and devices shall be fully transparent.
Any loan, purchase facilitation or form of credit of any kind may not be sold on to another bank or financial institution, unless that sale is part of the bank or financial institution itself.
Hedging, speculation, the sale of futures or any other form of betting on any market shall be prohibited.
[P.6.6] People’s Banks
A National Peoples Bank shall be established.
Peoples Banks shall also be established within every Community Assembly area.
There will be a National Digital Currency that will be interchangeable with all localised currencies, without charge.
The National Digital Currency shall have a fixed value for all purposes and uses within the UK / Great Britain Economy.
There will be separate localised Community Currencies which will be available in Cash and as a Digital Currency.
The Value of Community Currencies shall be fixed.
Any person or organisation visiting or undertaking business within a Community Assembly Area outside of their base area can exchange the value of their local currency for that of the local currency in which they are doing business for a fixed 5% value of the transaction fee, which is payable to the Community Assembly providing the currency.
Any Person or Organisation may use National Digital Currency to exchange for any Local Currency other than that of their base Community Assembly for a fixed 10% value of the transaction fee, which is payable to the Community Assembly providing the currency.
Businesses which have National Importance as wholesalers and providers shall be Licensed at the discretion of The National Assembly to have currency fee transaction fees waived.
[P.6.7] Communication
Support will be provided to the public telecoms industry to ensure 100% Broadband coverage across the UK / Great Britain during the process of The Reestablishment using cable technology where possible, and satellite technology where it is not.
The Community will have the non-negotiable right to remove 5G masts and technology placed with 250 metres of any house, dwelling, school or workplace, without any requirement to provide an alternative location, and without any form of compensation being payable to the communications provider.
All critical infrastructure and software will be provided by UK / Great Britain Companies, with hardware managed and manufactured in the UK.
All communication software and storage systems that provide UK / Great Britain coverage shall be located within the UK / Great Britain.
UK / Great Britain Agriculture will be refocused to prioritise essential and basic food production, with the aim that the UK/ Great Britain will both achieve and maintain self-sufficiency in food production and food security thereafter.
Regenerative Agriculture and sustainable practices that support and encourage ‘traditional farming’ methods where soil and land functionality is maintained shall be prioritised.
Local production shall be focused on the shortest food chains.
Wherever possible local food chains will begin and complete within Local Assembly or Community Assembly areas.
Farmers will be supported to undertake all growing, processing, packing and retailing on site, or by working collaboratively with local not-for-profit cooperative bodies that will run and manage all parts of the local food chain and provide centralised retailing where farms do not run farm shops or offer alternative forms of direct retail.
Traditional process resources such as milling and abattoirs will be shared between local farms to ensure that light touch processing will be available with minimal additional travel or haulage required within the food chain.
New framework rules for food production will be introduced during the Reestablishment, with appropriate sub legislation agreed by majority vote by Local Assemblies where necessary, post Reestablishment.
Food Producers shall prioritise vegetables, fruits, dairy, beef, lamb, pork, chicken, potato and arable crops that will feed directly into local and/or UK Great Britain milling, brewing, animal feed production or retail.
UK / Great Britain food production will be prioritised and any agricultural or fishing industry products which are deemed essential basics that are imported from outside of the UK / Great Britain at a lower price will have a Tariff imposed at the rate of 110% of the value of the balance between the highest local price and the buying price (including all ancillary costs), when those products are locally available.
Foods will not be imported from outside of the UK / Great Britain for the purposes of countering seasonality and the Farming Industry will be expected to offer the widest range of seasonality on all products grown or produced within the UK / Great Britain.
No experimental chemicals or pharmaceuticals shall enter the food supply chain at any stage and no foodstuff may be processed, sold or used for human consumption that has been exposed to such.
MRNA or any other man made or manipulated technologies that presents even a minor or trace risk to the Human Genome as a result of agricultural or horticultural use shall be introduced to the food chain.
Chemical fertilisers shall only be used where the rationing of basic and essential food supplies from UK / Great Britain sources is likely.
Only UK Fishing Boats will fish UK territorial waters.
Food Production contracts will exist only between Farmers and Community Assemblies and will be renewable on a 12 monthly basis.
Local food will be consumed within the Community Assembly area where it was produced and only made available for sale or exchange with other Community Assembly areas or beyond, when excess has become available.
The sale, exchange or citing of any kind of ‘future’ for agricultural or fishing production, with promises thereof shall be prohibited.
Any person or business convicted of dealing directly or indirectly in futures for agricultural or fishing production will be liable to fines not less than 3x (three times) the value of any and/or illegal transactions and shall be banned from working within that or a related industry for life, thereafter.
[P.7.2] Home Growing
Self-sufficiency or home-grown food production is essential to achieving the aim of the UK becoming self-sufficient in food production and providing the Community with Food Security.
Every family, individual or group living as a household, will be encouraged to grow their own food where it is practical for them to do so.
Community Assemblies shall make provision of adequate allotment space for every existing household without sufficient garden space to grow fruit and vegetables, where ground is available to homes within a 15 (fifteen) minute walk.
Planning Regulations will require that all future homes will have adequate garden space provided for growing fruit and vegetables, and that where this is not possible, provision will be made for sufficient window boxes, vertical growing, hydroponics systems or similar to be easily installed.
Public Interest Companies shall be tasked with the supply and sale at cost, of all equipment, seeds, seedlings and supplies necessary for those members of the Community who are vulnerable or unemployed.
Practical help and assistance will be provided with home growing to the elderly and the vulnerable through the Charitable Provision Scheme.
[P.7.3] Animal Welfare
No animal will travel beyond the boundary of the local Community Assembly area from farm to slaughter.
Hunting with Dogs Legislation shall outlaw illegal or disruptive intervention by non-hunters, to remove any right to prosecute for accidental Fox hunting, whilst also tightening Law on prosecution against those seeking to circumvent Hunting with Dogs Legislation using birds of prey or other by-pass devices.
The RSPCA shall be taken into public management and provided with an evolved role to support the work of Community Services dealing with Animal Health & Welfare.
Policy 8: General Public Policy & Service Provision (Policy 8) [P.8.0]
[P.8.1] General Rules for The Public Sector
The Public Sector, which includes all organisations providing services to the public and for the public benefit, are not and will not be considered to be a ‘business’ at any time or in any way.
The People and Community will always be the absolute priority of The Public Sector.
It is required that all activities and decisions made under the trust of the Community and deferred to Public Sector Officers will always be in the best interests of those members of the Community who will be affected, no matter how indirectly they may be affected.
Cost, Performance or Targets, nor political expedience of any kind shall hinder the delivery of any public policy that has been correctly confirmed by appropriate Community Vote or has been correctly implemented by a Public Sector Officer who is appropriately qualified and has been officially delegated with responsibility to do so.
Public Interest Companies (Trusts) shall be created to provide all municipal services and administrative services across all Local Assembly areas within a Community Assembly area.
Public Interest Companies shall be responsible for operational delivery.
Public Interest Companies shall have their strategic direction set by each Local Assembly for its Community area.
A new standard or charter shall be created and set for public servants during the Reestablishment, requiring prioritisation of the end user, members of the public and the Community, before anything else and in all activities.
Where a Public Sector Officer is unable to carry out a strategic function under which they hold properly delegated responsibility, they will either refer the matter to a more experienced Public Sector Officer, or where that is not possible, to the Local or Community Assembly that appointed them.
Where a Public Sector Officer is unable to carry out any function delegated to them to oversee, which they then delegate to a specialist or less experienced Public Sector Officer, they will forfeit their role and will be required to step down without compensation of any kind.
No Public Sector Officer shall confer or pass decision making responsibility for matters delegated to them, to any third party, consultant or person employed specifically to fulfil such a task.
Any services required by a Public Sector Organisation that can be considered unique enough not to justify that function being carried out ‘in house’ or by the local Public Interest Company, must be carried out by a business offering such services which is based within the Community Area.
Out of Area Commissioning for services that cannot be provided by a company or organisation based within the local Community Area shall be the responsibility of the local Public Interest Company, but shall be subject to the approval of the local Community Assembly.
All supplies required for ongoing operational functions will be provided by the local Public Interest Company, where all contract purchase arrangements shall be regularly reviewed by Community Representatives trained and/or experienced with business practices and fiscal auditing.
No organisation funding or in receipt of public funds which holds responsibility for providing and the delivery of essential services or services provided when needed to the public and Community, shall operate independently or on a stand-alone basis.
Public Sector Organisations will not lobby nor seek to influence the decision making of Local or Community Assemblies and shall provide all reporting in a factual, matter of fact, unbiased and unemotive way.
No stand-alone pension scheme shall exist exclusively for Public Sector Officers.
All former EU Tender & Procurement Legislation shall be discontinued during the process of The Reestablishment.
A new Public Sector anti-corruption framework, with localised charters shall be created that recognises the need to tackle all forms of corruption, on the part of Public Sector Officers, whether financial or otherwise.
Union rights will end during the process of The Reestablishment for all Public Sector Organisations.
[P.8.2] The NHS
As part of the Reestablishment process, The NHS will undergo complete reform, reinstating the prioritisation of clinical delivery and patient care above all unnecessary or backroom management functions.
ALL clinical and operational decision making, and strategy delegated to Community Assembly Health Trusts shall be carried out by panels of experienced frontline medical and healthcare staff.
The role of frontline medical and healthcare staff will be recognised as the core function of any NHS Trust.
The NHS shall carry out the majority of its functions as separate Trusts that feed into Community Assemblies for overall strategic support and direction.
Social care shall become the responsibility of Community Assembly Health Trusts.
Non-medical related services for Community Assembly Health Trusts shall be provided by the local Public Interest Company.
An independent court will be established to consider and address complaints made against Community Assembly Health Trusts.
[P.8.3] Access to the NHS
Each Person in receipt of The Basic Living Wage or its equivalent shall receive free medical treatment at point of care.
Each Person in receipt of an income higher than The Basic Living Wage or its equivalent shall pay a 3% medical insurance surcharge deduction from all additional income received.
[P.8.4] Health Related Public Policy
Each Person who has mental capacity and no recent or ongoing history of mental health issues, shall have the ‘Right to Die’, if they are suffering from a terminal or progressively debilitating illness or condition.
The ‘Right to Die’ of any ‘qualified’ person shall be confirmed by full medical consultation with no less than 3 (three) General Practitioners and/or Hospital Consultants who will not be known to the Patient and will be appointed from an out of area pool.
All medical professionals shall have the right to recuse themselves from any involvement in ‘Right to Die’ procedures at any time and without prejudice.
The ‘Sex Industry’ shall be legalised, Regulated and managed as a Public Health concern, under the strategic control of Community Assemblies and partnerships with Community Assembly Health Trusts.
[P.8.5] Covid, Vaccinations and future Outbreak Management
The term ‘vaccination’ shall mean a form of medical intervention, created or designed to target a specific pathogen or virus, that once administered will in the majority of cases prevent infection of the patient and also prevent the patient from therefore becoming infectious to others.
MRNA will be banned as a form of mass vaccination, therapy or treatment for humans and animals until such time as any and all risks to humans have been identified, what their impact will be, and the risks of their use have been limited to cases that can be proactively addressed with the use of other/additional treatment or therapies.
When the wider population is at risk from a pathogen or virus where the likely outcome of mass infection is unknown, or serious effects are only likely to be experienced by vulnerable people or by a small number of the population, the only obligation on the Community will be to provide support to those identified as being at that additional risk.
The Community shall not impose restrictions of any kind upon members of the Community who are unlikely to experience nothing more than a light illness from any form of mass infection.
Each Person shall be expected to take precautions on their own behalf and those they will have contact with, to reduce the possibility of transmission of any pathogen or virus that may be of an additional risk to any person whose vulnerabilities may not be known.
The freedom of an individual may only be restricted or that individual may only be placed in medical quarantine in cases of disease or infection where they are suffering symptoms alone, or any pathogen or virus that they have been identified as carrying is likely to cause irreparable harm or death to the majority of people that come into unprotected contact them.
In the very limited circumstances where any form of Lockdown will be necessary, all forms of economic activity and liability for those affected will cease and fail to exist for the full duration of that Lockdown and no form of compensation or back dated payment shall be made to any creditor.
[P.8.6] Education
Education shall be focused on the best interests of the child, the young person and their future role and contribution to a fair, balanced and just society.
The Education system will recognise the fundamental difference in learning styles of young people. In teenage and the years of early adulthood, young people are generally either ‘heads’ or ‘hands’ i.e., their focus is academic (with the ability to learn in the abstract) or their focus is vocation or experiential and in the present.
Educators will be fully supported and have the freedom to provide a balanced education, with prioritisation of essential and basic skills proficiency up to the age of 14, with the child and young person always experiencing a safe and secure learning environment, free of bias and the ideologies of politics, anger or division of any kind.
A full apprenticeship route shall be created and developed for students at the age of 14 (fourteen years) who are either a) not academically inclined or b) are unable or unwilling to apply themselves academically at that time.
Apprenticeships shall make full use of the former tertiary level of education to provide support and benchmarking to all forms of trade and business.
Apprenticeships will include universal life skills and qualifications such as obtaining driving licenses, vocational driving licenses and proficiency certification.
Apprenticeships shall be remunerated at the rate of 50% of the Basic Living Wage for apprentices between the ages of 14 and 18 years, with no less than 50% of that wage (25% of the Basic Living Wage) being paid directly to the parents or guardians of the apprentice for the duration of the apprenticeship.
Apprentices shall be remunerated at the rate of 75% of the Basic Living Wage for apprentices between the ages of 18 and 21, with deductions applied as above.
A full, completed apprenticeship shall be considered to be the experiential equivalent of a full undergraduate academic degree.
The Academic Pathway shall prioritise enhanced languages, mathematics, critical thinking, philosophy and traditional topics such as history and geography between the ages of 14 and 18, and then offer specialist 3-5 years degree programmes focusing on subject areas beneficial to industry and public sector requirements.
Higher Education and associated research-based establishments shall embrace forward looking, unrestricted or untied research programmes and theories in addition to standard academic practices that are tied to ‘published’ data, or what is already known.
Bogus, ‘worthless’ or ‘mickey mouse’ degrees shall be discontinued from any educational establishment that receives public funding of any kind.
Commercialism shall be removed from all places of learning to ensure that the focus is on teaching, not running as a business.
The salaries of senior academic and management staff in all publicly funded educational establishments will be set by the local Community Assembly in liaison with all Local Assemblies.
‘Private’ interest will be prohibited from making any form of donation or providing sponsorship of any kind that could in any way influence any publicly funded educational establishment or vehicle.
The Student Loan Programme shall be discontinued and replaced by an industry and public sector grant system, where companies and Community organisations will sponsor students through the Academic Pathway by paying them a proportional equivalent of the Basic Living Wage.
Companies participating in support of students on the Academic Pathway shall identify training requirements that form part of their long-term industrial strategy, so that the Academic Educational System may respond.
[P.8.7] Housing
Basic Housing provision will be an essential service and shall be known as ‘a Public Good’.
The provision of basic or essential accommodation on a commercial or profit-making basis shall be prohibited.
No residential property shall be let in full by a private landlord.
Residential property will only be let in part by a private landlord, where that property is in part occupied by the landlord themselves.
Multiple home ownership will be prohibited.
Second and any homes additional to a main residence thereafter shall be forfeited and passed into the ownership of the Local Assembly for use as Community housing.
Additional homes allocated to Community Ownership through Local Assemblies that provide for more than basic or essential need shall be sold with all funds then reallocated for the purchase of appropriate Community housing or building thereof.
No form of compensation shall be payable to any owner, charge or mortgage holder on additional properties passed into Community Ownership.
A tiered valuation system shall be created for flats, one bedroom, two bedroom and three-bedroom houses with the most expensive being proportional to no less than the equivalent of 25 years multiple of the Basic Living Wage.
All mortgages shall attract a standard 10% (Ten Percent) of the value of the property, purchase facilitation fee, payable in monthly instalments for the duration of the mortgage period.
Facilitators shall be entitled to charge the equivalent of no more than 1 (one) monthly payment for early surrender or repayment of any mortgage.
Public Interest Companies shall provide a private room letting register and service.
Homeowners with spare rooms that they are happy to let shall register with the Community Assembly.
No tax will be payable on income received by homeowners for the letting of rooms within their home.
Community Housing will be owned by the Community. Any housing stock sold must be replaced on a minimum like for like basis, or for a greater number of properties that can be let.
The Right to Buy will cease during The Reestablishment process.
[P.8.8] Planning
The former Local Planning Committee structure will end during The Reestablishment process.
Planning Determinations shall be made shall by Local assemblies.
Local Planning Courts will be created where no less than 10 Community members of a Local Assembly area shall be randomly selected to sit as a court to determine planning applications.
The local planning framework shall be created collaboratively by the Local and Community Assemblies.
The National & Regional Planning Frameworks shall be created collaboratively by the Community & National Assemblies.
Planning Applications and Reviews shall be submitted to Local Planning Courts by the appointed Public Representative on the Local Assembly.
The Right of Appeal shall be the submission of the application to the Local Assembly and be subject to a majority vote of the next Community Meeting.
A new Planning Investigation Unit shall be created with remit to investigate historic consent and overturn decisions not made in the Public Interest.
The Planning Investigation Unit shall have the right to seize land and property where corruption of any kind has been found or to instruct the immediate return of land or infrastructure to the previous state it was in before the Application(s) was/were made, with all associated costs becoming the liability of the Applicant.
[P.8.9] Science & Technology
The UK / Great Britain shall have a policy of UK / Great Britian Science & Technology First.
A National Pharmaceutical Development Company shall be established, under the guidance of The National Assembly.
The National Pharmaceutical Development Company shall be publicly owned and operated and shall not be privatised at any time.
The research, design and rollout of so-called ‘Free Energy’ solutions will be prioritised, with the manufacture, supply, installation and maintenance of all essential supplies’ infrastructure provided by Public Interest Companies.
The Nuclear Power network and infrastructure shall be further developed and localised to ensure that all UK / Great Britain energy needs are met by UK / Great Britain based infrastructure at peak times.
Foreign investment in Science and Technology development will be limited and regulated to ensure that Companies and Technologies critical to the UK / Great Britain remain in UK / Great Britain hands under all circumstances.
Technology will only be used to enhance and improve employment conditions.
Technology will not be used to replace employment itself.
Any Internet services provided to the general public as a social or retail platform shall only be provided within Community Assembly areas.
No web or internet-based platform will provide the access to localised content in any Community Assembly area that is already available in another.
The software or structure of a web or internet-based platform of proven benefit to the Community may be licensed with its full functionality, on a stand-alone basis to businesses operating in another Community area, without the transfer of any branding, marketing, content or user information of any kind. Only a fixed license fee shall be payable.
[P.8.10] Artificial Intelligence
The programming methodology, including all aims, motivations and protocols of any Artificial Intelligence (AI) programme used with the consent of the end user, shall be made available in accessible form as part of any opt-in agreement between the provider and the user.
Artificial Intelligence will not be used in any circumstances where the end user is unaware of its presence within any or all processes they have been exposed to.
Artificial Intelligence may not be used in educational classrooms, lecture or study theatres, examinations or educational coursework of any kind.
Any person or company convicted of being directly or indirectly responsible for creating, providing or managing any type of Artificial Intelligence which creates risk to the health, happiness, security and safety of any person or Community without their full knowledge and understanding shall be liable to forfeit all associated property and rights thereof (intellectual or otherwise) to the Community and shall be banned from further involvement in any related activity for life.
[P.8.11] Media
Each Local Assembly area shall provide its own Local News Service (LNS) using all available media platforms.
Local News Services shall be considered a Community service or asset and will be operated and maintained in the main part by members of the Community as part of their Community contribution.
Local News Services shall provide daily news bulletins and updates that are purely factual.
Opinion may not be presented as news by media in any circumstances.
Where Local News Services provide opinion or views as any part of their programming, the programmes shall carry or air a notice or disclaimer that clearly states this is the case, and will provide at least one alternative view, given the same column space or airtime, within the same programming or publication.
Each Community Member shall have the right to provide and have published a 600 word or 3-minute video, podcast or interview each year, in which they will discuss their views on the Community, Democracy or anything else related to the new structure of Governance itself.
Where news is provided by any privately owned company, an open and obvious disclaimer shall be published alongside or proceeding each programme which makes the sponsorship clear to readers and listeners.
[P.8.12] General rules for Internet based business
The Internet and all online software shall operate on a localised basis.
Social and Retail business models shall only operate and be based within Community Assembly areas.
Social and Retail business models may not be based in ‘the cloud’ if the servers used are located outside of the Community Assembly area where the company is based.
No company may provide social or retail business models to a Community Assembly Area where the services it offers are not available on anything other than a temporary basis and will cease operations in that Community Assembly area within 30 days of being notified that a viable local alternative exists.
Business to Business (B2B) Models shall be able to operate on a universal basis, under license from the Community Assembly.
Any Taxation will be applied at the location of sale or retail transaction and shall be payable to the local Community Assembly.
Banks may only operate online within their Community Assembly area and will provide physically accessible banking service during the working week within no less than 50% (Fifty Percent) of the corresponding Local Assembly areas.
[P.8.13] Internet Framework Charter (IFC)
A Framework Charter shall be created that recognises the need for the internet and all online activity to be governed by and treated the same as everything offline.
The Internet Framework Charter (IFC) shall also recognise the need for all online relationships to provide recognisable parallels with offline relationships that keep such relationships ‘human’ and fully respectful of the requirement that every user of the Internet treat all others in the same way that they would that same person through direct contact, offline.
The Internet Framework Charter (IFC) shall provide the umbrella or universal requirement that no form of Artificial Intelligence shall be used under any circumstances to provide therapy or personalised advice, coaching or otherwise to any person seeking or requiring support for any mental health, cognitive or mind-related issue, or any physical activity that a healthy human body would be required to do.
[P.8.14] Internet use ‘Licensing’ and Anonymity
An Internet Licensing Authority (ILA) shall be established.
Any person accessing or wishing to access a social business model or platform as a user or customer shall be required to register with the Internet Licensing Authority (ILA).
For any person to comment, edit or provide additional content to any existing content available on the internet or online, that person will be licensed by the Internet Licensing Authority (ILA).
Upon qualified registration with the Internet Licensing Authority (ILA) that person will receive a Unique Internet License Number (UILN).
Upon registering to use a social business model or platform, the provider will be required to check the registering users Unique Internet License Number (UILN) with the Internet Licensing Authority.
Where the circumstances of the user meet the requirements of the social business model or platform provider, users shall be able to present themselves publicly under a pseudonym or anonymous name, which shall only be linked to the corresponding Unique Internet License Number (UILN) itself.
Where a user of a social or retail business model or platform has provided a verified Unique Internet License Number (UILN), they will not be obligated to provide any further personal or identifying data under any circumstances, unless they voluntarily wish to do so.
Companies providing social or retail business model platforms will not incentivise or use deception of any kind to coerce users into surrendering personal data or information beyond their Unique Internet License Number (UILN)
From the process of The Reestablishment, all Companies providing social, or retail business model platforms will be required to destroy the data and information held of all historic users, without any information relating to any ongoing user being stored or held over.
[P.8.15] The Metaverse, Virtual Reality Ecosystems or other ‘Online Worlds’
Where any company that provides a social or retail business model or platform provides access to ‘The Metaverse’ a ‘Virtual Reality Ecosystem’ or an alternative ‘Online World’ of any kind, they will charge for entry to and continued access to that Metaverse, Virtual Reality Ecosystem, Online World and the service provided only.
Rules created and implemented within or for any Metaverse, a Virtual Reality Ecosystem or Online World shall at no time become applicable to or carried across to the ‘Offline World’ or become the liability of the account holder or user in their ‘real life’.
Unique users shall access The Metaverse, a ‘Virtual Reality Ecosystem’ or any ‘Online World’ for no more than 3 hours daily at any time.
Assets owned, created or awarded within The Metaverse, a ‘Virtual Reality Ecosystem’ or any ‘Online World’ shall have no transferable or tradeable value offline.
Policy 9: Caring for Our Environment, for our today and for everyone’s tomorrow (Policy 9) [P.9.0]
The old world has taught and conditioned us to believe that there would be no consequence for quick, cheap and easy living.
Whilst ridicule of the so-called ‘Global Warming’, ‘Climate Change’ and ‘Net Zero’ debates have become a dead cat argument that cynically buries the damage that ‘free markets’, ‘globalisation’ and a world driven by consumerism has inflicted upon the world, the damage caused to our environment by unsustainable living, focused on feeding greed, has left us without care for the wasteland these processes are leaving behind.
The Reestablishment asks that we all look at ourselves. That we become consciously aware of our behaviours and the impact that we have all had on the world and the people around us.
The Reestablishment requires change and with it the acceptance that we leave all forms of unsustainable living behind.
[P9.1] Net Zero
Net Zero and all references to it will end.
The changes in behaviours necessary to support, enhance and respect the environment will be delivered by the lifestyle and business changes that will be brought into being through the process of The Reestablishment and the resulting changes to our behaviours.
[P.9.2] Planning & Environment
From The Reestablishment, there will be a moratorium on all house building until such time as all alternative legislative devices have been agreed, implemented and the new system has had sufficient time to find its maintenance point.
Building on flood plains and restructured or built-up land shall be prohibited.
Both Fluvial and Pluvial flood modelling shall be the basic standard in all development planning.
The priority in consideration of all new permitted development applications will always be given to the risk to existing infrastructure and property, over ‘additional’ need.
All river systems shall be regularly dredged and cleared.
Water Companies will be prohibited from discharging untreated effluent into the sea or any water course.
Any treated discharge or effluent released into any watercourse shall not impact the environment in any way.
Soil restoration shall be a priority in all areas, with both responsive and proactive measures implemented to restore and manage all forms of productive land.
The need for efficient growing will be balanced with the need to reduce and phase out chemical-based interventions that have had or are having an impact on long term sustainability, wildlife, insect numbers, wild plants and trees.
Additional reservoirs shall be commissioned, making best use of natural features where doing so will not impact or harm Communities or irreplaceable infrastructure.
Both National and Community Assemblies shall focus development efforts upon water capture, desalinisation and micro storage technologies, where possible ensuring a crossover with green or free energy production.
[P.9.3] Business and the Environment
Planned Obsolescence or any variation of manufacturing or product creation intended to deliberately shorten the useful life of any product shall be prohibited.
Any individual or company convicted of either directly or indirectly engaging in the design, manufacture, sale or marketing of any product that has deliberately had its lifetime shortened to create a false marketplace will be fined the equivalent value of what they were projected to gain and be banned from the industry for life.
A Packaging Tax shall be applied to all disposable or non-recyclable packaging on a per-unit basis that will be added to the value of basic essentials and will not be included within.
A Framework Covenant of UK / Great Britain Environmental Standards for all foods, products, goods, services, manufacturing and other items will be agreed and shall be implemented during the process of The Reestablishment.
The introduction of all non-UK based Companies moving into the UK Marketplace which do not meet UK Environmental Standards shall be prohibited.
[P.9.4] Roads & Transport
All forms of public transport shall be returned to ‘public’ ownership.
Public Transport shall come under the management and operation of Public Interest Companies, with strategic direction set by Local and Community Assemblies.
Public transport shall be prioritised as the accepted form of transport for each Person who has access to it.
Public transport provision shall continually be improved to meet expectations as well as need.
Each Person using Public Transport to commute to their workplace shall receive no less than 50 free journeys on one form of public transport per commuter per year.
The development of new air and seaports shall be prohibited.
HS2 and all other planned or incomplete transport projects shall be discontinued.
The existing railway network will be enhanced, using improved management, the use of smart technology, the revival of infrastructure closed under the Beeching Axe, additional stations/platforms and basic trust in staff prioritised above all other solutions and remedies.
Improvement to existing transport systems and infrastructure shall be prioritised before replacement.
Commuter journeys and journeys to educational establishments taken by car, where sufficient and appropriate public transport is available, will be taxed at the rate of 100% the cost of all equivalent fares.
Multiple car ownership within households (families) shall be prohibited.
Households shall be limited to the ownership of no more than 1 (one) car per household, where that ownership is deemed essential.
Additional cars (2 or more) will only be deemed necessary where more than one member of that household can demonstrate that car ownership is essential to their employment and that no alternative form of public transport is available to access that location in order to meet the requirements of their employment contract.
All Local Assemblies shall own and operate a car sharing pool and battery powered bike lending hub that will be run on a not-for-profit basis.
[P.9.5] Recycle, Repair, Reuse
The throw-away culture will end during the process of The Reestablishment.
Each Person shall be expected to prioritise the recycling, repair and reuse of clothing, materials, equipment and technology, in whole or in part, where damage or use has not rendered them unusable.
All manufacturing, assembly and packaging processes will be required to use materials that can be reused easily by the end user.
Where the recycling of any material or item is possible, the recycling process must be completed as locally as possible, without extensive transport or mechanical processes.
[P.9.6] Make do and Mend
The sale and manufacture of single use clothing and essential goods shall be prohibited.
There shall be an expectation for each Person that clothing and essential goods will be used until they are worn out, or have been recycled, repaired and reused.
Local Assemblies shall run Community workshops and training to provide Community members of all ages with repair and restoration skills.
[P.9.7] Local Lending Libraries (LLL)
Each Local Assembly shall establish and manage Local Lending Libraries (LLL) and goods exchanges that are made available online and offline to all members of the Community.
Lending Libraries and Goods Exchanges shall have their own workshops where members of the Community can access repair and revitalisation services for the goods they own and wish to be able to reuse.
Policy 10: Foreign Policy (Policy 10) [P.10.0]
[P.10.1] General Foreign Policy
The UK / Great Britain shall exercise a non-interventionist Foreign Policy.
The only exceptions to the UK / Great Britain non-interventionist policy shall be when a) a legitimate foreign government, democratically elected by the majority of its people has requested such intervention and/or b) that to not intervene shall place the UK / Great Britain or any dependency and the freedoms of the resident population thereof, at unacceptable levels of risk.
The UK / Great Britain Foreign Policy shall be to not be involved in Foreign Electoral or Democratic processes of any kind.
No form of foreign aid shall be allocated whilst residents of the UK / Great Britain remain under involuntary need or need that has been created involuntarily through the actions of others.
No form of foreign aid shall be allocated unless the UK / Great Britain economy/economies are in surplus.
Where overseas aid is given, it will only be given to provide direct and meaningful support to residents and small businesses within that country.
Foreign aid shall only be provided through funds or contracts to private companies from the UK / Great Britain, or third-party nations where no complete or hybrid local solution is available.
Contracts awarded to private companies as part of Foreign Aid will only be given to businesses that are indigenous to that specific Country, with a focus on supporting local economies as part of that Foreign Aid effort.
A non-military foreign aid logistics and development service will be created and directed strategically by The National Assembly, with Community Assembly oversight.
[P.10.2] Defence
Defence management and strategy shall be the responsibility of the National Assembly.
Emergency Defence management decisions shall be taken by the National Assembly Facilitator / Chairperson with the relevant Community Representatives.
Emergency Defence Decisions shall be ratified or rescinded by the next session of The National Assembly during normal periods of business and shall be considered by a specially convened meeting of the National Assembly in no less than 3 (three) days at all other times.
National Service will be reinstated to ensure that all eligible young people have qualified academically, complete parallel apprenticeships or undertake military training as a key part of their professional development and steps towards the workplace by the age of 21.
Military hardware and software development and manufacturing shall be returned to the UK /Great Britain with outsourcing to companies outside of the UK / Great Britain only where no other options are available.
All non-UK / Great Britain military operations, with the exception of the provision of The Nuclear Deterrent shall end as early as possible during the process of The Reestablishment.
The UK / Great Britain International Military Policy shall be non-interventionist and non-aggressive.
The UK / Great Britain Military shall not engage in any foreign campaign unless the UK / Great Britain has been directly attacked or there is a requirement to maintain an appropriate military presence overseas either to support UK / Great Britain Foreign Aid activities or as part of commitments to international collaborations (NATO, UN etc)
UK / Great Britain Military or units thereof shall only be mobilised for any action or activity outside of the UK by the National Assembly.
The civil prosecution of alleged military ‘crime’ of any kind – whether current, recent or historic shall be prohibited.
A New Naval Ship Building programme shall include adequate ‘at sea’ Fisheries Protection for all UK Waters
The Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Army will be rearmed, equipped and restored in size to ensure that combined forces are able to cover all domestic and possible/likely overseas requirements at all times.
All Community Assembly Areas shall have a military presence that will include a minimum of 1x Army Depot, 1x Military Airport (which may be shared), and 1x Naval Station or Port where Community Assembly areas are on the coast or exposed to an estuary which carried shipping.
[P.10.3] Immigration
Immigration shall be on a qualified basis only.
Genuine refugees shall be awarded temporary sanctuary and residency until it is safe for them to return to their home Country.
Qualified Entry Status shall only exist where a need for skills has been identified by Local Assemblies / Community Assemblies / The National Assembly, which cannot be provided in any other way.
Where there is a temporary need for skills, Qualified Entry Status shall only be awarded for the period of need and up to but not exceeding 6 months thereafter.
Economic refugees and their dependents shall be provided with temporary sanctuary with only the essential basics provided to meet their immediate needs.
There shall be no obligation upon Local Assemblies, Community Assemblies or the National Assembly to provide the essential basics on an individual or definable family unit basis beyond the requirements of basic privacy.
Where refugees have travelled beyond the ‘first safe country’, they shall not be granted special rights and shall be treated as economic migrants.
The UK / Great Britain shall be obligated to prioritise any Foreign Aid available to those countries where the greatest numbers of residents have become refugees and/or are arriving at UK / Great Britain seeking entry to stay.
Any person seeking refuge of any kind who has been convicted of any crime against the person or a freedom thereof, either in the UK / Great Britain or any other Country, shall have relinquished their Community rights and/or human rights. They shall be denied entry, with any stay necessary in the UK / Great Britain being custodial until such time as they can be returned to their home Country.
[P.10.4] The UK / Great Britain Relationship with The EU & other ‘Trading Partners’
All obligations made to The EU or any of its forebears by any government of the UK / Great Britain, shall end in full during the process of The Reestablishment.
All obligations made to any other foreign entity, Country or Trade Bloc by any government of the UK / Great Britain, shall end in full during the process of The Reestablishment, unless that relationship carries a net benefit for the UK / Great Britain, when it shall continue for the duration of that time.
Sovereign Power for all matters shall be that of Local Assemblies, then Community Assemblies, then The National Assembly.
The National Assembly shall not engage in relationships of any kind with The EU without the consent, democratic and transparent directives of the Local and Community Assemblies.
No form of EU derived law or legislation of any kind shall remain in force or be enforceable from The Reestablishment, with the exception of the production and/or provision of any goods to be exported to the EU, which it will remain the obligation of the supplying company to maintain.
Any post Reestablishment relationship with The EU shall be trade based only and will be negotiated from the point that no relationship between the UK / Great Britain and The EU already exists or has historically existed at any time.
The UK / Great Britain shall not relinquish any form of power or Governance to any Foreign Power as part of a trade or political arrangement, agreement or contract of any kind.
The UK / Great Britain shall make no payments or provide any subsidy to any Foreign Country or Trading Bloc as part of any Trade arrangement.
The UK / Great Britain must achieve and maintain trade neutrality or experience net gain within all trade partnerships for basic and essentials foods, services and goods.
Protection orders will immediately be made at the commencement of The Reestablishment to safeguard food security through British Farming, Fisheries and all areas of production at risk from foreign imports.
At The Reestablishment a temporary protectionist policy will be imposed upon all trade with the EU where the products, goods, foods and services are already available and/or can be produced within the UK / Great Britain and will remain in place until those industries can self-sustain.
At the commencement of The Reestablishment, there will be an immediate ban on the import of all EU derived products, goods, foods and services that are subsidised and therefore underwritten by the EU, unless they are not available or cannot be produced within the UK / Great Britain.
Policy 11: Freedoms, The Courts & The Legal System (Policy 11) [P.11.0]
It is essential that every part of the Court, Legal system and Profession be motivated and driven by the requirement for impartial delivery at all levels that will ensure balance, fairness and justice for all.
No financial, emotional or other form of influence shall interfere with the right of every person to enjoy their freedom, and no person convicted or directed by a court shall have their own rights to freedom compromised beyond the requirements of any punishment or the requirements of any directive that a Community court may lay down.
[P.11.1] The Courts
The existing Magistrates Court & Local Circuit or County Court system shall end during the process of The Establishment.
The role of Volunteer Magistrates shall end during the process of The Reestablishment.
All Criminal matters shall be determined by new Local Assembly Courts, convened with 7 Community Members randomly selected from a different Local Assembly Area within the same Community Area.
Assembly Courts shall be convened and sit for 1 (one) week and shall be overseen by a qualified Court facilitator.
All Civil and deferred Criminal matters shall be determined by Community Assembly Courts, convened with qualified Community judges.
The automatic pathway of all Civil and Family matters shall be mediation, following the initial assessment of all cases by a Community Judge to remove or reject spurious cases.
A criminal charge of obstructing the rightful process of the Community Court shall be applied to any party who refuses or fails to participate in the automatic pathway.
‘Ambulance chasing’ or ‘where there’s blame, there’s a claim’ court applications initiated specifically for commercial gain by legal professionals shall be prohibited with an immediate lifetime ban from practice for any legal professional directly or indirectly involved.
The right of appeal shall be limited to the next Assembly Level, and where appeals or more serious cases are passed to The National Assembly, they shall be determined by 7 randomly selected members of The National Assembly and determined under the advice of a senior Community Judge.
No court may use financial incentives or disincentives to discourage or encourage the pursuit of justice of any kind.
Impartial justice must be available to all UK / Great Britain residents at all times.
It will be the obligation of the Local and Community Assembly Courts to ensure that all cases are objectively led, factually driven and not motivated by material gain or emotional prejudice of any kind and in any way.
[P.11.2] Law & Order
All Policing targets will be discontinued during the process of The Reestablishment. A happy Community is one which has no requirement to be policed.
Any person arrested will be prosecuted by the arresting Police Officer(s) in front of the Local Assembly Community Court for any decision over immediate conviction, bailed or released, within 24 hours of their arrest.
Any person under the age of 21 who is convicted in a Local Assembly Community Court of any crime which is not against the person or freedom of the person shall, upon conviction, be immediately enrolled to complete National Service of no less than completion of the full apprenticeship period plus an additional 3 (three) years.
[P.11.3] Policing
During the process of The Reestablishment, the role of the College of Policing shall undergo review with any rights of the college to influence operational policing policy rescinded.
The weight of value in policing shall be returned to frontline police constables.
The priority of a police constable shall be the provision of visible, community policing with the burden of bureaucratic and statistical targets removed.
A policing apprenticeship shall be available for applicants at 14 years.
Other applicants for police constable training shall be no less than 21 years of age with a minimum of 3 years post-apprenticeship work experience.
The weight of police constable training shall be experiential and ‘on the job’.
All senior police officers must have served a minimum of 3 years, qualified, within the preceding role.
The role of police community support officer shall end during the process of The Reestablishment, with all existing PCSOs expected to complete police constable training.
The area of each Police Force or Constabulary shall correspond with the local Community Assembly area.
Each Local Assembly area shall have a manned Police Station.
[P.11.4] Terrorism
All terrorism shall be treated as treason and an attack upon freedom.
All convicted Terrorists shall receive whole-life tariffs, which may be upgraded by The National Assembly to a capital tariff at any time, with the support a majority vote within all Local Assemblies to restore the Death Penalty.
[P.11.5] Licensing (Gambling & Sale of Alcohol)
The gambling industry shall be required to have new system of Governance mirroring alcohol licensing where ‘point of transaction’ must be managed by a responsible, appropriately qualified and upstanding person who will be held accountable for the safety of all customers on the basis of legally backed right to refuse.
All Internet and/or app gambling will be regulated to reflect the same or banned if the Gambling industry cannot present workable solutions to support gambling supervision on remote basis.
A system of Alcohol Taxation shall be introduced to encourage the use of Pubs, Restaurants and Social Clubs for any/all alcohol consumption, actively discouraging drinking in the home or an ‘unsupervised’ environment.
[P.11.6] Religion, Freedom of Thought and Freedom of Speech
True freedom of the Person is the ability to think freely, and to act accordingly unless such an act will restrict the acts or ability to think freely of another, with the only exception being when they have been convicted of a crime and have had such freedom restricted by law.
Any person shall be free to believe whatever they wish, unless that belief becomes an action or behaviour that then calls into question the ability of any other Person to do the same.
No religion shall have the right to impose any law, framework for living, or any type of behaviour upon any Person who objects to doing so or has not voluntarily agreed to do so without solicitation or coercion.
It shall be recognised in Law that there is no discernible hierarchy of man between any man and his or her relationship with God, Source, A Supreme Being or The Universe, other than which is man made, and that Faith is itself an exercise in freedom.
No organisation or individual – whether ‘religious’, ‘spiritual’, or following another doctrine or philosophy which requires changes upon freedom of the Person, shall impose or force their doctrine on any Person.
The act of ‘cancellation’ shall be a criminal offence, whether committed directly, indirectly or in part.
The spiritual independence and individual value of every Person, their soul or ‘mind’ shall be respected at all times.
No man shall have the right to compromise the right of any individual to unassisted human function, unless the individual has knowingly and in full understanding given their consent for them to do so.
Where the right of a Person to enjoy unassisted human function has been surrendered, it can only be surrendered on a temporary basis, with the cognitive ability of that individual maintained and with their choice to have their self-sufficiency restored, safely and without detriment to them, at any time upon demand.
There shall be a recognition that the pre-Reestablishment decision making by the majority of former politicians and senior public figures has been based upon self-interest and reasoning based on the stupidity and ignorance that goes with it.
The most appropriate punishment for stupid and ignorant people is to remove them from their responsibilities and relieve them of any material gain they have made directly from the decisions they have made.
Any such person will forfeit their right to continue to hold their position and any future benefit that may have previously been intended from it.
Where individuals have been proven to design, impose and maintain any public policy that has been knowingly used to compromise the physical health, mental health and freedom of any individual or the public at large, for reasons that are not in the best interests of the majority, they will be appropriately tried in a Community Court.
Appropriate punishment shall be decided by the same court.
In any circumstances, punishments shall be proportionate and humane and not in any way applied in such way that the method of achieving the outcome is arguably ‘fitting’ the crime. I.e., any person convicted of a political crime may indeed receive a custodial sentence, but the removal of their liberty and any non-essentials for the period of the sentence duly given shall be punishment enough.
In the event that a court will impose a capital sentence upon any individual, the sentence shall be carried out in the most efficient, painless and humane manner possible, without an audience or public celebration of any kind.
Any persons appointed to oversee the administration of a court’s punishment will be appropriately qualified and trusted to respect the requirement for humanity to be shown and applied to any person, no matter who they are or what they have been convicted of.
Bankers and Financiers tried and convicted of playing any part in profiteering, excessive interest raising, usury, market manipulation, betting on the markets, creating deceptive financial devices or any other activity that has either involuntarily compromised others or risked/damaged any economy in any way shall, at a minimum, be banned from engaging in any financial industry or financially related activity for life, and shall forfeit any wealth attributed from such activity to their Community Assembly.
Policy 12: Transport (Policy 12) [P.12.0]
[P.12.1] Public Transport
Public Transport is an essential public service and shall be provided on a not-for-profit basis.
All Public Transport provision shall be made by Public Interest Companies
The technological development of Hydrogen, Battery and free energy powered vehicles shall be supported at all Assembly Levels.
[P.12.2] Road Transport
EU Legislation requiring Professional Drivers to do stepped tests for different vehicle sizes in same class (e.g., HGV 3 and then HGV1 only afterwards following a qualification period) will end during The Reestablishment process.
The requirement for Driver CPCs shall end and be replaced with short online course and tests as part of first Licensing, with regular refresher courses and tests online thereafter to be provided and managed by the Vehicle Licensing Authority for UK ONLY commercial drivers.
Visiting or transiting professional Foreign Drivers will be required to undertake the same short online courses and driving tests before accessing UK / Great Britain roads.
[P.12.3] Roads
All road building plans and projects shall be halted where the cost of continuing will be higher than to cease and restore the previous infrastructure.
Utility companies will be fully liable for all road repairs where they have devalued the structural integrity of any road surface, whether community or privately owned.
Any Utility companies leaving temporary roadworks without work taking place at weekends and during business hours shall be fined for the value of expense to the Community, by the Local Assembly.
Investment will be made in new road surface technology research to extend the lifetime and durability of all roads.
[P.12.4] Shipping
A new scheme of public sponsorship or loans to create new shipbuilding enterprises shall be established with the aim that all Community Assembly areas with access to the UK / Great Britain coastline or a ship going estuary shall have appropriate and accessible ship building and repair facilities.
[P.12.5] Cycling
A system of Bicycle & Rider Licensing shall be created for all bicycles, scooters, battery powered cycles and mobility carts.
A penalty points system shall be created for bicycle, scooter and mobility cart use which shall be interchangeable with and relate to existing Driver Licensing.
History of this Book
Manifesto for a Good Dictator is based on the book ‘Why we need a Good Dictator’ which was first published as an eBook for Kindle via Amazon on 18 March 2024.
Previously I had written and published The Makeshift Manifesto in December 2019, a matter of days before the General Election, where I had outlined the types of public policies that a ‘good government’ would use and implement in the following Parliamentary Term.
You will not need me to run through the four and a half years of Conservative Party led Government that followed. But what was clear, a long time before the General Election of 2024 was called, was that nothing is going to change, whilst the way we are doing and politics remains the same – even when the faces, the words and the Political Parties seem to change.
When I put a copy of the original Makeshift Manifesto on to my screen nearly a year ago, I began reading and quickly realised that almost nothing had changed and that it was time to talk about the journey or pathway to the outcomes that People need, and this time consider perhaps the most radical route that we could follow, but perhaps the only route that we can now follow, if we genuinely want to experience real and meaningful change.
As they say, a week is a long time in politics. So, a year and all that has happened has meant that the message that needs to be shared here, is even more relevant and therefore important than it has been at any time before.
As I have written in many different eBooks over the last few years, there are a range of options for change that are open to us. The problem is that we are not open to those opportunities and therefore are currently ignoring what all of those open doors are actually there for.
A Good Dictator may seem unreal or mythical. But the way that change is evolving in the world around us means that we may need to think more seriously about the prospect of trusting just one person to be the difference that so many before in world history have failed to live up to. And yes, they may need to be like The Phoenix and much, much more.
Manifesto for a Good Dictator wasn’t written in isolation and is part of a series that I began writing about three years ago in early 2022.
Each of the following list of Books is a variation on a theme, but works very much under the principle that it is not only possible but actually healthy to be able to understand, value and even hold different views or perspectives of the same situation or set of circumstances at the same time, whether that be in the Past, Present or Future tense.
Equally, it is also important to be able to consider different pathways for the future that sit beyond what many consider to be the obvious, simply because the obvious itself is usually inextricably linked with what has already been done and what sits in the past.
All of the following titles are available to purchase as complete eBooks for Kindle from Amazon using the links provided.
Where indicated, titles may also be available to download FREE as PDF Copies from my Blogsite in different forms, using the links provided.
If you would like to discuss any of the works listed, please get in touch.
In 2013, I had been a Borough Councillor for six years. I was representing a mixed rural and market town Ward near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire and had also been Chair of the Council’s Licensing Committee or Local Licensing Authority since the beginning of my second term in 2011.
Since being a teenager, I’d always seen politics as a way to achieve something better for everyone. However, I’d also been aware of the way that ‘democracy’ had appeared to work in the UK and had opted to join and run and work with a political party.
That September, in a decision which felt instant but had been several years in the making, I finally accepted that British politics is fundamentally broken.
That the party-political system in the UK is rotten to the core.
That no matter how genuine the reasons for getting involved in politics, representing any political party today requires elected public representatives who are aligned with political parties to forget any obligation to prioritise the best interests of their Electors.
That there is a de facto requirement to ignore opportunities to deliver public policy which will consider and ultimately be of benefit to all.
Knowing that my decision to leave my political group would almost certainly result in losing my seat in the next round of Elections for that Authority in 2015, because of the way things work and how I felt at that time, I went ahead and did so anyway. My role as a Councillor was never just about ‘me’ or the political party, after all.
The period of time since I left active politics has continued to provide me with good opportunity for reflection.
Whilst I find frustration at every turn as I look at the public realm, I recognise that politics is still a good place to observe, to watch and yes – a place to learn.
Learning is after all the first and biggest step to making a difference to anyone’s life experience – not least of all our own.
Today, although many of us have no idea how, we also know that one way or another, things simply have to change. That there really could be something far better for us all. And that the Politicians who are currently in charge should either be showing considerably more concern or should simply be replaced.
No matter the political party, tribe or leaning that they have, an increasing number of people are thinking about the possibility of seeking election to one or more of the Tiers of Government in the UK. As the way to make that difference. As the way to do something tangible and deliver that ‘how’.
If I was now in that very same position, but without the experience of British politics that I now possess, I know that I would be grateful for the opportunity to speak to someone who was prepared to help me. To hear a helpful voice that would honestly tell me what I could expect. What I really needed to consider, and what I could do to help myself with my aim and wish to help others as a campaigner and as a good politician and public representative as I campaign for election and then begin to fulfil my responsibilities once elected.
In early 2018 I wrote and published the e-book for Kindle ‘How to get Elected’ as the conversation that I would like to have.
Now, in early 2025, I feel that the political and government environment has changed sufficiently enough that the original work could do with an update, and that it might help more if How to get Elected were to be made available in more ways.
How to get Elected offers a guide, suggestions, ideas and the benefit of experience to those seeking election, either completely without help, or with minimal support or guidance from an established political party that will never be as invested in the community, in the same way a dedicated public representative can and should always be.
I hope that it will offer anyone considering this pathway to help others and our communities and perhaps be the political mentor to them that I never had.
It feels like the political world has gone completely mad.
‘They don’t know what they are on about’ is a thought that most of us will share, the moment we start thinking about today’s politicians.
Whilst we may not choose to say it openly and loud, few will disagree with the idea that our political classes are out of touch and pretty much ‘in it for themselves’ – even where they represent a political party that we may have voted for unquestioningly at every election, for all of our lives.
As you are here and reading this page, we can be reasonably certain that you are either
A political anorak (yes, they really do exist) or
Thinking seriously enough about running for an elected office that you are beginning to do some research.
Whilst the political anoraks are very welcome here, ‘How to get Elected’ has been written with helping anyone from group ‘b’ firmly in mind.
It doesn’t matter where your loyalties lie, or whatever political philosophy you might follow. If you really want to hold the responsibility and fulfill the gift of trust that comes with being elected by members of the public, there is a process which alone and on your own you will almost certainly need to follow. A process that will also help you to succeed and become a good representative of the people, once you have been elected and taken your seat.
Getting elected sounds very simple. But for most, the reality is very different.
It’s very easy to make mistakes, lose motivation, get sidetracked or distracted and then find yourself waiting perhaps 4 years or even longer for another opportunity to make the contribution to the community that you may now be seeking.
In the form of this book, I will cover and discuss all of the key issues, considerations and actions that you would normally have to take to get yourself elected without the help of an organised political party, whilst keeping yourself in the running and out of trouble with everyone else and politicians who may have much more experience of the ‘political system’, as you do.
There are no guarantees in politics.
If you do everything that you possibly can to the best of your ability and spend every available minute doing so between now and your next opportunity to get elected, it is still possible that someone else will get there first.
That’s just the way it is in politics today.
It’s a reality that you must accept and be respectful of as you work on, develop and deliver your strategy and plan.
Hopefully, you are here because you sincerely believe in and want to make the most effective contribution that you can in delivering ‘something better’ for all.
I wish you every success with your worthy aims. We have never needed genuinely selfless and considerate politicians more than we do right now, and especially those who are prepared to make every effort to make their responsibility count.
How to get Elected began as a website, which has evolved into an eBook for those thinking about running in public elections in the UK, primarily as independent or ‘non-aligned’ candidates.
How to get Elected is also for members of political parties who are aiming to do the very best that they can on behalf of their constituencies, wards, divisions and the electors that they represent too.
Whilst pages are dedicated to talking about getting elected as an MP and the issues that surround setting up a new political party, these are not the primary focus of this Book.
How to get Elected is here to focus upon the areas of politics where right now, anyone who is motivated enough, has enough self-belief, courage of their convictions and is ready to listen and consider the opinion of others, really can begin to make a difference for their local community, if they so choose.
The places where real differences can and are ready to be made are Parish & Town Councils, Borough & District Councils, County Councils and Unitary Authorities. What we collectively call Local Government.
How to get Elected has been written to help you plan, campaign and ultimately provide good representation, so that you can positively influence the things that local authorities do.
The basic formal requirements to become an official candidate and run for a local council are as follows.
To be eligible, you must be:
A British or a citizen of the Commonwealth or European Union
At least 18 years old
Registered to vote in the area or have lived, worked or owned property there for at least 12 months before an election
Legal eligibility is often considered to be the only real factor preventing anyone from running as an independent candidate in a local election.
The political parties have their own selection processes and you can read more about those later when we will discuss joining a political party.
Whether or not you are ready to take on the responsibility of being a councillor is a question that only you can answer.
It is as likely that a candidate of 18 years of age could be a brilliant community representative within a multi-seat parish or town council ward. Whilst another, aged 38, could be the poorest choice possible for a single-seat county council division.
If you are unsure about your choice or decision, it might be useful to seek the unbiased opinion of others.
You might also take some time to think about the life skills and experience that you will bring to the role.
Being a good councillor is not just about being passionate about issues and public speaking alone.
To be a good public representative, you must be able to put yourself in the position of others and then relate that experience within the bigger setting. It will be necessary for you to communicate arguments and where possible, solutions too which will need to be objective and considerate of different views if they are to really make a difference to the people you will be representing.
Having experience from as many different areas of life as possible, where you have already interacted comfortably with as many different kinds of people as you can will help you to do this.
Being able to have a conversation with someone experiencing a housing problem one minute and then walking into a meeting with the council’s chief executive officer to discuss something completely different the next is a real possibility.
You must have both the confidence AND the flexibility to be who you will need to be, exactly when you need to be it.
Even though everybody seems to hate politicians, politics can appear to be a very glamorous place when you are thinking, “It would be different if it was me’.
Also, it’s not unusual to like the idea of having power. So, when we want power very much, politics really can seem like the best place to be.
Hopefully, you will be one of the growing numbers who will be ticking ‘none of the above’.
That’s great.
The problem is that many of the people who have not become involved in politics to serve the better interests of people and our communities are motivated in very shallow and selfish ways.
There are plenty of them too. And that means the presence of a self-serving mentality can create an unpleasant working environment for people who are there for genuine reasons and care about the impact and consequences of everything that they do.
As a good politician, you should never take things personally. But you must also be aware that plenty of other politicians already do.
That means you could easily find yourself feeling victimized. You might even feel threatened by others in what seems to be a very personal way, just because you are doing your best and doing what you do.
Making complaints to appropriate authorities is now encouraged as a politician. And if you feel threatened, you always should do so.
But it is also important to understand that even threats and bad behaviour of this kind come at different levels and can present itself to even highly experienced politicians in many different ways. Some of which are very subtle and not that easy to define.
Odd as it may seem, anger leveled against anyone in politics can be quite innocent. It may just be the result of your achievements having upset someone who in some way sees your success as being their loss.
It never is. But you will certainly struggle to get anyone who is that small-minded to see it that way!
If you can see yourself managing to keep going when others appear to want to do everything possible to make you quit, and you can do so whilst also keeping a smile on your face and continuing to do the best that it is possible for you to do, the rough and tough of politics might just be suitable for you.
These are all views which will sound familiar to anyone who has run in a public election in the UK and may be very much along the lines or exactly how you are feeling about the prospect of becoming a politician right now.
Unfortunately, you are not alone.
Just in the election you plan to fight, there may be many others.
The others may be members of political parties with all kinds of support.
Other candidates may have been elected many times before. They may even be considered publicly to be ‘successful’.
One of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of running for a publicly elected office is the competition that you will face.
Even if you are 100% certain of the justification and righteous nature of your campaign, and why you are the best person to have that role, it doesn’t mean that the people you are asking to vote for you will ‘get it’. Indeed, to many people, you may be seen to simply be very wrong.
As in most things, perception is everything in politics. How you are perceived as a candidate by the people you are asking to elect you will ultimately reflect their choice.
Regrettably, no matter how credible you may be as a candidate, your importance to voters may be something that is simply not yours to influence.
Only so much of getting elected is about the work you do, the words you say and the effort you make – even when you do much more or really are a better option than every other candidate.
Party Politics plays a regrettable, yet significant part of what will happen on any Election Day when you are a Candidate. So, if the Election you are fighting falls on the wrong day – for instance you are running for your local district council on the same day that there is a General Election, the results of the local election you are fighting might well be dictated by the national poll – just the very same.
Yes, it’s wrong.
No, it’s not fair.
But it’s how politics works in the UK and one of the most important things you can do to help yourself emotionally before you make a start, is understand and accept that your success within the political world is played out very much like a game.
If you don’t understand the rules or are not willing to work with them, you would be very wise to decide not to play this game.
Many of the key failures in UK politics today can be attributed to the egos of politicians.
If you’ve already talked to other people about the perception of those in political office, it’s almost certain that you will have heard someone say that having a big ego is part of what being a politician is about.
Put simply, politics isn’t or rather shouldn’t be about having an ego.
It just looks that way because that’s how politics has got itself into the mess that it’s in today.
Yes, a good politician needs to be confident. Yes, a good politician needs to have guts. Yes, a good politician must be prepared to say things that some people may not be very happy to hear.
But if you are going to represent other people openly, honestly and with motivation, that is all about what’s best for them, you will need to use these skills and abilities with honesty, integrity and with the common good in mind at all times.
There is a distinct difference between someone drawing attention to themselves unintentionally as they make an argument on behalf of others, and someone who is grandstanding purely for the benefit they perceive they will receive for themselves.
Oddly enough, when you do things and are supported for the right reasons, the detail rarely gets overlooked.
This is an integral part of becoming a good constituency councillor and is a skill that will quickly define you amongst your peers as someone who is looking to get the right results.
If you are always true to your electors, you will make allies in places you would not normally expect, and when it comes to really making a difference, they could provide the support that you really need.
Yes, big egos do get people elected and regrettably to very high office too. But a poor politician’s personal gain is very much the electorate’s loss.
Shallow politicians will only ever deliver shallow policies, no matter how good they try to sound or how good they might look.
If you are and can be true to the best interests of the people who elect you, no matter what adversity or distractions should come your way, you will always be successful as a politician. Even if the results of your battles don’t always appear to go your way.
REMEMBER: it’s not about you. Getting elected is all about what’s best for the people who are going to vote for you and everyone within your constituency, once you have successfully been elected.
With the Internet now available to almost everyone on their phone, and public records of almost every kind now being made transparently available wherever they are located, it is inevitable that we all now create a footprint with everything we do publicly.
Whilst I will discuss communication, social media and media relations later, it is important to understand just how far reaching any news of your public activities can and will be.
Whether right or wrong, good or bad; people you meet socially, prospective employers, admission committees, people you might want to date, and many others besides will have easy access to any material that features your name and activities, that has found its way on to the Internet.
What will find its way on to ‘the net’?
For the purposes of making a decision about whether to campaign and run to become a politician, it would be sensible to consider everything – YES EVERYTHING you do and say to anyone as having the potential to find its way into the public realm.
For a start, that will include:
Anything you say in public
Anything you say to anyone about what you are doing, or what you have planned
E-mails (Nothing should be considered private or personal – even if you state that its content is confidential)
Pictures
Articles which mention you in newspapers and/or online news pages
Public Records (Nomination papers, interests, voting history, attendance, comments etc.)
Blogs
Social media posts (Please be aware that as soon as you are a candidate or have told anyone that you are likely to be, the chances that anyone reading your posts will screen shot anything they believe can be used to trip you up will increase rapidly!)
Any other form of digital communication including but not limited to WhatsApp, Telegram and any other form of group or direct messaging that might be shared in future – even if that seems unlikely because you trust those you are communicating with at the time.
Anything political can be divisive.
Politics creates barriers or walls in relationships that would otherwise be perfect (Take Brexit and the Remainers vs Leavers as a very real example).
We have no control over how anyone will react to the position we take on anything politically. Because it is possible for each and every one of us to feel so passionate about our beliefs that we can feel automatically opposed to any alternative viewpoint.
It takes a lot of thought and a deep level of self-awareness for anyone to see the opinions of others as an outward expression of the private person that another person is.
It is challenging for many to understand and accept that political expression is not personal and is not usually leveled against them personally in any way.
As a rule, we should always treat politicians and their views as being of no threat to us personally.
Regrettably, that’s not how many people think or feel able to think today, and that means it becomes necessary to be aware of what the worst could be that anyone might think of us, and what that could mean.
If you can be objective in politics, you will always know it is possible to win. But you have very limited influence on how others will perceive you or your past.
Going forward, it is therefore essential to always do the right thing.
Politics can be a very unfriendly place. If you have any information about you which is already out there on ‘the net’, which you would potentially find embarrassing, difficult to explain or might be seen by some as a way to hurt you for their own purposes, think very carefully about whether you want to expose yourself to emotional pain in that way.
When we are young, it is not uncommon to imagine what it would be like to be famous, and to be recognised wherever we go.
Some of us make it a life aim to be famous and well known.
Some find fame or a high-profile arrives as a consequence of the job or jobs that we choose to do.
What we don’t realise when we covet the idea of being well known publicly is that it can have as many negative consequences for us as positive ones, and possibly a whole lot more besides.
Whilst you may not be thinking about becoming our next Prime Minister, it is important to be aware that as soon as you begin campaigning to get yourself elected, you will become known publicly by people you don’t already know – and almost certainly by people who don’t agree with some or perhaps everything that you have to say.
Politics solicits very different reactions from people in a way which can make someone you thought you knew very well seem like they are a complete stranger.
You could easily lose friends by getting involved in politics, simply because different political viewpoints often thrive on building stereotypes based on the political opinions of others.
We don’t have to look far to see this today. You will almost certainly know some people who voted leave and others who voted remain in the European Referendum in June 2016 which has resulted in the so-called ‘Brexit’.
No matter how careful you are in what you say, write or discuss publicly with others, there will always be some who will automatically view you as being an enemy, from the moment you go public and tell people that you want to be a politician.
Some will never see you as a normal person again and will only ever see you in the light of any public office that you attain, or the campaign you have run as you try to get there.
It is wrong for people to view politicians they don’t ‘identify’ with in this way.
But if you are going to go forward and seek election with your eyes wide open, you must accept that people will automatically judge you and be ready to judge you on the basis of everything you do.
You do not get the choice over what people can judge you for either.
Once you step into the public spotlight, it is essential that you consider everything you do to be fair game and a source of information that can be used for some political purpose by someone else, AT ANY TIME.
REMEMBER: You are always on duty the moment you step into the public eye.
As you go up the Tiers of Government, the more politics and an ongoing war of ideas will become apparent with almost everything you do.
As elected seats become part of much bigger local authority areas where there might be 30 or more councillors ‘sitting’ from different political groups, your vote can also feel very insignificant too.
This is especially the case if you are fighting against policy which is being promoted by a political group which has a controlling majority on the council but doesn’t even have a representative in the area you represent.
However, there are many positives – if you are prepared and willing to focus your energies on what you CAN do.
What you can ALWAYS do as a councillor typically revolves around directly helping the people you represent within your Ward or Division, and fighting to make sure that issues you do not appear to win are nonetheless raised, debated and recorded on the public record, so that your electors can see and know that you have done all that could be done.
To be elected successfully, your preparation begins the moment you start thinking about what you have to do to get elected – and what you are going to do once you have been elected – if and when you get there.
In the first instance, you need to decide if your approach and the ideas that you have – your ‘platform’, are going to resonate with enough people to give you a fighting chance of success when election day arrives – and you should be doing this right now, before you even think about starting any kind of campaign.
For many of us, the first thing we do with an idea like running in an election, is immediately go and seek the advice of friends, family and our loved ones.
Yes, we always need the encouragement of those close to us. But the people we know well who care about us have a habit of being biased – and not always for the best.
Their opinion could easily set you on an unfruitful pathway to a lot of avoidable heartache and hard work. Or alternatively turn you away from doing something which could ultimately prove to be very positive and beneficial for everyone else.
More often than not, people who are close to us will tell us what they think we want to hear – and in politics, that really doesn’t help anyone.
If you’ve identified issues upon which you can base a good campaign, talk to people who could vote for you and who are outside of your normal social group and ask them what they think of what you have to say.
Don’t grandstand and roll out impromptu speeches to anyone who will listen. That will just annoy them and make you look little more than a fool.
Ask questions; see how people feel. Discover why their experiences have made them think in a particular way.
Find out what the different experience from their choice would look and feel like.
It will not take many conversations with different people to tell you whether you might be going the right way.
What is more, you are likely to gain even further insight into the perspectives of others that could well support and develop your own thoughts and arguments.
SUGGESTIONS:
DON’T tell people who are strangers what you are thinking about doing, or why you are asking the questions. You will draw unnecessary attention to yourself before you have even decided if you want to see the process through – and may even break Electoral Law by doing so.
DO take the opportunity to speak to everyone you can. Everyone likes to feel their opinion is valued and you will soon become aware of common themes and facts that deserve greater focus. What is more, every conversation is a step nearer to being comfortable talking to anyone in any situation – a prerequisite for becoming a good and respected politician.
How to get Elected was written with people in mind who want to run as Independent, ‘Non-Aligned’ or what we should perhaps start calling ‘Open’ Candidates.
Some people will make a very clear argument of the benefits of joining a political party before becoming a candidate.
Being ‘independent’ and appearing to be alone in politics can immediately sound like a very lonely place.
When you look at how democratic decisions are typically made by a majority of votes, seeming to be a councilor on your own can also look like it will be a very isolated place where you have the power to influence very little – especially when a large political group may appear to be in control.
I say ‘appear to be in control’, because looks are often very deceiving. It has regrettably become the case that in most of our Councils and even in our Parliament too, the power sits with the people or person at the top of a hierarchy.
‘Junior’ councillors belonging to a political party therefore have perhaps even less influence than an Independent, and as such are very much restricted in what they can really do.
The unspoken truth is that whilst political parties were at some point created in order to ‘get things done’, they have long since passed their point of being able to achieve any real good.
Political parties are some of the least democratic organisations that now exist.
It’s all good if the people or person at the top of a political party know what they are doing.
But the political parties themselves exist only to secure their own futures.
That means political parties don’t have room for anyone becoming a politician ‘wearing their colours’ who has a genuine, public centered desire and motivation to get things done.
Sadly, genuinely good and well-intended people who do get through candidate selection and then get elected, will soon have a very difficult time with their political party if they do not ‘toe the line’.
This isn’t to say that councils and publicly elected bodies don’t do anything democratically.
It’s just what they do and what they appear to achieve will rarely be all that it seems.
As an independent councillor, you can ALWAYS represent the best interests of the people who elected you without any requirement to defer to some bigger plan or idea that may not actually be in the best interests of the people you represent at all.
Regrettably, some of the decisions made by a local authority may not even be in the best interests of all the people living in the area, which is under the council’s control, when that council is controlled by a political group – no matter how many wards or divisions that there might be.
Being independent will give you the opportunity to work with others to achieve results which will be beneficial for all, whilst allowing you to stay true to your responsibilities to the people who elected you.
On the rare occasion when an issue is very specific to the ward, division or constituency that you represent, you will have nothing stopping you from going the right way for your residents – even if every other councillor votes another way.
Being a member of a political party will mean you cannot do this at the times when it will really count.
In principle, the idea of political parties has its benefit in bringing like-minded politicians together, in order to get things done.
But this process is not restricted to political parties alone. Ultimately, if you have your priorities right and are ready to remain true to what you are aiming to do, you can group up or vote with anyone, at the times when they are looking at solutions to problems and developing policy in the same way that you do too.
With us all now being in times of great uncertainty, independently minded politicians who are not tied to the ideologies and political philosophies of the political parties that exist today, may well be a big step towards the solution to all the problems that we have.
However, for independents to achieve the results that we already need and for them to deliver the change that will almost certainly be required to come, independents will need to be open to working proactively and grouped alongside others in order to succeed. Open to the differences in experiences and therefore the ideas that we all have. Open to putting what’s right for others before what is right just for them. Open to a new way of working together with others which delivers on aspirations and facilitates the development of a new way of government working which is open, transparent and delivers the kind of life experience for all that we all would want to see.
Change has to start somewhere, and more of us being elected to our councils as independents will soon encourage and help others to consider their options and to then decide to join with others, work with others and perhaps create a new beginning in UK politics too.
If you’ve decided that you want to become a councillor, but are not sure of where you could achieve most, help others in the way you would like, or potentially achieve the biggest impact, it would be worth considering the roles and responsibilities of the different Tiers of Government, and what work Parish & Town Councils, Borough & District Councils, County Councils and Unitary Authorities do.
Many people think of all councils being or doing the same thing.
In some cases, where there are unitary authorities, they basically are.
Otherwise, if you want to influence things in a particular way it is important to know where each local authority’s responsibilities lie.
If you are already an activist, your decision may be much easier. For instance, if you feel your community needs far more dog and litter bins, you are most likely to influence this by becoming a member of your local Parish or Town Council – if one exists in your area.
If you are fed up with building on the green belt or on flood plains, being elected to your local Borough or District Council – where Planning Decisions are made, will be your best step.
If tackling potholes is your thing, it will be your County Council.
If you are asking yourself where it is easiest to get elected, you may be thinking about politics for the wrong reasons.
Being entrusted with a publicly elected office is a great responsibility. One which everyone standing for election should take VERY seriously indeed.
If taking the time and making the effort to secure enough votes to win an election sounds like too much work for you, 4 or 5 years with the responsibility of fighting for what’s in the best interests of your electorate certainly will be.
Very few candidates find running in elections easy.
Being a candidate is usually a lot of work – if you are taking the prospect of being elected seriously.
The hard work often begins long before the election itself is called.
Some elections are not contested. When this happens, and you are the only candidate, or there are the same or a lower number of candidates including you standing for election than the number of seats available for the Ward or Division, you become ‘Elected’ without having to actually run a campaign.
Non contested elections happen more regularly at Parish & Town level, where interest in becoming a councillor varies, and there can be a number of seats representing a Parish or Town Ward.
However, non-contested elections do happen at Borough and District level frequently too, and it is technically possible to be elected without contest as a Member of Parliament, if nobody decides to stand against you!
It is sensible to expect that an Election will always be contested and prepare on the basis that if you are going to win, then you will have to run a good campaign and fight very hard for votes.
As a candidate, the amount of work necessary to win a seat will in many ways be based upon the number of electors there will be for your Ward or Division on the Electoral Roll, coupled with its physical size and location.
The number of electors is fewest for a Parish or Town Council Ward and will increase as you go up the Tiers of Government.
In real terms, if you want to meet everyone personally who you are likely to represent if elected, you will have a greater chance of this if you run for a Parish or Town Council Seat.
The bigger the area a seat covers, the more help you will need to reach everyone and once you reach County or Unitary level authorities, direct contact with every voter will be almost impossible to achieve.
It is important to also be aware that as you go up the Tiers of Government, the level of politics increases too, and this can have a considerable impact on the type of campaign you will need to run and how much effort you will need to make in communicating your messages to the people who you will be asking to trust and elect you.
When you have access to all the information about the next local elections in your area, it will be easy to see the election process itself as being between the date that the election is officially called – which is usually at the end of the March before the election, and Election Day itself, which is usually the first Thursday in the May of that year.
This period – between the date when the Election is ‘called’ and the day of the Election is the formal campaign period, when all political and electoral activity must be carried out under the requirements set down by the Electoral Commission under Electoral Law.
There are very specific rules about what you can do, say and the amount of money you can spend on your campaign during this period, and I will come back to this later.
What you shouldn’t do is fall into the trap of thinking the only time that anyone is running for an election, is during the formal election period itself.
Anyone who is going to get elected and then get re-elected as a good councillor will understand and respect the fact that everything they do has the potential to have an impact on the result of the next election.
However, what a good community representative will not do, is only focus on doing things that they believe will get and keep them elected – as regrettably most of today’s politicians sadly do.
Yes, there is a difference.
You should be under no illusion that if you do your job well and always keep the best interests of the people you represent – or aim to represent firmly in mind at all times, you will gain the support of people you didn’t even expect.
That way, even when you don’t achieve the results that you might have hoped for, in terms of doing what’s right and maintaining your integrity and the relationship you have with your electors, you will always win.
So, whether the next election you can run in is this coming May or is in a year, two years or even three years’ time, if you are committed to representing local people and doing what’s right, your work needs to begin right now.
We all love to hate our local councils (At least until we are part of them!).
But whatever the council you hope to be elected to represent by your Ward or Division, it is essential that you get to know the role of the Democratic Services Department at your local District Level Authority, which takes responsibility for managing ALL Elections in your area.
Your local District Level Authority or Council will usually but not always be known as a Borough, District or City Council, unless it is a Unitary Authority, in which it could be a County or perhaps a Metropolitan Borough or similar.
This will be the same local authority which collects the Council Tax for residents in the area where you are planning to run to be elected.
All the information you need about who to contact, the name of the Monitoring Officer (which is very important if you should experience a problem during your official campaign) and the timetables you will need to keep to, will be available on this specific council’s website.
The website should also provide the address where you will need to attend to submit your Nomination Papers, provide information on how and when you can obtain your Candidate Pack, and also advise upon how you make an appointment to do so (Your Nomination Papers will need to be checked to make sure they are ‘valid’ – and it’s very important that you give yourself enough time to re-do them if there’s a problem!).
It is very easy to think of the Council as being in some way against you as a new candidate. But the Officers you will meet and interact with as a candidate may well be the same as the ones you will have lots of dealings with very quickly if you successfully become an Elected Member.
As such, it is in your mutual interests to have a positive and professional relationship, even at this stage.
Whenever the next election for your Parish, Town, Borough, District, City or Unitary authority might be, if you are going to run, you must keep up to date with all the information that your local Democratic Services Department makes available.
One of the things people often overlook is that there is a series of different Local, Regional and Central Government Authorities to which anyone eligible can be Elected as a Member, and they all have responsibility for different parts and areas of government or public service delivery.
Once you begin campaigning, you will quickly come to realise that many voters do not understand the structure of government and where responsibility for different public services is held.
The structure of Government can be confusing for many reasons, and this is why it is important for you to understand:
What the authority you wish to be elected to itself does, and
What all the other authorities covering the same area do – as you may quickly find yourself needing to contact them.
The different authorities are known as the Tiers of Government. Because they overlap, literally on top of each other in the same geographical area.
It is currently possible for a voter to have different elected representatives representing them at up to 5 different levels, depending upon the local structure of government and where the responsibilities for any specific geographical areas lie.
The Tiers of Government are:
Parish & Town Councils
Borough & District Councils (District Level Authorities)
County Councils
Unitary Authorities (an amalgamation of the responsibilities of 1 and/or 2 & 3)
City & Regional Mayors
Parliament (The Westminster Parliament, headed by The Prime Minister)
Arguably the most accessible form of Government in the UK today is local Parish and Town Councils.
Parish and Town Councils are also the most diverse local authorities, in terms of their size, the regularity of when they meet, their budget, and the assets and activities which they have responsibility for.
Parish & Town Councils typically only exist within rural or countryside Boroughs or Districts and they often hold responsibility for the area around and including a Village, a definable/outlying area of a Town or a group of very small Villages or Hamlets (Parish), or alternatively an area known as a Town which itself is not big enough demographically (have enough people living there or registered to vote) to qualify as a Borough or District in government terms.
The responsibilities of Parish & Town Councils typically include:
Community Assets (Which includes village halls, town halls, public toilets, other community buildings, playing fields, parks, green spaces etc., which have belonged to the parish/town historically OR have been ‘adopted’ as a result of development)
Litter Bins (Paying for their purchase and installation, choosing the site etc.)
Dog Bins (Paying for their purchase and installation, choosing the site etc.)
Benches (Paying for their purchase and installation, choosing the site etc.)
Bus Shelters (Paying for their purchase and installation, choosing the site etc.)
Cleaning and maintaining Community Assets
Setting the Parish or Town ‘Precept’ – the amount every household contributes to the running of the Council, which is paid as part of their ‘Council Tax’
Grants
Consideration of planning applications as an official ‘respondent’
Representing the community where appropriate
Supporting other community stakeholders and local organisations (where appropriate)
Other responsibilities which are specific to the council
It doesn’t look or sound like a lot of responsibility. But for those who really care about the community in which they live and the shared experience they have with others who live and work there too, becoming a member of a local parish or town council can be very rewarding as it is possible to experience the impact of the work and decisions made first-hand.
Parish & town councils will always have at least one officer known as a clerk, who is responsible for administration and communication. The clerk is the person you would normally contact to make enquiries about the work of the council.
Information regarding the area which the parish or town council covers (its electoral constituency), its parish wards, the number of councillors elected for each, the electoral cycle (When the council will next be elected) should be available from the council itself via its website, or alternatively by contacting the clerk.
Otherwise, the Democratic Services Department of the corresponding District Level Authority should be able to help, or you can find information from the Local Government Boundary Commission HERE.
Borough or District Councils provide the administrative hub of local government.
They oversee and manage a wide range of public services that voters experience on a regular or day-to-day basis and hold key responsibilities for our local environment.
Councillors are elected to Borough or District Council Seats as Representatives of ‘Wards’. Wards typically cover the same area as a multiple of Parish Council Wards (where they exist).
District Level Authorities typically provide Electoral Services for ALL public elections, irrespective of the Tier of Government, through their Democratic Services Departments.
It will be your District Level Authority that you will need to contact regarding the local elections process and requirements to become a candidate in an election in the location over which the authority presides.
The responsibilities of District Level Authorities normally include:
Planning
Building Control
Licensing (Sale of Alcohol, Taxi & Private Hire, Scrap Metal Collection, Gambling, Sex Shops, Street Trading)
Housing
Environmental Health
Refuse & Recycling collections
Maintaining Parks & Green Spaces
Street Cleansing
Setting the Council’s Annual Budget or ‘Precept’ – the amount every household contributes to the running of the Council, which is paid as part of their ‘Council Tax’
Electoral Services (non-political)
Flood Prevention & Emergency Planning
The collection and redistribution of Council Tax
Community facilities (Sports halls, swimming pools, public toilets, car parks)
District Level Authorities are perceived by many in politics to be where responsibility really begins.
Elections are rarely uncontested for District Level Authorities and most councils at this level are under the control of a political group or made up of elected members who have been elected as representatives of well-known political parties.
Once elected, Members usually have the opportunity to join various committees and contribute in different roles with varying levels of responsibility, depending on the structure of the council.
Some of these committees, such as those with Licensing or Planning responsibility, are considered apolitical and quasi-judicial in nature.
County Councils make up the highest tier of local government and provide a range of public services that are typically more strategically focused, as opposed to the more ‘day-to-day’ nature of the work of District Level Authorities.
Their area of control usually corresponds with the geographical boundaries of Counties.
Councillors are elected to County Council Seats as Representatives of ‘Divisions’.
Divisions typically cover the same area as several District Level Authority Wards, which themselves typically cover a multiple of Parish Wards. (where they exist)
The responsibilities of County Councils typically include:
Education (The Local Education Authority)
Adult Education
School Buildings & Infrastructure
Highways (Minor roads and the major roads not under the control of the Highways Agency)
Setting the Council’s Annual Budget or ‘Precept’ – the amount every household contributes to the running of the Council, which is paid as part of their ‘Council Tax’
County Council Elections are rarely uncontested, and most County Councils are under the control of a Political Group or made up of Members who have been elected as representatives of well-known political parties.
Once elected, members usually have the opportunity to join various committees and contribute in different roles with varying levels of responsibility, depending on the structure of the council.
In some areas, the roles and responsibilities of Parish & Town and/or Borough & District and County Councils have been amalgamated and made the responsibility of one local authority for that area.
The areas Unitary Authorities cover typically correspond with a Borough/District Boundary or a County Boundary but could mirror the area covered by a multiple of former Borough/District or County Councils.
Competition for a seat on a Unitary Authority is likely to be much greater than fighting for a seat on a Borough/District Council or a County Council Division – especially if ‘unitary status’ has recently been obtained and the way that councilors are elected to the Authority has been changed.
Surprising as it may sound, it is sometimes the case that more than one, and perhaps as many as 6 or even more councilors will represent the same electoral area for the same authority in a multiple-seat Ward or Division.
Having a multiple number of seats for the very same election can make life interesting for the people who count the votes after Election Day.
Having multiple-seat Wards and Divisions is also one of the ways that serious attempts are made to ensure that there is a balanced number of residents being represented by Councillors within different Local Authorities.
You will normally find multiple seat areas are where there are a lot more people living in a geographically small area, which itself cannot be divided into smaller areas for the purpose of administering an election.
If you are considering running within a multiple-seat Ward or Division, don’t be put off by the idea that there is more than one seat and that you are going to run alone.
There are no rules saying that any political party or group has to have a candidate for every seat.
It might actually be of benefit to you, as voters may feel they get the opportunity to support the party or candidate to whom they feel their political allegiances lie but can also support a local independent candidate at the same time.
Think of it like this, if you have enough people do that with one political party as others do with another, you might get twice the number of votes or either candidate!
REMEMBER: If you are running alone in an Election like this in a multiple seat Ward or Division and are out canvassing, it is always a good idea to make people aware that they have the opportunity to vote more than once at the same time, and that they can vote for you AND a party candidate too.
A normal election or civic cycle for a local authority is a term of 4 years, which will only normally be changed or delayed in a time of emergency.
At the end of each cycle or term, often all, but sometimes a proportion of a council’s total number of seats will be automatically vacated and put back up for election.
Where Local Authorities run more than one Electoral cycle, each respective term will last for 4 years.
This means that the overall balance of power could effectively be changed each and every time that one of the cycles ends and the Seats ending their electoral cycle are put back up for a Vote.
As a councillor elected at the beginning of an election cycle, your maximum term before having to seek re-election or step down would normally be 4 years.
When an Elected Member or councillor decides to step down, leave or resign from their position or seat part way through the cycle, or is unable to continue for some other reason, a By Election will be called just for that specific seat.
By Elections can happen at any time throughout the election cycle.
The process is very much the same as a full Council or Local Election in terms of the number of days between the Election being called and the Election itself, and when Nominations have to be submitted, and all other administrative requirements have to be fulfilled.
However, a By Election can and often is only run for a single Ward or Division, or for one of the seats within it if it has multiple seats.
A By Election will be run to coincide with other Elections if one is scheduled for a similar time, and the local Monitoring Officer does have some discretion over the dates of By Elections. Whereas scheduled Local Elections are normally held on the first Thursday in the corresponding May.
With this level of flexibility, it might be the case that you will know a By Election is coming for a certain Ward or Division several months before. Alternatively, you could have very little notice at all.
Notices of By Elections are posted in the same way as normal Local Authority Elections, so you will leave yourself very little time to develop a campaign if you wait for the news to reach you in this way.
Local Media and the Council Minutes will be the most reliable sources of news for you to become aware of when a By Election is due.
But hearing by word of mouth from people involved with the council itself will always help you a lot more when information like this first becomes available.
From the moment you begin campaigning, whether you have been recognised as an Official Candidate for an Election or before this has happened, it is likely that people will share information about themselves which you MUST always consider to have been shared confidentially and in trust.
Whether there are laws or regulations that cover your conduct as a councillor once you have been Elected, or before, when getting yourself elected is just your aim, you MUST embrace the principles of Data Protection with everything that you do.
This means that any personal information you are given or obtain has been shared for your use alone, unless there is a very good reason to share what you know with an appropriate person or authority.
The only exception would be when there is a need for immediate intervention, because a person is clearly at risk from harm.
Otherwise, you should always ask the permission of the person, family, a parent or guardian BEFORE communicating information you have been given in trust to anyone else.
If for any reason you do need to share information with an appropriate authority you should be confident in the legitimacy of that person’s post or responsibility and keep records – preferably e-mail copies, of everything you share and discuss with them, including when the contact was made.
ALL personal information you have regarding ANYONE – even their names and contact details must be held securely and not be accessible to anyone other than yourself.
Password and preferably encrypted protection of such documents as a minimum is a must.
Occasionally, you will become aware of a story or a valuable insight into a broader issue for the community, which could be illustrated by information that one resident or their family can give. If you feel this to be the case, you MUST ask the permission of the person and/or family before using their names and any information about them in any material you publish, communication you have with the media, or any reference you make to them in public.
You should also never publish photographs of people in which ANY of them can be identified – no matter how difficult it may seem, without asking their permission first.
In the case of children and young people under the age of 18, or adults who may be considered vulnerable, you MUST obtain the permission of their parent or guardian before taking and/or publishing their picture.
NEVER assume consent to take pictures, just because someone attends a meeting or an event which has been organised by you.
If you are in any doubt about permission DO NOT PUBLISH!
If you have no legitimate reason to keep personal information you should delete or destroy it immediately.
Data Protection is one of those things which it is not only useful to read up about, but to also keep up to date with too.
As such, I cannot recommend highly enough that you research and keep up to date with ALL data protection rules, as these will certainly help you once you are elected and be a good thing to know about in the meantime too. (Take a look at the Information Commissioners Office Website and Google Data Protection and GDPR / General Data Protection Regulations)
You are likely to already have a grasp on at least some of the issues facing the community where you are seeking election.
However, as a good councillor, making it your business to be aware of everything going on in your area at community level will be essential to help you be the representative that you need to be.
Issues often overlap, and if you don’t ensure that you are equipped with an objective view, the issues that you are passionate about will suffer from an unintended form of isolation, because you have no knowledge of how gaining success with one issue will impact upon others.
Information about what’s going on, what’s upsetting people, and what you can potentially do to help the people you are aiming to represent is available from many different sources.
My best advice is that you introduce yourself to all of them, build links and relationships with and within all, and never close yourself off to any source of information.
Just bear in mind that every organisation or business has an agenda of its own and it is healthy to have this at the back of your mind when you are considering their news and any messages that it conveys.
Council Meetings, Minutes & News
Whatever council you are aiming to run for, it is really important to be aware of what ALL the local authorities are doing in the area where you will work.
You can and should attend meetings of other councils covering the area where you are seeking election as often as possible, whether they are above or below the council you have targeted within the Tiers of Government.
Even if you go straight for a county level seat, the information from a parish council meeting can be invaluable because Parish and Town Councils are the most accessible form of Government and therefore the most likely to be accessed by the voters who are important to you.
Equally, if you are going to be a great parish representative, it really helps to know what your district and county level authorities are doing too!
If you can’t attend, it’s not the end of the world. Minutes, Reports and Agendas are available on the websites for District and County level authorities as a matter of course, and most Parish & Town Councils are now in the position to do the same.
Make sure you follow all the councils representing the area you will be working in on social media, and check that you follow each department that is communicating its own news too – e.g. Education at a County Council. Planning, Licensing, Refuse collections at a District level Authority.
Local Media
It’s really important to have and maintain a realistic view of all media, and particularly your local newspapers, online news and radio stations.
They are all highly discerning about what they consider to be news, and their view of what makes good news is likely to be very different to your own – particularly if you are looking ahead to how issues can and might grow as time passes.
What the news channels bring light to as current affairs in political terms is often the tip of an iceberg that grew in darkness from the bottom up.
Listening to, reading and following all of your local media on social media is a very good idea, because it will help you keep track of the developing bigger picture in the wider area around you, and see how events elsewhere may contribute to shaping strategic level policy nearer to home.
BBC Local Radio is currently one of the best sources for the news that you will need to be aware of most. If you cannot listen regularly, follow their social media accounts and keep an eye on the BBC Local News web pages too.
REMEMBER TO THINK CRITICALLY. The ‘news’ content provided by the media is often much more opinion than news.
Facts, figures and even stories themselves are frequently presented to encourage a particular reaction or certain point of view and in this sense, local media is often no different to the national channels.
Social Media
Probably the easiest way to focus on as many news sources as possible, social media is a great way to find out what all your stakeholders are doing, planning and thinking about the issues which they are specifically facing.
Follow ALL the key organisations in your area.
For example:
• Councils
• Council Departments
• The Police
• The Fire Service
• The Ambulance Service
• The Environment Agency
• The Highways Agency
• Local Travel Companies
• Prominent local businesses – especially those with a high profile in the local community
• Charities such as Food Banks, Rotary, Lions, RSPCA
• The Hospitals serving your area
• Schools
• Local Interest Groups – particularly those focused on local issues
• The local branches of the Political Parties
• Councilors representing the same area from the other tiers of government
• Your local MP
Whilst tempting to do so, there will be little benefit to following other candidates or their political parties. Run your own race and concentrate on running it as best you can, using all of the available time and energy that you have!
Schools
With at least one school, if not several in almost every Ward or Division, keeping an eye on news from all of them in the area you are targeting will be very useful.
Schools often have communities of their own which can be very vibrant and naturally focus on educational issues.
Education based issues will be a key focus for county council candidates. However, other community focused matters do come into focus such as road and community safety, and the use of community buildings or recreation resources, which might be important if a school has limited space of its own.
Most schools have a social media presence, and it will be in your interest to follow them, whilst also keeping an eye on their websites.
Once you are elected, it will be to your benefit to introduce yourself to local head teachers and possibly the boards of governors too, so that you can open up a clear channel of communication and help them with any issues that relate to your areas of responsibility as their local councillor.
Local Charities, Voluntary Organisations & Interest Groups
You may be surprised by just how many local charities, voluntary organisations and interest groups there are around you, particularly in cities, towns and built-up areas.
Some will already be known to you for the work they are doing in the community, or the campaigning that they are doing.
Others will be working away in the background but will be mentioned in the minutes and agendas of council meetings, on notice boards and in a broad web search of charities, voluntary organisations and interest groups in your area.
When you find them, check out their websites. If the work they are doing is community focused, follow them on social media and look for opportunities to attend events that they might be holding, which you will be able and welcome to attend.
Surprising as it may sound, just attending events and taking the time to say hello to people and introduce yourself is a very effective way to get yourself known and pick up useful information on current and upcoming issues.
You don’t need to speak, grandstand or try to force your way into the limelight. Just being present and showing that what they are doing is important enough for you to share your time with them is usually enough.
When you have been seen a few times in different places, people will begin to get more interested in who you are, what you are doing and what you have to say.
Social Clubs, Pubs & word of mouth
Just talking to people from the area you are hoping to get elected is always a good way to pick up information on the issues that are on the minds of voters locally.
Canvassing and questionnaires are probably the best way to get direct intelligence from your potential electors. But this will nonetheless be seen as a formal process.
A more relaxed way to get to know people and find out what they think is to visit local social clubs and pubs, picking up information by word of mouth as you do.
Once people know who you are and what you are doing, many will take the opportunity to tell you what they think about things when you find them in a social setting.
Barriers often come down and there is that feeling that you all have something in common and might actually be friends.
Just having a chat with local people can reveal an awful lot about what’s on the minds of many other people locally and this kind of insight can help you no end.
You do need to be cautious with this approach, however.
Please bear in mind that you will also encounter a lot of gossip and one-sided truths. So, if you do hear something that is of interest, use it as a guide to investigate further and check the facts, rather than seeing it as an immediate opportunity to get carried away with a new approach or course of action.
Drinking with potential voters – even if the circumstances appear friendly and convivial, can also be one of the quickest ways to remove the respect that local people might have for you.
Always remember to focus on asking questions and listening to what you are being told.
This is not the time to preach any kind of plan or manifesto!
The Emergency Services
Always follow the Police, Ambulance and Fire Services in your local area.
They are all very active on social media and will have informative websites for you to read and follow too.
The news from the Emergency Services will often be incident led. It may not even appear to be massively relevant on an event-by-event basis.
However, you will pick up common themes with incidents that they all report and may also pick up useful pointers about strategic issues which could have a broad impact across the responsibilities of different local authorities across the area.
The nuts and bolts of any political campaign will be your understanding of what the authority you are campaigning to win a seat with has been doing; has achieved and where it has not been doing as well as it perhaps should.
The key facts that you will require, along with the history of how decisions have been made and who was involved in making those decisions will be available as a public record.
There is an expectation that government at all levels will be transparent with its decision making and policy development. As such, the records of public meetings and those involving committees and sub committees are usually available on the local authority’s website.
This means that you should be able to access the information that you need very easily and usually with just a few clicks.
Suggestions for reading:
The Agendas of Meetings
The Minutes of Meetings
Reports on Public Consultations
The Council’s Strategy Documents
All other documents which have been publicly released.
The attendance records and voting history for any sitting councillor you may be running against as a candidate in an election
Local Authorities may now have many years’ worth of historical documents available online.
As a sensible rule, just read up on documents covering the work of the authority during its past 4-year term. Unless there is a significant issue which you would like to see addressed, which has been ‘active’ for longer and it will help you to obtain research from the start that will provide the full history or chronology of events.
If information you need to access is not available publicly, it may be protected, or otherwise available through a FOI Request, (Freedom of Information) for which an administration fee may be payable. If you wish to access information in this way, you should contact the authority involved directly.
If you are new to politics and political campaigning, it is likely that the very best way to open up communication with the people you are going to ask to vote for you is to distribute and then collect a questionnaire.
Questionnaires are a very effective way of opening up dialogue with people in your area, allowing voters to tell you about what concerns them and how you could represent them better.
They also begin the long-term task of demonstrating that you not only care about the people you represent and what is important to them. But you are also prepared to listen and find out how you can make a difference for them.
The questionnaire process is simple. But it must be seen through and completed fully if you are going to gain maximum value from the process.
The questionnaire process:
Design a questionnaire
Test your questionnaire
Print enough copies for the area where you are planning to seek election
Deliver your questionnaire
Knock on every door to collect your questionnaire
Collate your results
Communicate your results
A. Design a Questionnaire
Probably the most important part of the process to get right is designing your questionnaire.
You may already have a good idea about the issues that the community is experiencing. Whether its speeding traffic, over development, antisocial behaviour, regularity of bin collections or any one of a number of many other issues – some which will almost certainly be very specific to the area.
Even if you are certain that you know what the issues are, it is always a good idea to ask people for their opinion – whilst also being certain that you are not attempting to influence them with your own.
What is very important, is that you should not attempt to mislead people in the area you will be seeking election, by drawing attention to issues which will fall outside the scope and responsibility of the council you hope to represent and/or that would be your responsibility as an elected councilor – if you are successful.
This is why it is essential that you understand what the authority you are campaigning to represent is responsible for, as well as what it is not.
Yes, you might get elected by promising to deliver results that would never be within your control or sphere of influence.
People are not stupid, and they will learn not to trust you in a heartbeat – the moment they understand that you have deliberately misled them.
Tips for your questionnaire:
REMEMBER – this exercise is about learning how other people feel about issues affecting their lives. It is not an opportunity to preach or grandstand your own views. Doing so will just annoy people and switch them off to what you can do.
Think of questions which are closed – i.e. they can be answered with a simple yes and no.
Questions should be about local issues, not ideas.
Use a simple word-processing programme like Microsoft Word, and a type face no smaller than 12pt.
Make sure it is easy to read and remember that it is likely that at least some of the people who will read your questionnaire will have difficulty reading. So, keep plenty of space between questions.
DO NOT write anything that is defamatory about anyone – even if you believe the information to be true.
DO NOT ask for personal information of any kind.
If you do ask for people to provide any information about themselves, you MUST ask them to confirm that they are happy for you to hold their data. Add a check box to be sure.
Do not try to lead people with your questions – if you want an honest response.
Avoid attempting to influence people in the way that you write your questions. A simple test is to look at your question and check if you are using a word or words like because, or have edited what you have said to remove them.
ALWAYS provide an opportunity for people to tell you about issues you have not raised with your questions.
ALWAYS tell people who you are and what you are doing.
Provide an e-mail address at the very least at all times and ensure that all contact details required during a formal election campaign period are correctly available on your questionnaire.
Invite people to contact you to ask you questions and tell you more.
If you would be uncomfortable asking any of your questions face-to-face, DON’T ASK THEM – as they are likely to be received in the same way.
Make clear when you will be calling around to collect completed questionnaires.
Collect your questionnaires personally.
B. Test your Questionnaire
Even good politicians can get things wrong.
What we write and how it sounds as our internal voice may not be how it comes across to others, so it’s always better to check.
Before putting ANY literature through doors, ALWAYS get a few different people to read through and feedback on what you have done.
If the people you ask to review your work are open and honest, you may feel prickly towards what they have to say. But take it on board – and always act upon genuine advice from people who do not have something to gain by influencing you to make changes or go a different way.
C. Print enough copies for the area where you are planning to seek election
It’s really important that you visit every house in the area where you are seeking election.
You may not want to do so, for reasons as simple as you know a councillor lives in the house next door and you feel it’s almost certain that the people who live there will not vote for you.
The funny thing about politics is that it doesn’t work like that. The person who lives next door to a councillor could end up being your greatest supporter – and as one vote could be all you need to secure a win, you should never let any kind of illogical fear rule out visiting just one house!
The Democratic Services Department at the local District Level Authority should be able to provide details of the numbers of properties in the Ward or Division you are going to target.
However, there may be restrictions upon how much information they will give you outside of a formal Campaign period, and even then, you may have to provide certain commitments to how you will keep any data secure and what purposes you will use it for.
Get in touch with the relevant Democratic Services Department to find out how you can get a copy of the Electoral Roll.
D. Deliver your Questionnaire
Delivering a leaflet is one of the quickest ways to get to know your patch and the people within it.
It gets you seen by people who wouldn’t otherwise recognise you, and putting a name to a face will be one of your greatest allies in securing votes from local people to fight for local issues.
If you have decided to run in an election that is coming up quickly, you may need to get some help.
Just be sure that whoever is delivering leaflets for you is someone you trust to represent you wherever they may go.
E. Knock on every door to collect your Questionnaire
Developing a relationship with voters is essential in local politics.
When there isn’t a national election taking place that coincides with the date of the local election and people are not so tribal with their votes, the people who know and trust you could really make all the difference and, in some cases, give you a significant win.
When you speak to people and ask their opinion, they will feel that they are important.
This can apply to people who might even vote for one of the main political parties at other times.
People not only like to know they can access the politicians who represent them. But that their public representatives are ready and waiting to listen to them too.
When you call at a door, it is really important to be polite. Introduce yourself and who you are and tell the people you are calling on that you recently delivered a questionnaire.
Some people will have thrown them away. Others will simply be too busy with life to want to talk. Some will be rude (Remember it’s not personal – most people have a very low opinion of politicians these days). But many will be only too pleased to talk.
Once you have spoken to a few different people on the doorstep, you will get an idea of what really works.
When you are collecting a questionnaire, just keep the focus on the information you are being given and leave without discussing what you plan to do and leave it until another time.
F. Collate your results
When you have collected ALL of your questionnaires – that means all of those you have had returned completed AFTER visiting every relevant address, you need to collate your results.
The best way to do this is on a spreadsheet with a programme like Microsoft Excel.
A good idea is to set up a box for yes and a box for no against each question. Then put a 1 in the next space in the column or row against the yes or the no for each question for every form.
You will then be in a position to use the spreadsheet formulas to count up the numbers.
Using a spreadsheet is a very safe and simple way to manage your results.
You can easily check that you haven’t missed anybody or have any misleading information as the number of no’s added to the number of yes’s for any one question should always add up to the number of questionnaires.
As you work through the questionnaires, you will begin to see patterns emerging. Some might not be what you were expecting – and it’s here that you will define yourself against many others, by doing the right thing.
Never try to manipulate data to suit your own needs.
Whether ignoring the results of a question that doesn’t appear to help you or trying to read the information in a way that helps an argument, but which is misrepresentative or simply untrue, you will do yourself no favours and immediately fail the people you want to represent.
Tip:
Always be open. If real data tells you the majority of people want things to go a certain way – as their representative, that’s what you must go with.
G. Communicate your results
If you are in the build up to an election (The period immediately before the election), a good questionnaire and the results from it will serve you very well as the basis of your Election Manifesto.
Ideally, the best time to put a questionnaire out for this purpose, will be a few weeks before the Election is formally called – in perhaps February or early March – if your election is part of the normal cycle, and isn’t a by-election.
ALWAYS give yourself enough time to complete the process!
If you do this, you can use the data you have harvested to support your campaign, knowing that your words will resonate with the majority of people AND have the added bonus that they will know you have been listening to them too.
At other times, the best way to communicate what you have found will be through a newsletter, by social media or through a blog – which in my experience, local people will soon begin to read when you are talking about the real issues which are important to them.
Probably one of the things that anyone new to politics will fear most of all is canvassing – or going from door to door, speaking to residents and finding out what they think.
Believe it or not, once you have started to gain some experience, canvassing can be a lot of fun.
Canvassing gives you the genuine opportunity to speak one-to-one with the people you are asking to vote for you, and also to find out why other people might be seeing you in a different way and possibly misunderstanding you and what you have to say.
As a rule, you should always canvass voters personally.
If that’s not possible, those canvassing on your behalf should be reliable members of any supporting team that you have.
Either way, you or your team should knock on every door in the Ward or Division where you hope to get elected during the Formal Election Campaign – at least once.
If possible, you should visit doorsteps more.
When I was first elected, my running mate and I had knocked on every door twice and in some cases three or four times right up to 9pm on the day of the election itself.
You don’t have to wait until it’s actually election time before you canvass.
If you want to be taken seriously by voters, you would do well to visit everyone, every few months as an absolute minimum, before you are elected, and once you are elected too.
Suggestions for Canvassing during an election campaign:
Make a plan for covering certain areas and give yourself enough time to cover a set part of it every evening or Saturday during the election campaign.
Knock on every door and wait long enough for someone to answer.
When you do get an answer, always try to smile and be polite.
Introduce yourself and tell them what you are doing briefly. (You should devise and remember a sentence that says something like ‘Hello, I’m Adam Tugwell and I’m running for Tewkesbury Borough Council as an Independent Candidate in the Elections on 4th May, when I very much hope to be elected to represent you’.
Ask them if they are planning to vote and who they are thinking about supporting. (Do bear in mind that they do not have to tell you this, just because you have asked!)
At this point, you should know if pursuing a conversation where you can discuss your manifesto is a good idea. Basically, if they tell you they are voting for another candidate in a very clear way, wish them a nice day and be on your way!
If they are open to talking, don’t immediately see a green light to grandstand your ideas.
Ask them how they feel about the area and what they would like to see being done.
DON’T criticise or talk negatively about the other candidates – no matter how you feel about them. You are running your own race!
DON’T make promises you cannot keep.
DO run through your commitments. But keep them brief and to perhaps no more than 3 to 5 ‘bullet points’.
Be prepared to talk through any or all of your commitments.
NEVER lie if you feel cornered by a question or comment in any way. Be honest and say you will research a topic if you have found yourself challenged by what someone has said – it’s a great way to open up communication if you offer to go back or contact them by e-mail or by phone – and they will feel really valued if you do.
Make sure that they have a copy of your literature if you have already delivered some, and your contact details, for if they wish to get in touch.
When you have left the property, make a note about how many votes you believe you can expect from that household.
If possible, use a copy of the Electoral Roll to do this.
The Electoral Roll will provide names of the people in each house, but it is safest not to use the names to address people when they answer the door, just in case it isn’t them! Names appear on the Electoral Roll which may not be the names people use in their day-to-day lives. You will avoid feeling embarrassed, red-faced or silly, if you happen to stumble upon someone like this by greeting everyone in the same way.
REMEMBER: You must not refer to yourself as being a ‘candidate’ for any election in any way, written, spoken or otherwise, unless and until you have been formally recognised as being a candidate for that specific Election by the Democratic Services Department at the Council managing the Election you plan to run in.
Suggestions for Canvassing at other times:
Make a plan for covering a certain area, giving yourself enough time to complete it on a Saturday morning.
A week or perhaps two weeks before, visit each of the houses and deliver a small leaflet outlining the issues you are working on and making clear that you would like to know what residents think about these, or anything else which might be of concern to them.
On the leaflet, tell them when you will be returning, and ask them to display the leaflet where it can be seen on the day you are going to return. That way you will only knock on doors where people want to talk – which won’t by any means be all. But you will also save yourself a lot of time too. (People will remember that you have been to their house and have given them the opportunity to speak to you, even if they don’t take up the offer)
When you call at a house, like when you are canvassing at election time above, be polite, smile and introduce yourself, making reference to your note. (Which will hopefully be easy for you to point at)
Ask them what they would like to talk about, let them speak and make sure you listen!
Be open about your thoughts about what you can do.
Don’t make promises you cannot keep.
Always be prepared to signpost someone who can help them if you genuinely know that you cannot.
Once you have learned and established a canvassing routine and the best way to interact with people on the doorstep, the experience will be incredibly useful.
Something to bear in mind about canvassing:
One thing you should never do is get involved in an argument on somebody’s doorstep – especially over your policies.
It is important to be aware that you don’t always know who you are talking to on a doorstep, and if they support another candidate, they may consider it a good investment in supporting the other candidate by wasting your time.
The logic being that you will have less time to spend with people who might support you, if you are on their doorstep fruitlessly trying to convince them to change their mind!
Canvassing, questionnaires and social media are highly effective ways to get yourself known in your community and to maintain a presence with the people you will be asking to vote for you.
However, people are not always at home when you call, and during the election campaign in particular, you need to be sure that your story has reached as many potential voters as possible – even if for some reason it is not possible for you to meet.
Leaflets are a great way to achieve this and support your efforts both before the election campaign and during it too.
You will need to take a different approach before and during the formal election campaign itself.
During the election campaign, what you spend is very important and this is why you must plan what material or literature you are going to produce, along with every detail of who will produce it and what it will cost you too.
The upside of producing your own literature is that it will make your campaign feel much more authentic and real to you. So, enjoy writing, designing and producing it!
Producing leaflets and campaign literature – The Key Points:
Election Address
Standard photo-copied or home-printed leaflets
Calling cards
Get out the Vote Cards
Design
Printing
Things to bear in mind
A. Election Address:
For your election campaign, you really should produce and deliver a higher quality and preferably colour leaflet which has been printed professionally.
A good size for this purpose is an A5, four-page booklet, which if you were producing yourself would be rather like folding a page of A4 and using it like a book.
Always use a type size no less than 12pt that is easy to read such as Arial or Times New Roman. (Check with a few different people to understand what works best)
Producing an Election Address is the ideal opportunity to tell people a little bit about yourself and your background. Be sure to do so in a way which will explain why you are running and asking for the support of local voters in a way which will make sense to the reader.
Your Election Address is also the best way to ‘go public’ with your Election Pledges or ‘Manifesto’.
Once published, you can also publish your Pledges on your blog and social media accounts, where you will have room to provide more information that will help readers.
A good time to deliver your Election Address will be about a week after the Official Candidates List has been confirmed by the Democratic Services Department.
This way, when people begin to compare the election literature from all the candidates who have delivered to their address, they will be equipped with the best information possible.
B. Standard photo-copied or home printed leaflets:
With no election coming up in the near future, a two-sided black and white leaflet in a newsletter form is a great way to keep in touch.
Ideally your leaflets should be sized A4. But A5 would also be fine.
As with an Election Address, always use a type size no less than 12pt that is easy to read such as Arial or Times New Roman.
Producing this type of leaflet outside of an election period is an ideal way to provide a newsletter that will keep everyone up to date with what you have done, what you are doing and what you are planning to do.
During an election period, this is an ideal quick-to-produce format that you can use to pick up and highlight new or recurring issues which have come to your attention whilst out canvassing.
During the election campaign, this type of leaflet would ideally go out to voters in the last week to ten days before the election.
C. Calling cards:
Not everyone will be at home when you call.
Sometimes you will not find a way to return when you might like to. So, leaving a calling card is a great way to let people know that you have visited.
Whilst they are referred to as ‘cards’, an A4 sheet cut into four parts with the same information and design on each part is a great way to produce something simple which will do the job very well and is very cost effective to produce on your PC.
Using the same principles with size and font for your typeface as Leaflets and an Election Address, your message need only be very short.
Let your potential voters know that you called and were sorry to have missed them but will be happy to answer any questions if they would like to get in touch.
Just remember to have all your contact details on the calling card too!
D. Get out the Vote cards:
If you have any money left in your Election Expenses Budget, a great way to support your final push for support on Election Day is to deliver a ‘get out the vote’ card.
Much the same size and design as your calling cards, a ‘Get out the Vote’ card needs to be very simple and written as a very polite and gentle reminder that it is literally Election Day ‘today’, and that the Voter taking the time go to the Polling Station and supporting you will be greatly appreciated.
If possible, your ‘Get out the Vote’ cards should be delivered to everyone who does not have a Postal Vote.
The best time to deliver Get out the Vote cards is first thing in the morning on Election Day. ideally before everyone has left for work or the school run etc.
E. Design:
If you have no experience of using design software, designing a leaflet will probably sound like a very challenging task.
The good news is that most computers that have Microsoft Office Software loaded on them will have a programme called Microsoft Publisher.
MS Publisher is easy to use and ideal for producing high quality and easy to read leaflets which will get your message across.
If you are unsure how to use MS Publisher to complete a specific task, just Google it, remembering to start your question with ‘How do you get MS Publisher to…..’
F. Printing:
If you are getting leaflets printed professionally, you MUST ask if the printer is happy to produce political flyers and/or leaflets.
This is particularly important for an Election Address or any material you have printed by them for use during the formal campaign, as you will have to include their details.
All of your leaflets will need a blank margin around the edges. Printers call this the ‘bleed’, and if you are setting up a design which is going to a professional printer, it will be a good idea to ask them what bleed will be required BEFORE you begin your design.
You should be able to find a low-cost printing company on the Internet. Just search for low-cost printing or something similar and see what pops up.
Most printing companies of this kind will do a quick turnaround and should be able to get your finished leaflets back to you within a week.
Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to get them planned, checked and printed in good time and you would be well advised not to leave creating an Election Address until the election has been called!
When you are printing leaflets at home, it will be a good idea to set up a test page with a picture, diagram or type across it. You can then check what margins you will need to leave available as a bleed at the top, bottom, left and right of the page.
SUGGESTIONS:
Plan your leaflet, Election Address, calling card as far in advance as possible.
Write your material first, whether it’s news, election pledges or notifying people of an event that you have planned.
The only leaflet you really should get produced by a professional printer is your Election Address. The others will be much quicker to produce on a printer at home or at a reasonably priced photocopy store.
Use a design programme like MS Publisher which you are likely to have on your PC
Set up your leaflet, either testing the print area on your home printer or checking on the margin or bleed area you will need with the printing company first.
Use a Font which is easy to read, such as Arial, Aptos, Times New Roman, Verdana or Gill Sans.
Use a font size of 12pt or greater for any part of the main body of text – That’s the part you want people to read.
Leave plenty of space around your articles, pictures etc.
Check on the information you MUST include for material you publish and distribute during the election period itself. If you print the material yourself and have no agent, it will only be your details required. But if a printer and agent are involved, you MUST recognise them with appropriate wording too.
Either way, ALWAYS include your contact details so that people can get in touch.
Check your draft design with a few people before you get it printed. Pay special attention to how easy it is to read and whether the first impression is either busy or that there might be too much space.
Check the spelling and grammar and get someone else you trust to check it too. Innocent mistakes like these are very easy to miss but can be very costly further on!
Add pictures where you can. Have a portrait picture of yourself which sits alongside your name (And SMILE!)
Have your Election Address ready in time to distribute at the beginning of the election campaign – that’s once the Official Candidates List has been confirmed.
Print at least one leaflet later in the election campaign, say in the last week to ten days, which covers up to date news and issues which you have identified as you have been campaigning.
When Canvassing always carry a calling card so you can let people know you have been to visit when you call at their home or business and they are out.
REMEMBER that anything and everything you produce to be used during the Election Campaign MUST be accounted for financially. Your Election Address will almost certainly be the most costly expense you will have, and you should budget for this FIRST before you think about other leaflets or anything else you might like to spend money on.
YOU MUST NEVER EXCEED YOUR ELECTION EXPENSES BUDGET!!!
G. Things to bear in mind:
REMEMBER:
You shouldn’t publish opinions, gossip or anything personal in nature about anyone – even if they are another candidate.
It’s ok to mention people in a factual way i.e. about what they have or haven’t done – as long as you can produce evidence to support any facts that you mention.
‘Play the ball, not the man’
Hearsay or word of mouth is NOT factual evidence!
Never lie or create stories.
Never make false promises or suggest you will be able to influence matters that you will not.
Be sure that the information you are discussing is relevant to the work you will have the ability to do and the authority you are working to be elected to.
If you are going to refer to someone else’s work, reference the work openly and the source it came from.
Always ask permission to reproduce work and/or pictures which have/has a copyright and acknowledge that it does.
Where possible, ask the permission of the copyright holder first and remember that even as an independent representative, some people will not be happy to be linked directly or otherwise with a political campaign.
It’s very easy to overlook the role of your contact information when you begin working with your wider community and the general public.
It is an essential part of good communication that you keep your potential electors aware of what you are doing and why.
It’s also vital that people you want to vote for you have the opportunity to contact and interact with you effectively.
Get this right, and the circle of good communication between you as a public representative, and people as the members of the public you will represent, will be complete.
Becoming a politician isn’t about you, it is about the role that you will fulfill.
From this point of view, it is sensible to treat your campaigning and election activity, and then what you will ultimately do as a councillor as being like a job.
You wouldn’t use your personal contact details to advertise the company you work for, and your political work should be no different.
There is no need for you to put your home address on the material you publish at any time outside of a formal election campaign period. However, you do need to provide people with a telephone number and an e-mail address to make the interactive process work.
Rather than use your own phone and the e-mail address that you use for things like your banking and online shopping, it is a very sensible idea to get yourself a pay as you go phone, and a free e-mail account with one of the well-known platform providers.
A separate phone number
You may be thinking ‘I already have a phone… what’s wrong with using that?!’
Well, in some respects absolutely nothing. But if you are out having a drink or a meal with friends, taking your children to school or on holiday with your family, you might not want to take a call from an angry resident who has just had his flowerbeds trashed by a car cutting across a verge or corner.
Keeping communication streams separate is just a sensible step that will help you to be professional with all the community work that you do.
Most of the main mobile phone networks and the well-known supermarkets sell basic mobile phone packages with plenty of data and airtime to get started for around £20 or even less.
This is a very good investment and a cost-effective way to add a simple layer of personal protection to what you are doing in public.
A separate e-mail address
Just like having a separate phone number, having a different e-mail address for your campaigning and election activity really is a must.
It’s very simple to get another e-mail address and you can set up an additional account for free with providers such as Google and Outlook, and can either use your name or as with social media, include a reference to your area or something like that in your new address.
By having a new e-mail address just for your campaigning, you can choose when you pick up the messages which come in as a result of your political work and keep your community work separate from everything else that you do.
The most important thing – for practical reasons – is that a separate e-mail account will make keeping your records much easier.
It doesn’t matter what kind of communication it is, and whether you sent or received it. Keeping copies of everything is essential to what you do.
You don’t know when you might need to return to conversations you had or information you were given in the present moment at a future time, and when I say future, I literally mean something you do now could only become relevant in a few years’ time.
To put it in perspective, when people get upset about something, they can quickly develop a long memory. Emotional upset and anger can lead anyone to remember events very differently to how they actually were. It may not be deliberate or intentional on the part of someone who might have a grievance with you. But all the same, you need to protect yourself against all eventualities.
Use your separate e-mail account to make sure you keep clear and documented evidence of everything which was written, sent and received, and can access at any time.
Records are most definitely one of a politician’s best friends!
At a time when there are so many TV and Radio stations to choose from that we can easily lose count, it is very easy to assume that you have got to be prominent in the media if you are going to be a success in politics.
Many existing politicians already mistake media relevance as a key priority.
They focus their best efforts on policy announcements, events and making associations with others that will be considered ‘newsworthy’.
They consider getting their picture, a story about them or even an interview with them in the news as being more important than achieving real results for the people who elected them.
In many ways it is because so much media chasing goes on in politics that so little good work actually gets done.
So, when we consider that the news is probably more than 95% opinion, it is easy to see how coveting media attention can become a trap of a very special and troubling kind.
Locally, the rise of the Internet and social media has been a game changer in just about every respect, and it is sensible to see the change for what it really is.
The regional press has been decimated virtually overnight. Not because of news moving online. But because classified advertising and the massive profits that it once generated have.
Local, evening or regional news was for a long time subsidised by this advertising. But as news at a local level really doesn’t ‘sell’, this benefit has now gone and so has the opportunity to get the same consistency of journalism at a local level.
This isn’t a ‘forget local media’ speech. It’s a ‘local media has its place’ approach, with the suggestion that you focus on doing what you have committed yourself to do – putting your community first before going up blind alleys, chasing the beginning of a media rainbow.
If you are doing your job in the best way that you can, the media will find their way to you without you ever having to chase them*.
SUGGESTIONS:
Focus your primary effort on connecting with the people you are going to ask to elect you. Do this through canvassing, questionnaires and attending local public meetings where you can and should take the opportunity to speak and/or ask questions.
Utilise your social media accounts at every turn. Blog about local issues, making sure you use and include words which are like labels for your area, such as street names, estate names, bus route names and numbers, the local council’s name etc. Make it a conversation and talk about things that matter to local people. Things that are real.
Write, print and deliver a regular newsletter and put it through every door in the Ward or Division where you hope to get elected. It is easy to think that everyone has easy access to the Internet, Twitter and Facebook, but they don’t. Put your news in forms which are accessible to everyone, and you will pick up support from people who may not even read it that way!
Comment on articles which are relevant to your campaign, which are published by the local papers online. Use your name and contact details, and talk positively about how things can be done differently, rather than focusing on why what you are reading may seem so wrong. Always link your comments to your Facebook and Twitter accounts so that your followers can see that you are active and also read what you have to say about other local issues as they arise.
Facts are your friend. When you do have a story which isn’t just exciting for you but has a genuine feel that it is going to be important to more people, along with some interesting and quantifiable facts to support it, drop the news desk at your local not-for-profit and smaller community focused Radio stations a line. (BBC Local Radio is as ambitious as you need to be. They will pick up far more local news of the kind which matters in a local election than the commercial stations, who appear to behave like they are national stations with a local presence. If your story really ‘has legs’, a bigger news channel will soon pick it up from there)
REMEMBER:News is a consequence of what you do, not the reason for doing it. Focus on the important things and the unimportant things will take care of themselves.
* In 2007, I was a newly elected Councillor at Tewkesbury Borough, when Gloucestershire experienced an unprecedented flooding event one July Afternoon. In itself, the speed and nature of the flood which followed was something extraordinary. But those very same floods inundated the Mythe Water Treatment Works on the banks of the River Severn at Tewkesbury and polluted the supply of drinking water to massive parts of Gloucestershire. When supplies ran out that Sunday, I took to my Ward delivering bottled water to residents, then spending over two weeks coordinating and delivering supplies across the area. That same Monday, I was surprised to have a call from Radio 5 Live asking me if I could spare a few minutes to be interviewed live on air…
One of the key aspects of becoming a good campaigner, councillor and politician is giving a voice to others who don’t have one – whatever the reason may be.
In its most literal interpretation, this means that you must be prepared to speak in public, or to groups of many people, and work to become an effective communicator when you do.
Before you are elected, public speaking opportunities may be limited to asking questions at meetings, giving an overview of yourself and why you are standing, or perhaps taking part in a husting, if one has been organised in the area where you are seeking election.
The same principles apply to public speaking, no matter the circumstances – and this includes interviews.
So, if you consider your approach and prepare yourself now, you will be ready when you know an opportunity to speak may be coming up, or when you find yourself asked to speak without any time to prepare.
Ideally, your aim should always be to speak to other people the same way.
So, whether you are talking to ten, a hundred, a thousand or many more people through a television camera, the very best you can be will be when you speak to them all as if they are alone and you are talking to every person one-to-one.
I did say ideally. But reality is rarely ideal and when it comes to public speaking and interviews, just about everyone you can imagine suffers with nerves before they begin to talk.
If they don’t, it probably means that they don’t care about what they are about to say.
If you follow the principles of How to get Elected, you will always have the understanding and knowledge to answer questions appropriately off-the-cuff, even when you find them challenging.
In terms of writing a script, the only time you should really do this is when you are literally giving a speech or providing a formal response or question in an environment where getting the form of words across accurately is the primary aim.
For example, when I was a Borough Councillor, writing a script to follow was what I would do if I was addressing the Planning Committee about a contentious issue, or talking to a large group of people about a subject where it was essential to cover all the details and not get any facts wrong.
When you know you are going to be in a situation where you might have the opportunity to speak or ask a question about a certain topic, you should always prepare by reading up and researching the topic in detail first.
Identify some key facts and numbers from a source or sources you can legitimately refer to.
Either try to remember them or write yourself a small prompt note that is easy to see or you can keep on the top of your notes or in your hand. (Remember to ALWAYS keep notes and information you are carrying away from other people’s view!)
If you find yourself caught out with a question you cannot answer, NEVER be tempted to lie.
Be honest and tell people that you don’t know the answer. But will make it your priority to find out. (You can always use it as an excuse to follow up if it’s appropriate to do so).
REMEMBER: When you are in a room speaking or debating with other people, it is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that others are getting their messages across more effectively and clearly. Or that they don’t even have to try.
It’s NOT real – this is just the way that listening to other people speaking about the same subject can affect you emotionally, when you are putting effort and meaning into what you are doing.
The best way to deal with this kind of experience is to simply focus on what you are going to say yourself and make sure you say it. Even if it sounds like someone else has said it before.
NEVER be put off by the behaviour of other speakers who use ridiculing others as a way to try and enhance their own performance.
These are usually the worst offenders for having little to say of any value to anyone but themselves.
This is a very important thing to bear in mind that will help you keep perspective.
Good communication with the people you are going to ask to vote for you is essential.
The good news is that social media makes this task a whole lot easier than it was just a few years ago.
Whereas you might have had to be delivering newsletters through people’s doors regularly at that stage, you can do so much more with social media than you could then.
Before I say any more about the positives, we have to recognise the negative impressions that we have of social media and why.
The chances are that you might not want to use social media at all, because you have heard of things like Twitter trolls, fake news, being ‘cancelled’ and all sorts of other problems that come with using services like Facebook and Twitter.
The news makes using these free services sound very risky if not bad, and there is always a risk that you will have a bad experience in some way.
The upside outweighs the downside however. And if you stick to a few clear rules about what you post or publish yourself, and the material you republish or link as something you like or repost – which can easily be taken as a recommendation by others – even if you didn’t mean it to be, then you can be reasonably safe, most of the time.
We have all heard the jokes and horror stories about people publishing posts about their underwear, what they ate for breakfast or when they went to the toilet.
Yes, some people want to share their entire lives with the online world. But there are no rules saying that you have to do that.
To be a good political communicator, all you need to do is publish material, which is going to appeal to your voters, keep them interested and better still, make them want to get involved.
Some basic rules for social media:
Have a separate account or accounts for your political work and campaigning. Voters will recognise you as being your role in the community and will not find value in hearing about your day-to-day activities as a normal person!
Never publish material that you cannot be sure to be accurate or true – unless you make clear that is your position. If you there is any possibility that you could be linked with material which is potentially untrue or misleading by publishing a link – DON’T!
Never attack anyone personally in any way. Politics is actually about the work of politicians and the results of what they do – NOT about the people who do it, who are just as human as you (even when they don’t act like it!). Always remember the mantra ‘play the ball, not the man’ and you will be fine.
Never take comments made by anyone personally. Once you start publishing as campaigner, activist or candidate, there will be people out there who just want to disagree with you simply because of what you do. Take it as a compliment and bear in mind that they wouldn’t be attacking you if they didn’t feel the work you are doing is a risk to what they themselves do!
When you do feel you are justified in criticising something, focus on what is wrong and explain why it is wrong and how the situation could be improved.
Use facts to back your arguments whenever you can.
Focus your material on action.
Do not make promises you cannot keep.
Be aspirational but keep it real – Talk about your vision for something better but acknowledge the obstacles at the same time.
Always be positive.
Avoid gossip and hearsay.
Always report threatening behaviour to an appropriate authority – as if you follow the rules above, you will not have anything you need to apologise for.
REMEMBER: As soon as you publish something online or to the Internet, it is likely to remain ‘out there’ in some way for good.
Even if you delete something, it is possible that someone, somewhere will have kept a copy.
There are accounts which specialise in publishing deleted Tweets and social media entries.
It will be in your best interests to avoid publishing something which has the potential to embarrass you later, rather than being embarrassed by something before you accept that this statement is true.
Social media options:
There are a range of social media options for you to use.
I am going to focus on the ones that are more mainstream. That’s the ones which are more likely to reach the people who are likely to vote for you or support you in some other way.
My best advice and suggestion would be to use all of them.
That way, you will reach a wider audience and find that they complement each other.
Facebook is a key tool in your election and campaign armory. It is a way to make direct links with voters and then build and develop a good relationship with them where you can keep them in touch with what you are doing and gain support by word-of-mouth as you keep moving on.
As you are looking to work in and for the benefit of your community, you can easily set up a Facebook Page, which can be dedicated to what you are doing.
To do this, you will need a normal Facebook account. But you can and ideally should keep the two separate.
Once you are set up, Facebook will allow you to have an easy to remember address for your page like mine for this Book which is @HowToGetElected.
This will be really useful to have on all of the literature you print and put through people’s doors.
Once you are set up, you can talk about everything you are doing. Add pictures and treat your Facebook Page like your own online news portal.
People like to read about their local area, and it will not take you long to work out what kind of stories will resonate with people, and how you need to present them in order to get through.
Publishing at least daily is a very good idea, because it keeps what you are doing looking fresh and like something that people now need.
Like most things, using Facebook is about practice. As long as you stick to the rules of using social media, you are unlikely to go wrong.
Using Twitter to get Elected
Twitter is a multipurpose election and campaigning tool, which has a broader focus than Facebook – but is just as good in getting your news out to the people who count.
The key to twitter is being able to get your news out in as short a space as possible, either as a sentence or as a link to another one of your social media accounts, where you have a lot more information ready for your readers to visit and find out.
Always remember to keep the rules for social media in mind.
To set up a Twitter account, just visit Twitter (X) and follow the instructions.
Your Twitter address or ‘Username’ should be something that is easy to remember.
Ideally your Username will be your own name. But as more and more people join Twitter, it is possible that someone else, perhaps from the other side of the World will already have that name and be using it on Twitter too!
Your Username will be limited to a fixed number of digits, so you may need to be creative.
If your own name isn’t available in full, perhaps it could be something like @David_Village.
You will have choices – and it’s worth taking your time to decide.
You may be required to confirm your account with an e-mail confirmation or by providing your phone number. But this information will normally remain private and just between Twitter and you.
To begin with on the profile area of your Twitter Account, add a picture of yourself along with a brief description of what you are there to do.
An address for your blog is a great idea, as you will quickly pick up interest in your published and pre-prepared material too.
On the Twitter account for this site – which you can find @How2GetElected, you will see that there is a logo and a background.
You can do something like this too but remember that this is all about representing other people and as such, the focus in this sense should be about you.
Have a quick look at my own Twitter account @AdamTugwell to see what I have done there.
Subscribing:
Twitter or ‘X’ does give you the option to subscribe and get a blue tick, with the added ability to write much longer tweets or posts.
There really is no need to pay for these services and it will be one less thing to remember for your election expenses if you do not.
The key thing is to make sure that you write every tweet or post as a conversation piece – even though it is very short and use words like place names to help others who are searching for news in your area.
People will soon start following you and look for your posts if you keep them useful and informative.
Hands up, blogs are a really good tool for getting your message ‘out there’.
What is more, you can easily post links straight to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Accounts, and if you set up and use one of the main platforms such as WordPress or Blogger, these free and easy to use tools will provide easy to link options as part of the publishing process.
Writing a blog can be the foundation of your campaign to get elected and be a brilliant reference point for all that you do.
To get the very best from your blog, it is essential that you write frequently, write like you are having a conversation, and keep writing about the material which is important to all that you do.
You have the flexibility to add pictures and links, references to other sites and even downloads such as questionnaires or your campaign addresses.
Whilst there are other platforms available, I would advise only using WordPress or Blogger, simply because they are free, and have been developed to make life very easy for people who want to do what you are planning to do.
Your blog address is important and should be based on your name or the area where you will be working.
You can pay for your own domain address if you would like to, if it’s available.
Please bear in mind that if you buy a domain during and only for use during the formal election campaign, you are likely to have to add this to your election expenses!
I suggest you have a good look at WordPress and Blogger and see which you feel comfortable with most.
WordPress
WordPress is accessed directly, and you can explore the options for setting up an account at www.wordpress.com
There are many free templates available, as well as the more sophisticated versions that you can buy.
The free ones are perfectly fine, and after a little editing, will look very personal to you.
Blogger is much like WordPress, except that it is based on having an account with Google first – which you may already have.
Like WordPress, the site is basically free to use. There are many templates to choose from and you can create a really good online presence which is personal to you.
Of the online social media tools, I have highlighted on How to get Elected, LinkedIn is probably going to be least effective in connecting with voters.
That’s not to say LinkedIn doesn’t have its uses. But as what is probably best described as Facebook for professionals, it is much more effective as a networking tool and as a way to get yourself literally linked to a wider audience and like-minded people doing what you are doing, but outside the geographical area where you are working.
It is still worth having a LinkedIn account, even if you do not want to pursue links with other people planning to do what you are doing, as there are likely to be at least a few residents or business owners operating in the area you wish to target who only use this type of social media.
Setting up an Account is easy if you follow the link www.linkedin.com , and once you have set up a profile, all you need do is post your blog, Facebook and Twitter posts to your LinkedIn account.
You will soon find people wanting to ‘Link’, and it’s always worth having a look at their profile to see who they are and what they do before you accept.
Depending upon how confident you feel about using film, an increasingly effective way to reach the people you are asking to vote for you will be by publishing videos using YouTube and TikTok – especially if you are running a campaign over a larger area where it will be very difficult for you to visit every voter.
Contrary to what a lot of the posts will tell you if you research making videos for these platforms, you do not need to invest lots of money in expensive cameras to film yourself speaking for what will ideally be no more than a minute or two at a time – to create what is called a ‘short’.
Shorts are all you need to produce to connect with voters and can be filmed by using the video function on a smartphone with the screen-side camera facing you.
If you follow the basic rules for social media; treat it like you are having a conversation with one person, and make sure you use content that is relevant to the area and the people you are reaching out to, you may be surprised by the response.
Both YouTube and TikTok provide smartphone apps, although it may be best to set up your accounts and profiles on a desktop first.
Please note that using video or any digital platform as the preferred option in a local election campaign is not a good idea, especially when seeking election to the most local Tiers of Government such as Parish & Town or Borough & District Councils, as a lot of the people you need to reach – and more importantly CAN reach by knocking on their front door – will not be using these services. Video for the more local elections will just be added value – IF you have the time!
In a democratic system, it is important that the rules governing elections are kept as far away from political influence as possible.
Sometimes, this isn’t possible as decisions are too big to not be made by the sitting government.
But as far as the management of elections and the money involved in financing political campaigns is concerned, the independent body that oversees and regulates all of this is called the Electoral Commission.
Your local Democratic Services Department manages the elections under its control according to the rules that have been set by the Electoral Commission.
I strongly recommend that you visit the Electoral Commission Website and download the relevant candidate guides and read them too, as they will be a great help in providing you with a clear view of the rules which as a candidate you will be expected to adhere to.
Whilst you are campaigning and during an election itself, your point of contact on the official side of everything will be your local Democratic Services Department. However, it is very useful to understand the rules that they are working to, just in case they don’t always get everything right.
As a candidate, it’s really important that you understand that there are rules governing elections that you MUST follow.
If you don’t follow the rules, you could find yourself being disqualified as a candidate before you even get started on your formal campaign.
If elected, you could find yourself losing your seat.
Worse still, you could even find yourself being charged with a criminal offence.
Some of the most important rules you need to focus on as early as you can, are those concerning your election expenses.
The basic rules:
All candidates running in the same election or Ward/Division/Constituency are entitled to spend the same amount on their election campaign.
You can spend less than the allocated spend for your election if you wish. But you cannot spend more, as this would give you an unfair advantage in a democratic process.
You (or your election agent) MUST submit a signed declaration of your election expenditure after the election has taken place. The information you provide must be accurate to the best of your knowledge and understanding.
As an independent, whatever you spend on an election campaign must be provided or financed by you or by your supporters.
There is currently no public funding available for election campaigns in the UK of any kind.
If you have no formal organisation supporting you, it is essential that you keep a record of where any money, goods or services ‘in kind’ you have received have come from, along with the financial value of what you have received to support your campaign.
How much you can spend on your election campaign:
The key information you will need about how much you can spend on your election campaign should be contained within the candidate pack you will receive from the Democratic Services Department. However, the Democratic Services Department will answer questions for you concerning election finances when information is available.
If you are not provided with the figure for your specific maximum election spend by the Democratic Services Department, you will need two figures to calculate what you can spend in total on your election campaign.
The figures needed to calculate your election spend:
The total number of voters in the Ward or Division where you are going to be a candidate. [Electorate]
The allowance or allocation per voter for the Ward or Division where you are going to be a candidate. [Allocation]
The total number of voters will be available from the Electoral Roll and can be checked with the Democratic Services Department.
The Allocation figure – per voter, should be in your candidate pack.
The calculation for your maximum election spend can be made as follows:
Electorate x Allocation = Maximum Election Spend
For example, in a Ward with an Electorate or total of 2149 people registered to vote, where the spend or Allocation per voter is 39p (£0.39), the Maximum Election Spend would be £838.11 (Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight Pounds and Eleven Pence)
The calculation would be as follows:
2149 x 0.39 = 838.11
The Allocation per voter will probably sound small when you first see it and will almost certainly be in a multiple of Pence. But when you calculate your budget in this way, it will begin to make a lot more sense.
What you can spend your budget on:
What you spend your election budget on is where you need to be really careful.
Anything you spend on your campaign – either directly OR indirectly, is likely to be considered as an election expense.
This means that if you have 5 volunteers helping you during the campaign and after canvassing one day you all go to the pub and you buy them lunch, the value of the bill you pay for the food and drink you all consume might be considered as an election expense.
What you should spend your budget on will be things like:
• Printing
• Paper
• Printer Cartridges
• Design & Artistic Work (If you cannot do it yourself or find a volunteer to assist)
• Phone calls
• Rosettes
• Stickers
• Loud hailer or megaphone hire
You will need to be frugal and buy only what you need.
Anything purchased specifically for the election must be accounted for – even if you do not use it or need it.
Make sure you buy the minimum number of extra items possible to allow for mistakes, damage and wastage and no more.
You do not have to account for the time of volunteers, no matter what they do for you, as long as they have not been paid by you, or by someone else on behalf of you – even if that payment was offered by a third party as a gift.
Ideally, your expenditure should be for goods and services ONLY. Otherwise, things will get messy and probably expensive very quickly. Your budget won’t go that far!
REMEMBER:
You only have to stick to the rules on Election Expenses during the formal Election Period.
Whatever work you have done and whatever you have spent and used BEFORE the Election is formally called will not count as part of your Election Expenses.
This is why giving yourself as much time as possible to campaign and develop your presence in the community BEFORE an election is potentially so beneficial.
You can begin your campaign at any time!
Other:
If you are unsure of anything at any stage, ALWAYS give the Democratic Services Department a call and preferably obtain the response you need by e-mail.
To formally become a candidate in a Local Election, once the election has been called, you will need to submit the signatures of a Proposer and a Seconder (for All Elections) on your Nomination Form, which will normally be provided as part of the Candidate Pack.
For elections to District Level Authorities and above, you will also be required to submit the signatures of a further eight people (Signatories) who support your Nomination as a Candidate.
All of these signatures MUST come from residents who live within the Ward or Division in which you are seeking election, who in turn MUST themselves be recorded and eligible to vote on the Electoral Roll for that same area.
It is a very good idea to work out who you are going to ask to be your Proposer, your Seconder and your other Signatories as early as you possibly can.
In all cases, you must make your Proposers, Seconders and Signatories aware that their name will be noted as a public record, and that they be published as part of the Formal Notice of Candidates, which will be circulated locally within the Ward or Division once the Nomination window has closed and all Candidates for the Election in that area have been recognised.
If your Proposer or Seconder are unhappy with being publicly recognised for their support of your candidacy, you should not use their signatures.
In no circumstances should you use any signature without them being aware of what it has been used for.
REMEMBER:
It’s really easy to make a mistake on Nomination Papers. Not in the sense of what information you give generally, but by using a Proposer, Seconder or Signatory who isn’t eligible to support you.
If this happens and you submit your Nomination Papers, the Democratic Services Department will reject your Nomination and you will have to start all over again – and when I say start all over again, that means going back to all of your Signatories and getting them to sign again, because you cannot make changes to your Nomination Form!
The best ways to make sure you remove as much risk of a problem as possible are as follows:
Check with your Proposer, Seconder and Signatories that they are ALL happy to support you, and have their name recognised in the public domain.
Check that your Proposer, Seconder and Signatories are ALL eligible voters and that present on the Electoral Roll for the Ward or Division where you will be seeking election.
If possible, have two different sets of Signatories. Yes, that’s 2x Proposers, 2x Seconders, 16x normal Signatories and complete 2 separate Nomination Forms. (Check with your Democratic Services Department if they will allow you to make copies. Otherwise, make sure you get yourself a duplicate set of Candidate Forms)
Obtain ALL of your signatures as early as possible during the Formal Campaign.
Submit your completed Candidate Forms to your Democratic Services Department as early as possible – just in case you need to correct a mistake! (You will normally be given a schedule of dates with the Candidate Pack and from this will be able to find out when the Democratic Services Department will be making appointments to receive Candidate submissions. Get an appointment as early as possible!)
SUGGESTIONS:
DO NOT simply accept a Proposer’s, Seconder’s or Signatories word that they are on the Electoral Roll without checking that they are. (Some people are unaware that they are not Registered. Others never got around to Register. A few may have even lost their Registration without being aware. It doesn’t matter why they aren’t there; you need signatures from people who are OR YOUR CANDIDACY WILL NOT BE VALID!!!)
Getting elected is rarely about just one issue. Different people have different priorities and in terms of the people we elect to represent us locally, our choices will be formulated no differently.
Realistically, this means that even if there is one local issue that you feel really passionate about, you will need to broaden your understanding of and response to other issues too.
You need to be able to communicate what you have to offer in a way that will appeal to all of your potential voters. Not just a few.
It means that when the time for your election campaign arrives, you will be equipped and have a good understanding of 3 to 5 real issues facing people locally – perhaps more. Issues that you can use to develop a Manifesto upon which you will build your Campaign. Issues upon which you can base your Pledges – that’s your commitment to voters regarding what you will aim to do.
Your Election Pledges need to be realistic, but aspirational. Solid, but with an open appreciation of what the political environment may allow you to achieve or realistically do. Simple, but with an understanding of the complexity of what it takes to get things done in government.
It is important that you never lie. That you never create issues just to get attention. Or make promises that you know you can never keep.
Always be sure that your Election Pledges reflect what you can realistically influence and not responsibilities of another authority – i.e. relating to something that in the role you would be elected to, you could never actually do.
Use language that shows enthusiasm for what you are doing, as genuine passion always has an advantage in gaining support and convincing people that you can win.
However, you should never mislead people by talking in a way which you know deep down is not you or shows you to be something that you know you are not.
REMEMBER:
You can fight for anything. But there is a difference between saying you will fight for something and saying you will change something.
Be honest about your plans and what you know you can actually do.
People will then be far more supportive of you.
Some ideas for Pledges:
Unless you are campaigning with a running mate in a multiple seat Ward or Division, you should never have the same Election Pledges as any other Candidate. Even then, you might only share a few.
From this point of view, it is essential that you identify your own issues as the basis for your Election Pledges and Manifesto.
The issues which will appeal to most people can usually be narrowed down to a few.
It will be useful for you to research and understand how they relate to the local people who you are going to ask to vote for you and tailor them to your area.
These may include:
• Anti-social behaviour
• Building on the Greenbelt
• Buses and Public Transport
• Bus Shelters
• Council Tax
• Community Resources & Public Buildings (Museums, Recreation Centres etc.)
• Community Transport
• Dog Bins
• Environment
• Flooding & Flood Protection
• Green Spaces
• Libraries
• Litter
• Local Grants
• Parking
• Planning
• Policing
• Potholes
• Refuse Collections
• Road Safety
• Social care
• Schools
• Speeding
• Street Cleansing
• Young People
REMEMBER: Depending on the level and type of authority you are seeking election to, you will be restricted to what you can actually influence or do. Do not make promises you know you can never keep!
Unless you are fortunate enough to find yourself in an uncontested election, you will have competition from other candidates during the Election Campaign itself, and possibly before it too.
It’s very easy to lose focus on what you are doing yourself and be unsettled by what other candidates might be doing, particularly if they publish a message which sounds very strong, or they are featured by the local media in some way when you have not.
This experience is quite normal for anyone getting into politics for the first time, and one that even a lot of experienced politicians have too!
What you should bear in mind is that when you are promoting a message and ‘putting yourself out there’ in public, it is perfectly normal to become sensitive to anything that might bring into question what you are doing.
The good news is that this is normally an emotional response rather than a logical one.
In fact, your competition will very probably feel in some way insecure when they become aware of anything you do!
These kinds of response are normal.
The very important thing that you need to remember is that every moment you spend worrying about your competition or what they are doing is a moment that you could have spent positively promoting yourself or the work that you have, could and will do.
As far as your competition is concerned, keep perspective on everything you hear. It is in their interests to make you feel uncomfortable and all you need to be focused on is everything that you do.
Once you have your Candidate Pack and the Formal Election Campaign is underway, you will hear a lot about Election Agents.
Don’t worry. It sounds like a very important role. But in a council election, you are unlikely to ever need one as an independent candidate.
In fact, it is not uncommon for Election Agents to delay things for candidates who are running on behalf of a Political Party, who are unlikely to have a choice whether they use one or not.
You could say that an Election Agent is rather like a candidate manager who is recognised formally by the Electoral Process.
An Election Agent can do many things on your behalf, including submitting your Candidate Forms and your Election Return, after the Results are known.
They can also assume the role of key point of contact with the Democratic Services Department and be the first port of call if there is a legal issue during the campaign.
As a lone, independent or non-aligned candidate, there will be very little benefit to you having an Election Agent.
In many ways it will be much better for you to assume the responsibilities of being your own Agent, unless you are able to rely on the support of an Agent who has experience of the Electoral System and running in elections previously.
The Political Parties usually have professional Election Agents who will work from a local or regional office, where in some cases several Election Agents will be based.
Whilst they can take away a lot of the administrative requirements of the Election Process, they are also likely to be responsible for and carrying out the same role for all the candidates running for that Party in that same Election.
As such, times and deadlines can be stretched by the efforts of candidates which might not be as sharp as your own, as a Party Election Agent will group all of your submissions together, in order to save on their time.
You will be allowed to attend, perhaps with one other person. But you will normally be expected to confirm who will be attending prior to the session itself.
Attendance is not required, and your time is likely to be better used working on your Election Campaign, talking to potential voters and knocking on doors.
The Agents for the Political Parties usually attend the Opening of Postal Votes on behalf of candidates, just to check that procedures are followed and everything appears normal.
The process is usually governed very tightly in order to prevent observers from gaining an idea of how the Postal Votes have been allocated.
What you should remember is that with Postal Votes being cast earlier in the Election, the Result can look very different when the Postal Votes are opened, to that which is confirmed at the Count itself.
Election Day itself is likely to be the busiest day of your election campaign.
Why? – Because you do need to remind people to vote!!!
If you have enough money left within your Election Expenses Budget, the first thing you can do – preferably before people have left for work, is deliver an additional ‘get out the vote’ leaflet or note, just to remind people that its Election Day and you are hoping for their support.
During the day itself, you should visit all the Polling Stations that are serving the Ward or Division where you are seeking election.
The staff running the Polling Stations have often committed themselves to the full fifteen-hour day and perhaps more, so politely introducing yourself and perhaps thanking them too will be a great way to show your support and appreciation.
If you have been told by older or infirm Voters within the Ward or Division that they are going to Vote for you, there is nothing wrong with offering them a lift and helping them to the door of the Polling Station and back.
This is something you need to be minded of whilst you are canvassing for planning ahead.
If you have enough support, you can appoint ‘tellers’ to ask and monitor how many of the people who said they would Vote for you have actually attended, as they leave the Polling Station. (You/They can cross off the names of Voters supporting you against the notes you have made on a copy of the Electoral Roll)
This is a long and boring task and requires people who have a lot of patience, as Voters are under no obligation to tell anyone how they voted, and tellers will as such often find themselves rebuffed.
The benefit of appointing tellers is that as the evening of Election Day arrives, you can target your missing voters and literally ‘knock them up’ to remind them to get out and vote.
Believe me, it certainly works, and I have witnessed candidates knocking on doors as late as 9pm to gather perhaps no more than 15 votes in that last stage of the day, then going on to secure their seat by only 10!
When the Polling Stations have closed, there should be enough time to get freshened up and have a quick bite to eat before the Count will be ready to begin, if the Count is taking place immediately after the Polls have closed.
My best advice is that you use this time well. Because an overnight Count can make your Election Day a very long one indeed!
When you’ve got to the very end of the Election Campaign and Election Day itself, the only thing left when the Polling Stations close at 10pm is the Count itself.
What usually happens next is usually a mad dash between the Polling Stations and the venue that has been selected to hold the Count.
Local Authority Election Counts can be delayed if the Election Day itself is shared with a National Election or Referendum, or if the local authority managing the elections has chosen to do so. If this is the case, the Count is most likely to take place during business hours on the Friday after the Election.
The time of the Count itself is always at the discretion of the Returning Officer who will be in charge at the Count itself.
The Count will begin as soon as possible at the allotted time but can be delayed if Ballot Boxes have been delayed or if a complaint has been made regarding the conduct of the Election.
As a candidate, you will automatically be invited to the Count and asked to identify anyone you wish to take with you, as access is normally by invitation only.
It is normal to take your spouse or partner along with your agent and/or some close family members or people who have worked on your campaign.
The number of those able to attend will be limited. So don’t be disappointed if you are only able to take one or two key people with you.
There are no rules that say candidates must attend the Count. So, if you feel you would rather not go, nobody will chase you.
Once the Count begins, not all Wards and Divisions will be counted at the same time and you may have to wait for your own Count to begin – so take refreshments or have money available to buy some, as these will normally be provided. (Check with your Democratic Services Department if you are unsure)
When your Count is underway, you and your representatives will be allowed to watch the counting take place.
It is a really good idea to take this opportunity to watch as you will soon begin to get an idea of how the election has gone for you.
When the Count has been completed, the Returning Officer will speak to the Candidates quietly first, to confirm the results.
If the Count is very close, you can request a recount.
Recounts are worth requesting if there are literally only a few votes between winning a seat and not being elected.
A small margin of error is always possible, and I have seen an independent win a seat against a Party Candidate on a recount, when the initial count had suggested a result that went the other way!
When the results are either clear, or have been accepted by all the Candidates, the Returning Officer will then formally announce the Result of the Election to the Hall.
The good thing about being told quietly first is that if the result has been a disappointment, you will have a few moments to gather yourself before everyone else is told.
Regrettably, Counts can feel pretty raucous at times, especially if the members of political party are in a competitive mood and forget what public elections are actually about.
The thing to remember is that it is all noise and even Candidates who are seeking election for the 3rd or perhaps 4th time will be feeling very nervous up and until the Results are finally in and confirmed.
Regrettably, we live at a time when many people think that all politicians lie and that they don’t have any principles.
Some of today’s politicians have adopted the principle that if they tell people things are different, they simply will be different.
They won’t.
As you are here reading How to get Elected, I am hopeful that you are one of a growing number of public minded individuals who want to put aside self-interest, and work towards the goal of creating something better for all. Whether that should be working alone or working with other like-minded people – no matter what background they might come from.
Having rules that you stick to – a personal code if you like, is essential to have in your toolkit, if you are determined to succeed as a local campaigner and good politician, working towards the goal of delivering something better for all.
Ultimately, we all have the ability to make choices and decisions which rise above any form of bias and focus on the best results for all – even when those around us argue that we are being impractical or suggest that we simply don’t understand how everything works.
Doing what is right can be a very lonely place. But you can always sleep at night, if you always stick to what you know to be right, remain open to changing your mind when you realise you are wrong, and treat others with respect and courtesy at all times – even when their behaviour has upset you in some way, you will never go far wrong.
Following next are the few basic principles that all politicians could benefit from adopting, using and ‘living’ in politics.
If we all did so, this Country would soon become a very different place!
People before Politics.
Every decision that politicians make should be focused on the benefit to the majority of people; not the priorities of the few or of the politicians themselves.
Practicality before Perfection.
We all like the idea of living in a perfect world, but perfection can only ever be an aim in an imperfect world and politicians must make decisions based upon their practical impact; not just on what they would like to see.
Policies made in isolation lead to isolationist Policies.
Just as one policy may be used as an excuse not for enacting another, new policies should not be created without consideration of their real impact upon or collectively with others.
Politicians now need to review the whole system and not use the size of this task as an excuse for not doing so.
Politics is better when it isn’t Personal.
Politics should never be about personalities and when it is, it is a sure sign that those talking are thinking primarily about themselves.
Fear is no excuse in itself.
Any policy made only with emotion and feeling in mind does not consider the wider picture and the full implications.
Too many decisions have historically been made by politicians because of a climate of fear.
Over-reaction and under-reaction can be destructive in equal measure.
However emotive a subject can be, emotions are personal and do not reflect consideration for what is best for the majority in its strictest and most comprehensive sense.
One size never fits all.
We are all different and policies must recognise and embrace those differences in all ways, but without recourse to any form of discrimination whether that be positive or negative.
Decisions affecting us all similarly should be made by central government, whilst decisions based upon locality should rest in the locality with local people and their public representatives.
Central government has as much responsibility to reflect, consider and act upon the decisions made by local representatives as it does have the right to ask others to respect the decisions which are made universally for us all.
Lifestyle choices should be for those living that life.
The preferences and actions of individuals should never be questioned or put in doubt so long as they do not compromise the physical safety, security, lifestyle and freedom of choice of others.
A crisis of conscience for one, is no excuse to obstruct the lifestyle choices of another.
Sadly, critical thinking – or the skill of breaking down information and identifying the relevant points and facts within a message, is not something that is often taught in a way which really helps people to become discerning in respect of what they read, hear or see.
We’ve all heard of ‘fake news’.
So much of the information we receive is now being questioned that we can easily fall into the trap of discounting or ignoring sources which we do not already know or use – just because they are unfamiliar, whilst we can also place too much reliance upon the sources that we have always used.
A significant level of the content of all news we access is simply opinion. Whilst an ‘angle’ makes us feel happy when we are reading a source with which we unthinkingly identify with (The paper we have always read, or a political blog which echo’s the particular brand of politics we follow etc.), it is easy, even for the most intelligent of us to overlook key facts, events and possibilities, when the noise of the writer or speakers opinion has drowned out the points which are not a key part of what they want us to hear.
Giving a genuine voice and true leadership to voters requires politicians and community representatives to have an open mind; to be able to analyse information and pick out the relevant details or salient points – often in real time, which could be a conversation or a debate, and then effectively translate it in terms of its impact(s) and consequence(s).
In the local and national news
The good thing about critical thinking is it is a skill which can be learned and developed.
Focusing on points of information about actions taken and events that have already happened, rather than what a commentator thinks about it OR what they are speculating will happen as a result of an action or event, is a very good place to begin.
Equally, information about planned or scheduled events is helpful to know.
Whereas what a commentator tells us they think is likely to happen during that event helps nobody.
If you only follow news from one or perhaps two different sources each day, it would be sensible to start following other sources too, and definitely ones which you might immediately feel uncomfortable about planning to read or follow.
If you follow the headlines from all the main newspapers and magazines on your Facebook feed, or on Twitter for instance (No you don’t need to subscribe to them all), you will soon start to become attuned to the real content of the news and start disregarding the noise that you have no need to follow.
Word of mouth, gossip and the things that ‘people you know’ tell you
As a potential candidate, thinking about running in a local council election, it’s easy to ignore the national news and to think the rules for the local information that ‘finds its way to you’ are different.
It isn’t.
They aren’t.
If anything, you would be wise adopt an even more robust approach to dealing with the information which finds its way to you by ‘word of mouth’ and gossip – which in this sense means anything that ANYBODY in your community tells you, that you would not otherwise have been aware of.
Inhabitants of the political world, whether they are politicians, activists, officers or community workers, can be some of the worst gossips you could imagine.
It is easy to become snared in the elephant trap of assumed truth, trusting a source which has told you something that they heard from someone else, who heard it from someone else, who themselves heard it from someone else who was actually there when something happened…
Things to consider when you receive information:
TRUST NOTHING YOU CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE!!!
Run your own race. DO NOT unwittingly become the voice or mouthpiece for someone else’s campaign – whatever it might be, as their words can easily invalidate your own.
Always listen carefully to everyone, whether you consider them to be friends or foes. Filter out their opinion from what they say or write and translate the validity of the messages that they are really providing.
Do not repeat, resend or retain gossip or speculation in any form UNLESS you need to do so for purposes such as making a legitimate complaint about someone else’s conduct or behaviour to an appropriate authority.
If the news you are given could be useful, check out the facts and confirm whether the information is true.
ALWAYS validate information you are going to base or build an argument upon.
If you have ‘validated’ information, keep a record of the source and if possible, a link to any articles, documents or copies of the information that you have found.
Quote these sources when you speak or write. But only repeat or reproduce the information exactly as it was published by the original source. NEVER CHANGE ANYTHING YOU USE FROM ANOTHER SOURCE – NO MATTER HOW TEMPTING OR EASY IT MAY SEEM
Follow as many different news sources as possible on Facebook and Twitter.
Watch the news and make notes of what the news actually is.
Watch current affairs programmes and focus on the facts which guests use to build their arguments vs the opinion they wrap around them.
We have sadly become all too familiar with politicians talking around questions when being interviewed, rather than giving a direct answer or any meaningful facts.
Worse still, it is becoming increasingly popular to ‘double down’, backing up or repeating such responses and the opinions which surround them, simply because some people think by doing so will make any difficult questions go away.
They don’t. And being seen to be deliberately economic with the truth, or ‘spinning’ news in a way which suits politicians or their party’s needs has played a very big part in the developing mistrust of those in public life.
Whenever you speak, write or even publicly discuss issues – whether difficult to address or not, it is vital to have researched, understood and retained as many of the key facts that you can, and to have developed a viewpoint or interpretation which fits with the information you have received.
Facts and the genuine knowledge that you have are the anchors which give you credibility in the public eye.
Writing & producing literature
When writing about topics, you will normally have the luxury of time to validate information and facts before you send or publish whatever you have produced.
It is a very good habit to use that information and ensure that you have included as much factual data as you can to support your argument or conclusions.
Speaking, debate & Interviews
The upside of public speaking, debate and scheduled interviews is that you will normally be aware of what you will be asked to talk about, or what specific points or issues you may wish to raise.
As with writing or preparing documents that you will later publish, you should research your subject well, prepare key facts to support what you will say and be comfortable that you can communicate your interpretation without losing your way or talking your way around the houses.
The downside of public speaking, debate and interviews of any kind is that it is likely that you will be asked questions to which you have not prepared a response.
If you keep on top of your subject and think about the implications of all new facts as you do so, your preparedness will allow you to provide responses that demonstrate how well researched you are.
Sometimes, you will be asked a question of some kind for which it was in no way possible to prepare. When you do, don’t bluff, blag or be tempted to lie or shift the focus on to something or someone else.
The best thing you can do is come clean; be honest and tell the interviewer or person questioning you that you don’t have that information to hand; that you were unaware of the events/actions that they have raised, or that you are not in a position to comment at that stage.
Even a Prime Minister, with all the support that they have, can and will be caught out by questions that they were not expecting.
It is human to not have the answers to everything and the people who might vote for you will think of you as being much stronger for being consistently honest, rather than if you lie in an attempt to cover up feeling momentarily weak or vulnerable.
SUGGESTIONS:
Be as prepared as possible.
Research your subjects as widely as you can.
Use credible sources for information.
When you write, use facts and validated information as anchors to build your arguments and conclusions upon.
Use links to your sources as much as possible.
When you are going to be interviewed or speak publicly and know what you might be talking about, research the subject and have your facts and interpretation ready.
If you are asked a question in which the questioner provides news or information you were previously unaware of, do not respond to the information it as if it were a credible fact. Be clear that you are unaware and would need to check or review that information before commenting further.
If you don’t know the answer to a question, come clean and be honest. Say you don’t know and never be tempted to lie – no matter how easy it might feel to do so.
If you feel put on the spot, don’t point the finger, start blaming others or make it personal about someone else in an attempt to get yourself out of bother.
If you are taking your responsibility to the community seriously, you will need to accept that people will contact you at times which suit them, rather than times that ideally suit you.
People see councillors, public representatives and politicians differently to themselves.
As such, they have very different expectations, and it is important that you always keep this in mind.
Using e-mail as a standard communication medium can be a great help. But there are still many people who prefer to speak in person or by phone, and they will expect you to make yourself available at a time that will work for them.
The idea of making yourself available is more frightening than the reality will be.
The times when you will have to go out on dark nights, early on Sunday mornings or at times you might think your community work could get in the way of other things in your life will probably be few and far between. But when they come, it will be essential that you allow as little as possible to get in the way.
The upside is that if you don’t put unnecessary walls in the way of providing access to people who want to take you up on the offer of help, people will rarely be ungrateful for the work that you do, even if it is not necessarily apparent.
If you do receive messages or requests for visits that you cannot immediately respond to properly or are for some reason unable to accommodate, you should always respond and briefly explain the delay and what you plan to do.
From the moment you begin campaigning, it is likely that people will contact you by phone, text, e-mail or social media.
When you receive genuine enquiries – no matter who they are from, you should ALWAYS respond.
If you cannot answer a question or provide the information that the person is seeking immediately, respond and let them know what you intend to do.
DON’T promise to respond by a certain date or time, if speaking or obtaining information from other people is involved.
DON’T commit to delivering an outcome or to doing anything where you have no control over the results.
If you have said you will get back in touch with someone, make sure that you do.
If you cannot help someone, be honest and tell them why. If possible, signpost or introduce them to someone who can.
People will be very understanding when you communicate openly and are honest with them. However, they will soon lose patience and may even be happy to tell others how they feel they have been wronged if you don’t.
If any direct messages you receive are rude, threatening or clearly political in nature, there is no need to respond, and you may be best advised not to do so.
If you feel threatened, you should report this to an appropriate authority.
Responding to proper questions or comments on social media can be difficult when there is an audience involved. If you receive an open message which other people can see but involves providing a response which would be inappropriate for others to read – for instance if it involves contact details, names of others or private information, you should respond only by asking the person contacting you to get in touch in a direct or private way.
You can then deal with the matter with due regard to privacy etc.
Unless you are very confident using social media, it is advisable not to get into any form of debate with anyone on any social media platform.
There are many users of these platforms who deliberately attempt to ‘bait’ other users and draw them into making comments which could be embarrassing or used to paint others in a negative light.
Avoid them and what they are doing whenever and wherever possible!
To get a real idea of what it is actually like to be a local councillor and politician, it is important to talk about how you can very quickly make life unnecessarily difficult for others and make yourself very unpopular too.
Believe it or not, making things personal as a campaigner, activist or politician whilst working in the community and in public, is probably one of the worst things anyone can ever do.
If you genuinely want to take responsibility on behalf of others, you will need to understand and also accept that people who disagree with you will often see you personally as the problem, rather than paying any regard to the quality of your arguments or the facts that you use to make your case.
Think about how you might feel if someone else has a platform to speak on that you do not. They might be saying things that you don’t agree with, or perhaps even know to be completely wrong.
It can make you feel angry. You might feel desperate to speak. Worse still, you might even feel that because they seem to be the one that people are listening to, that what you have to say yourself will actually be what everyone else sees as being wrong.
When that kind of feeling or emotion takes over – and I can assure you that it does for even the most confident public speakers and debaters you could think of, it is essential to keep your cool.
You should never resort to becoming angry and making what could be a knee-jerk response to what you are experiencing as feeling a type of pain.
Reacting like this will almost certainly look and feel like you are making your response about them – and by them, I mean about them personally.
Being a good and effective politician is about allowing the strength and legitimacy of your arguments to win the day. Even when it might appear you haven’t actually won.
It might also help to understand that in most cases, those very same people who are upsetting you with what looks like ice-cold surety and confidence will be feeling exactly the same way as you do too!
Now that’s the easy bit. YES – THE EASY BIT!
Regrettably, that’s the proactive bit. It’s the approach you need to learn and practice all of the time.
Unfortunately, the political environment often requires you to be responsive as well as proactive.
Responding to politicians who make it personal
Many existing politicians do nothing other than make their arguments personal and about the person they are thinking or talking about.
When you are their target, never making it personal can be the last thing that you want to do.
However, this is the time when seeing such behaviour for what it is can really help you most of all.
Poor politicians make it personal when they aren’t in control of their arguments.
They deflect questions when they don’t know what they are doing.
When they have no idea how to solve a problem, how something works or they don’t have any idea what they should actually do, poor politicians use name calling and abuse as what they believe to be a way to make everyone think that they are actually at the top of their game.
When you are on the receiving end of rudeness and even angry or threatening behaviour, it becomes very difficult to respond in a positive, calm and generous way.
But with practice and patience, you will soon learn that arguments using you as the target, rather than what you do are never actually about you.
They are about how somebody else is feeling about what they are doing, and you will soon learn to respond in a very professional and understanding way.
Sadly, politicians who have built their success by being good at attacking others personally will rarely learn to do politics in any other way.
That’s why it is so important that politicians and community representatives who can take and exercise their responsibility in a better way, can work through these challenges and see them for what they are.
They will then be taken seriously and be respected for what they are trying to do for all.
You are probably wondering what on earth ‘always check the cap is screwed tight on the tomato ketchup’ could possibly be about. We are discussing How to get Elected after all!
This page is about always paying attention to detail and remembering who we are. A suggestion that you should never let your guard down in company wherever you might be.
Some cautionary advice is that you should always be minded that you never have genuine friends in politics, and you must therefore keep yourself very safe unless and until you are absolutely sure.
The reason for the title is it is perhaps the best way to illustrate the ubiquitous presence of otherwise meaningless opportunities for you to trip yourself up on a campaign, as a councillor or in politics if you lose focus and take your eyes off the ball.
Being a good campaigner, councillor and politician is about always being conscious of everything we do and the consequences thereafter. Not just in the big things, but in the small things too. Because in the reality which is politics, it can often be the detail which counts.
A Cautionary Campaign Tale…
In the Election Campaign leading to my first District Level Seat with Tewkesbury Borough Council, I was fortunate to be working with volunteers and other candidates running for the same Authority.
We were working together on the principle that many hands made light work (Which in politics is not necessarily the case as the more voters the actual candidate meets the better) and would spend evenings and Saturdays taking it in turns to cover significant parts of our respective target Wards.
After what felt like a successful Saturday morning covering a lot of the area, which was soon to become my Ward, we all headed off for lunch at the local Hungry Horse pub.
When the meal arrived, I immediately headed for the condiments table and returned with a glass bottle of Tommy K.
As I neared the table, I began to shake the bottle, firing the cap and much of the contents across a wall and over one of the other candidates who had travelled some 10 miles or more to help.
I had been relaxed, excited about the feedback from our mornings work and was not thinking about where I was or who I was with.
I had let my guard down.
I didn’t really know the people I was with and had lost sight of almost everything. Just because in that specific moment, we had all had commonality from our morning’s experience sharing just one thing.
How many other instances can you imagine where it would be easy for you to do exactly the same?
It is essential that you keep abreast of all the news which is relevant to your campaign and the authority you are hoping to join as a member.
This means it is not only wise to follow the news and publications from that authority itself, but to also follow the news and developments relating to ALL of the Tiers of Government and/or their representatives in the area which you will share if you are successfully elected.
For all of the local Tiers of Government (Parish/Town, Borough/District, County, MP, MEP)
Follow their Twitter Account
Follow their Facebook Page(s)
Follow/Read the council website
Follow/Read the MP/MEP’s website/blogs
Read any newsletters or community magazines that they produce
Other local sources
Follow/Read the websites of all the local branches of political parties
Follow local schools, community groups and membership organisations on Twitter and Facebook
Follow/Read the local newspaper(s) online, on Twitter and Facebook
National
Follow all of the national newspapers on Facebook and Twitter (see below)
Follow all of the political journals and commentary sites on Facebook and Twitter (see below)
Sign up to all ‘daily updates by e-mail’ opportunities
Sign up to updates from Parliament and the Office for National Statistics
Podcasts
Another source of good information is the growing list of podcasts and videos that are now available on many different platforms.
Like newspapers and the mainstream media, it is necessary to be aware that even the most entertaining and credible speakers on podcasts and videos can have their own agendas and may be watchable enough that the facts they share are easily overwhelmed by opinion.
My advice would be:
Watch or listen to as many different podcasts or videos talking about the same issues as possible
Always use critical thinking
Pay close attention to who they are advertising and any companies or commercial interests that are supporting them
Investigate anything that doesn’t make sense or that you find intriguing
Be aware that sharing your ‘viewing or listening list’ with others may result in them making assumptions about your politics and beliefs – whether you cover all the bases or not.
Links
Below are some links to other Websites and Blogs which you might find useful.
If you have a website or Blog which you feel may be useful to other readers of How to get Elected, please get in touch and let me know.
If you have found ‘How to get Elected’ whilst thinking about joining a political party to become a candidate in an election, you may still find some significant benefit from everything that this book can provide.
There are good and even great politicians within all of the political parties. However, there aren’t enough of them to make the difference that the electorate needs.
‘How to get Elected’ has been published to provide an alternative route to what the political parties currently offer.
Whilst the political parties pretty much have a monopoly on elections at Parliamentary level, independent candidates, or candidates affiliated with small or local political parties often have just as much opportunity as the main political parties to get elected locally, too.
The upside of joining a well-known political party is that you can lean on the experience of others whenever you need it. You may have access to and the support of volunteers and activists who will physically help to campaign on your behalf. You will also, almost certainly have an Election Agent provided by the local party who will keep you in line with Electoral Law requirements and have the costs of printing and potentially even the design of your campaign literature – which may be negligible – covered too.
The downside is that you will normally have to go through a selection process like applying for a job. Others – often sitting councillors or party officials will decide for you whether you are fit to be a party candidate and if you are, where you will be able to run. (This may not be where you live if the party already has incumbent councillors representing the seat who do not intend to ‘stand down’ at the next local election).
When you are campaigning as a party candidate, you will usually be expected to openly show support for other party candidates. This might mean campaigning in other areas or promoting affiliations that could be (seen as) negative towards your own campaign.
Once you have won a seat as a party candidate, the seat is never really considered to be truly representative for its specific electorate, or even to be your own by the party – even though you are the named candidate and occupant of the role.
The first call on your loyalty will always be to the Party.
If you would like to learn more about membership of the well-known existing political parties, please follow the links below:
In theory, it is possible for anyone to get elected as an MP, as long as they are eligible to become a candidate.
The reality is that our current political system doesn’t support candidates who are independent from the well-known political parties and without running for one of them (Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, Reform or SNP) you are unlikely to pick up sufficient votes to even have your deposit returned. (Whilst no financial commitment is required to become a candidate for a Council Election, this is not the case if you wish to run for Parliament).
There are exceptions. For example, former BBC Reporter Martin Bell successfully won the Tatton Seat from the incumbent Tory MP Neil Hamilton in 1997, after both the Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties withdrew their candidates.
However, getting elected to Parliament as an independent is now incredibly rare, in no small part because of the very tribal way that people generally vote in national or General Elections.
Regrettably, it is because of the control that political parties have over the national elections, that so much power currently rests in the hands of a handful of people.
This is one of the key causes for so many of us feeling so disenfranchised by a political system which basically focuses not on the will of the electorate, but on the ideas and will of the few.
It would be wrong to discourage anyone from running as an independent candidate in a Parliamentary Election. But right now, the chances of even one being elected are very slim.
It is important to be aware that without a significant local issue that can really rally everyone to a single cause, you may well enjoy the experience of running, taking part in hustings and even having a little media attention too. But the upshot is that it could be extremely emotionally draining, and you will never match the resources and supporting infrastructure which the political parties have available to them for Elections of this scale and of this kind.
If you really want to make a difference as an Independent, getting elected to local government really is the best place to start, to learn and to really begin to make a difference!
We do need new people to come forward; to bring change and to introduce a new dimension in politics; to create a new paradigm that genuinely serves the best interests of us all.
But those who want change also have to see the situation for what it is, and ‘play the game’ that it has all become.
As a population, we most certainly do deserve something better, and it is possible to have it too.
We just have to be realistic about the route that we will have to travel to get there and what the true cost and implications of that journey might be.
But if you are thinking about starting a party or standing in an election and you think that your own ideas are the best, or that your own interpretation of someone else’s political philosophy is the only way we will win; the fact is that we are already one person nearer to everyone losing a whole lot more.
Can you be the independent or ‘open’ mind that will help the UK to decide?
Even the most passionate and tribal political party supporters will struggle to avoid acknowledging the general disillusionment and feeling that many people now experience with British politics.
The fact is that all of the mainstream political parties – even Reform UK, will continue the same way that they currently doing so at their own – and our peril.
For many of us, seeing yourself as being cut off and without even the remotest hope of being able to influence anything in Government is not a pleasant experience. Least of all, when we see decisions being made which we can in no way relate to, or changes taking place in our own communities or neighbourhoods that simply have no reflection on what we or anybody else that we know seems to think or feel.
A lot of people toy with the idea of putting up or shutting up where today’s political mess is concerned.
It is also a pretty safe bet that whilst they may not openly talk about it, many of the people that you know will have experienced one of those moments where they just ‘know’ that things could somehow be a lot better and that the way things are today simply aren’t right.
Some already have the platform to speak loudly about the injustices of a political system that serves its own interests before anyone else.
Yet many more normal people outside the world of politics and celebrity are frustrated by the seemingly endless status quo, where nothing ever changes for the better and politicians happily tell us that everything is improving when quite frankly, just about everyone but they seem to know that it really isn’t.
It comes as little surprise then, that in elections, a growing number of people are voting for political parties and independent candidates outside of the ‘traditional’ remits of the Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat Parties, and that there is in fact a growing number of political parties being established right across the UK.
Very few politicians are prepared to openly acknowledge the lack of balance and consideration for the consequences of ill-considered policy making throughout Government.
Those who genuinely do almost certainly share the desire of all people outside of politics to see something different to what everyone else today seems forced to experience.
However, those that do understand both the situation and the way that British politics works will also probably question just how much benefit the creation of a plethora of new movements will bring to us all. When what the UK needs is change of a very radical and meaningful kind. Change that we all need to experience right now.
The realities of starting a new political party
To get some real perspective on the impact a new political party is likely to have, the history of Reform UK provides a very clear guideline.
Originating as the Anti-Federalist League in the early 90’s, it took the movement over 20 years to get its first MP genuinely elected to Parliament under the UKIP banner and then, only through the focus of the electoral magnifying lens which is a Parliamentary By-Election.
With its basis as a three-stage single-issue party (AFL, UKIP and then The Brexit Party), before suggesting that Reform UK is itself a new broad-based party, it is arguably only what would be at very best a rare and perhaps unique combination of a cause célèbre – which gave UKIP a nationwide profile – and now the current political climate that leaves the electorate looking for change, which has placed the Reform Party in a position of being ‘mainstream electable’.
Had The European Union not been the UK’s political bogeyman for such a long time, the anti-EU movement itself would have almost certainly been absorbed by one or perhaps all of the main parties long ago, if indeed the creation of a new political stream beyond that of the others had been necessary in the first place.
This fact probably demonstrates the greatest threat to any new party, as finding traction with any issue that is palatable in mainstream thinking is unlikely to take place much before one or more of the other political parties adopts a position on the same footing.
We only need to observe the way that Labour and the Conservatives in particular are struggling to regain or rather recapture the initiative from Reform over issues such as illegal immigration to understand what happens when an issue finds its way from the outside into what political commentators might call the centre ground.
However, in this instance, we are again seeing party political machines manoeuvering themselves with the objective of securing future power, rather than engaging in any kind of meaningful change that demonstrates an understanding of the real issues which sit behind the public discontent.
As I write and edit the revised edition of How to get Elected in early 2025, it would certainly appear to be the case that if the current parliament in the Uk should go to full term, it is increasingly unlikely that substantial forms of both the Conservative and Reform UK parties will be left, and that the two will have amalgamated and become known as one or the other, or in some completely different way.
It is almost impossible to entertain the idea that anything ‘new’ will genuinely succeed in being the change, for as long as so many quietly remain comfortable with the status quo, even though the realities of managed decline are beginning to bite hard for some.
The Political Party Paradox:
We want change. We all know this. We also know that the establishment isn’t working for us. But it’s called the establishment for a very good reason.
When you consider the history and conditions which have supported the longevity and then the rise of Reform UK, you soon begin to realise that the biggest problem facing any new party will be its ability and likelihood of it becoming big enough to reach and engage enough people to gain the national level of recognition and momentum which could see it effect the kind of change that we all now actually need, when all of the political parties in the frame actually share so much in common.
Nobody should be under any illusion that as an electoral force the best AFL, UKIP or The Brexit Party could ever have hoped to achieve would be to win the support of the biggest parliamentary party for perhaps one or two key policies, and then sell itself in compromise against everything else, just to have its moment of power.
Whilst the dynamic certainly appears to have changed and Reform are at least neck and neck if not ahead of Labour and the Conservatives in the Polls as I write, even an early General Election called in the Autumn of 2025 or sometime in 2026 or 2027 would be long enough for everything to have changed and for the real similarities that are driving all the ‘different’ political parties that we currently know to have been ‘found out’.
In reality, the de facto choice of established political parties will continue to morph or adapt their policies to be seen to answer the ‘Reform question’ and in doing so, work to assure themselves either a working parliamentary majority or to become the influence behind it once again at the earliest available opportunity.
You may think that the die is already cast. But we are already experiencing the fallout from the political stalemate that has ensued from a situation where all the Westminster political parties are culturally the same, and have become a ‘Uniparty’, even if their philosophical viewpoints don’t quite appear to match.
The hard fact is that we are facing a situation where we need a majority of MP’s to work together to address all the issues and to change all the policies which will impact upon those issues, whilst ensuring that the impacts of those changes do not then themselves cause other problems that people looking for balance and fairness in their lives simply do not need.
The situation creates a dilemma and significant paradox.
We are all either consciously or subconsciously aware that we do need political parties in the sense that they exist today – or an acceptance and appreciation of common ground between a majority of politicians, in order to effect the change for the better that we need within a genuine democracy.
However, we are all just as equally aware that it is being of the establishment that provides the platform or powerbase to enact change; ground which is currently infested with a self-serving political culture and political party system that quickly excludes voices for change and sings the song of populist thought whilst giving it nothing more than hollow meaning.
So how can we really win?
The circumstances surrounding traditional politics in the UK dictates that it functions through a culture of compromise.
Furthermore, the contemporary political party machinery puts submissive compromise at the core of its recruitment and management processes.
However, if compromise is necessary in any way at all, the policies which result will not have genuinely been created with consideration of the best interests or of the consequences for all truly in mind.
In order for us all to win, it necessarily requires that there is a genuine change in mindset, whether that be for the incumbent political parties, including Reform – which would arguably be a much more productive situation for everyone; or that change itself manifests within the many new and existing groups and independent or ‘open’ minded people out here in our communities who so desperately want to see that change, that they are ready to stand for political office.
Moving forward
You may have heard the saying ‘you can’t beat the system’, and if you have come up against the way that government and all things Legal work, you will probably be able to see the truth in this statement – even when you know that the system is itself flawed and fundamentally wrong.
For those who have been burned by the frustrations and the ‘banging your head against a brick wall’ that comes with it, there is no pleasure in seeing new and enthusiastic people entering politics who either quickly become disillusioned with the realities of the system. Or who simply buy-in to a culture where all those that follow people who lead only for themselves then come to live and believe the idea that ‘that’s just the way it is’.
It may seem that way to those who are prepared to accept the status quo as it is and not take any risks.
But that simply isn’t the truth, and all it would take is for enough of the people already within the system to say ‘no more’ for a real difference to begin unfolding.
Change the system from within (But don’t buy in to the propaganda…)
The easiest way that we could create change would be for that change to come from within the system itself.
That would mean influencing politicians at all levels by becoming the voices that they have no choice but to listen to, i.e. part of the parties themselves.
The problem with this approach is that it has been tried all too many times.
Some very good and well-intended people have failed or ultimately have become part of the very problem that all of us ‘out here’ are currently experiencing.
As they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely…
Today we are experiencing the outcome of decades of the development of a political party system that favours the ascendency of a whole generation of politicians who treat political office as little more than a job and career. Rather than being responsible to the electorate in the ways that most of us outside of the ‘bubble’ know that they should actually be.
Many Westminster party politicians get selected and promoted thereafter by saying and doing the right things for the right people, and a good number of sitting MPs today will have made it to Parliament by going along a career pathway which equips them to progress within the system extremely well but gives them little working knowledge of what the real world is like outside.
How can they make genuinely good decisions affecting the lives of others when they have no real life experience themselves?
The very sad and highly regrettable reality is that getting enough of our sitting MPs to change and give the British people the real voice that they should have through a majority is very unlikely.
The political culture of today says ‘don’t rock the boat or you will get thrown out’ and very few politicians are brave enough to take on a system which takes control freakery into a whole new realm.
Change the system from without (But don’t look at your fight as being one that you can win alone…)
This is where the creation of a new movement or party becomes the attractive option.
But with the realities of establishing just one party that could make a difference covered above, there has to be an acceptance that creating a whole plethora of organisations will in time prove to be no more effective than getting a similar number of independent MPs elected to Parliament.
On their own, small, localised and local community-based-issue parties will very occasionally gain enough momentum to get an MP Elected.
But as just one of 650, you can soon see how little chance there would be of making any measurable kind of difference for us all.
Working together is, however, a very different situation and if it were to be the case that genuine commonality could be found between all of the disparate groups that are currently ‘out here’ already, or which may be launched at some point in the future, the potential would then exist for something very special to happen.
Knowledge of the internet and social media makes the task sound very easy. But without a formula that lights that spark between a whole range of people who have had the independence of mind and motivation to get something ‘of their own’ started, the prospects for success are pretty slim.
After all, some may simply be falling into the trap of thinking that politics is all about one idea ‘winning’ against the ideas of someone else and it is likely to be the case that for many, that very idea is based upon an issue which is personal to them and perhaps just a few people that they know.
The truth of the matter is that if every politician made every decision and promoted every cause on the basis of what will serve the best interests of all, whilst also considering and making allowances for the impact of those decisions on everyone else as they do so, we would no longer require left-wing or socialist politics, parties of the centre ground, or indeed the politics of the right.
Tribal politics makes debate a competition, rather than a process of exploring the methods and plans that will genuinely solve the problems that we all face.
The cold hard reality is that however fair, just or right the ideas might be which underpin the motives of a new party; without losing the idealism, the philosophy and the ‘my idea is better than yours’ mentality, any new movement is unlikely to prove itself to be any better than the Conservatives, Green, Liberal Democrats, Labour or Reform UK Parties, given time.
Thinking a different way:
As a culture, we have been conditioned to look at everything we experience in terms of how it either relates to or affects us personally.
This has taken place at a subconscious or even subliminal level and anyone who really wants to effect change by creating a new political movement, must themselves become mindful of the processes which sit behind this for themselves, and then begin encouraging others to also be mindful of the impact that everyone and everything has on us, the people in our lives and the world we live in.
This is no mean feat and has to be achieved without getting sucked into any of the idealist elephant traps which litter this road, such as green energy, which while being very laudable, has significant practical implications for a society of 60 Million+ people and a situation which simply doesn’t advocate the immediate binning of all other forms of energy or raising taxes on other things to subsidise it.
More and more people are waking up to the lack of balance and fairness in their own lives and those of others.
But just as in the case of the Hundredth Monkey or what we colloquially call ‘memes’ that virally attract attention in what seems like the blink of an eye, the kind of awakening and preparedness that we are discussing here will have to reach a point of critical mass or the seminal moment when a positive direction of travel that cannot be influenced by any of the powers that are aligned against it is achieved.
Regrettably we have to accept that this may not be a realistic prospect on an organic basis alone.
Wait for the wheels to fall off from the inevitable meltdown (That has probably already started…)
Bleak as it may sound and as unfavourable as it may be, change itself may well have to be precipitated by a meltdown or history-changing event which opens the general population to thinking in a very different way. One that also leaves politicians who are not prepared to put the genuine need of the electorate first, with no power to prevent the ascent of those who are.
Today, there are a considerable number of issues that at one degree or another could easily prove to be the catalyst or forerunner of an event, or series of events which create the seedbed for this situation.
The greatest barrier to change is being comfortable with the mess that we are now in.
Yes, it sounds like a very contradictory thing to say. But if you can view the world as consisting of two groups of people:
The people who are benefiting from the way everything works today, and
The people who are losing out and are in pain from the way that everything works today
And then hear and understand that the number of people who believe they are in group a, still far outweighs those who know they are in group b,
You will then be able to see that we are all the victims of a collective situational bias and that there are currently not enough people to achieve the critical mass that will be necessary for change.
If you would like to consider and explore the different options for change, depending upon the circumstances, and also open up to a broader view of what is happening and what may lie ahead, I would invite you to read the other books and papers that I have written which are all available to buy and download from Amazon as books for Kindle, but may also be available as PDF downloads which will be FREE to read:
All of the following titles are available to purchase as complete eBooks for Kindle from Amazon using the links provided.
Where indicated, titles may also be available to download FREE as PDF Copies from my Blogsite in different forms, using the links provided.
If you would like to discuss any of the works listed, please get in touch.
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Corrections & Omissions
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Building, enabling and maintaining good governance, self-sufficiency and freedom for all people and our communities
The Greek Stoic Philosopher Epictetus said “It is not possible to learn what you think you already know.”
Today, one of the greatest challenges that humanity faces is the reality that almost every one of us believes that we already understand how the world works and subsequently believe that how it works today will always continue to provide the basis of how the world will work tomorrow.
With even the most educated academics and experienced experts suffering from what can be argued as a situational bias, where virtually nobody can picture a way of living where the fundamental factors like money and the economic system that we have today aren’t exactly the same, it seems that we have just as easily slipped into the tragic and passive acceptance that the things that we want to be changed, either cannot or will not be changed. For no better reason that we refuse to give up the things that those changes will necessitate, that we still believe to profit or benefit us personally in some way.
For any speaker or writer who dares venture into the realms of sharing even just one or two layers of the massively multilayered truths that underpin the workings of today’s world using a lens or microscope to focus upon one area of life, government or business, the complexities quickly become too hard for others to believe and the label or badge of being a conspiracy theorist or perhaps worse fits just as easily whilst serving the purposes of those who ride the ‘blissful ignorance’ of the masses ridiculously well.
The truth that even the many who do accept that change has now become more than necessary cannot deal with, is that neither the majority nor the critical mass of people required to initiate meaningful levels of societal change can be reached whilst we remain ‘bought in’ to the current paradigm at any level.
Indeed, the change that our lucid moments allow us to recognise as being the only possible direction for a just, fair and balanced society and culture, will not be accepted and certainly not embraced, until enough of us have felt the real pain that the way mankind lives today will inevitably inflict upon us all. For as long as money and material wealth rule the day.
A HAPPY WORLD isn’t coin operated
The world could not only work as well as it does today. But it would actually work much better. IF everyone did what they did, without being tied into the shared belief that everything has monetary value.
Yet it doesn’t take much for any one of us to build a wall against this truth when we will almost inevitably fall into the trap of believing that whilst we might personally be able to accept a different system of values, we believe that nobody else will. Because they are selfish and coin operated. And that as such, the world will always be destined to work the same way.
What I will say to you now is that the world does not and has never needed to be coin operated or run by money. And it can no longer continue to operate in this same way.
The way that the world works today is a manmade construct. One that has fear – not happiness, peace or love at its heart.
What is more, each of us may well have had the free will to choose fear as our motivation and our guide in times past.
But when the impact and consequences of that motivation on the part of any one of us leads to a situation where the free will to choose between fear and the alternative is no longer available for others to decide, the imbalance that is created is one that will inevitably lead to inescapable pain and impoverished circumstances for those others from which it will be impossible for the world itself to hide.
The contradictory belief that unsustainable living is sustainable, because the narrative says so
Fanciful as it may sound, the reality we all face is that the unsustainable ways in which we have all been living have already gone too far.
The decisions that legislators and leaders make do not reflect what is in the best interests of humanity and everything they now do is progressively making a very bad situation even worse.
We do not and have never needed the world to work as it does now.
The benefits of a whole world and everything within it being twisted and manipulated to serve the interests of just a few, are worth nothing and do nothing but cause pain and harm to the masses.
This is an incalculable level of tragedy when we realise that the fundamental basis of everything we need, is being able to or having the ability to live a good life.
A Good Life cannot be bought
A good life isn’t created or achieved on the basis of what we have, what we accumulate or what other people think.
A good life is a state of mind.
And it is a state of mind that allows each and every one of us the opportunity to open the door and rediscover who we really are.
Those committed to the current paradigm will certainly argue that only wealth, influence, power and control can provide the circumstances where this kind of peace can be achieved.
Yet there is nothing peaceful, beneficial and certainly not spiritual about living a life that may be perceived as being good. But can only be achieved where at least one and potentially many others are having to pay some kind of cost.
Just like our bodies are an ecosystem that work to their very best when they are looked after, our communities and localities are all that groups of us need to survive and thrive, whilst showing and maintaining that same respect for all others and sharing between all of us the things that different communities can do that we cannot and vice versa, with the express belief and understanding that cooperation and collaboration rather than control are all any of us need to have very good lives.
Our Future is Local
Plenty has been said and written about the virtues of looking within ourselves rather than continually looking outside for all of the answers, truths and directions that we expect to make our lives work.
Indeed, the purpose of this work isn’t to focus upon the benefits of self-awareness and levels of self-knowing that reach way beyond any basic understanding of self-help fashions such as mindfulness which can be found in seemingly endless numbers online and on channels such as YouTube and TikTok. As that is a journey for each of us to pursue and conclude upon personally.
However, the circumstances and situations that lend themselves to that journey of personal learning and progress are a different matter altogether.
In very basic terms, the most productive and beneficial way for us to live our lives, to experience a good life and to live a life where we will know that we will genuinely succeed, is to live locally, or in ways where everything to which we attribute real value is experienced as first hand, through people we meet face to face and through life experiences which are fully lived and not accessed at any level through the equivalent of a screen.
To experience the human condition and human relationships, it is necessary to have relationships directly with other humans that will condition us to understand how and why other humans behave the way they do and how they think.
Living any other way immediately adds unnecessary levels of complexity in which the behaviours and choices that harm others can easily hide, that just like any other lie, require many other lies and layers of lies in order to protect the original lie.
Despite many convincing narratives that suggest otherwise, progress doesn’t only travel one way. Just like technology doesn’t automatically mean the redundancy and erasure of methodologies that came before it. And it certainly doesn’t mean that advances of any kind that benefit those who control them, should ever come at the cost, hardship, loss or pain of those who would have been involved in any accepted practice that came before it.
In fact, technology driven by the correct motives and the desire to improve life, rather than replace it, is representative of genuine progress, whereas technology used to replace and impoverish people so that those who own and control it can profit is most certainly not representative of any kind of progress.
Just because jobs can be replaced by technology doesn’t mean that they either need to be, or that they should be. And if money wasn’t the only real consideration that was being involved, neither would anyone believe that there would be any need to be either.
Indeed, if money were not in the equation, the need for big companies or big anything, wouldn’t even exist.
The only businesses or organisations that we would need at any level, would be those that have the structures necessary to provide for all our essential needs and the goods and services that make a genuinely good life work.
These aren’t big businesses. Because they aren’t driven by the suggestion that costs can be lowered so that more profit can be made or one business can undercut another that does the same thing, because it can do the same things more cheaply in some way.
These are businesses that exist to provide the best at what they do and provide the best experience that they can for the people that they serve.
These are businesses that are local, that are part of a local supply chain and work within a local circular economy in its truest sense, that have no need to be bigger or biggest, because the one set of values that we all share is built around the belief that every one of us is worth and has value that is exactly the same.
Our Local Future
The default setting that most of us have from the way that our lives and understanding of life has been conditioned will tell even the most learned and intelligent of us that money centric living will always be the way and that everything we are working through here is little more than some kind of utopian dream that is wholly impractical and will never come true.
Yet unsustainable living is by its very nature unsustainable at every level, at that means that to live and believe that it is sustainable is itself untrue.
Those who are looking more closely at the narratives and the truths that they hide will know that life is going to change in one way or another. It is not a question of if, but when, and the only real question that none of us can accurately answer – even though it is easy to speculate, is what event or series of events will be responsible for setting off what we can almost be sure will be a process of change, if we are not already now within it?
Because we tend to be obsessed over the journey and who has decision making control over the next step(s), rather than the outcomes of everything we do, we use outcomes in the sense of what they mean only to us as the basis of any argument over what should come next – in real terms, whose ideas and suggestions should come first.
From this perspective and the conflict that we can see as soon as we begin to be open to how everything works, it can easily feel impossible to visualise an outcome or range of outcomes that could be achievable after having gained buy-in from everyone and the pathways they are demanding, so that the result is meaningful to all as well as being something that actually works.
The paradox is of course that without being able to visualise the destination and what that destination will actually feel like, what it will be to experience it and what being there will actually mean, we don’t have a collective cat in hells chance of ever getting there or doing anything that will actually succeed.
Minded of this, I wrote Our Local Future and took the leap to create a vision or picture of what a world that works for us all would actually look like, feel like and work like. And you can read and work through the structure of Our Local Future and download a copy of the book by visiting HERE.
Putting the first steps towards tomorrow’s world in today’s terms
Whereas Our Local Future may provide the reader with a picture of what a fully functioning just, fair and balanced locality-based world would look like, whether they agree with that vision or not, it does not and will not provide a guide or map that includes all the different steps that we will collectively need to get there. For no better reason than dogmatically sticking to any plan will create more problems than it will ever solve and that in a world of complexity and contradictions like the one we are experiencing today, plans can never replace the choices made by decision makers who make the right decision in the moment, and ultimately will not work.
However, what is not only possible, but is also required with the outlook that we tend to share, is an example of the stepping off point; a signpost in the direction of travel, or rather an outline of the first steps that we could and that we arguably should be taking now. So that what we are doing to ourselves today is no longer destined to be our end, but can be the point from which we make a conscious decision to take each step, and then keep moving and changing step by step, to transform from a world that doesn’t work for everyone, into a world that works for us all, as it always should.
Who does this is not something we should worry about, unless we remain captured by that idea that the next step and who controls it is more important than the outcome or destination itself. And without recognising this, it continues to be unlikely that we will ever agree on how we will recognise that outcome, because the outcome and destination will never have become the topic of our discussion or debate.
From this perspective, I would rather have my work taken apart so that it can be improved upon by all those who can improve upon it, than for the work to have never started at all. And with this in mind, I have created and committed to digital pages An Economy for the Common Good, as a model for how we could all come together as communities and within our localities work together to make a start.
The Glos Community Project
I began this work or project in the summer of 2023, and at that point simply intended to turn an idea in to a practical or turnkey model of how a group of well-intended and appropriately motivated volunteers could begin creating a structure that would lead to a fully functioning and localised economy, that would lead to outcomes that would place localism, circular economy, sustainability and sustainable living, awakened forms of governance and therefore real democracy at its heart.
Because the whole point is about our own communities and where we live and work, I created this model around the areas in which I have lived and live today, so that it would be as realistic as it can be from the very start.
The model is called The Glos Community Project and follows in the next section of this book as a structured and self-explanatory plan that goes as far as to provide the basic adverts and job specs for the social entrepreneurs and community volunteers who are envisaged as being the leaders and pioneers of building An Economy for the Common Good.
The Glos Community Project model is only a guide, providing that first step that I have already alluded to, and one that I hope will invite every reader to think about how our world can and will operate very differently, once we have accepted and are ready to embrace that we must place people, community and the environment we live in at its heart.
The content that follows has been structured in the form of a website that can be found HERE, where comments can be added at the bottom of each page.
If you would like to make suggestions about the subjects raised, please share them there or do get in touch by email at acommunityroute@gmail.com if you would prefer not to share your thoughts publicly.
Please note that I will be happy to publish anything that is well intended and clearly shared with the intention of achieving the best outcome(s) for all, even where such an example directly improves upon the work that has been shared.
Thank you for reading and for your interest in creating An Economy for the Common Good.
Adam Tugwell
February 2025
The Glos Community Project
Introduction
Hello there!
I’m Adam and Gloucestershire is my home. Gloucestershire is the County where I was born and where my family live. It’s where I went to school, where I first worked in farming, where I first trained as a manager for an international company, where I first ran and developed projects for a charity and where I set up my first business. Gloucestershire is also where I was an elected Councillor and Member of three of Gloucestershire’s Local Authorities.
As you can already see, I have a very strong affiliation with Gloucestershire, and with Cheltenham, Cirencester, Tewkesbury and Winchcombe in particular. However, all these places are important to me, not just because of the role and part they have already played in my life. But especially so, because they are all parts of the same community and local communities of which I am or have also been a part.
Community can mean a lot of things and could easily be considered to be different, depending on who you talk to. However, to me a community is the group of people who you share all of the important things in life with, rather than being the people who you share the same things with that are important in your own life.
Community is People and Place
The Community and what the community can do has never been as important as it is becoming and as it will soon become. Given all of the turbulence and difficulties that are beginning to affect everyone in some way, right across the world.
Yes, the world is itself a community. And it would certainly be a much happier, healthier, safe and secure place, if world leaders could cast their own agendas aside, and put the benefits of what they do for the People and the communities they should be serving first.
It’s no excuse, but at the level of world or even national leadership, it’s very easy to lose sight of how important every other person’s life experience is.
That’s why when we think about the basic or essential food, goods and services that each and every one of us needs to live and have self-sufficient lives every day, it is locality, localism and keeping every part of day-to-day life as local as possible, that is going to become the key ingredient to ensuring that everyone has a balanced, fair, just and above all, meaningful life.
Recognising that The System today, isn’t about ‘us’; BUT the Future will be
The Establishment no longer works for any of us, even though the amount that we pay in taxes means that on average, we work until May or June each year and ‘Tax Freedom Day’, when any of the money we earn thereafter is actually ours to spend as if it were our own.
One way or another, the help that we now need doesn’t and will not come from those who we should be able to expect to provide it.
Necessity now requires that whatever help we and our communities now or will need, we will all have to step up and do whatever we can to help ourselves, the people who are in our lives and the way of life and everything within it in the localities that surround us.
Our power lies wherever we focus it
Asking people to help themselves or even making the suggestion that public policy is very much ours to influence and change for the better, is something that many – perhaps even you – will feel some immediate resistance to.
We are, after all, living through a period of our own, if not world history, where we have been conditioned to feel helpless and that solving problems that affect us all is something that somebody, somewhere else is responsible for and always does.
Learned helplessness is a human disaster in the making. Simply because it encourages everyone who believes they are powerless to stand still.
In the circumstances we are experiencing, standing still is like going backwards. Because those who have power are abusing it to take everything that we understand forward, in to a future, in ways that only benefit them and their kind.
However, life isn’t something that happens out there, somewhere.
Life is happening right here, right now, in your mind and in the space or spaces around you that you walk in, talk in, feel in, touch in, eat in, wash in and experience every part of life in – each and every day.
Life isn’t happening remotely in a device somewhere.
But the picture that devices give us of someone else’s life can certainly make it feel like whatever is important in the digital world, is relevant and all-encompassing within our own.
It’s not. And the most painful lesson that we all have to learn, understand and accept in real terms, is that life doesn’t work as it should for more and more of us, because we aren’t living real lives.
Our lives are being dictated by people who are completely out of touch with us and who we are. But have a pedestal, lectern and platform in front of us, just because they are on a digital screen.
The current economic model and system of power doesn’t work for us
There isn’t much that needs to be said to anyone, no matter who you are, where you come from or what you do, for us to reach agreement that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way that everything works.
Whatever your relationship with money, the chances are that you are also concerned by the creeping feeling that less and less of the aspects of your life that you used to feel in charge of, still remain within your control.
In simple terms, it works this way and will continue to get worse in this way, as every decision that’s having an impact on the value of everything we have is being made by people who we are unlikely to ever meet.
The challenge that we all face today, is that the rules that allow all the things that are going wrong for us – no matter what they are – have been created or adapted to serve the purposes of those same people, and these are the people who we have not only trusted, but also put in charge.
Out of sight is out of mind for most.
And people who have power, influence and control by the truckload, are very dangerous when they have no integrity or respect for the responsibilities they have to others.
Localism or Going Local
I’ve written a whole series of books that focus on localism and how the focus of power must be brought back to local communities and for decisions that affect our daily lives to be made as close to us as possible and by people who we know and can trust.
However, the problem that I have faced throughout, is that when talking about anything in a broader or national sense, it quickly becomes as abstract as national politics and national news streams are, even though that’s how we often judge important things to be.
The problem is, real life and what is important to us isn’t abstract.
In fact, the real things that are important and all the things that can have the biggest impact upon everything that is happening to us is not abstract and is very specific indeed.
But we have somehow allowed the abstract, or what is outside of us, to influence all of our specific choices.
With AI and technologies now forcing their way into our digital lives, with consequences that will make real life feel so much easier, whilst teaching us to forget how making decisions for ourselves and even learning new things, the choice between being led by an abstract world where the real influences are never seen or understood, or taking back control and regaining conscious choice in everything we do has never appeared to be such an easy one that is actually so very hard.
Awakening to the reality that hides in plain sight
The damage of centralisation, globalisation and of allowing decisions that affect everyone to be taken by people who are unlikely to ever visit or have reason to understand the things that are happening in our streets and neighbourhoods are very easy for us to see in the news every night.
People who have zero understanding of the consequences and impact on the policies they write for every reason other than those that they should, are condemning increasing numbers of people to harder and more challenging lives, and then blaming them for the problems that they themselves have through their own incompetence caused.
It can only work for us, if we can reach out and touch it
A genuinely self-sufficient and fully localised system of public services and the governance that underpins the systems and processes that affect and impact daily lives would not be in danger of being abused or mismanaged in this way.
Indeed, the only way that we will be able to create a genuinely level playing field of opportunity and a public or community sector that works in the way that it should will be for the full balance of power, influence and decision making to be brought back to the People and local communities and administered openly, transparently and without any bias in the way that it always should.
Real Localism is what Authentic Governance looks like and what it would be.
Localism in its real sense
The most simple way to explain the change of focus from where it is today (Global, Central, European etc.) to where it should be (Local, Community etc.), is to think of it as being a switch from a values set based on money, profit and the accumulation of power and wealth, to the alternative values set which is focused on People, humanity and what we genuinely need for everyone to be happy, healthy, secure and safe.
Real localism isn’t rocket science.
But real localism certainly meets with a lot of resistance when the true depth and scope of what it means are openly discussed, because for many who do so well out of exploiting others (whether they are aware of it or not), localism represents what they believe to be a loss.
Sadly, because the Establishment know and understand that local communities are where the power of the people and everything that supports us should be, they frequently pay lip service to the principle of ‘localism’.
But as in the case of New Labour’s ‘Devolution’ from the 1997 General Election on, and then the Cameron Conservatives ‘Localism’ in the years that have followed since 2010, the type of localism and the return of power to local people that politicians from all sides having been selling us, all add up to no such thing.
Politicians today are desperately promoting what they call localism or any one of a number of similar things, which is Regional Centralisation by another name.
We face a challenging, but achievable course of action, that requires us, our communities, charities and businesses to by-pass the Establishment and begin putting localism into everything we do and are motivated by, if we genuinely want to solve all of the societal problems that not only our communities, but the Country and the whole world faces.
We need a new Economic Model that evolves itself from the community up
If you want to learn about economics, the last person you should ask is an economist.
History – albeit history that is used as a model and translated for the contemporary age, is another thing entirely.
We do not need to return to the dark ages or some kind of feudal system to see that life worked much better for everyone when everything that was needed for day-to-day life was available locally and provided by people that everyone knew.
Simple living is far more intelligent than the ‘connected’ world that we live in where relationships are being dehumanised and we have all become little more than a number or code to every company or organisation that we have any reason to buy something from or to do business with.
We will bypass and reject the heartless and inhumane way of living we experience today by
Prioritising local growing, processing, manufacture and supply.
We will improve life for everyone dramatically by rejecting the money-based value system by
Putting People First.
We will change the world for the better by rejecting the hierarchical structures and system of governance by
Bringing power back to the most local level within our communities – creating a clean, authentic form of democracy that has never been allowed by the power hungry to exist before.
The new enlightenment that we are told we are experiencing is only enlightening for those who believe that they are in control.
People who don’t have any reason to even acknowledge the realities that many of the people whose lives they influence now face, because technology insulates them from all the pain that they cause.
PLEASE Remember: Just because technology can do so many ‘amazing’ things, it doesn’t mean that we are obliged to use it, or that we have no choice when it comes to doing so.
Priority 1: Local, Local, Local
Life isn’t a theory.
Yet we have life dictated to us as if it is.
The only way that things can really work in the best way possible for us all, is for whole supply chains, the route of food from farm to fork and how business works and money or currencies flow to be in circles that are as local as it is possible for them to be.
Forget any ideas, philosophies or narratives that identify with localism purely as ‘circular’ or ‘doughnut’ economics.
Whilst they may be well intended, these are theories that are based upon the current money-centric system continuing to be prevalent across all areas of life.
They are NOT what real localised economies are really about.
Localism and Locality Economics are about everything in life and the business streams that support life, people, communities and the environment, working locally and in a very localised way.
Priority 2: People First
Money isn’t everything. But people, our relationships and the world we live in really are.
People or human based values are in short supply, so the most effective way to change everything is to put People and our communities first.
We don’t need to make massive profits to experience happy, healthy, safe and secure lives. But we do need to have faith that changing minds – beginning with our own, is the most important step to changing the world to one that is just, fair and balanced for all – and that social enterprises that help everyone without charging more than anyone involved genuinely needs within local communities is the best place to begin.
Priority 3: Local Governance from local Communities and the grassroots up
We may have learned helplessness, but we have the ability to change things right now, by-passing the assumed behaviour that the Establishment expects and by making the system work for us and taking power back, rather than engaging in actions we have been brought up to expect which just continues to funnel power at people who abuse it and use it only to benefit themselves.
In the recent book Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, we discussed the need for us all to act and take part so that the focus of political power is brought back to people we know and the decisions that affect us daily are made by people who have genuine skin in the game when it comes to knowing and understanding what we are experience, how we feel, and how we think.
No, we don’t need a revolution and the destruction of the current electoral system to do this. But we do all need to take part. However, in the long term, we must work towards the removal of any parts of the electoral system or system of democracy that can allow specific interests and the agendas of particular groups of people to manipulate and play the system, as is the case right now.
Social Enterprise and Community Enterprises | Bringing not-for-profit and key local businesses together to work as one
Putting People First isn’t just the long-term aim. Putting People First is the most important stepping off point in the series of practical steps that have the power to influence and deliver large scale change, even without the Establishment giving it its blessing, a green light or any kind of consent.
The way that we can do this is by creating a series of social enterprises that can immediately begin to tackle the issues that are being most acutely felt by what we today recognise as growing wealth inequality and the cost of living crisis, but in reality is a direct result of the broken economic model that the Establishment remains committed to, even though it is continuing to deliver increasing levels of harm to People from all areas and across the whole spectrum of society.
It is certainly true that many will not have even considered the realities that many of the people they pass on the street daily are facing from the growing problems that are a direct result of this broken economic model. Of those that do or are open to the existence of a problem, even more cannot see an alternative way of running a 21st century model of society where money doesn’t have its current role.
Many People genuinely believe that creating a model of society that functions around what everyone needs, rather than what the reducing few just want, cannot deliver happiness, health, security and safety in any way. This is because of the genuine belief that money always has a role to play.
But money or rather inflated prices, excess prices and the greed and profiteering that sits behind it doesn’t have a role to play in any fair, balanced and just society. The only way to demonstrate this is to show the people that need to be convinced, and that’s why those who can see and understand this truth need to be the pioneers when it comes to taking action, as well as having and maintaining a lot of faith.
We can deliver different outcomes and with them, a different life experience for people across our communities very quickly, just by making a start
That start will be social enterprises that follow similar development and growth models in every local area, along with a very small number of new multimodal charity units that provide services for those in very specific cases of need, who have no way to pay.
By passing the Establishment and organisations profiting from essential goods and services that everyone needs
There is no point in attempting to reinvent the wheel. There are already some magnificent social enterprises and not for profit organisations operating in many areas that are doing the very best to help people on a cost-related or free basis already. The Glos Community Project will not seek to replicate or replace any of these within their tangible area of operation, and where or when possible, will also seek to redirect support that might become available to them.
However, The Glos Community Project will operate in any area where we have the volunteers/social business leaders, support and resources, where no such organisation already exists.
The Establishment has had plenty of opportunity to demonstrate that it can reform and get things right. Those involved no longer have the right to demand that we keep waiting for them to get things right, or to expect that we will continue to trust them, just because of the job title or responsibility that they supposedly hold.
This time and the future are ours to decide. They have had their chance and have cast what’s good for everyone rather than just them aside.
In time, many of those from within the current Establishment will accept that there was always a better way and that they made the decision not to exercise the responsibility that they held on our behalf, to do what is right.
We cannot trust anyone from within the Establishment today, to do what is right, until they can see and accept that putting People First is the new paradigm and how everything is going to run.
Who are The Establishment?
We have mentioned the Establishment and the reality that obtaining meaningful change will require bypassing the establishment at the very least.
Knowing who the Establishment are is therefore very important.
As a rule, anyone involved with or directly employed by any of the following will represent the establishment. There are exceptions right across the board, but for the purpose of excluding as much of the risk that comes from those who are invested in obstructing change as possible, in the first instances and until there is definite evidence to support otherwise, we will not trust or knowingly engage with any of the following:
The Establishment includes (but is not limited to):
The Civil Service
Town Councils
Parish Councils
Borough Councils
District Councils
County Councils
Unitary Authorities
Schools
Colleges
Universities
Social Services
Public Services of all kinds
Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) e.g. The Highways Agency / Highways England, The Environment Agency
National Charities that are well-funded and in the public eye
Elected Councillors
Elected Mayors
Members of Parliament
Police & Crime Commissioners
Mainstream Media
Media Companies
Corporate Businesses
Most Celebrities
The Military
Why | The Glos Community Project
Right now, even on the rare occasion that politics does something positive for People, it comes and works its way through the system at a pace that is simply too slow to help and benefit people who genuinely need help in their real lives.
Gloucestershire is no different. And whilst there are at least a few politicians on the seats of local Parish, Town, The Borough and Districts and the County Council who are still genuine in their aim of putting the needs of People first, the reality is that many of them don’t even understand just how little influence they – and therefore the People who elected them – have, over the things that we are expecting them to deal with on our behalf, each and every day.
The elephant trap that we can easily fall into is to think that bitching about any of this or that following, liking and supporting people who are saying all the things that we want to hear will somehow result in change.
It won’t. And that’s why I am here – as just another person from the community we share, who loves Gloucestershire and everything about it, with the aim of connecting like-minded people and taking the very practical steps that we can by working together, to help other members of our community and take the first leaps towards making the Towns, Villages and the Countryside that we love, a much better place and one that reflects the aims, values and aspirations of us all.
We really can change things for the better by doing the things that we can, rather than losing faith because the problems look too big and we believe that we can’t.
HP | The opportunity for change will be what WE make it | The Glos Community Project
You may have already heard of something called social enterprise, businesses that are run on a not-for-profit basis, or businesses that are set up not with the aim of making money, but creating some benefit to the community in some way.
The Glos Community Project is here to explore the opportunities that already exists and that are yet to be identified that will benefit the wider community through the services or products that they provide, whilst providing opportunities for budding social entrepreneurs and practical change activists, along with work opportunities for anyone and everyone – and especially those who might feel that the world has been passing them by.
Right now, I am looking for people who want to be the pioneers of social change within Gloucestershire’s communities. Individuals who are ideally looking for the opportunity to lead and to learn, but are driven by working collaboratively and for the benefit of everyone, rather than long or short term, about what they themselves can earn.
These are voluntary opportunities in the first instance, with the only immediate cost being the time and commitment that it will take, along with the determination that any successful entrepreneur would need to set up a business from scratch – but with the benefit of having the support and guidance of someone who has seen and experienced all of the ups and downs of creating, launching and managing businesses before.
Theres nothing good about global, but local builds love for others every time
Many of us struggle with understanding and identifying the difference between the things we need in life, and the things that we want in our life.
Don’t worry, there will be no judgement coming from me or anyone else who is closely involved in what we are doing if this does or has ever applied to you. The whole system is skewed and the messaging and advertising that is being constantly pumped at all of us has helped blurred the lines so much between need and want, that unless you are awake to anything being wrong with all of this, the two have merged and become one.
In my recent Book Levelling Level, we focused on identifying the difference between basic or essential needs and what many consider to be essential – but are actually just what those people want. We also focused on the reality that with the Establishment having worked tirelessly on behalf of specific interests to make just about every supply chain you could imagine operate to make excessive profits by delivering what everyone who can afford to buy it, wants, the same people who have been responsible have also destroyed the ability of communities and even our whole Country to provide just the basic or essential foods, goods and services that we all need.
Even talking about supply chains and terms like self-sufficiency will sound like gobbledygook or some kind of esoteric language to some. One of the many challenges we face is that this is intentional too. And the myth that we have been conditioned to believe is that everything costs less for us this way, that it is a better, healthier and more enlightened way of living, and that making us all dependent upon people that we have nothing in common with, will get rid of any problems because we all think the same way.
Regrettably, the same way or same thinking is based on nothing more than shared greed, profiteering and a complete lack of care for the human cost, such as loss of local jobs, overuse and unnecessary use of natural resources, exploitation of people and less developed cultures, and the enslavement to debt that is quickly overtaking populations across the world.
Target Business areas | Foods, Goods & Services that are ESSENTIAL to life
The Glos Community Project is all about the basics. The essentials that everyone needs to be able to access each and every day, so that they can lead happy, healthy, safe and secure lives within a fair, balanced and just environment.
Humans don’t get addicted to anything that they need. But the humanity in everyone is quickly destroyed by having too much of what they want.
Whilst the aims of The Glos Community Project will have many points of controversy, depending upon who you are, it’s the definition between what we need and what is essential to life, rather that what we want that will probably get the most backs up, whilst the world is able to continue in the way that it has been.
For the sake of repeating a lot of information that is available in my other books, the basics or the essentials for everyday living look very similar to this:
Food:
Fruits and vegetables that can be grown locally, either on farms, allotments or at home
Bread made using local flour with minimal processing that can be completed by hand or traditional milling methods.
Dairy products including Milk, Cheeses and Yoghurts that are made locally using traditional methods and without chemical additives, extensive processing or refinement
Meats that are farmed, prepared, stored, dressed and retailed locally, without unnecessary miles to heavily and unnecessarily bureaucratised abattoirs and processing facilities.
Fish and seafoods, either farmed inland, or transported from the nearest UK seaport.
Goods:
Clothing (basic)
Cleaning (To keep homes and anything for personal use clean and hygienic)
Kitchen (to cook, prepare and store food and drink)
Laundry (to wash and prepare clothing)
Health & Hygiene (Essential medicines, and goods used to keep clean and healthy such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, sanitary products etc.)
Transport (Bikes, Cars) – Only where regular transport cannot be provided in another or shared way
Services:
Clothing repairs
Vehicle repairs & maintenance where vehicles are owned
Building repairs and construction
Electricity
Water
Gas
Communication (mobile phone, broadband)
Unpaid apps
Entertainment (Free channels)
Transport (where vehicles are not owned or available for essential or irregular journeys)
Banking & Currency (outside of Establishment control)
The More People involved, the more local The Glos Community Project will become
In the first instance, it is difficult to estimate how much interest there will be and which social enterprises will be the most popular, even though I have a good idea what these will be.
If one person per social enterprise model were to come forward for each of them, we would certainly begin by opening up the first of each operation to the widest number of People that it would be possible for us to do so.
However, as interest grows, covering these same areas might be difficult and result in the level of service offered being reduced because there are too many people for one business unit to serve.
When this happens, the area will be divided up, so that every service that The Glos Community Project provides will be offered to the most local area possible.
The growth of The Glos Community Project will be a pathway of decentralization in every sense, focusing on improving accessibility and transparency at each and every step of the way.
Theres nothing about The Glos Community Project that can’t be done. The voices that say otherwise are from people who just have selfish reasons not to do it
No matter how you came to discover The Glos Community Project, there is a good chance that unless you have been searching for other like-minded people to do the things that you have already been thinking about, you will read through the list of social businesses that we want to see available to every community – just to begin with, and that you will think that this is something that cannot be done.
If you have an open mind, please ask yourself the question what makes you believe that, and then follow up by asking yourself why.
Everything listed on this site is achievable. Not only that. As more People from our communities sign up, commit to our aims and provide us with whatever support they can, more and more of us will understand that putting people first is a very good, mutually beneficial and happy way to live, where the results will speak for themselves.
Whilst it will be challenging to get the first few of each social business model planned, where necessary funded, launched and then running, we will very quickly have turnkey frameworks or plans available for every new area, that only then have to be tailored to ensure that whatever is being offered, will meet that specific community’s needs.
Areas outside of Gloucestershire
I will be as happy to hear from you if you are outside of Gloucestershire as I will be if you get in touch with me from any of the communities and local areas within.
We might need to take a different approach, depending on what you are able to do, but The Glos Community Project is just a model or incubator where we can all learn, and we must aspire to a much wider roll-out if community or grassroots power is to have the revival that it now can.
If you are from outside Gloucestershire, please consider all the opportunities that have been listed on this site and then get in touch.
I will be happy to arrange a one-to-one meeting via Zoom, WhatsApp, Facetime or Teams. Or if you have a question or questions that would be helpful for others too, I will be happy to post a blog or a video to explain or discuss what we can do.
Area Organisers – Other areas
If you have been reading The Glos Community Project and feel that you might have what it would take to get the ball rolling with a like-for-like Project in your own County or Region, I would really like to hear from you.
Please e-mail me and provide me with whatever information you would want to know about me, if you were already set up in your area and were thinking about inviting me to work alongside you to set up over here in Gloucestershire right now.
Funding Opportunities
We are actively searching for philanthropic support for specific projects or to support them all.
If you would like to provide support through a donation, through sponsorship or through a grant of some kind, we would be very pleased to hear from you at the earliest opportunity.
We are aware that many substantial grants are offered on the basis of meeting very specific aims. Where possible, we will build the services offered in ways that will meet those aims, as long as doing so will not compromise the key principles and aims of The Glos Community Project.
Regrettably, we cannot accept support that would be allocated in support of any political agendas other than bringing back power to communities themselves, through the creation and development of Community Meetings.
If you would like to discuss your idea, please get in touch with Adam for a chat.
Every penny counts and if you are supportive of what we are trying to achieve, but can only afford to make a small donation, we will appreciate and value your support just the same. Please find our Crowdfunder HERE.
About You | Social Entrepreneur
The most important thing about you won’t be anything to do with how creative, innovative or entrepreneurial you are or can be. These are all words that get misused and there are lots of people who genuinely believe myths such as being self-employed means that you are an entrepreneur.
The most important fact or truth about you will be that you are driven by helping others, by genuine social change (no matter how challenging that might appear to be) and that you have accepted that change of the kind that we all need will not come from anyone that most people are expecting it to come from.
I’m not keen on bullet points for something like this, so please treat the following as a framework only, and if there are things that resonate but you are not sure about anything else, please just get in touch and we can have a chat.
You Should
Be motivated by helping others
See everyone as an equal, no matter who or what society suggests that they are
Be open to learning new things
Be able to see everything objectively and be aware of how your feelings might influence this when and if anything leaves you emotionally ‘triggered’.
Think critically – no matter the situation
See a crisis as an opportunity
Able to work in the moment, without a plan or guide to help you
Be sure that you can see commitments and agreements through, even if you are not being watched or monitored
Have a genuine passion for the type of social business(es) that you are interested in and know that you will gain a sense of achievement from being successful within it.
Be open to learning and carrying out any of the jobs or tasks that will be required to make this business run and be successful
Be comfortable with talking to people, to journalists and anyone who has a genuine interest in what you are doing
Have experience working with different social groups, either professionally or voluntarily
Be aiming to earn a wage which relates only to the genuine cost of living at the time
Understand that volunteers are not paid employees and will only do their best for you, if they enjoy and see a benefit to them or what they believe in from doing whatever you ask them to do
Be happy to sign and keep to the terms of a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
These Opportunities are unlikely to be for you if you:
Believe that someone else will solve all of society’s problems
Knowingly hold prejudices of any kind about other people
Are aiming to own your own commercial company or business
Are motivated only by the potential of what you could earn
Have any hang ups about doing any kind of job
Believe that you must be qualified to do anything
Make excuses or tell lies to cover up mistakes, problems or any issues that are outside of your control
Are already committed to any political or social agenda – no matter how good or beneficial you might consider it to be (This includes any political party, green or climate focused movements, groups with a spiritual ‘agenda’, ‘alt’ movements or anything that promotes ideologies built on ‘us vs them’ thinking at any level or of any kind.
Opportunities for Social Entrepreneurs in Gloucestershire
There are a number of different opportunities for people who would like to lead the development of a social business across Gloucestershire.
These will include:
Local News
Clothing Hire & Resale
Car and Bike Loan Hubs
Local Food Circuits
Allotments & Home Growing
Local Exchange Platforms
Local Currency
Homeless Hubs
Community Pubs
Community Brewing
Community Marketplace
Mend & Make Do Repair Centres
Community Meetings
Skills for Life Courses
Community Helpers
Farm Direct Cooperatives
Community Bakeries
Opportunities will be local community specific, with the aim that there will be at least one of every business type listed within walking distance of homes in suburban or town areas, or available and shared between no more than 4 to 6 villages in remote areas.
We will not seek to establish any new social business where a community-focused social business of the same kind, or offering a service of the same kind exists, unless it is being delivered as part of an Establishment agenda.
Opportunities for Volunteers in Gloucestershire
We are also looking for specialist project and management support
Web & Software Developers
Social Media Creation & Support
App Developers
Fundraisers
Citizen Journalists
Areas of Gloucestershire where you might be | The Glos Community Project
Forest of Dean
Coleford
Cinderford
Newent
Longhope & Mitcheldean
Newnham on Severn
Cotswold (South)
Cirencester
Tetbury
Northleach
Fairford
Lechlade
North Cotswold
Bourton on the Water
Stow on the Wold
Moreton in Marsh
Cheltenham
Town
Prestbury
Leckhampton
Hatherley
Tewkesbury (North)
Town
Winchcombe
Bishops Cleeve & Woodmancote
Tewkesbury (South)
Churchdown
Brockworth
Hucclecote
Highnam
Innsworth
Gloucester
City
Quedgeley
Longlevens
Barnwood
Tuffley
Stroud
Town
Stonehouse
Wotton under Edge
Dursley
Painswick
Berkeley & Sharpness
What you will need to provide | Social Entrepreneur
Your time and commitment are the most important requirement.
There is no requirement for you to pay any type of joining or membership fee as a The Glos Community Project Volunteer. You just need to be confident in what you are doing and be prepared to put your name on your project right from the moment you start.
Together we will build the platform that will be required to attract support and any necessary funding to get your social business started.
It is very easy for anyone considering going into business for the first time to believe that they have to buy everything new and have new everything. You don’t.
My aim is to minimalise the risk to everyone who joins The Glos Community Project in whatever role, and to build every new service and the organisation that supports it with the absolute minimum financial cost to those who get involved (i.e. you may need to pay for fuel to travel, use your phone etc.)
Local News
The news ‘industry’ has undergone a massive transformation within the past two decades.
The national news or mainstream media and regional news or what we once referred to as the ‘local papers’ – or what’s left of them all, are completely under the spell or influence of their owners, who pays them or both, and the only losers have been the general public and the people who read, watch or listen to anything that branded media companies produce.
Sadly, local news was one of the biggest casualties of the internet’s arrival, when the ‘cash cow that once was classified advertising’ dried up overnight, pushing the evening paper that everyone went to for everything online, with the outcome very quickly giving the lie to the idea that the local paper was actually about news.
Stories that are important about local life don’t get the coverage that they should do. And the absence of real-life stories from the next village or the school on the other side of the town have only served to fuel the idea that news in the mainstream is representative of real life, and that what comes from outside of our communities is the only news that there is.
Unfortunately, with most of the national or branded news, and much of the stories that come from well-known names and personalities online all being little better than opinion, people have very quickly lost touch with what real life really is.
We need to change this. And we need to make the news interesting to everyone again, without there being any kind of agenda at work.
The Opportunity to set up and contribute to new local community news platforms
We would like to set up news services in every local area, using all of the media options that are available to us to focus on all the stories that are genuine news, rather than being about what someone else wants us all to think.
Focusing on the opportunity to harness citizen journalism at its very best, I am looking for social media, tech and internet-savvy people with the ability to research and write genuine news stories objectively, and where commentary is required, to do so in ways that cover all relevant points of view.
The ability to edit other people’s work will be important, as one of the aims of these local news platforms will be to give people across our communities the opportunity to tell the stories they have that will help and inspire others.
If you are already visualising what you could do with this opportunity, it could very well be one for you.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please e-mail me and include:
Your name, contact and social media details
A copy of your current CV (If you have one)
How much time you have available to commit to The Glos Community Project
A short note explaining why local news provision is interesting to you, what your priorities would be if you were leading the development of this social business in your local area, and how you would get started.
Links to any examples of articles you have written or any media you have created that is available online.
Clothing Hire, Repair, Recycling & Resale
Everyone needs clothing. But fashion itself is one of the most obvious ‘wants’ that the age of consumerism has encouraged us to have, with very small differences existing between clothes carrying or not carrying a name, but that brand itself means that cost itself is one of the key issues when it comes to what clothes any one of us can have.
The media age creates the perceived need, whilst the banks and financiers now provide the credit that is building a time bomb of debt that only exists because of greed. Worse still, the real cost to our communities through the loss of jobs and to the planet from clothing being needlessly made thousands of miles away on the cheap, where working rules don’t exist and costs are cheap so that profit margins can be exponentially increased, really gives the lie to what globalism has really been about.
The more expensive the clothing, the less likely we are to regularly wear or even wear it. Recent data suggests that a significant percentage of new clothing is either never sold or never even worn.
Recycling clothing through apps such as Vinted is already becoming popular and clothing libraries are being tried in some places too. But we could do a lot more and with the long-term aim of returning sustainable clothing manufacture and production to the UK and our communities, we need to make good affordable clothing available to everyone for all occasions – and without the need for anyone to go into debt, whether they can afford it or not.
The opportunity to set up Clothing Libraries and Resale, Recycling and Repair hubs
We would like to set up Clothing hubs in all areas, leveraging the technology that is available, to make Recycling, Repair and Reuse of good clothing a part of normal life once again.
Focusing on creating local stores that are accessible to all, whilst using apps and the internet to make services and sales available online, I am looking for entrepreneurial leaders with a passion for clothes and the drive to make thrifty wardrobes fashionable, to help create a service that will have the ability to help people from all backgrounds in a multitude of ways.
Ideally, you will already have the ability to mend repairable clothing and be comfortable using the existing resale apps and platforms as a start. However, this is certainly one of the social business models that could easily be developed not just by one community-focused individual, but perhaps a few.
If ideas are already flowing through your mind about how clothing libraries, clothing hire and clothing recycling and repair could work even better than what people already know, this could certainly be the opportunity that is reaching out to you.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please e-mail me and include:
Your name, contact and social media details
A copy of your current CV (If you have one)
How much time you have available to commit to The Glos Community Project
If not already included in your CV, an addendum that covers any skills and experience you already have that would help you to make a clothing hub in your area to thrive
Pictures or links to anything that you have done
A short overview of what appeals to you about the concept of Community Clothing Hubs and what you believe the priorities would be at the beginning and during the stages of the early roll-out.
Community Vehicle Lending Hubs | Car and Bike Loans
Sadly, because of the impractical and tyrannical way that Green Policy, Climate Change and ridiculous Policies such as Net Zero have been rolled out and are being adopted by local authorities through polices such as the switch to EPVs, ULEZ and 15 Minute Cities, the practical reality that we don’t need 4-car households and shouldn’t be wasting money that we cannot afford on journeys that we simply don’t need to make are being overlooked and are in danger of being passed by.
We don’t need cars that sit in car parks all day and on driveways or by the sides of roads during holidays, weekends and overnight. But we do need to have access to the most appropriate forms of transport for the journeys that we need to make, as and when we need to make them, and we need a localised system that makes this happen – and happen well, for us all.
The opportunity to set up Community Vehicle Lending Hubs
I am looking for people with an interest in cars, motorbikes, epvs and emerging transport technology to help create and build local vehicle lending hubs that make shared vehicle use both normal and respectable, and in a way that means consistent quality of experience for users, with the minimization of vehicle abuse.
Whilst experience in things like fleet management, repairs, vehicle hire and areas of work like that would clearly be very helpful, starting with a clean sheet and no experience of these areas is likely to be just as helpful, as we really do need to get this offering right to create the buy-in that we need from members of our communities from the start.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please e-mail me and include:
Your name, contact and social media details
A copy of your current CV (If you have one)
How much time you have available to commit to The Glos Community Project
If not already included in your CV, an addendum that covers any skills and experience you already have that would help you to make a Community Vehicle Lending Hub in your area to thrive
A short overview of what appeals to you about the concept of Community Vehicle Lending Hubs and what you believe the priorities would be that will encourage People to trust and rely on borrowing vehicles in your local area, rather than falling back on ones that they own
Community Public Transport
Yes, we already have a large number of community transport organisations and providers such as Dial-a-rides. However, many of these are now driven by and focused upon contracts and provision that has been identified by County Councils and Government Agencies in ways that make them subservient to the Establishment, creating the perception that they are just there for ‘old people’ or children with special educational needs.
On the other hand, the ‘public transport’ that we have, which includes both buses and trains, stopped being public in the genuine sense, the moment that the operating companies, transport providers, and infrastructure companies were privatised and became tools in profit-making hands.
Yes, they provide services that are accessible to the public. But they are not in any way focused on the need for genuine public transport to be universally accessible, and they never will be for as long as private shareholder interest and earnings or dividends being paid to owners remains involved.
In the absence of any will on the part of the Establishment to take back and maintain public transport services without the involvement of privately owned companies or the influence of unions who by holding any organisation to ransom are in effect doing exactly the same thing, we must work to create a Community Public Transport Service that begins by ensuring that transport provision exists within local communities where any services that can be provided by Community Vehicle Lending Hubs ends.
The opportunity to set up a Community Public Transport Hub in your area
The big focus for developing Community Public Transport Hubs is understanding local need, creativity and innovation when it comes to meeting that need, and a very open and positive approach to working with customers from within the local community, as well as being able to engage with and build good working relationships with the stakeholders who will be unavoidably involved.
Unlike the majority of the social entrepreneur roles and opportunities listed with The Glos Community Project, this one does require that those interested already have a Full, preferably clean Driving License which will ideally include minibus driving (up to 17 seats) – NOT for Hire or Reward.
There may also be a requirement for those running or contributing to the management of our Community Public Transport services to hold or qualify for a Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) in bus service operations, and/or that they can apply for and hold a Private Hire License, which will require a basic DBS check and no previous driving disqualifications or other forms of conviction that will exclude them from applying to or being registered by the Licensing Department at the local District or Borough Council.
If you have any past convictions or problems with your driving license, you should be able to check the Licensing Policy for Private Hire & Hackney Taxi Licenses online. Please note that we will check every existing local policy before beginning work on any new hub.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please e-mail me and include:
Your name, contact and social media details
A copy of your current CV (If you have one)
How much time you have available to commit to The Glos Community Project
If not already included in your CV, an addendum that covers any skills and experience you already have that would help you to build a very successful Community Public Transport Service within your local community area
A short overview of what appeals to you about the concept of universal transport provision and Community Public Transport, and what you believe will be necessary for People to experience daily, so that the service genuinely works.
Food Supply
By far the most important areas of the social or community businesses that The Glos Community Project is aiming to focus on is the growing, harvesting, preparation, production and supply of basic or essential foods within the shortest and most reliable supply chains possible.
Sadly, we take for granted that food will always be available either online or at the local supermarket. Even though there were some minor shortages during the Covid Pandemic and some supplies of vegetables were temporarily out of stock or in reduced supply earlier in 2023, the reality is that none of us have yet experienced the shortages and changes to the food supply that are now almost certain to come in the months and years ahead.
Globalisation, centralization and the economics of big business have made our communities and the whole of the UK itself dependent upon the supply of basic and essential foods that we could easily grow ourselves. For the sake of somebody somewhere making bigger and bigger profits, whilst power has been taken further and further away from the people so that it can be concentrated in the hands of the few, we have been sold the lie that it’s better for all of us if food comes to us across whole continents, and that it’s also better for us and will make us all happier if it comes to us in increasingly processed or ultra processed forms.
Many don’t even realize that we have become dependent on foods that are not in any way healthy for us, whilst our agricultural and growing sectors have themselves surrendered or given up the ability to grow and provide a range of food stuffs for local supply, whilst the politics of money and globalism have made farmers reliant upon incomes they have little or no influence over, whilst growing fewer and fewer things.
Farm shops are not a luxury or non-essential choice. But it serves the current economic model for us to see them that way
Many of us visit farm shops – where they are available, and do so with the belief that to do so is a luxury or a treat, because we can be fairly sure that whatever they sell to us will cost more than what we would pay for it at a supermarket – even though the levels of quality and the provenance are nowhere near being the same.
Farm shops and any retail business that sells locally made, perhaps organic, high-quality foods with the absolute minimum of processing involved seem expensive, because the way that most foods are mass produced and massively processed has made them that way. It is quite literally the economics of scale that not only appear to make food cheaper, but also guarantee that the marketplace is controlled by very few hands, and that the people involved make ridiculous profits from whatever they do.
Whilst we need affordable basic or essential foods more than ever, we do not need any part of the process that only appears to benefit us by lowering the purchase price, but then goes on to cost us in every other possible sense – including the increasing risks to our health and our lives.
If the whole of the UK Farming, Growing and Fishing Industries were reformed and restructured so that their priority and focus was always on local supply – through complete supply chains that are as local as it is possible for them to be, the price of all essential and basic foods of a much higher quality and standard would quickly come down and be accessible to everyone too.
Our Farmers are struggling because the Establishment is failing them too
One of the most regrettable parts of the Food Supply Question today is the reality that Farmers are already acutely aware that the self-sufficiency or food security of the whole of the UK is now at very high risk.
Sadly, although Farmers are some of the most creative, resourceful and entrepreneurial people you could ever meet or know, the Industry and its leaders like the National Farmers Union, is still very much committed to the misplaced belief that the Establishment will come to the rescue and provide the support they all want for whatever they currently envision as being the necessary change.
For those from the farming community who read this, it is time to realise, understand and accept that there are many different agendas at work within and beyond the Establishment, but none of them place a priority on anything like the traditional model of farming even in the way that we currently know or believe it to be.
Like so many other areas of business and life, we must now take a very practical approach and different view of food production, and continue to do so for as long as the current Establishment is able to maintain its hold.
We must bypass the Establishment food strategies and incentive plans, and point all farming and food producing businesses back to community focused production using up to date methodology and thinking, but in a very traditional, perhaps even shops-around-the-village-green kind of way.
On the current trajectory, more and more farmers will lose or have to give up farms, whilst communities will be pushed further and further away from being able to sustain themselves as we unnecessary lose more and more productive land.
Local Food Circuits
The Glos Community Project aims to work with farmers, and all locally aligned businesses to champion and recreate localised Community Food Chains that keep the growing, production, necessary processing and preparation, transport and supply of all basic and essential foods as local and as self-sufficient as possible, so that local communities can quite literally fend for themselves.
This is an ambitious task. Not least of all, because many will see the return of fully localised markets as a regressive or backwards step, simply because of the way that certain interests and the focus upon profit always being the key priority has conditioned them to think.
However, farmers, aligned business leaders and members of the wider community coming together to discuss a mutually beneficial strategy will quickly open up doors and a dialogue that very few would currently consider to be viable – but that is quickly going to make a massive amount of sense in what are very turbulent and changing times.
The Opportunity to Facilitate and Coordinate Farm Direct Cooperatives
I am actively looking for a number of social entrepreneurs who have the people skills, the ability and the motivation to knock on doors, open up and build new relationships with a range of very different people who are very worried about the future, but are at least initially likely to be very resistant to considering stepping away from the business model where the establishment makes all the rules and only they can offer any help.
You may be from the Farming or Rural Community or from outside of them. But you will have both fluency and understanding not only what farmers and growers have the ability to do, as well as what might be their needs, along with a very innovative and entrepreneurial view and understanding of what it is likely to take to get the right people, businesses and agencies together, to make robust local food supply chains work, so that the self-sufficiency and food security of local communities can be guaranteed.
It is very important to accept that the really exciting part of this social or community business platform will be just how much knowledge already exists within all of businesses that would gain from being involved and that the success of this part of The Glos Community Project will depend on getting everyone who could contribute and benefit from this, not only to open up and share their ideas, but to also commit to becoming actively involved.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please e-mail me and include:
Your name, contact and social media details
A copy of your current CV (If you have one)
How much time you have available to commit to The Glos Community Project
If not already included in your CV, an addendum that covers any skills and experience you already have that would help you to open doors within the farming community and with business leaders within the community who will all need to be inspired by the story that makes real the truth that there is another way.
A short overview of why you believe that Local Food Circuits will provide food security and what you believe the common USP will be that will engage, create buy-in and get everyone important on board
Allotments & Home Growing
Whilst farmers and the Grower community have the ability to change their working practices and to create and employ new infrastructure quickly, the industry wide change that will be needed may not happen as quickly as we might all like – once the need for this massive change really begins to hit home.
To help and support the creation, development and implementation of Local Food Circuits, there is a part that the majority of us can play in helping ourselves and contributing to the local community effort, if we are prepared to ‘Home Grow’ any foods that we can.
There are a range of ways that Home Growing from the smallest scale up to a level where you might be able to supply certain fruits or vegetables to your whole area could be possible, depending on what resources you already have access to. These might include a garden, a deep window sill, an allotment, or an area within your home where you could set up a hydroponics system.
Today, Home Growing is seen as being quirky or excentric by many. Yet it could be a very easy and quick way for everyone who is able, to ensure that they have ongoing or regular access to a source of the vital nutrition that everyone genuinely needs.
The opportunity to Facilitate and Coordinate Home Growing Hubs
To support Local Food Circuits and also feed into our new Community Marketplace, it is an aim of The Glos Community Project to support homeowners to utlise the space and resources that they have available for Home Growing, and to identify land and develop the availability of allotments so that Home Grown fruits or vegetables of one kind or another are available to everyone.
I am looking for social entrepreneurs who can either set up and run, or coordinate others to provide the following:
Purchase, sale and supply of gardening equipment
Purchase, sale and supply of hydroponics equipment
Rental, purchase, preparation and letting of allotments
Developing an online signposting service to quickly identify anything that will help
Work with our Skills for Life facilitators to provide online, classroom and one-to-one training
Like Farm Direct Facilitators and Coordinators, the ability and desire to collaborate with others who have knowledge and skills that will help is vital to the success of this role, as if having a very open mind and the ability to inspire people across the community to think about the meaning of self-sufficiency in a very different way.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please e-mail me and include:
Your name, contact and social media details
A copy of your current CV (If you have one)
How much time you have available to commit to The Glos Community Project
If not already included in your CV, an addendum that covers any skills and experience you already have that would help to demonstrate the kind of approach you would have to getting people to commit to and stay committed to Home Growing.
A short overview of what appeals to you about Home Growing and the role you see that it will play in providing food security at the most local level.
Building Local Economies
‘But we already have a local economy?’ I hear you think.
Yes, we do. But they are very much part of the national and international economy and the real question you might want to ask yourself is how does the economic system that we have really benefit or work for you?
Unless you are a) a billionaire b) a massive corporate shareholder c) playing the markets in some way or d) working for one or someone very similar to all of the above, the economic and monetary system that we have is not working for you or benefiting you in any way – whatever the common, constructed or urban myths tell you.
In my book Levelling Level, we discussed the certain reality that Money isn’t worth anything other than what any of us believe it to be. But that doesn’t stop a great many people who are otherwise probably very sensible from attributing great value to it and letting the accumulation and manipulation of it takeover their lives – all without even a second thought for the cost to everyone else.
Regrettably, the journey that the Establishment is now pushing us along toward the extinction of cash and the use of central digital bank currencies (CDBC) or government derived cryptocurrencies isn’t one that will end well for anyone whose interests aren’t closely aligned with whatever the narrative of the Establishment might be.
The immense power that will be held by people we will never meet, because they can see where every penny of our money has come from and how it is then spent is only surpassed in terms of the danger to our freedom to do whatever we legally want to, by the reality that just because they might disagree with something we have said or whatever we might believe in, they would have the power to switch our money off and prevent us from accessing it whenever they might like.
You only need to think about the political figures who are already having their banking facilities closed down and are being denied access to alternatives to see an illustration of how this will all work. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with their politics or not today, this type of action will become a growing threat to the entire population if the management of money remains in the hands of the Establishment – and that’s before we even get to the discussion about the damage a financial system where the Establishment can just create money as and when it feels like it is doing and has done to our lives already – before thinking about what absolute control and tracking of money will allow them to make it become.
Making money and currencies nothing more than a unit of exchange, once again
The value of money dictates everything today. And the value of money is in the hands of the establishment and very greedy and profit hungry people who have zero understanding and no care about the consequences that come from what they do, as long as the system continues to benefit them.
Whilst a return to the gold standard and pegged or anchored economies would be a sensible step, the reality is that the system is now so rotten and influenced by speculation and private interests that are on the make, that the governance that exists is unlikely to ever deliver a monetary or economic system that genuinely works in the best interest of us all.
We have no choice but to start the money system all over again.
People, their presence and their value and input into the economy is the method that should be the basis for all financial value, not how much anything and everything costs us, or when we possess it, it can then be considered to be worth.
Through The Glos Community Project, the long term aim will be to create a system of new, localised currencies that will be available in a cash equivalent and cryptocurrency or digital form, but will be administered locally and be geographically specific, with the national level currency only being used for transactions between areas or as the baseline that maintains a fixed value between what the basic unit of each currency is worth.
In the short term, the creation of local economies will be focused on allowing people to trade anything they want to, including their labour, their knowledge and their skills, in a way that will quickly become insulated against greed and stupidity driven forms of inflation that are quite literally on the verge of collapsing the existing financial system or ‘bringing down the bank’.
We have no choice but to go back to basics and reject a monetary system that is destroying lives whilst it manipulates all of us and abuses our trust.
Bartering and Fair Exchange
Nobody other than the individual themselves, should be able to define and police a system of values that can exclude or disenfranchise them, based on issues that are outside of their own influence.
With increasing numbers of people missing meals or being forced to make the conscious decision between what essentials they can or can no longer afford, the return to a system where everything can be traded openly and fairly has never been needed by so many as it is right now.
The Glos Community Project is focusing upon bartering and exchange of new and used goods, basic and essential foods and the services that People genuinely need so that anything and everything that any person has or is able to legally able to offer for sale or for exchange can be traded for something that they need, or for a monetary or currency value that is based solely on what the trading parties agree that the specific item or offering is worth.
Community Marketplaces & Local Exchanges
The New Local Economy is built around Local Exchanges, where all goods and services are available and accessible to all, whether they are provided by a business or an individual.
Membership is open to everyone from within the area of the community and trading is available both at a Local Exchange Hub and online with any costs being covered by a membership and/or access fee on a not-for-profit basis.
Local Currency
The ultimate aim is that each local community will have its own currency that will be available in both a cash equivalent and digital or cryptocurrency form.
The local currency will be fixed in value so that outside influences are then unable to profit from trading the currency or damage the stability of the Local Economy by either crashing or over inflating the total value of the money that is in circulation, held by any person or business and in use.
Local currencies will be the normal method of exchange within the community, but will be interchangeable with the national currency.
The only circumstances where the value of the currency will be negotiable would be within the circumstances of essential international trade
Building The Community Marketplace
Increasing numbers of People are unable to afford to buy the basic food, essential goods and services that they need, just to remain healthy, safe and secure.
Communities must take the steps necessary to help everyone who needs to turn the food they grow, the goods they make or no longer want, or the spare time that they have into whatever they need most, without middle men or profit-making businesses inflating the costs of anything and everything they touch.
The Glos Community Project is building a Community Marketplace that will pivot around a Local Exchange that is both physical and online, and will be supported by a fixed value local currency that will be available in both cash and digital forms.
The opportunity to Facilitate and Coordinate the Community Marketplace
I am looking for social entrepreneurs who already have a good practical understanding of the real economy, as well as the basic theories that underpin both classical and neoclassical economics in the sense that they relate to how the world works today.
However, that in itself is not enough. Being visionary in your outlook, you must be able to look beyond a world where money is the common factor in everything, and replace it with a much happier and healthier one where people and humanity are the common factor instead.
Stepping through and navigating between the world as most people see it today, and how it’s going to be, you will become a key collaborator, helping to develop the Community Marketplace person by person and business by business, as we complete the design and planning of the Local Exchanges and Currencies that will provide the necessary infrastructure, and then roll the whole system out.
Able to work as easily with the abstract as well as the practical, whilst making allowances for how others may not easily be able to do the same, any knowledge of cryptocurrencies, software and app design as well as existing trading and auction sites online will all be a great help.
Above all, like all the roles working with others within The Glos Community Project, it’s the relationship with people and understanding how others think and what influences them to do so that will help you most of all.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please e-mail me and include:
Your name, contact and social media details
A copy of your current CV (If you have one)
How much time you have available to commit to The Glos Community Project
If not already included in your CV, an addendum that covers any skills and experience you already have that would help show your fluency in economics and money management,
A short overview of what appeals to you about Community Marketplaces whilst demonstrating that you not only grasp but are fully committed to the principle of building community tools that put People First too.
Mend & Make Do | Repair Centres
Recycle, Reuse, Repair, Restore, Refurbish, Reclaim, Revitalise are all words that our current throw-away culture has taught us to look down on, unless you are either trying to make some kind of statement about your values, or you already have no choice but to recognise the value that remains within all sorts of goods that we use every day, but would otherwise just replace.
Those who still have the luxury of being able to afford and access goods that in many cases have deliberately been created with planned obsolescence or the ongoing need for them to be replaced in mind, rarely consider the reality that the option of recycling, reusing and repairing exists. Yet beyond the waste of money that every new purchase that could have been avoided really is, these are too often the same people that tell us they are the champions of green and ethical issues that run completely contrary to the profit driven exploitation and overuse of natural resources that their buying habits have legitimized, and that the greater percentage of all purchases made today are for goods that they want, but don’t actually need.
Theres nothing wrong with making maximum use of everything that we need. Ultimately, we must embrace a new view of standards for all goods so that quality will ensure longevity, and ongoing reuse, so that industry only delivers the goods that we need them too, and returns to both a size, standard and locality that works for our communities and our country as it should.
The Glos Community Project aims to promote the Make Do and Mend or Mend and Make do mindset, that successfully got British People through the very challenging period that surrounded the Second World War, but also demonstrated that there is nothing wrong with making the best of everything that we have – and that the problems only arise when narratives change or the messages that are shared publicly suggest that this isn’t a healthy way to think.
We want anyone and everyone who has goods, clothes or equipment that they have previously thrown away to start thinking again, and to start thinking recycle, repair, reuse, even if they don’t need them for their own use and then sell or exchange them, so that those items can then make someone else happy elsewhere.
The Opportunity to Coordinate and facilitate Local Repair & Refurbishment Hubs
These are roles that will work closely with the Facilitators & Coordinators of our Local Market Exchanges and Clothing Libraries and depending upon the skills and background of the applicant, they could oversee the development and management of both.
For stand-alone operations, I am looking for socially entrepreneurial people who have a background as a professional, voluntarily or even as a hobby, in repairing furniture, bikes, electrical goods and general household items to a very high standard – and to meet legislative requirements where necessary.
Repair Hubs are likely to run better with a number of people pooling their different skills and experience together, and it is therefore likely that applicants can expect to be collaborating with others very closely, from very early on.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please e-mail me and include:
Your name, contact and social media details
A copy of your current CV (If you have one)
How much time you have available to commit to The Glos Community Project
If not already included in your CV, an addendum that covers any skills and experience you already have that makes clear any technical training, experience and time served that you have.
A short overview of what appeals to you about being a champion of ‘Make Do and Mend’ thinking, and how making a social business out of the processes involved is a very exciting prospect for you.
Skills for Life Courses
Regrettably, education has lost sight of the relationship between being able to live a good, healthy and self-sufficient life, and what political and academic idealism currently dictates that it should be.
The problems that many people face throughout their lifetimes, just because a one-size-fits-all model has been imposed on a significant part of the population that either has a very different learning style, or for reasons outside of conscious control aren’t engaged with schooling in the way they are currently expected, do not fit a modern society that champions equality in all things.
In the longer term, the consequences of not having an education system that genuinely respects the reality that all young people of school age are generally either heads or hands, will be addressed by forms of government that actually do what public representation says it will on the box.
Until then we need to create new ways to help not only young people, but people of all ages to learn skills for life that the education system failed to give them, or doesn’t even offer any of us as standard anyway.
Life skills are predominantly practical or about the way that we perceive the world or think about it. So, unless the objectivity of academically trained or qualified teachers is clearly demonstrated, using ‘teachers’ to ‘teach’ anyone these skills or guide them to achieve this kind of understanding isn’t likely to be the best way.
The Glos Community Project aims to create an experientially led syllabus of skills and ideas that can be accessed and delivered locally within the community, by people from that community who genuinely have things that will be of use to others to share.
Courses are planned and will include:
Politics and how Politics and Government works
Basic Economics and how the current economy works
Critical Thinking and the dangers of Groupthink
Living without being influenced by AI
Surviving Social Media
Growing your own Food
Planning your own work-from-home business
Spiritual & Religious Independence
The Opportunity to Coordinate and Facilitate Community Skills for Life Hubs
I am looking for socially entrepreneurial people who have an understanding of education, but also see the value in providing learning opportunities in a more tailored form.
Openly bypassing the Establishment education offering for young people and adults of all ages and abilities, you will be able to speak credibly and create learning tools that are objective and give an accurate view of the areas you specialise in.
Where necessary, you will have a technical understanding that can be demonstrated by qualifications, by experience or both. But whatever background you have, you will be committed to The Glos Community Project principles of freedom of the person and freedom of thought.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please e-mail me and include:
Your name, contact and social media details
A copy of your current CV (If you have one)
How much time you have available to commit to The Glos Community Project
If not already included in your CV, an addendum that covers any skills and experience you already have that makes clear you have skills and experience that will be of great value to others when shared (If you’ve read this far and sharing your learning with others is what interests you, please don’t be put off if this question makes you feel like you might not be qualified. Just tell me what you thought of when the question came to you ‘what can you share?’
Other Opportunities
If you don’t feel able or wouldn’t have the time to take on a facilitation or coordination role, we are also seeking people from all backgrounds to share their experience with others.
The list of planned Course above is also by no means exhaustive. So, if you have recognised the need for some kind of training that can be shared and will be genuinely beneficial for everyone within your community – without any kind of aim to influence the way that they think in some way, please get in touch.
Other Project Services The Glos Community Project is working on
As you will already realise, having read this far, we are very motivated by the prospect of what people within our communities coming together have the power to deliver and to do.
We have lots of ideas that we would like to consider, discuss and flesh out with the input of anyone and everyone who feels they can bring useful ideas, knowledge and understanding to the table, so that we can go on to achieve all the things that we would like to.
The list below only represents what we are going to begin looking more carefully at next.
If you have ideas about any of these, or are already considering or working on a social enterprise or charity project in Gloucestershire that sounds like it might overlap with any of these in some way, please get in touch and lets have a chat about how we might be able to help or collaborate so that together, we can achieve our mutual aims.
Community Helpers
Homeless Hubs
Community Pubs
Community Brewing
Community Supermarket
Community Bakery
And there will be more…
Community Meetings | Building a Real Democracy
Politics is the subject that we love to hate and we hate politics for all of the reasons that have made the way that politics is being done across the UK so very wrong.
Whilst it has not been publicly recognised, a very different way of doing politics in the UK exists right now, that has the ability to deliver very different outcomes for us all – just by working together from within our communities, to ensure that when elections are called, we have proper community representatives on the ballot paper, rather than someone or some organisations self-interested choice.
For those who want to see real political change and for us to have public representatives who actually represent the public, once they have been elected, there are opportunities across every community to set up and facilitate Community Meetings where communities can select and appoint candidates for all elections, who are qualified and endorsed as the community choice.
The whole process is covered in my recent book Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, which is available as a book for Kindle on Amazon, or can be read without cost if you would like to visit my Blog, HERE.
I will be very happy to offer the same kind of help and support to anyone who has read through the whole book and feels that the process tabled is one that they can commit to and follow.
Please get in touch, if you would like to discuss the book and the opportunity to collaborate on this very exciting community building project.
How we will create and develop each social enterprise
The really exciting part for anyone joining The Glos Community Project as a social entrepreneur, is we will step off and into this journey in the same way that you would have to alone, if you were about to set up a business of your own from scratch.
The difference is that I will be there as a mentor, advisor, sounding board and strategic guide to help in every possible way.
Yes, there are many different things that we will need to look at very closely and consider. But we will go through the process of researching and writing the business plan that your specific local community will need and this will be there to help us as we get to work and build the relationships that we need to, as well as being a formal document, presentation and application tool for us to use in gaining any specific kinds of support such as grants and licenses that might be needed, to make sure that everything will work as it should, and that everything is done the right way from the start.
You will be required to play a significant part in this process and you must be ready to apply a very open mind to every experience that creating a new business in these circumstances is likely to throw your way.
This is a prospect that should excite you, rather than intimidate you. Getting it right will be fantastic for you and as the ideas and the effort that you contribute begin to make this new social business take shape, the only thing that will feel better than recognising your own success and the outcome from the work you have done, will be seeing the benefits to so many others make a difference to other People’s lives.
Aims
Immediate Aim 1
To address poverty and the growing shortages of basic essentials with practical solutions delivered for the community by members of the community
Immediate Aim 2
To counter the narrative that only the Establishment can help and overcome learned helplessness by demonstrating that the help we need will come from us ourselves
Immediate Aim 3
To begin the process of creating New Local Economies, championing self-sufficiency, food security and the relocalisation of all supply chains that meet the basic and essential needs of life
Immediate Aim 4
To engage everyone in the process of taking back political decision making from centralised government, focusing the centre of power to the most localised and people-centric form
Principles
Local buy, Local supply
No speculation, agents or middle men
People First
Money or Currency is a unit of exchange and doesn’t vary in value
Technology is there to support roles, not to replace them
Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should
The lowest paid should be able to support themselves fully and provide all the basic essentials for life that they need on the equivalent of the basic or minimum weekly wage, without going into debt or requiring third party support of any kind.
Power must be as local to the people and the community in which they live and contribute as much as possible
Collaborate and make it even better
If any part of all of The Glos Community Project proposal is ringing bells or making sense to you and you can see a way we can improve on what you can see, or extend into a service offering that you are currently unable to see, please get in touch and share your thoughts.
We are not precious about the offer we are making. It’s a beginning and certainly not the end. So, by the time we are really off and running and in the business of delivering real change, we appreciate and value the input that will inevitably come from many different people and sources.
You really don’t have to join as a social entrepreneur or volunteer a specific set of skills to be able to help. The only thing we will insist on is that you really can live by and embrace the approach that whoever we are and wherever we are from, we are all 100% in this together, and that any advice, support or direction is given freely and without any form of direction or conditions attached.
Can we help you with a project that has similar aims?
If you are already working on a project serving your community that is aligned with The Glos Community Project offering in any way, we would be very happy to consider supporting you and collaborating with you wherever you are.
Regrettably, we cannot support projects or work where specific agendas or political motives are involved – no matter how good or harmless you may consider them to be.
An Economy for the Common Good and The Glos Community Project were not written in isolation and are part of a series of books that I began writing about three years ago in early 2022.
Each of the following list of Books is a variation on a theme, but works very much under the principle that it is not only possible but actually healthy to be able to understand, value and even hold different views or perspectives of the same situation or set of circumstances at the same time, whether that be in the Past, Present or Future tense.
Equally, it is also important to be able to consider different pathways for the future that sit beyond what many consider to be the obvious, simply because the obvious itself is usually inextricably linked with what has already been done and what sits in the past.
All of the following titles are available to purchase as complete eBooks for Kindle from Amazon using the links provided.
Where indicated, titles may also be available to download FREE as PDF Copies from my Blogsite in different forms, using the links provided.
If you would like to discuss any of the works listed, please get in touch.
When we hear the word ‘economics’ or ‘economy’, what does it make us think?
Money, business, growth, commerce, profit, wealth, trade are all likely to be terms that will spring to mind.
But what if the way we think about economics and what an economy or the economy really are is completely wrong?
What if a genuine economy were not about money or any type of material gain and instead had people, community, the environment, living good happy lives and the common good at its heart?
An Economy for the Common Good opens the door to thinking differently about the role of money, finance and economics in our lives and provides examples of the steps that we could take at any time to begin the creation of a new localised economic system that will lead to us all having much better experiences of everything in our lives.
To download a FREE to read PDF copy of An Economy for the Common Good, please follow the link immediately below. If you would like to download a copy for Kindle for the price of £1.99 (UK – correct at time of publication), please follow the link to Amazon at the bottom.
In the Autumn of 2023, I embarked on a new adventure into higher education, driven by my building concern around Food Security issues and the certain reality that the UK is running the increasing risk of suddenly finding itself without sufficient food supplies for all of us to eat.
The journey that had taken me to a Postgraduate Course at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester at the age of 50 had been a long one. I very quickly began to feel as if I was meeting all of my accumulated experience head-on, quite literally by coming at it from the other direction. Or in what is the academic, abstract or theory-based way, as opposed to the predominantly experiential route my life has typically taken me before.
It was a mixed blessing. And whilst my concern that academia looks backwards to try and work out solutions for the future may have grown, I also experienced thinking of a kind which although restrained by the machinations of the UK’s current higher education environment, certainly helped me close that circle and helped me to view the difficult periods of my own story as one that I can fully appreciate and own.
One Module of my Course of Study was being trialed in a different way. The Course Tutors invited students to undertake what might be called a mini dissertation. Doing research on the real-life implications of poverty, with the suggestion that we might relate this research to our own life experience in some way.
With the childhood experience of being in poverty, it was not many moments before the opportunity to share something deep that might benefit others was flashing across my internal thought screen. And I was very happy to embrace the project with the aim of giving it everything that I have got.
The following pages represent the completion and submission of that work.
My final Report has been reprinted with only the details that could easily identify the personal information of those taking part removed.
The main body of the work has been adapted to form an e-book published on Amazon in June 2024 and has been reset with some very minor editing for the purpose of making this PDF available as a download from my Blog www.adamtugwell.blog in late 2024, and now as a full text version online in 2025.
I have shared this content, as the work has been assessed, marked and forms part of the Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security that I was awarded by the RAU in 2024.
After filming and publishing a video about Poverty in the UK which leaned heavily upon what I have learned and not least of all the understanding that You have to experience or be touched by Poverty to understand it, I have concluded that its relative popularity suggests that it will be helpful and of benefit to others if I were to publish the original (academic) work in different formats.
Poverty IS a problem that CAN be solved. It is a blight on UK society that simply shouldn’t exist. However, Poverty and our inadvertent acceptance of it is also symptomatic of the greater ills that we have to face, but which those so far untouched by Poverty are happy to avoid. Because to many, Poverty is something that happens only to other people, who are someplace else.
Thank you for reading and giving thought to what the realities of Poverty today really are.
In as much as it can be, the content of this e-book reflects the structure of the academic submission that I made to the RAU in December 2023, as a requirement of my Postgraduate Course.
The process followed should be self-explanatory through Parts 1 – 3 of this Booklet.
Parts 1 – 3 are then followed by the Reference List and the 1st Appendix, which includes the list of questions that I asked as part of the research project you are about to read.
The References used include academic standard sources and it is possible that some of these may not be accessible to readers who are not currently studying or working within the UK Higher Education system, without paying a fee.
Where this is the case, and you would like to consider the wider work offered by those sources, it is likely that a full Internet search will identify alternative pathways and/or sources.
I make no apology for the ‘grey’ information referencing, such as links to pictures of mail-order catalogues and other such materials. I believe these can only be of help to someone reading about the 70’s and 80’s as a child in Poverty, without their own experience of it, attempting to picture the being there and ‘living it’ for the very first time.
AT
Part 1: How we perceive Poverty in the UK
Despite the heavily publicised cost of living crisis and 14.4 Million People in the UK living in Poverty in 2021/22 (HoC Library, April 2023), the perception that ‘poverty is something that happens to someone else’ remains prevalent.
Poverty is neither new nor a temporary phenomenon. William Beveridge’s 1942 Report suggesting ways the Government should rebuild after World War II identified Poverty as a major issue. Albeit one identified as consisting of five ‘Giant Evils’, namely ‘Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness’ (BBC, 2014) which are unrecognisable in the language of today.
However, Poverty has been recorded as a social problem since at least the 18th century (King, 2000), with the first notable legislation relating to Poverty being The Henrican Poor Law of 1536. (JSTOR)
It was the early 19th century before recognition of the need for considered legislation (UK Parliament), when work was undertaken to ensure that poor families received a basic education (Adamson).
Despite documented history, contemporary thinking suggests denial of genuine poverty. MP and Deputy Chairman of The Conservative Party Lee Anderson recently referring to ‘poverty nonsense’, stating that ‘real poverty’ was something that existed in the 1970’s. (Independent, Oct 2023)
From theories underpinning Malthusianism, where the first documented attempts were made to explain the mechanics of Poverty (Harvey & Read, 1992) to current exponential growth of Foodbanks reaching a total of 2,572 across the UK (HoC Library, Oct 2023), there is a disconnect between evidence of Poverty and the perception of what Poverty is.
My own experience of Poverty
I grew up in a one parent family, without a dad until I was a teenager. My parents separated when I was 7 months old and I was 6 when my mother secured a 3 bed ‘council house’ so my brother and I could have rooms of our own.
This was before the Child Support Agency and my father never paid any form of maintenance. My mother, brother and I were dependent upon ‘Social Security’ and ‘Family Allowance’, collected weekly, when mum walked to the Post Office to ‘cash’ a ‘Giro’, before the ritual of immediately buying whatever we were out of, or replacing anything broken that couldn’t be secured in another way such as paying a small amount weekly using the Gratton catalogue (Vintage Catalogues).
Although conscious that money was ridiculously tight, I never felt like I was going without. I didn’t miss the things other people had. Because they were things that I’d never had.
We received free school meals, had free school milk (Eastern Daily Press, Jan 2006), regular School Uniform Vouchers and I recall an emergency grant from the DHSS so that I had a proper mattress to sleep on. Hand-me-down clothes were often as cherished as I feel now about something new.
The signs of parental struggle were hidden from view, until either a distant family member had to step in financially, whilst charging a heavy emotional price, or I became aware of the abnormality of what I considered normal, like getting myself up, ready and walking the mile to my junior school, because one of the ways mum coped was to stay in bed.
The day the electricity coin meter was removed was one of celebration. I knew there was no more risk of being sent out late on a cold night to knock on doors or ride my bike to the garage to change a note for some coins.
I’ve heard it said “Privilege is invisible to those who have it” (TED, 2015). And in the context of my own life, I question, ‘Is poverty invisible to those who do not experience it?’
Considering poverty in the UK today
I believe everything to be relative to the life experience each of us has.
From this perspective and the limitations of time and scope to complete this project, I felt the most effective way to compare my experiences with the realities of poverty in the UK today, was to speak to a professional dealing with Poverty daily. Someone who could provide an objective, first-hand view of what people in poverty are experiencing, as opposed to today’s ‘accepted’ view.
Although I recall a Christmas Food Parcel from the local Church as a child, there was no regular access to Foodbanks, which have only become prevalent in the past 15 years. (HoC, Oct 2023).
Foodbanks are the obvious change in Poverty since I was a child, and I concluded this would be the ideal focus for my research.
Part 2: My Interview at a Gloucestershire Foodbank
Overview of the Foodbank
The Gloucestershire Foodbank [GFB] is housed and governed by a local Church. GFB runs as a separate organisation under the Trussell Trust umbrella, using their referral pathways and quality frameworks.
GFB operates three sites of its own within a Gloucestershire Town area, with the Salvation Army operating a linked site in the Town.
Discovery (Questions asked, Please See Appendix 1)
I asked Interviewee A (IA), for an overview of their role and what the Foodbank does. (Q1)
IA said the “Principle is that its people who are in food crisis and needing immediate support with food.” GFBs work is about “Crisis support, rather than ongoing. However, what used to be a crisis is harder to get out of, so we see people more regularly than we used to.” (Q2)
“We provide an immediate food parcel that will support people for a minimum of three days and we also have Citizens Advice workers on site to provide ongoing support as well.” (IA, Q2)
The presence of Citizens Advice (CAB) on site was a surprise. CAB have been providing support for the past year and GFB would no longer continue without it. (Q2)
I then focused on the use of GFB (Questions 5 – 20). 2022/23 had been GFB’s busiest year ever with a 40% upsurge in use. Numbers had already exceeded the Covid peak (which had been the previous peak) (Q6)
Whilst the largest demographic of users are single males “Because they rarely qualify for anything else.” (IA, Q16), the most significant change in user numbers in the previous year had been a 95% increase in the number of Pensioners using GFB. (Q16)
The reasoning given by IA for the rise in numbers was “Things cost more. Basic stuff has increased hugely”. “People have seen their rents go up by at least a couple of hundred [Pounds].” “You get ‘no reason evictions’, because they [Landlords] want to put the rents up.” (IA, Q7). They then added, “There’s an increasing issue with debt, [it] exacerbates the issue further.”
The growth in the number of GFB users came primarily from the existing demographic, areas around the Town with significant social housing numbers. However, there had been an “Increase in referrals from everywhere, from people who are working and not working.” (IA, Q8) It was also notable that 10% of GFB users are working, with this number increasing. (Q8).
We moved to qualitative and experiential issues for GFB users. IA listed challenges with rent, challenges with benefits and sanctions (Q9). Debt repayment within the benefit system “Takes people over the edge with what they can manage.” (IA, Q9)
IA added, “It’s been really interesting with Citizens Advice [working on site]. They say, ‘If you work with people, you can get almost anyone out of that crisis point’. Because usually there was an [identifiable] cause of it. But there isn’t always now. Sometimes there just isn’t enough money to cover everything.” (IA, Q9)
Relating the perceptions of Poverty in the media, I asked about users abusing GFB. It was clear that whilst there is a small amount of abuse, this was attributable to people, where “Their survival technique is to work the system.” IA later added, “I don’t think for many people it would be, ‘This is the way I want to live’”. (IA, Q10).
Asked about the typical experiences of GFB users, IA was clear that those suffering food poverty would also be suffering fuel poverty [energy poverty] too, and that there are simple realities at work such as being unable to cook food without electricity or gas. (Q13)
Attempting to understand how IA perceived the view of the public, IA felt that there is a lot more public awareness than there used to be, and that lots of people really do care. (Q19).
When asked if they felt Politicians [and government] understood the need for Foodbanks, IA said “If you’ve never experienced life like that, it’s very difficult to know what it’s like to live hand to mouth, in that place of crisis.” IA then added, “The minute you are removed from the ground, it becomes theoretical.” (IA, Q18)
IA suggested the perception society has of food Poverty and the use of Foodbanks is key to any solution. IA was considerate of how the system [government] works, and felt that working with other organisations was key. IA said “If we work together, there’s a lot more hope than if people come through between different agencies.” (IA, Q17)
Foodbank users are apprehensive, feel shame, have a sense of failure and benefit from experiencing a ‘safe space’. (Q20). Foodbanks are most effective when they “Make people feel like they matter”. (IA, Q20)
Part 3: What I found – A critical review of the research, reflection and reporting process
My experience of this project was sobering. Although I lived with Poverty growing up, that experience was quickly put in the context of how a child in Poverty might feel today.
The role of cultural expectations, media advertising and the disproportionate influence of pester power on parents navigating Poverty was brought into sharp focus when IA said, “The one thing they [parents] don’t want is for their child to feel excluded again.” (Q14)
The comment took me to the experience of a schoolfriends visit to our home and being ridiculed the following week because we had a black and white TV [when it was ‘normal’ to have colour]. In no time at all, my mum did a deal with the TV repair man and bought an old colour ‘set’. One that had probably been condemned.
Whilst “The expectations of life have changed.” (Q14), it was clear the commonality in the experience of the effects of poverty, or what being in poverty feels like, are very much the same now, as when I was a child. Particularly as IA’s view of poverty was “It leaves people in a continual state of crisis, because even if there is money coming in, you are never quite sure there’s going to be enough. You are never able to have peace about the situation, so there is always that anxiety”. (IA, Q11).
I was right there, feeling Poverty, as a child. But when IA shared “If you want to move people into work, they need to be able to work; not just survive.” (Q15), I was able to relate a range of more recent life experiences too.
Is anything really different about the way we look at Poverty now?
The recognition of Poverty as a social problem from the 19th century onwards has encouraged growth in academic thinking and commentary.
Highly valued work such as Rawls ‘Veil of Ignorance’ (JSTOR, 1999) help identify that society lacks basic Poverty awareness, and that the solution will require people to think differently.
However, whilst highly regarded commentators like Daniel Chandler (Free & Equal, 2023) consider Rawls work to be groundbreaking, the use of changing perspective as a tool to instigate fairness through behaviour modification is not new. It is documented as the principle of ‘Divide and Choose’, and has references in Genesis, Chapter 13 and 1 Kings, Chapter 3. (King James Bible).
So, whilst such solutions may be ‘new’, they may only be original in so far as context or the subjectivity of the viewer is concerned.
The importance or relevance of context in understanding Poverty
It is striking that technical understanding or acknowledgement of Poverty is present throughout history, both anecdotally and documented form. Yet Poverty continues to exist.
Historically we had Workhouses and Paupers. As a child, we had ‘Social Security’, ‘Family Allowance’, Council Houses and Black, and White TV’s. Today we have Universal Benefit, Benefits sanctions, Social Housing and Xboxes.
The tools Poverty uses to touch lives are forever changing. But the impact of Poverty remains the same.
The lived experience of Poverty reflects the time and how the world around us operates.
The tools Poverty inflicts harm with can be so different, that a different language is required to fully elucidate and contextualise the lived experience of Poverty at that moment in time.
Yet knowing only this may prevent translation of the message about Poverty, that everyone needs to hear.
The experience of visiting GFB and reflecting on what I learned made clear that when an individual is not experiencing the specifics of Poverty, in that moment, even when that individual has first-hand past experience of living in poverty and arguably therefore has the ability to relate to it very well, they can and will view Poverty in a mechanical way. Rather than the emotional way that is only possible for those enduring the lived experience at that time.
I agree with IA, that “The minute you are removed from the ground, it becomes theoretical.” (IA, Q18)
Rreflections on Poverty in the UK today
I have become aware that:
The technical existence of Poverty is widely accepted, but its impact and reach is not.
The interpretation of Poverty is relative to the understanding of the viewer or those experiencing it.
Poverty is itself is highly subjective and constantly evolving.
Because the universal acceptance of Poverty is technical, no official effort is made to understand what lived experience of Poverty really is, leading to public policy solutions that make the subjective or experiential nature of Poverty considerably worse.
Poverty requires a permanent solution that is objective and universal, that fully considers the subjective elements that make lived experience of Poverty real.
Whilst models for modifying collective and individual behaviour to create change exist, (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), it is clear the need for change must be accepted before change is possible.
Regrettably, the historic tolerance of Poverty indicates an ongoing resistance to that change.
Within the current system, paradigm or ‘the way the world works’, self-interest is an embedded value. The relationship with the value of money is prevalent in everything. Whether conscious or not, the mindset is for some to be rich; others must be poor.
It is also notable that academic work and commentary considered helpful by identifying alternative approaches, economic models, and the use of tools such as Universal Basic Income may also hinder progress. It has become common for solutions tabled on the basis of instigating voluntary change at a universal level, when that change can only create a difference within the restrictions of the existing paradigm and how today’s world and economic system works.
Ending Poverty is possible. But the need to do so is not widely accepted.
The level of change necessary to end Poverty at the objective level, rather than merely seeking to alleviate Poverty at the current technical level is one that must be appreciated objectively through a process of valuing it at the subjective and experiential level too.
The proponents of that change must be fully accepting of the universal consequences of that change.
The journey to end Poverty for everyone begins with the question of how we make the consequences of lived experience of Poverty something that everyone understands.
In Conclusion
On the basis of life experience and what I have learned about Poverty in the UK today, I conclude that the true impact of Poverty IS invisible to those who don’t experience it.
Adam Tugwell 