Whilst so-called socialists and capitalists alike will continue to argue that their destination would have been different, until whoever is in power takes the rap for destroying everything at the time – and then the other tries desperately to convince everyone that there’s still time for them, just to be sure, the very perverse and somewhat disturbing truth that is now coming into our view of reality is that the direction of both left and right political thinking takes humanity to exactly the same place.
What all these ‘philosophies’ – the ideas of academics, thinkers, economists, industrialists, tech moguls, agitators, the aggrieved, life’s bitter victims, entitled shirkers, greedy and selfish bastards – have in common, is the centralisation of power into the hands of one or just a select few – who for whatever purpose intended – control everything, so that they can enjoy their own lives and positions more than anyone they see as different to themselves and therefore as being a threat.
Verging on enlightened thinking, as many will surely argue their heroes and inspirations to have written these works will have been, enlightenment doesn’t revolve around creating environments that centre purely on a beneficial vacancy at the top. Which the design of these solutions surely was the intention, resulting from whatever experiences the authors had themselves experienced up until the time of writing.
None of these accepted visionaries were wrong. Or at least they were not wrong in the sense that we all are the sum of our experiences and our position looking upon or perception of life in any given moment will be correct, for us personally, in terms of what those experiences have taught us and what we have therefore concluded that they should be, right up to that same moment in time.
Let’s face it. The world is a very shitty place to be. Whether you have nothing and cannot escape poverty because of the boot that rides rough-shod over you; or at the other extreme you are as financially wealthy as it is possible to be and all you quietly worry about is protecting yourself, your wealth and how you are going to accumulate even more.
The pain that hides behind our eyes hasn’t changed over decades and centuries in human time.
Yes, the surroundings, clothes, transport, technology and everything else may seem different. But the nature of the experiences we are all having on our different pathways are in relative terms very much the same.
Wherever we may sit across this spectrum, 200 or more years ago at the dawning of the Industrial Revolution or right now as we are being prepared for the AI takeover, we all have an idea of what the perfect world for us would be.
It is regrettable that only some of us find ourselves able to share those ideas and thoughts and have them taken seriously by enough others for them to be seen to matter – which itself doesn’t mean they are genuinely enlightened or of benefit to greater humankind.
It’s simply the case that even when complete idiots or utterly selfish bastards are heard, their thoughts and views are swallowed up like nectar by people who themselves have a back catalogue of difficult experiences that identify with what they read or hear.
They pick those ideas – those philosophies – up and run with them, no matter how twisted or damaging in the longer term they might be. Leaving ideas behind in the dirt that the chaos they unleash leaves behind to fester for years and possibly centuries, that would otherwise deliver for the good of everyone when implemented.
We must be clear that all the ideas and philosophies for the world, whether they fall under the socialist or capitalist umbrellas or not, are without fail just ideas and suggestions.
Whether well intended or not, these philosophies were all packaged with the pretense that they were the ingredients, nuts and bolts or technicalities of a model of the perfect working world, for all people.
As history has demonstrated only too well, the actions of those underneath these umbrellas lead to both the imprisonment and oppression of the masses under the yoke of world elites.
We are fooled into believing there is a difference in outcomes because one system gets straight to work by enforcing its ideologies on people and the systems of the world as it tightens its grip and pushes those who are left into the cage. Meanwhile, the other drugs everyone with every conceivable high that they believe they like, creating mass addiction to ways of living that mean there is little hope of sobriety for anyone who has bought in and become addicted, until the very heavy jail cell door will have already slammed shut behind us all.
Centralisation is the flaw in all of these philosophies. Because it is impossible to centralise every part of life, for every single person across every country and across the entire world, without life, values, happiness, health, wellbeing and all the mechanics of essential function and civic society collapsing in their wake.
The clever tools and devices used by capitalists, globalists and neoliberals are ultimately no different to the level-playing-fields, street revolutions and guns employed by communists and socialists to enforce and police their point.
The painful outcomes that these forms of idealistic thinking inflict upon the masses always have agendas behind them, and none of those paying the real cost of these ideological-turned-material crimes ever agreed to the world being run this way.
The elites and those behind all of this have of course been aided by technological advances and the many different ways that the world has opened up and the distances between us all have been bridged.
Yet the point has always and pretty much systematically been missed that humanity and our morality based values system do not need and never needed to change to keep up with the material changes in the world, which have always been about the things that appear to be important beyond and outside of people.
Indeed, the changes that have been made to our frameworks for behaviour have always been made to suit those in power, with influence and who are directly benefitting from those changes. Those who perceive that the only way they can benefit more is for the old ways or ways that benefit others with fairness and balance must be left behind. Because they will otherwise get in the way.
So, was there ever a point in history where humanity genuinely got the whole thing right?
There is good reason to believe not. Or that if that moment of genuine balance has ever existed so far, it was momentary and could only really have been so, because the opportunity didn’t actually then exist to end the self-interest, anger, frustration, greed and every other dark part of the human condition that drives generation after generation to ingeniously, creatively and ignorantly to exactly the same things over and over again.
We may not see it, nor appreciate nor even find value in the suggestion. But a centuries-long pathway of humanity being led and controlled by interests that are not in any way genuinely shared, has led us all to a place where those who have benefited from that control and the generations following behind them, can no longer maintain that control. Because the whole pathway is about to have gone too far, before that door can be slammed shut and the final adjustments to the oppressed fate of humankind can be made.
The intention underlying of all these ideologies was that everything and everyone would be controlled throughout the journey, until that control was necessary no more.
Yet the systems we have been conditioned into accepting, like the out of control value of money, the rules that are supposedly there to protect and help whilst they disadvantage us, and the process of making very intelligent people doubt themselves or force them to believe and support ideas which run contrary to common sense or that are completely untrue, have all contributed to a situation where many already know the world is out of balance. People know that whatever is behind all of this has gone too far.
Natural, universal, unspoken rules have always existed that require each and every one of us to have the freedom to learn, to grow and to develop if we so choose to do so.
Because of the persistent actions of these patriarchal few and those who have followed them, that freedom for everyone to learn grow and develop, no matter their background or position in life, no longer exists. Because the way the system of the world has been developed now means that many no longer have the opportunity to experience the personal sovereignty to which every man is entitled. No matter how, where or to whom they were born.
A collapse is coming. That collapse is already underway. We are all within it and experiencing it at subjective levels that keep us from the objectivity that would make it much easier to define.
The critical point that is now approaching will be the moment that something happens, that could be civil unrest, financial collapse, the extension of foreign wars, civil war or something else, when each and every one of us realises and accepts that we have a Choice. And that we no longer have to be passengers or passively accept whatever someone else has engineered to be our fate.
The curse of overcentralisation is the never-ending desire of those who are at the centre of that centralisation process to centralise even more. Simply because of the greater rewards and control that they believe it will bring.
The outcome of the overcentralisation is that nobody ever has enough of any of the things they really need. When in a world and time when we have so much available to everyone, this has become a first-hand tragedy for us all to experience indeed.
The only centre that we need and that we should ever seek is the community, locality and to share responsibility for everything amongst the people we see face to face and interact with each day.
This is real life that doesn’t come to us through media channels, digital technology or through rules that have been made by some name without a face.
This system is the only resource and ecosystem that we need to sustain us, that we need contribute to and that can be relied upon to create frameworks and governance for life that will always be in our best interests.
It is the only system that will provide and leave us with the genuine freedom necessary to enjoy every aspect of a good life, as the majority of us would want and like to experience.
The decision to make this change and embrace the power to do so is ours already, if we actually want it.
There is no need for hierarchies, for top-down systems and procedures, for political parties, financial markets and devices, globalised business and supply chains, or anything else that makes life cheaper. When life being cheapened any further is the very last thing that any of us need.
Local communities that are genuinely local and locality driven, and the ecosystems and self contained economies that they will create, offer us everything that we will need to have to experience valuable lives, where the basics and essentials are always in place.
Locality driven communities offer a system of governance meaning that no matter the life choices any one of us makes, we can all live independently of help – and therefore will not experience the forms of lack that are responsible for so many of societies social problems as their root cause.
The value of every one of us is exactly the same and nothing can change this.
No matter what we do, wear, what we have or how we are seen to be, not one of us should be positioned to advantage ourselves by disadvantaging others.
This is where the fundamental basis and genesis of a new world philosophy must be able to begin. One that is designed by us all for everyone rather than by a few who want everything controlled and for that control to be in the hands of one.
***
Over the past 3 years, I have been writing about the different aspects of what is happening; what is likely to happen and how we can all get from here to a much better place.
Whilst the rules and frameworks that govern a new world that will genuinely be of benefit to everyone, must be designed and agreed freely by us all, we still need an idea or vision of the outcomes that we can expect.
Our Local Future is a model for future life that I believe to capture this, which I would invite you to consider. Before someone else has considered and though out an alternative, that when the time has come to make the choice that is genuinely good for us, will instead steal that opportunity and take its place.
Whatever you do next, please remember to beware the many false prophets who are shouting the attractiveness of populism and anarchy now.
Don’t listen to those who tell you they are putting people first.
Keep watching for those who are doing so.
The only centre we need is within our communities themselves. Everything will make sense when everything important throughout our lives revolves around everything we can experience daily at first hand in this way.
10 Steps to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE and make every Vote count too
There’s nobody better qualified to decide what’s best for a community than the members of that Community, itself
The chances are that before you’ve even read this book, you will hear other People criticising or attempting to devalue everything that this book, Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is about.
They are likely to suggest that only experienced Politicians, Political Parties or People who have been qualified in some other way, are suited to running in Elections and to being in Politics.
The inference or suggestion is that none of us or anyone our communities could select to represent us would have any idea what to do.
The words they use might sound very different to even these.
But any message intended to disqualify you and your community from selecting the People who make decisions on your behalf, will turn out to have exactly the same meaning:
THEY ARE TELLING YOU THAT THE PEOPLE IN YOUR COMMUNITY AREN’T CAPABLE OF BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THEMSLEVES OR FOR MAKING THEIR OWN CHOICES – AND THAT INCLUDES YOU!
No matter what anyone says to you or to anyone else about Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, there is nothing they can say that’s negative about the Community making and being responsible for its own choices that can mean anything different or be interpreted in any different way.
Whichever way you look at it, you are being told you aren’t qualified. You are being told you aren’t good enough. You are being told you haven’t got the right skills.
There is no question. These People who know better, are absolutely wrong.
Anyone who says or suggests that someone else knows better when it comes to selecting the People who make decisions which affect us all, is on an agenda of their own. An agenda that has neither the best interests of the whole Community, nor what’s good for you, at its heart.
The decisions that affect us all and the public policies they deliver will always be flawed for as long as anyone involved in making those decisions obtained the responsibility to do so because of some motive that wasn’t focused upon the Community and service to others.
It was about whatever they are part of. Ultimately, it’s all about them.
Today’s Politicians don’t represent the People. They represent themselves, their parties and whoever they aspire to be
Until now, NONE OF THE ABOVE has been a way to protest against and to refuse to Vote for those Politicians who are always someone else’s choice.
More often than not, NONE OF THE ABOVE has been a way to raise a laugh or to make a joke too.
The problem for us all, is there is nothing good, nor funny about a political system that benefits nobody other than the People who directly benefit from the way that it works.
The disease within the Political System has reached the point where no Politician or Political Party makes decisions or pursues any Public Policy that is good for anyone else.
NONE OF THE ABOVE doesn’t need to be just a process or a figure of speech, anymore.
We need to be positive. We need to be proactive. We need to grab the opportunity that is waiting for us to turn this all around, whilst hiding in plain sight.
It’s time for us all to come together as one. To go way beyond being just a protest Vote or a refusal to accept the options we are given in Elections – as if that and only that, is all that We deserve.
We can only achieve this by selecting and providing candidate options in ALL Elections that are OURS.
This is what Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is here to help you and your community to do.
Before we get started, there’s one rule you need to understand, accept and live by when it comes to everything that is Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and getting the very best out of this Book:
There’s nobody better qualified to decide what’s best for a community than the members of that Communityitself.
Welcome to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE
NONE OF THE ABOVE will already have meaning to you.
You may also know or recognise it as being ‘Not in my name’, or ‘you don’t speak for us’.
To keep things simple, for now, we will just think of it as NONE OF THE ABOVE.
NONE OF THE ABOVE is the choice made when any Person has the opportunity to Vote in an Election but decides that they won’t.
Because none of the candidates or the Political Parties stand for represent what that Voter feels they and their community need from the Public Representatives they have the choice to elect.
People who are living NONE OF THE ABOVE, might not even bother to involve themselves in Elections.
Then there are those who may have gone to the Polling Station on Election Day, signed in and shown their ID and even have been handed their ballot paper.
They then decide that they cannot or will not Vote for any of the candidates or the Political Parties represented on a list that runs from the top to the bottom of the paper.
Some of those will even draw a line through the ballot paper or the boxes and even write NONE OF THE ABOVE at the bottom of the ballot paper itself.
Then, when the Counting of Votes takes place afterwards, this ballot paper and any others like it will be classified as ‘spoiled’ and no Vote will count.
Whatever the reason you may not have Voted, spoiled a ballot paper, or now found yourself looking for an alternative to Candidates and Political Parties that never seem to deliver on anything they have promised you they will do, this Book is here to help.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is a How to and Information Guide that has been written and published to help and advise People just like you.
NONE OF THE ABOVE is the place where many of us already are
Take heart. You are not alone.
A growing number of People already recognise what the words NONE OF THE ABOVE mean to them.
Whilst the interpretation will differ between us, the reasons for being unhappy and searching for an unidentified alternative to all the so-called ‘choice’ of Political Candidates that we already have, will almost certainly be something that we share.
You may already know that the answers to all of our questions and the solutions we all need are not going to come from any of the Political Parties that we know. They will also not come from any of the new Political Parties or activist groups that already exist and are hungry to be in power, just like the Political Parties that everyone recognises.
Alternatively, you may be at the point of giving a party you have previously supported a ‘last chance’.
Whether committed to change or praying over a forlorn hope, we all know that change has to come from a different place to have meaning and for it to actually be different.
Otherwise, we will continue to ride the merry-go-round of the same Political Parties, knowing that with them, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
You now know you are not alone. But are you really ready to embrace change?
If what you have read is already making some sense or has perhaps just struck an unknown chord, I would urge you to keep going and read through THE ENTIRE BOOK.
Without doing so, you will not be equipped to consider the full picture or achieve the understanding of what Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE has the power to do for us all, as a tool that will work for your community.
Most importantly, you will miss what turning NONE OF THE ABOVE into a Vote-winning option has the power to do for YOU and for your future too.
The formula for a winning outcome from Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE
There are no shortcuts, IF you want your life and the lives of others to improve.
Please read this book through and then decide which parts of it make sense, or more importantly, which parts apply specifically to you and what you feel able to do.
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF when you read and think about the content you are reading.
If you know what you are reading is true for you, DON’T go backwards. DON’T STOP. DON’T put this book back on your Bookshelf.
If you do nothing, you are standing still.
In a world of constant change, standing still is going backwards.
Doing nothing and going backwards are just the same.
Even if you never do any more than Vote in every future Election, please use this book as the guideline to search out and identify those who will work hard and work honestly for your community and for YOU.
WARNING: Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is not for you, IF
You are committed to following whatever anyone else tells you to think.
You believe that the only problem is there isn’t a Political Party in power that represents you.
You believe that somebody else will solve all the problems that we have.
You believe that power, position, influence, qualifications and wealth define leadership.
You look down on any other social group, no matter what the difference between you might actually be.
You are not prepared to take part in something that helps others as well as yourself.
You cannot accept that change for everyone begins with you making the most important change first.
NONE OF THE ABOVE is for you, IF:
You are looking for answers and solutions to the problems we ALL have.
You know that those answers and solutions to our problems will not come from the so-called leaders that we have or are today being offered.
You can focus on what we share in common with each other, rather than what divides us and is very quickly tearing us all apart.
You accept that if we keep doing the same things as they have always been done, things will inevitably stay the same.
You accept that IF change that is good for us all is going to happen, we all have a role to play in being that change.
You accept that REAL CHANGE BEGINS WITH YOU!
To be able to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE, your participation is ESSENTIAL
What you may have realised as you read the bullet points above, is the essential ingredient of us all being able to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE is YOU!
One of the biggest problems that we face together is the apathy that years of political inaction, broken promises, the spread of manufactured fear and the use of outright lies from Politicians and the Establishment have created.
People genuinely believe that there is no alternative to the mess that we have now.
People feel that there can be no change, because it’s the same People who will always be in control.
People believe that the best we can hope for will come by voting for the alternative that the Establishment gives us. That the alternative candidates and parties we are given, will somehow get something right or allow at least some change to happen that could at the very least prove to be some help.
Sadly, it’s all smoke and mirrors.
This story of ‘who and what will win the next Election’ that we are all experiencing in the news and media, is no better than a confidence trick – even when People from outside of the Establishment appear to be involved.
NOT because there is some kind of conspiracy.
But because everyone who is in power or believes they deserve to be in power today, thinks in exactly the same way.
What could Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE really be? What can Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE become?
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE has the ability to be and to deliver the answers and the solutions that we are all looking for. Because the PROCESS, METHOD and AIM it offers will return your power and begin helping us ALL to take control back from the Establishment, from the moment that you accept it will work.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is the process of embracing the UKs broken political system and bypassing all the parts of it that are sick.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is a clear pathway to ensure all that’s wrong with British Politics can no longer affect, influence or even brainwash those People who volunteer with good intentions, to become Public Representatives, ensuring that all the diseased thinking can be sidestepped until it has all been replaced.
Once the majority of us have accepted Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and what it represents as the only honest and fully democratic way for communities to be represented properly in any Election, the battles and the war for Freedom from useless and self-serving governance that many don’t even know we are fighting, will then have been won.
Warning: for change to happen you must think and act differently. Leaving change to everyone else is thinking the same way as you have been all along.
You must be the change is itself one of the most important messages within Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and every book that relates to it.
Regrettably, we have become accustomed to the idea that somebody somewhere else will always sort out the problems that affect everybody else.
Strangely enough, we then don’t understand why help doesn’t come for us when the problem is now ours and we are the ones experiencing the pain.
It’s time to join the dots up.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE will only work if you and People like you dare to change the way that you think.
Then, we must ALL act to create the change, removing the power from other People’s hands, taking back control of OUR OWN POWER.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the way things work now is the only way. Ask yourself the question, ‘Who is the only beneficiary from you or anyone else believing and thinking like that?’
THE CURRENT SYSTEM IS BROKEN. IT DOESN’T WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY. IT DOESN’T WORK FOR YOU.
IF WE WAIT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO BROKE THE SYSTEM TO FIX IT, THE FIX THAT COMES WONT BE MADE WITH YOUR COMMUNITY OR YOU IN MIND.
ONLY YOU CAN FIX THE WAY POLITICS WORKS FOR YOU.
TOGETHER, WE CAN ONLY TRUST POLITICS IF IT IS RUN BY PEOPLE WE TRUST.
THE ONLY PEOPLE WE CAN TRUST IN POLITICS FOR OUR FUTURE WILL BE PEOPLE FROM OUTSIDE OF THE SYSTEM LIKE ME AND LIKE YOU
The negative stuff (That we cannot avoid)
Regrettably, presenting an alternative to what we have already got in Politics wouldn’t be complete with at least touching on the reasons why the Politicians that we have and The System that brings them to the ballot paper isn’t working for any of us.
Strange as it may seem, because of how bad things have become in Politics, telling the truth or being realistic about what is happening will always be treated as or considered to be negative by some.
Objectively and in reality, being negative and being realistic are two very different things.
Whilst it makes it sound like we are engaged in a war (which some People genuinely now believe that we are), we really do need to know and understand our enemy, before we can create or implement the methods and practices that mean we will ultimately win.
However, the reality is that in the majority of cases, the Politicians and People who have created the problems we have and who will continue to create them, IF we do not replace them with People who have the integrity and purpose to represent us, are not bad or evil People.
They are simply lacking awareness. They are selfish. They are without moral principles. They have a very restricted or self-serving view of what humanity is and the difference between wrong and right.
If many of them were able to see life in a different way, they could, in time, become just like any friends we have.
There is nothing wrong with them, except for how they behave and what they fundamentally believe.
Who are ALL OF THE ABOVE?
You may not realise or even understand it. But because Politics or rather our Politics is about what we believe at an individual or personal level, it also means that we identify ‘our Politics’ as being part of or who we really are.
Regrettably, this means that most of us find ourselves getting emotionally tied into the way we think politically. Especially if we have historically identified with a Political Party, group or ‘tribe’.
Even now, if you have been tribal in your approach to Politics in the past – and it won’t matter if you’ve Voted Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem, Green, UKIP or any of the names we associate with the broken Politics of today and the past – the chances are that deep down, you still feel some affiliation with that Political Party and hope that they will soon ‘come right’.
It’s time to accept that they won’t.
And it’s not like any of them haven’t had chance after chance to be the change, time and time before either.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE can only work if we consciously disassociate ourselves and keep disassociating ourselves with the Politics of the past (today) and our past political thinking – whether it’s in respect of our own outlook, or those we have previously thought of as being ‘the enemy’, who you are probably by now beginning to understand have much more in common with us than anything meaningful that any of us should be allowing to drive us all apart.
When the People who lead us are out for themselves, how can we expect anyone else to behave differently?
We cannot continue to make allowances for and place our trust in People who have asked for our support and taken it. But then misused the power that we have entrusted them with, and behaved as if what they want and what’s good for all of us are one and the same thing.
Equally, we cannot afford to waste years on new, up and coming Politicians, Influencers, Activists and Political Parties who tell us they are different. But by the very act of telling us what we should think, are demonstrating that if we treated them as a real alternative, that when elected and in power, they would then behave in exactly the same ways as the Politicians we already have.
There are good People within all Political Parties and plenty of them are genuinely well meaning. But few of them really understand the responsibilities and the power that they have been given, and what being a good Public Representatives means.
Without the knowledge and leadership skills that public office should always require of those holding such responsibility, it means that the People we have running the Public Sector and the whole country right now and for the foreseeable future – without change, are the last People that any of us should knowingly elect to Public Office and put in charge of whatever happens next.
At best, we live in a mediocracy where everyone we elect is out for themselves.
With the challenges that we now face. mediocre leadership is simply not good enough for our communities or for ourselves.
The ‘Establishment’ Political Parties and Tribes
We are all being failed by the Public Representatives we have elected as representatives of Political Parties.
It is inevitable that ‘Party Politicians’ will always be expected to put the interests of their Political Party and the Establishment they are part of first, before doing anything that would be good for anyone else.
Any Public Policy that works out well for any of us today, is just a happy coincidence.
There is very little good that comes from Public Policy for People that was directly intended or put into being through a fully considered process and genuine choice.
The Establishment Political Parties and Tribes include:
The Conservative Party (Also known as The Tories or Tory Party)
The Liberal Democrats (Also known as The Lib Dems)
The Labour Party
The Scottish National Party (Also known as the SNP)
The Green Party
Plaid Cymru (Also Known as The Welsh National Party)
The Outsiders or The Political Parties and Tribes from ‘Outside’
Many are already placing their hopes in new and less established Political Parties, activist groups and movements as being the way of change.
These political vehicles may appear to be different, speak with different words and with different voices.
But the thinking that drives them and the way that the Establishment or mainstream Political Parties think about Public Representation is regrettably one and the same.
The Outsider Political Parties and Tribes include:
The SDP
Reclaim
Reform UK
UKIP
ADF
Not Lib/Lab/Con
Vote Freedom
AND many others.
All of them are regrettably missing the point that the Outsiders’ strength lies in focusing on what we all have in common. Not by championing their own ideas, or anything else that just creates more of a divide.
Remember: Nobody serves everyone’s purpose when they are only serving ideas that are their own, and if they wanted to put you and your community first, they would be doing so already.
Why ALL OF THE ABOVE will NEVER work for your community and certainly won’t work for you
Have you ever had a politician who represents an existing Political Party come up to you, and without telling you what they already stand for, take the time to ask and make the effort necessary to actually listen only to what you think?
The greatest flaw that all Political Parties and Political Groups that already exist today share, is that any good they could be doing is quickly erased by the fact they are all pulling in their own specific directions.
None of them stop to think about what it would mean to be unified. To be working together. To have the ability to speak and to represent us universally with one and just one voice.
Established Political Parties and Speakers ALWAYS have an Agenda
Established Political Parties follow ideologies or philosophies that are idealistic, or formed around the thinking of the People who lead them.
By their very nature, Political Parties do not take account of the needs of everyone.
Political Parties will always be aligned with or have biases towards a specific group. Usually, one or more that serves its own purposes, or is aligned or identified with its own key demographic groups.
The way that Politicians would usually account for the way that Political Parties and groups work is to say that they are focusing on the important issues of the day.
There is always an inherent undertone that silently speaks ‘we represent the true majority’. The statement is presented without any evidence. But it is treated by many as credible, just because of the platform that the media or social media platforms have given them.
The problem is, existing Politicians and Political Parties aren’t credible. None of them can be relied upon. Because once anyone is motivated only by ‘what is important to them’, they can soon be led and influenced by anything else that is presented in such a way that is equally important to them.
Whilst this thinking is already the cause of great public harm, the reality is that it is human nature.
It’s what very stupid People do when they find themselves with power and responsibility that they are not equipped to handle appropriately.
It’s time for you to be the change, so that your community can do so too
The future of Politics is about everything working well for everyone. Everyone must therefore be involved in choosing that future.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE recognises and responds to the flaws that exist within the accepted idea that the only way the existing political system in the UK can function is by having it controlled and populated by Political Parties and Politicians who tell us they are there to work for us all, but only have their own interests in mind.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE proposes a genuine alternative pathway to electing the Politicians we are given, as being the way to ensure that the Public Representatives we elect are genuine, and always put the interests of the Public and the Communities they represent first.
Your Role in Our Future – You want to be an active part of the change
You’ve read this far. You are interested in taking part. You just want to feel convinced.
At this point, you will probably fall into one of two groups:
You will either be thinking ‘I’d like to take part and do something’.
Or you will be thinking ‘I’ll wait and make a choice when it’s the next time to Vote’.
If you are already thinking that you will take part and make a contribution because the content of what this book suggests makes sense to you, please remember that the real change we are about to begin working towards doesn’t look like anything you are used to. Nor does it resemble anything that you have already seen or already know.
If you are ready, please keep reading the TEN STEPS to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE that follow in Part 1, next.
Your Role in Our Future – You just want to be able to Vote
If you are still thinking that the only time that any of this will matter is when it comes to the next Election and the time that you are next required to go out and Vote, I’m afraid it’s time to face a certain truth:
Waiting for change will always mean that change will not be something you take part in. Change will certainly come, but it will be something that happens to you.
Even if you are one of the many who will only see your real contribution being that moment when you pick up the pencil and ballot paper and draw a cross in a box to make your Vote, change requires that you do not remain passive between now and when the next Election comes.
Please do read through all of Part 1 and the TEN STEPS, so that you understand and can identify what the process of change will look like when it reaches your community.
Please then continue and read Part 2 which has been written for those of us who still see their contribution to the future as being no more than a Vote.
Follow the Plan. Learn from the Plan. Improve on the Plan. Share the Plan.
Before we get into the real opportunity that is awaiting you and your community, and the details and STEPS of what you can do to play your part, it is worth mentioning that the alternative pathway offered by Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is one that you are being invited to follow and to learn from.
But not only that. I am also making a very explicit invitation with an expectation that you can find ways to improve upon Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and that you will then share what you can then offer with all the other Communities like yours, too.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have been able to bring together the experiences and insights that I have had, to help others – IF they want that help.
You are about to open the door to being able to share your own experiences too.
Thank you and good luck.
Part 1: For the Change Makers – Whoever you are
This section outlines a PROCESS of STEPS that many of us within all of our local communities MUST take, if we want the existing ‘democratic’ and ‘electoral’ systems to work for all of us.
Doing nothing other than making a choice from the Candidates we are given by somebody, somewhere else will only ever continue to be an endorsement for ALL OF THE ABOVE.
Nothing will change.
The motives of the existing Political Parties and the behaviour of ALL the Politicians already within The System – as well as that of those who aspire to be there – are the reason that British Politics is completely dysfunctional and broken.
In the longer term, the electoral system and system of democracy that we have must be completely reformed so that public representation is in touch with everyone and is always provided by the most appropriate and best-suited People that we could ever have.
However, for Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE to succeed as quickly as possible, we have no choice but to focus on what we have the power to do NOW, so that we can begin the process of changing everything as quickly as we can.
How we will be able to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE in the existing system
The good news for everyone is that change of the kind we need, is possible to begin working on now.
NOT through creating civil unrest or by forcing some kind of revolution, as some People genuinely believe – where the outcome is never guaranteed because it’s out of our control.
But by stepping outside of the system that the Establishment expects us never to question. By looking at the whole ‘electoral wood’ differently. Then using the map of the trees that the Establishment has given us, whilst navigating our own path through with new way of thinking that will enable us to take back our power and then put all the self-serving plans and strategies that have enslaved our democracy, into the bin.
Yes. WE CAN make the current system work for us.
The difference between what we have and what we could have, is that WE MUST select, appoint and then Vote for OUR OWN CANDIDATES to run in each and every Election.
We MUST reject anyone or any candidate that is offered to us by anyone other than our own communities and accept that is OUR DEMOCRATIC RIGHT AND CHOICE.
Forget the Date of the next Election. Work to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE begins right now
When I say, ‘We need to change the way We think’, it is important to understand that this ‘change in thinking’ is about the entire way we look at things, or even the lens we use to look at it. It is not as simple as moderating or adjusting our view of just one thing.
A good and very relevant example of this is the way that the majority of us think about Elections and how Elections actually work.
Most of us have not been actively involved in Politics or Political Campaigning. So, we immediately fall into the trap of thinking and believing that the only time that Political Campaigning matters, is the same time that everyone else who is out there trying to get themselves elected, is around about our local areas and knocking on our doors.
What many of us then fail to realise is that ALL OF THE ABOVE will have their eyes and thoughts on the next Election, right from the very moment that the results of the last one have been confirmed.
In fact, so obsessed with getting elected or reelected have ALL OF THE ABOVE become, that their obsession with influencing the People they believe most likely to Vote for them in the future, is one of their priority considerations in just about everything that they do.
Put yourself in other People’s shoes
I have had the experience of campaigning for both myself and for other candidates in a number of different Elections.
One of the most important things that I learned was that not enough People will take outsiders or challengers and what they have to say seriously, IF it’s only after the Election has been called that the door knocking begins and the new messages and concern show up.
Matters that concern the Community are ongoing. They are real and they are relevant each and every day. Just like the issues that have an effect or an impact upon you.
It is the same for everyone. So, if you turn up at other times too – as anyone who genuinely cares about their community is supposed to, People at their doorsteps will see a lot more value in the new experience for them that you offer, when you ask them to share their concerns.
Patience is necessary, as well as being a virtue
Some People – and a growing number of them too, will engage with what you are doing from the very moment that you first knock on their door. But for others, the process will take time.
The self-interest and cynical behavior that has ruled and broken Politics right across this country, for so long, has done a hell of a lot of harm.
From this point alone, it should be obvious that building up a relationship and developing trust with someone and something new, is bound to take time.
So, it doesn’t matter whether the next Election is a Local Election or a General Election. Nor does it matter if it is going to be held in 4 months or 4 years’ time. The right time to begin the process of engaging with Local People is RIGHT NOW!
Forget whatever the Councillors, Mayors, MPs and Political Parties are doing
Another idea that we must get over is the one that tells us it’s only the Politicians who are already elected that have any power, when it comes to influencing anything that’s going on.
They don’t. And it’s self-sabotaging to think this way. Because in the same breath, it’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming that nobody will pay attention to anyone else.
That’s bad enough. But the real risk to changing everything for the better is the next idea to arrive.
The one that suggests we have to listen to and respect what anyone who has been elected or has a position of authority has to say.
WE DON’T.
Respect & Trust MUST be earned AND be credible too
Sadly, the way the Electoral System works today doesn’t mean that we can rest assured that candidates are skilled, experienced, in touch with our reality, or in any way capable of speaking for us or making any decisions on behalf of us all.
Not only this. The reality is that even the ‘majority Votes’ that ‘winning’ candidates attract for Council and even Parliamentary Seats are themselves representative of just a small fraction of just the People in our communities who are eligible to Vote.
This means that the genuine majority of the People who you are about to communicate with, already feel that they are not represented by the politician(s) your community has already got.
Speak and make promises in the same way that the Establishment and the Outsider Parties already do, at these doorsteps, and the People you are reaching out to will see right through you, almost as quickly as you can blink.
Speak honestly and openly, and share your care and compassion for change, for People and for the Community – from your heart, and the People you speak to will take you seriously, right from the start.
It’s what we all have in common that is key
We have much more in common with others than anything that divides us.
Yet we allow those differences and the beliefs that we have about each other to take over and rule our lives as if the commonality that we share doesn’t even exist.
Politics is so divisive because it is reflective of who each and every one of us believes that we are and what we stand for, deep down inside of ourselves.
With the problems across the UK and the World that generation after generation of poor Politicians have created, it’s no longer possible or responsible of us to leave the Politics for the Politicians.
And it won’t be, until such time as we once again have a political system in place that we can rely upon and trust.
The culture of Politics that is dividing us all is representative or a reflection of the broken system and the disease of self-interest and the thirst for self-advancement, influence and power that has stepped into democracy’s place.
It simply doesn’t matter if you have seen yourself as being left-wing, socialist, right-wing, capitalist, conservative, eco-friendly or as wearing any similar kind of label up until right now.
The tribal badges that a self-interested political system has conditioned us to wear, have also been the banners that we have allowed to trip us up by defining how we feel about and how we perceive many others too.
For what it’s worth, those others have gone through exactly the same process on their part, too.
Politics today is not based upon, driven or motivated by anything good for us and for our communities, as it always should be.
Left, right or from somewhere in between. This broken Political System focuses on keeping power away from the People and absent from within the communities where it should be.
It continually funnels and focuses OUR POWER on People, both seen and unseen, who make the real decisions that we have no influence over, right at the top.
Our power will be immediately returned to us by recognising the parts of life that are common to everyone, and by focusing our collaborative efforts to bring equitable access and provision of the things and experiences in life that we genuinely share.
If you haven’t realised already real community is not just an idea. It is a way of being.
For instance, we don’t need a socialist or a capitalist to introduce their political ideologies into the processes which deliver our food – BUT THEY DO!
And it’s the same with everything else that these People touch!
The only motivation that genuine representatives of the People need in order to get everything they do right, is to maintain their focus upon what’s in the best interests of EVERYONE, when it comes to Public Policy that has any impact upon the essential areas of life that we have in common and share.
The things which are essential to provide and maintain happy, healthy, safe and secure lives for everyone, within a system that is truly balanced, fair and just, don’t need any kind of political ideology to deliver them.
We just need to focus on working together and on collaborating in union, so that what we all need, and not what only some of us want, is all that government and our system of governance gives us – and then stops there.
It’s time for our journey to that place to begin. And you have the opportunity to play an important part at the start!
Your role – IF you want it, is to reach out, listen and learn
Yes, it does rather sound like the line from those great Mission Impossible Films “Your Mission, should you accept it…”. The similarity between taking on challenging tasks should also not be lost.
But there is a decision that needs to be made. And the action that follows that decision needs to be taken by many of us, IF we really want to be able to Vote and successfully elect Candidates in every Election who are NONE OF THE ABOVE.
So, your role – IF you want it. Is to reach out, listen and learn from the other Local People from in and around your community. And to then be open to whatever happens or whatever comes next.
The bigger wheels, within wheels, that will soon be at work
Conversation and collaboration with People you don’t normally speak to but see or pass regularly isn’t really all that hard. Because you already have that shared experience in common.
If nothing else, it’s always nice to be able to put a name to a face.
Reaching out and by beginning a conversation which is all weighted towards other People speaking and sharing their thoughts and ideas about what’s happening, and what they believe our structures of government should prioritise and do, will begin the process of opening up a local and Community focused world.
You will not only take the first essential steps of helping to create a new Community-wide and all-inclusive movement that will quickly have the power to influence and change.
You will also immediately begin to learn about life from very different perspectives and see how we all experience the same things very differently.
Yes, there is an agenda that we will all be working to, from the moment you begin.
It’s no secret and we’ve already shared it.
The agenda is to get good and genuine Public Representatives elected and working with many others. So that our Councils, Public Organisations and our Parliament are being run by People who not only understand us and have our best interests at heart. But have the wherewithal necessary to understand all the different parts and functions of the Public Sector, to be able to fit them all together so that everything in the public sphere works for the benefit of us all, as it always should do.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE has an AIM, that will be achieved through a METHOD, which will be the result of you and others like you following a PROCESS from the moment you start.
THE AIM: Community agreement on Candidates who are Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE
The only thing that gives Political Parties an edge or an advantage over anyone else is that they are already organised and have systems and procedures in place.
Yet the disadvantage to us all is that they are selecting and offering us candidates under the pretense that they will represent us, when they will always prioritise the party choice.
The AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is your Community making a decision upon who represents all of you together. Then going on to support your Public Representatives to be elected and to then fill and fulfil every relevant democratically elected role.
Please do not fall into the trap of believing that’s what you and every Voter like you already does, each time that you go into a polling station and Vote.
The candidates that are listed on the ballot paper in elections now, were not selected by your community.
They were selected by someone else, using criteria that benefits a very specific group of People and whatever they stand for or believe in.
Therefore, ALL OF THE ABOVE don’t represent the views of the Community, they represent the views of someone else.
REMEMBER: The only way that communities will be represented by the People who are best qualified to represent that Community, is for the Community to select and appoint those candidates themselves.
THE METHOD: Community Meetings and interaction where we select Candidates to represent us all
To bring all of the People that make up your community together, means bringing all of them together – ideally at the same time within a Community Meeting.
As pretty much all of the existing Political Parties and Politicians already know, the circumstances when a whole Community will come together in one place at the same time to listen or to even discuss issues that affect them are very rare indeed.
Yet the reason for this apathy, disconnectedness or disenfranchisement, isn’t one that’s hard to address or get over.
It just takes a lot of effort and genuine commitment to the Community – and that’s why the existing Political Parties don’t do this – because respect for what the People really think and what’s important to them isn’t something that any of the existing Political Parties either believe in or currently even try to do.
The METHOD is holding Community Meetings where everyone from within your community has the opportunity to interact and play a part in the process of selecting the Candidates who will become Councillors, Mayors, MPs – and ANY kind of public representative that public Elections within the current system dictate that there will be.
There is significant added value and additional benefits that will come from bringing your community together without the agendas or motives of any organisation that already exists
Yes, we quite clearly have Communities that already exist in geographical terms. They are where we all already live.
We also have groups of People who share certain or specific things in common. Like their religion, their working background, or perhaps a sport that they have played or follow as a spectator or on TV.
But it has become increasingly rare for any of us to really feel any kind of affinity with the People with whom the only thing we clearly share is our locality, in the sense that living together and sharing life together is an essential part of making the things that surround our everyday lives much better than what they already are.
It is the humanity that comes from engaging in direct relationships within our local areas and local communities that have the ability to really help us to find genuine happiness, as well as giving us the ability to discover and appreciate who we genuinely are.
There are no substitutes for the benefits that being part of a vibrant, caring and above all human Community will have for you and for everyone.
Above all, the benefits from coming together to ensure that the decisions that will affect us and that will have an effect upon everyone, are made by the right People, who we have selected, qualified and appointed, alongside everyone else who will be affected by whatever they will then do, will be incalculable for us all.
THE PROCESS: Engaging with your Community in a series of TEN STEPS
So, you’ve read this far. We are now at the most important part of the journey to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
That is, IF you are ready and committed to taking the steps necessary to play your part in creating change, whilst welcoming everyone who is open to it to share the ride.
There are TEN practical STEPS to creating the momentum and energy that will engage your community.
We are going to use the METHOD of bringing everyone in your community together, so that your community can achieve the AIM of selecting your own candidates for EVERY Election in the future.
CAUTION: It is important, as you proceed from here onwards, that you focus on what we have discussed in this book, and upon continuing with the PROCESS of TEN STEPS We are about to go through.
THE TEN STEPS
STEP 1: Give your Community Meeting a recognisable identity.
STEP 2: Get a free email box set up.
STEP 3: Set up your Community Meeting Social media accounts.
STEP 4: Get posting and post as often as you can.
STEP 5: Get at least 12 People you know from your community signed up.
STEP 6: Knock on doors and talk to real People as often as you can.
STEP 7: Collaborate wherever possible, accept help and support from whoever you can, always be prepared to work with others BUT ALWAYS QUALIFY THAT SUPPORT.
STEP 8: Arrange your first Community Meeting.
STEP 9: At your Community Meeting, let the People use their voice.
STEP 10: Hold meetings to identify your community representatives and agree what happens next.
We will now move on to cover each of these TEN STEPS of the PROCESS, providing the METHOD that will allow us to achieve our AIM.
Some things to bear in mind first:
You may be alone right at the start.
But others in your community may also start as you are about to do so.
The opportunity to join with them and others who want to actively contribute to the creation of these new structures for our communities will come along very quickly, IF you remain focused from the start.
So, don’t worry or give unnecessary thought to how you collaborate with the wider Community over a larger area – for instance, if it should be a General Election that is next called.
If everyone who begins as you are about to, is committed to the PROCESS and doing it right, the linkups, system of union between communities and working together at a broader level, will soon fall into place too.
STEP 1: Give your Community Meeting a recognisable identity:
Your immediate thought may well be ‘That doesn’t sound very hard!’
Yet giving your new Community Meeting a name that will have as much meaning with just a handful of local People involved, as it will when everyone has just Voted your first Community Representative into an Elected Office is very important indeed.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is about what you all have or what you share in common.
So, the obvious thing to everyone when you first start, will be using or rather incorporating any local place or area name that local People will recognise and identify with the area of the Community in which you all live.
The chances are that in most places, some existing organisation or savvy web user will have grabbed the precise name of your community area. (e.g., @London is already in use!)
If the actual name of your area is available for any social media username or domain name, it’s worth avoiding anyway – in that form.
Once things get moving and others can see there is interest building in what you are doing, using just the place name could be considered by some to be a declaration that you already speak for the Community.
My suggestion is that you use your community area or place name and then add either ‘CM’ or ‘NOTA’ after or before or use a word that describes what Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is all about, such as ‘Together’ or ‘United’.
For example, the area I grew up in is called Churchdown in Gloucestershire, UK. So, the name I would then use would ideally be ‘Churchdown NOTA’ or ‘Churchdown Together’.
Continuity and recognisability are important across the different platforms that you are about to use. Everyone uses social media and the internet differently. But they all need to be able to identify with something that reaches across all of them the same.
Before committing to the name you will use, PLEASE work through STEPS 2 & 3, and check that the same Usernames are available for you to use first.
This is a particularly good thing to do early on. Because it could be one of the easiest ways to work out if someone else is already working with Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, in your community too.
Things to be aware of:
You will probably use your local area name, with ‘Community Meeting’ following it as our e-mail username in STEP 2. But @communitymeeting would already be too long to become a username on one or more of the social media platforms that you are about to use.
Groups that represent different parts of your local community or interests that are shared between a number of local People may already be using words like ‘together’ as a prefix or a suffix within their proper name or a social media username.
A quick visit to any linked social media or web pages should quickly make clear who any group using one of these names is, and whether you are both working to create a Community Meeting of the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE kind.
What you are about to do, is not about you. It’s all about your community. So, don’t use your name as the name for what will become your Community Meeting.
You may technically ‘own’ or ‘control’ everything you create or do whilst you are working alone. But the end result will only ever belong to the Community.
If you feel uncomfortable with this, please give further consideration to the reasons you feel that way before you decide if you want to proceed.
Even if the name of the area or place you live in sounds like it must be unique, there is a good chance that the name will exist somewhere else in the UK or beyond.
If you should find that the name you would like to use already is being used elsewhere, don’t worry. Just add an abbreviation such as SW if you are in the South West, or perhaps something like the first two or three letters of your postcode area – which in the case of Churchdown would be GL or GL3.
STEP 2: Get a free email box set up
If you are going through the TEN STEPS in order, you will already be aware that STEPS 1, 2, and 3 fit very closely together.
It may seem that setting up a FREE email box and address for your Community Meeting would be better as STEP 3.
But if you are doing everything as suggested, you will soon understand that you will need your e-mail address to get your social media platforms set up with your Username and/or to validate your set up too.
There are a number of FREE email options available to you and it may be the case that you already have a FREE box that has come with your Phone set up, or perhaps you have one with Bing, Google or a company like Yahoo.
Most of them will allow you to set up a second box reasonably easy if you do. All you need to do for instructions, is follow the help options or do a search on any related search engine facility.
My own preference would be to use Google or Google mail. The functionality is excellent, and the security seems to be great. This is not a recommendation. But the reality is that this whole PROCESS is about making your journey to the doorstep as easy as possible, and it will only get longer if we overcomplicate things.
When you are setting your account up, please use the name of your Community Meeting as the username.
Then, when you are setting up the details that will appear when you send any emails, I would suggest using your Community Meeting Username, the same.
Things to be aware of:
If you are nervous about mail being read or hacked, don’t be.
If you are following the TEN STEPS and you are doing so for the right reasons – which are what’s best for your communityand putting Local People first, you are unlikely to ever do anything that anyone could accuse you of being wrong.
Transparency is actually key to everything you are going to do.
There are no secrets being shared here in this book or as any part of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, that I am unhappy for any existing Politician or Political Party to see.
If existing Politicians and Political Parties were ready to embrace these ideas and live by them, there would be no reason for anyone else to make the effort and try – BECAUSE IT WOULD ALREADY BE BEING DONE!
If you decide to set up a signature template, DO NOT add your private telephone number unless you are happy to receive unsolicited calls on it.
There is no need to provide a telephone number. With so many other ways that you can (and will) be able to offer People so that you can be contacted directly, there’s really no need to do so, unless you are happy to do so, or you are able to use a dedicated phone.
STEP 3: Set up your Community Meeting social media accounts
There are a range of different social media accounts and platforms that are available, and the list is growing.
To keep things as practical and as simple as possible, my suggestion is that in the first instance you concentrate on setting up FOUR different social media accounts.
These are:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
WordPress
You can easily add others social media platforms such as Tik Tok, Blogger, Rumble, YouTube, Telegram etc. if you have good reason to believe there is enough demand.
But right now, this is all about making the best use of the time that you have available and the PROCESS of getting the AIM of OfficiallyNONE OF THE ABOVE known by as many People across your local Community area as possible.
Usernames
If you haven’t already done so, please CHECK that the Username you have for your Community Meeting is available for ALL of the social media platforms that you intend to use BEFORE you start signing up to any of them.
This way, you can secure usernames that will be the same across ALL of your social media platforms.
Remember CONTINUITY and RECOGNISABILITY are KEY!
Twitter
It is very useful to have a presence on Twitter. Chances are that there will be a smaller number of members of your local Community who will use and interact with your posts on Twitter. But it’s also likely that this is where you will generate more interest from outside – which is important for networking and getting help from others too.
The trick is to keep your messages factual and short, or just add a short description and use Twitter just for posting your Facebook, Instagram and WordPress links.
Facebook
You may already have a Facebook account of your own and you can use that as the doorway to create a Facebook Page.
Facebook is where you are most likely to pick up support from members of your local Community very quickly.
My advice would be that you treat your Community Meeting page on Facebook a bit like a central hub, which links to everything else.
Facebook is good for editorial, pictures and for posting links and I would suggest that you take the plunge and use them all, as often as you can.
Please make sure that anything you post anywhere else is linked to your Community Meeting Facebook Page too.
The functionality of Facebook Pages is fantastic. So, if you just follow the guided tour after your Page is initially set up, you will immediately get a taste of what a great Community connection tool it really can be.
Instagram
Instagram is a much more visual tool that a lot of People really like, simply because the content or the stories revolve around pictures and visualisation helps how people think.
If you can record what you are doing with pictures and add a few words to tell the story as you do so, you will be amazed at the support that you will soon find.
Instagram is owned by the same company that owns Facebook and you can set up your Community Meeting Instagram account so that it immediately posts to Facebook too. However, please be aware that it does not work that way, the other way around!
WordPress
If you are unsure how to put posts together that will interest and engage other members of your community when you begin, perhaps writing and publishing a journal of what you are doing and what you have experienced will be a very good way to start.
Blogs of the kind you need to write don’t need to be long. They just need to be factual and relevant in every way that you can make them.
WordPress will also allow you to repost material or blogs from other WordPress sites if you want to.
WordPress is the blogging platform that I currently use to support everything I write, and it’s where any resources I will be making available to share with you will be found.
Setting up
All of these social media platforms take just a few minutes to set up.
Some suggestions:
Use a picture or pictures of a location or landmark that everyone in your community will know and relate to – One that isn’t a private residence, a business or includes People or private property that can be identified within it.
Use a free app such as Meme Maker to add your Community Meeting name and do any basic editing you may need, to the picture or pictures before you use them.
Write a short bio and use it for all four of them. For example, ‘Bringing Churchdown together so that public decisions are made for us all, the same’
Where you can, immediately set up posting links between your different social media platforms, so that when you post to one, you immediately post to all (For instance, if you write a blog in WordPress, the set up will allow you to automatically post to Facebook, and Instagram does the same thing too).
STEP 4: Get posting and post as often as you can:
As soon as your Community Meeting social media platforms are up and running, you should begin posting and sharing everything that you can or have the time to, online.
People from across your community will be interested in what you are doing from the moment that you begin work.
However, the key to success is what you then do to keep those same People engaged and interested, and then thinking about what more they could and then want to do, to help you.
What kind of things you should post:
People you don’t know will respond very well when they feel like you are talking to them, rather than at them.
A really helpful way to approach writing anything to post on social media and online, is to treat it like you are having a normal chat or conversation with someone that you already know – just without anything that would be too familiar or personal. (For instance, leave out bad language, irony, sarcasm or anything that people who aren’t used to the way you speak might not ‘get’ or understand)
You don’t need to write loads to engage People either. Short and punchy lines or just a couple of paragraphs are more than enough, IF there is a message worth sharing included.
Use your Community Meeting social media platforms to post:
News:When you’ve launched, when you have set up something like a fundraiser for People to use, when you’ve made contact with another Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE group, when a member of the community volunteers and is taking on a specific responsibility or role AND when Community Meetings have been arranged.
Questions:You should ask People what they think about things you are doing and speak as if you are already addressing the whole community – no matter how many People are already involved. Remember that the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE pathway to creating functioning Community Meetings is all about engaging and listening to everyone who wants to speak and participate across the local Community – so give them that chance from day 1!
Updates:Tell everyone what you and those working with you have achieved. For instance, if you have made a commitment to visit a certain number of houses to talk to local People by a certain date, tell everyone how you are getting on. Or share other updates about how other Community Meetings are getting on.
The kind of things you shouldn’t post:
Remember that your Community Meeting and everything you create, set up and achieve belongs to the Community from the moment you begin.
It’s therefore very important not to blur the lines and make anything you post about you, what you are doing when you are not working on Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, or anything personal to you, such as talking about the things that you like.
DON’T use your Community Meeting social media platforms to post:
Anything Personal: DON’T use the platforms you have set up for your Community Meeting to post ANYTHING that is about you or anyone else personally.
Anything about Public Policy or Politics: The whole point of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is the creation of the circumstances where we are able to Vote for People to represent us all as Public Representatives who have been chosen by the Community and whose integrity in fulfilling their responsibilities is something we can trust. Policy itself is the next issue, once we have Politicians running government that we can trust. So, if the focus shifts away from listening and the commitment to the order that these steps have to come, your only success by making policy statement or making an endorsement of a policy of any kind, will only be to divide People at precisely the wrong time.
Rules for using social media as a successful Community building tool:
Here are some general rules that will help you to build a good reputation for your Community Meeting, to stay happy and to build good relationships across your social media platforms, with anyone worth building them with online:
ALWAYS approach social media like it’s a one-to-one conversation with someone you already know.
Don’t do or say anything to anyone online, that you wouldn’t be happy to do or say directly to their face, in real life.
NEVER MAKE IT PERSONAL. Even the People on the internet who are rude are reflecting only how they feel about their own life and the world. ITS NEVER ABOUT YOU – but it soon will be, IF you are the one to initiate any kind of abuse or attack!
If you are unsure of whether you should post whatever you’ve written, DON’T POST IT!
Don’t present opinions and views as fact to anyone. It’s possible to get into legal trouble if you do, and you never know who will see what you have written or published, and People will be very quick to call you out!
Don’t lie or make things up – especially if you have received a comment or read something that makes you uncomfortable.
Don’t post when you are feeling emotional or are under the influence of drink or drugs.
Always answer polite and constructive questions. There will be more People who will be genuinely interested in what you are saying or doing than there will be those who only have bad things to say about anything or anyone.
NEVER make promises that you have no way of knowing that you can keep.
If you are asked a question and don’t know the answer, be honest. Don’t even attempt to blag your way out. Find a way to engage directly if you can and let them know that you will find the answer and get back to them.
Ignore anyone who only has negative things to say.
DO NOT use the number of likes, shares, followers or any other kind of statistic that’s openly available as a way to tell you how successful your efforts have been. Alone, they NEVER accurately correlate with what People are really thinking. The reality is that if you only ever succeed in openly engaging one person, that one person could be connected and then tell your story to the whole world!
Don’t share links to anyone or anything that you don’t trust or are not fully aware of and know to be relevant and helpful to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
REMEMBER: Unless you have done something you shouldn’t have, People only attack and criticise the work and efforts of others online, when they have nothing useful or of benefit to anyone else to say. Keep doing the right thing by everyone, and you will soon be shocked by who this cap actually fits!
Don’t publish any picture of anyone who can be identified from that picture, unless you have their permission to do so. You should get that permission in writing wherever you can.
Don’t publish information that will identify People directly, unless it relates to material that already exists in the public realm – In which case, publish the link, so readers can see what you are referencing or referring to.
Don’t publish anything on your Community Meeting platforms that promote the views of any organisation or any individual in any way, other than your Community Meeting, itself.
Things to be aware of:
Remember that you need to keep the AIM, METHOD and PROCESS of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE in your mind at all times.
ALWAYS CHECK THAT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE POSTED THEN POSTS AS IT SHOULD, WHERE ITS SUPPOSED TO, AND THAT ITS POSTED ON TIME!
STEP 5: Get at least 12 People you know from your community signed up
Although the PROCESS is all about getting People from within your local Community to Meet up and work together, the PROCESS is also built upon the foundation of getting your message to begin working on its own, without you having to do all the work.
One of the easiest ways to get your Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE messages to start engaging other members of your local Community and to begin working for you remotely too, is to focus your first efforts on getting local People following, liking and sharing all of the social media platforms you have set up.
Clearly, the more follows, likes and shares you have, the bigger the number of People who will see your posts will be – even if they don’t like, share or follow themselves.
Because of the way that social media and search engines work, there always seem to be a number of follows, of likes and shares that need to be hit or achieved before pages reach a magic moment or what some would call a critical mass, when new or additional followers and likes just seem to start arriving and adding up, all by themselves.
From what I know and understand at the time of writing, you will help yourself greatly if you can immediately share your Facebook page with at least 12 People from your local Community who are friends with you on Facebook, who then follow or like your Community Meeting Facebook Page, and then like and share posts with all the People they know, as you publish them.
It’s not critical for you to do this, at this point. But it will certainly help and add to your confidence, if you can secure this support in what you would be able to call a ‘quick win’.
STEP 6: Knock on doors and talk to real People as often as you can
Knocking on doors and talking to real People, face to face, may prove to be the biggest, but also the most rewarding challenge that you will face, as part of the PROCESS to create the METHOD of delivering the AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
Before you let yourself worry about something silly, such as asking yourself ‘what are these People going to think’, please bear in mind that everyone, including you, likes to be asked what they think or how they feel about the things that are important to them.
Not only do People like to be asked for their views and opinion. There’s no better place to give your views and opinion, than at the doorstep of your own home.
When to call or knock on doors
The best times to knock on doors and find People in and most likely to be available and happy to speak to you will be between 6 and 8pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during a normal working week, and on Saturday mornings between the hours of 9am and 12pm.
You should always avoid houses where it’s clear that parties or other meetups of some kind are underway.
Don’t go out knocking on doors when you know that big sporting events or other things are on TV that a lot of People are likely to want to watch.
What you should always say
At some point during any conversation – preferably as a start, you must always explain who you are, what you are doing and why you are doing it.
You aren’t knocking on the door to preach a message. You are there to listen and learn.
So, keep your explanation as brief as possible. But make it long enough so that your reason for being there makes sense in a way that anyone will be happy with and able to understand.
For example, you could say something like:
“Good evening, my name is Adam and I live in the next road to yours. I’m growing concerned about the decisions being made on our behalf by Politicians within our Local Councils and the Government and am in the process of reaching out to other local People to share our experiences and see if we feel the same. I was wondering if you have any concerns about any of these things you would be happy to share yourself and then see if theres anything we can do together and with others from the area to try and address the problems we have in common?”
The Dos
DO:
Introduce yourself in terms that make sense of who you are – For example, “I’m Adam and I live in the road next to yours, I often see you when I’m at the bus stop…” etc.
Ask People to share their views and what concerns them.
Say that you are concerned about what’s happening with government and public services because of the People who are elected to run them and that you want to learn and understand how other People in your Community feel, and what the issues are that are important to them. But again, don’t start talking about what YOU want to happen or see.
Make clear that you are not working for, on behalf of, and are not affiliated with any existing Political Party or movement.
Share with the People you speak to that what we have in common and what we share together is more important than any ideas that divide us or that have been tearing us all apart
Bring focus to the way that the political system works, being the problem that needs to be fixed BEFORE we can then focus on getting the policies right.
End by sharing with them that you are looking to arrange a new type of Community Meeting to bring People from across the Community together, so that we can all share our ideas and experiences and then agree what we can do next.
Suggest there will be opportunities for anyone and everyone within the Community to help and take part and do more if they want to. But the most important thing is participation and sharing the message so that everyone can be involved and take part if they want to.
Ask if they would follow and share your social media addresses.
Take their email address if they are happy to stay in touch with you directly.
The DONTs
DON’T:
Don’t treat someone else’s doorstep as your own personal soapbox or use the opportunity to grandstand or ‘big up’ the part you are playing in any way.
Don’t abuse the gift of time that anyone is prepared to give you.
Don’t share your own views and experiences UNLESS you are asked to and only then, keep it factual and don’t include your views or what you think should be done.
Don’t criticise ANY of the Political Parties, organisations, any public figure or anyone who you believe to be setting a bad example or to have done anything ‘wrong’. You are running your own race and when it comes down to the example of what not to do in Politics, they have already won…
Don’t make anything up, lie or stretch the truth about any topic you discuss.
Don’t make promises you cannot keep.
Don’t waste their time or yours. If it is clear that the Person or People you are talking to, are already committed to supporting an existing Political Party or movement of some kind. You will not change the mind of anyone who isn’t already open to the idea of change.
Information you should always provide
If you knock on someone’s door, it’s just polite and courteous to give them your name.
If it is clear that the person or People you have called on are interested in what you are doing, don’t end the conversation or leave until they know about your Community Meeting social media accounts, and they have the addresses so that they can follow, share and like.
Do not be afraid to provide any of the details you have prepared whilst you have been working to hold a Community Meeting. If you are following this Guide and the TEN STEPS, you will have no reason to hide anything that you have published.
The reality is that once momentum starts building behind what you and what others like you are doing, there will be People involved or supporting existing Politicians and Political Parties who will see Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and the idea of a new form of Community Meetings as a threat.
Let them.
The future of your community is for the members of your community to decide.
Not them.
Things to be aware of:
The most important thing to be mindful here, is that you do not have the right to be heard on someone else’s doorstep.
If it should become apparent that your call and presence at someone’s door is not in any way welcome at any point, turn around and leave immediately.
Always do so politely, and especially so, if you are already talking to someone when you become aware of this.
Never worry about how many houses you call at in one session. If you were out knocking on doors for just 4 hours and spend 15 minutes at each door you call at listening to what People who matter like you on their doorsteps have to say, you will have connected with more People in that one session than any of the existing Political Parties will have done so by taking the same time to deliver one of their glossy leaflets through the letterbox of every house on a giant housing estate.
STEP 7: Collaborate wherever possible. Accept help and support from whoever you can. Always be prepared to work with others. BUT ALWAYS QUALIFY YOUR SUPPORT
You may begin working on the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE PROCESS alone. But you should do so knowing that for your own and everyone else’s efforts to be successful, it will soon be necessary to pool efforts with others who are thinking the same way as you.
Help will come in many different forms and from many different directions, IF you get to work and just let your faith in the PROCESS take care of the rest.
If an Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE Community Meeting has already been established locally
If you should find that somebody else has already began working in your local area to build a Community Meeting using the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE PROCESS, this is great news for your area.
Anyone who is genuinely committed to developing a community response to the problems we face will be happy to collaborate with others who are clearly setting off from the same starting point and viewing the process of changing the way that we do Politics in the UK in the same way.
Even if somebody has already begun work to develop a Community Meeting locally, there is no reason why you cannot get started on your own, IF you genuinely believe that it will help the local Community for you to focus on an even smaller area to begin with.
However, there is also a lot of truth in the suggestion that ‘many hands make light work’.
If you get in touch with whoever is also working locally and tell them that you intend to follow the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE PROCESS too and that you are open to collaborating, the chances are that an honest and open conversation will soon let you know how you can combine efforts and reach more People in less time, by pooling your efforts on the same campaign.
Offers of help when you knock on doors
It may not happen straight away. But once you get used to knocking on People’s doors, introducing yourself and why you are there, and then listening to what the People have to say, your confidence and passion for what you are doing will begin to shine through in a way that just your words alone will not.
You shouldn’t be surprised if People you talk to at their doorsteps are then immediately receptive to the idea of getting involved and helping you in some way – or in some cases, actually asking you there and then what they can do.
Whatever you do next, if someone is interested in helping or has made a firm offer of help, you should:
Exchange contact details and make sure that they have the details and usernames of all the platforms you are using.
Ask them what they would like to do to help.
Ask them if there is anything they are NOT happy to do.
Discuss the possibility of meeting up again quickly, so that you can arrange the next steps.
Provide them with the links to find Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE on Amazon and Online and suggest that they read the whole Book all the way through.
PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER that volunteers are NOT employees.
Like you, People who are genuinely prepared to come and work with you and collaborate with us all to build Community Meetings will make effort and give their time for nothing. BECAUSE IT IS IMPORTANT TO THEM.
That means that whatever they do, really does need to be something that they are happy to do. So, it is essential that you don’t push anyone to do anything they are uncomfortable with doing, ESPECIALLY if it’s something that you are not keen on doing yourself.
If someone wants to help but just wants to write blogs for you or deliver leaflets once the first Community Meeting is arranged, let them do whatever they want to and be appreciative of even the smallest thing they have done to help.
Check the priorities and background of any volunteers who ‘come out of the blue’
As Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE begins to build interest from local People within your Community, it will also gain interest from People, Politicians and Political Parties who are invested in The System we already have, and with a commitment to resisting any kind of meaningful change.
It’s quite possible that you will be offered help from People like this which isn’t really help at all. And if you are not aware of who or why someone has approached you out of the blue, there is a chance that they want to get involved with what you are doing using an offer of help, but with every intention of hindering or even stopping you from achieving all that you have set out to do.
As a matter of course, you should always do a thorough social media and internet search of anyone who offers help or wants to collaborate with you in any way.
Whilst the reality of what it takes to deliver Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE will always uncover those who are not committed to Community Meetings and what they will deliver, you cannot leave checking out who is volunteering to your first impressions.
The chances are that your focus could easily be on more important things than what they are doing, once you have put trust in them to do whatever they say. Sadly, the time it could take to see them for who they really are could be longer than it takes for real damage to have been done.
British Politics is broken because it works this very way, today.
Offers of Help you should always avoid:
People who have active or recent links to existing Political Parties.
People who are already Politicians or who work or are linked to Local Authorities.
People who don’t have any kind of record available when you search them out.
People with details and profiles online that appear to be unestablished or very new.
Anyone whose ‘story’ doesn’t match what they or anyone who has introduced them to you has told you.
Refusing the wrong kind of help:
It is quite possible that you will receive offers of help from People with a background like that we have just discussed, or that you have become aware that they are unlikely to be genuine in some other way.
Whether an offer of help is genuine or not, if you find that you need to decline or reject that offer for any reason at all, you should always do so properly, and be polite when you do so.
People who want to involve themselves in anything for the wrong reasons often have very fragile egos. They will become angry and problematic if they are given just the slightest excuse to do so.
Avoid giving them that excuse.
Things to be aware of:
Collaboration is essential between People and groups, when what is good for us all and for the whole Community is at stake.
Until now, different People and groups who have focused on political ideas and activism of one kind or another have happily allowed their own ideas to get in the way of the things in life that are most important to us all.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE requires that we think about what’s really important to everyone in a very different way.
You will enjoy the whole PROCESS if you are open to working with and collaborating with others. You will soon be making many new friends of People you already know, along the way!
STEP 8: Arrange your first Community Meeting
Once you have started to build up a list of local People you have had direct contact with who are interested in supporting what you are doing and in taking part, the next step is to arrange your first Community Meeting.
Holding Community Meetings is the METHOD to achieving Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
For the first meeting, aiming to have as few as between 30 and 50 local People in attendance is likely to be all you need.
This means you won’t have to wait too long before you can be confident of numbers, and it is likely that there will already be a pub with a function room or a community building of some kind that can be booked either free of charge or for a very modest fee.
The chances are that you will already have somewhere appropriate in mind.
Booking a room
Most Meeting Rooms that can be booked by members of the Public will have information about booking them online.
Look up the details and check the availability. But only proceed if you are happy with the terms of hire and that you already have the funds available to cover any Room Hire Costs.
Please avoid any venue that requires a Room Hire Fee, if you cannot cover the cost, if someone has not already volunteered to pay or donated the fee, or you haven’t already received enough in any Crowdfunder you may have set up.
A pub will be just as good as a dedicated Meeting Venue, and with the difficult times that we are all experiencing right now, you may find that your local Pub Landlord will be very receptive to the idea of having a group of local People come in!
Wherever you decide to hold your first Community Meeting – don’t go ahead unless and until you know that the venue management is happy first!
When to hold your first Community Meeting
It is essential to make it as easy as possible for as many members of your local Community to attend EVERY Community Meeting that you hold.
In time, it could easily become clear that enough People are available to attend meetings at a different time. But in the first instance, you are most likely to have the biggest attendance possible if you arrange your first Community Meetings on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening, with a focus on the main business being conducted between 7 and 9pm.
Please avoid any dates when you know that there is any kind of event, like a local school parents evening or a big sports event on TV that will draw People’s attention elsewhere.
In time, it won’t matter. But to begin with, this will be the most effective way to get the maximum number of local People involved.
Make sure you let EVERYONE know
Whether they attend any of your Community Meetings or not, it is important that you let everyone in your community area know and provide notice of when and where the first one will be held.
You don’t need to drop leaflets or contact everyone directly when every Community Meeting that follows is held – as a notice by email or across all of your social media platforms for these will do.
However, for any subsequent Meeting arranged when any important decisions will be agreed – and in particular, when a Vote upon candidates to represent the Community in Elections is going to be held, you MUST make sure that everyone has been told.
It doesn’t matter if some People choose not to attend, or for some reason are unable to do so.
But it is essential that when something important is happening, EVERYONE in the Community has been informed or what is happening and has been offered the opportunity to be involved.
You only need to have put a leaflet through every door. But you must be sure that this has happened, so that no matter whether you have had direct contact with every household in your community area or not, EVERYONE has at least been made aware.
If you cannot achieve this for any reason, you should not go ahead with any meeting where any important decisions are made.
Otherwise, it is always possible that someone can say that they haven’t been informed about what your Community Meeting is doing, and that could cast doubt upon the legitimacy of the whole process.
The legitimacy of your Community Meeting can only be guaranteed if it is clear that everyone has a choice to get involved.
That said, don’t worry if you experience an existing Politician or someone like them or linked to them making accusations that they weren’t told what was going on.
As long as you know and can confirm that everyone has been contacted, they won’t have a leg for their argument or accusations to stand on.
Something important for you to bear in mind:
When you book a Meeting Room or Venue, it’s really important that you check that the owners or managers are happy for you to hold a Community Meeting.
There is nothing wrong with what you or any of us are doing.
However, many different Community buildings will be under the control of People like existing local Councillors, and People just like them, who are heavily invested in the current System and the way that it all works.
Many of them will not want to be seen to be supportive of what you are going to do.
They will make any excuse to stand in your way or object to your use of what is a community owned asset that was actually intended for just the kind of purpose you intend to use it for.
If you come across People who behave like this and misuse their position and the responsibility they have been entrusted with, you are just experiencing the kind of behaviour that Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is working to remove from everyone’s way.
In the meantime, don’t sweat it or worry about it if small-minded and selfish people try to get in the way. There are plenty of other options and plenty of other ways to succeed.
Things to be aware of:
You do not need to have everyone signed up or committed to attending when you have your first Community Meeting. But you do need to have at least taken every step possible to ensure that they are aware.
Holding your first Community Meeting and then reporting back to other members of the Community about it will almost certainly prove to be a very useful way to help get even more People involved in the future.
So, it could be a good idea to be working on STEP 8 as soon as you start – as long as you are confident doing all the things you need to, and in keeping the momentum up too.
STEP 9: At your Community Meeting, let the People use their voice
Your role is that of being a facilitator for your Community Meeting. Not the voice of your Community Meeting itself.
When you met local People from across your Community in STEP 6, you explained who you were, what you were doing and why you were there, and then you listened as the Person or People told you what they think.
It is important to understand that your role at your first Community Meeting will be very similar again.
The strength in the PROCESS, METHOD and AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is helping everyone in your community to take back their own power.
To do this, we must give everyone back the opportunity to speak, to use their own voice and to be heard.
The agenda for your first Community Meeting
The real agenda of your first Community Meeting is to begin the process of bringing what appears to be a very different group of People together. They can then begin the process of recognising the value of what they all have in common, and what they share, together. All in one room.
There is a good chance that amongst any Community Meeting, and particularly if the meeting is one of the first, there will be a Person or People present who will be happy to sound off very quickly, IF they don’t get the opportunity to take over. Or they believe that there is more value in doing things a different way.
When you begin and you speak for the first time, it is very important that you create and share a few brief ‘house rules’ with everyone.
These could be something like:
That by being here, and by taking part, we ALL agree that:
This Community Meeting is for everyone and as such, everyone will have the opportunity to speak – IF they want to.
We will all commit to listening to what every speaker has to say.
When we want to comment, our comments will be shared in the sense of looking forward and how ideas can be built and improved upon, rather than being negative and critical or focused on the past.
If we don’t understand someone else’s perspective or we believe that in some way it doesn’t make sense, we will respectfully ask them to explain their perspective further and ask them to do so using their experiences – if they are happy to share.
That we all remain polite, respectful of others, and above all else, we won’t speak across others and will wait for our turn.
You will be surprised by just how engaged everyone will quickly become, once they know that not only will they be heard, but everyone will be listening to everyone else with the same open mind too.
So that every member of the Community who is present is treated as fairly as can be, it might also be a good idea to follow a format and talk everyone through what that will happen as each person speaks, before you begin.
This might be something like this:
Everyone will have the opportunity to speak.
We will go around the room in order but will be happy to begin with anyone who is particularly keen to speak first.
When it’s your turn to speak, please share your name and the area of our community where you live.
Please also share with us if you already have a role within our community too.
We would then like to hear your thoughts on any issue which is concerning you, along with any thoughts about how people affected could be helped.
We would also like to hear your thoughts on what your ideal public representative should be experienced in and able to do, before we make a Community Decision upon whether to endorse them, and then support them when an Election is called.
The most important thing to do is to make sure that everyone who wants to speak has had the opportunity to do so – no matter how long it takes.
It’s always worth being patient.
Don’t let anyone talk about forming or agreeing Policy at this stage:
As we discussed in STEP 4 when we talked about posting on social media, this is not the time to do anything other than listen to what everyone has to sayand what experience they want to share. It’s not the right time to get into the details of Public Policy itself.
The overall AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and the Community Meetings that you have brought into being, is for your community to select the very best Public Representatives that it can and then endorse and support them until they have successfully been elected. That is the right time for any discussion about Public Policy to begin.
If any kind of effort to reach agreement on a political position takes place at this stage – even if it’s about who and what, or how something is wrong, you will very quickly find that cracks will appear in the support you have been working so hard to grow.
No matter what the topic might be, even words that suggest People have to get behind an idea that might polarise opinion at this point, will be enough to derail your efforts.
People need to experience that Community Meetings not only have the power to bring members of your local Community together. They MUST also see and then KNOW that collaboration of this kind can yield genuine results too.
This will not be achieved until your Community Meeting has selected, endorsed and supported candidates and they have been elected – When People will see that Politics established on commonality rather than separation and difference, is a real alternative and choice.
Things to be aware of:
Communication is a two-way street.
Being a good communicator is as much about being able to listen and hear everyone when they speak or understand them through whatever it is that they do, as it is to speak, write or publish your words, yourself.
A public meeting is a very different environment to somebody’s own doorstep, where most people will feel safe. Many of the People who felt very comfortable talking to you one-to-one, will become hesitant to speak, when the opportunity comes to speak in front of ‘everyone’.
This is a very human and normal response. So don’t push anyone to speak if they don’t want to.
Also bear in mind that the experience of being in a group can make some People feel boxed in. If they think for any reason that what they have said could be viewed in some way as being wrong, they might easily become defensive too – which in some cases might appear they are becoming angry.
What you should have achieved when your first Community Meeting reaches its end
Your first Community Meeting is only the first. And it could be the first of a great many to come.
Let’s hope so. Because agreeing and then arranging your next Community Meeting will be one of the first and most meaningful ways that you can measure your success and see the result of the effort that you have put in.
By the end of the first Community Meeting, those attending should know and understand:
The primary AIM of Community Meetings is to qualify, select and then support candidates who are members of your local Community to stand in every upcoming Election as the candidate or candidates who have been chosen by the Community, to represent the Community and to speak and Vote on its behalf.
The dates and timelines for the next Parish/Town, Borough/District, County/Unitary Elections covering your area (where they are relevant), and any pointers you might then be able to provide about when the next General Election might be.
The role that each and every member of the local Community is being invited to play in selecting Community Candidates for upcoming Elections.
When the process of selecting Community Candidates for the next Election is likely to begin.
The date of the next Community Meeting.
What everyone who is already contributing to the PROCESS will be doing next.
How everyone can keep up to date, keep in touch and do their bit to build the Community Meeting, so that as many People as possible are ready and able to take part, when you all come together and meet next time.
You should arrange the next Community Meeting as soon as possible and hold meetings as frequently as possible thereafter.
Be prepared to have small interim meetings online, using software like Microsoft Teams or Zoom, if this will be helpful to anyone – and particularly everyone who is making an active contribution and taking part as a volunteer.
Depending upon how well attended your last Community Meeting was and when the next Election will be, you should begin taking steps and discussing the process you will use to select your Candidates as part of a special Community Meeting that you might be ready to hold next time.
Please be aware:
Your Community Candidates cannot begin working on their Election Campaign, or the pre-campaign work that they will need to, UNTIL your Community Meeting has Selected and Endorsed them.
STEP 10: Hold meetings to identify your community representatives and agree what happens next
The AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is to have Candidates on every ballot paper in every Election who have been selected by the Community – so that there is a legitimate and qualified choice.
Selecting your Candidates for Endorsement will be rather like being an employer who is setting up and managing a recruitment process.
The key difference will be that there isn’t one person or two, but potentially an entire Community of local People that will be making the final decision and choice.
Because of the clear need and requirement to respect and protect personal data, some of the process may need to be undertaken by a committee that is appointed by your Community Meeting, which can then make a recommendation or perhaps offer several People who can then speak to the whole Community and answer questions that will help everyone to settle upon the final choice.
The most important part of the Candidate Selection process will be the very first job your Community Meeting will have to complete.
This will be to identify, agree and implement the framework or terms under which your appointed committee will then makes its recommendations or present its final choice.
Some things that you should all discuss and consider:
No person should automatically be precluded from consideration to be endorsed by your Community as a Candidate for reasons other than those which would disqualify any person from becoming a registered candidate in the relevant Election to be held.
However, a successfully Endorsed Candidate should, at least:
Already reside within the Community that they would represent or live very close by.
Offer experience of life which has enabled them to understand the priorities and behaviour of others, from across different social and demographic groups.
Offer sufficient experience of holding responsibility of some kind, within business or some other organisation, where they have demonstrated an appreciation of how organisations and services work.
Be patient and caring for others, with a clear ability to listen, understand and empathise whilst remaining objective where different perspectives and experiences may be involved.
Have confidence and the ability to speak and explain real life concepts to others objectively and to present alternative options in a way that is accessible to all and basically makes sense.
Possess evident self-awareness and the ability to consider the impact of their actions upon others, as well as the likely actions of others upon themselves, all in ‘real time’.
Be aspirational rather than idealistic. And practical but not negative in their demeanor and approach.
Have skills and knowledge that would clearly be beneficial to the Community, when used in a relevant political role.
Be driven by public service, rather than by personal ambition of any kind.
Your Community Meeting should avoid selecting a Candidate, purely because:
They are popular or already have some kind of ‘standing’ in the Community.
You like them.
They sound credible and appear to know ‘all the right things’.
They already have a ‘following’ of some kind.
They seem to have a lot of ideas.
Under no circumstances should your Community Meeting be asked to consider any person for endorsement as a Candidate, if:
They are a current member of any Political Party or activist organisation.
They are a sitting / elected member of any Council, or Parliament or of any other publicly appointed or elected body.
They have been a member of any existing Political Party within the past 5 years.
To be fair, finding People who have the most appropriate kind of experience and approach who actually want to be involved in Politics, given the way that things are and how they have been, won’t be the easiest task. At least right at the very beginning.
However, finding the right People from within your local Community is certainly nowhere near impossible.
The PROCESS will be made much easier by following each of the TEN STEPS to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, as rigorously and as diligently as you can.
The reality is that once People start to become aware that there is a growing, non-political option that’s all about doing what’s right for everyone, many more good People will be interested in coming forward to serve on behalf of our communities than those who are prepared to take the risk that Politics offers them right now.
Choosing your Candidate Selection Committee
Choosing the members of your Community Meeting who will sift through, research and initially interview potential Candidates for Endorsement is just as important a job as selecting the Candidates to stand in Elections themselves.
As with Candidate Selection, the ability to be objective is key.
Selection Committee Members must be able to look at every part of the information they have and go in search of and be able to consider it without letting their own experiences and biases get in the way.
You will need at least three People and preferably five or even seven to take on this role.
Of these, it may become apparent that one member will have more of these attributes and as such may be well placed to take on a chair or facilitator role, where they can point out where certain things may have excessive influence on how Candidates are perceived in some way.
Transparency
Whatever process you decide upon and whether you have a Candidate Selection Committee or not, there is absolutely no reason to hide anything, other than any personal information that it is only right and that it might be necessary to protect.
Please research handling personal data and The Office of The Information Commissioner if unsure.
When your Community Meeting has agreed and set the Terms for Candidate Selection, these should be published in full online, with links highlighted and made available across all of the social media platforms that you are using and making available publicly.
It is essential that the process your Community Meeting uses to select, and Endorse Candidates for Elections is clear, agreeable and fair to everyone – with the balance of fairness always weighted towards the Community as a whole, rather than what will be helpful to any particular Candidate.
PLEASE REMEMBER: Public Representation IS NOT A JOB. IT IS A RESPONSIBILITY.
For this reason alone, it is essential that no part of this whole process is compromised by entertaining even the smallest bias towards what any individual involved within it may want.
Presentation, Questions and Answers
No matter the process your Community Meeting decides upon to get there, the final decision and therefore the Endorsement of a Candidate by the Community, MUST come from an overall Vote of the Community Meeting itself.
Whilst the Candidate Selection Committee may have made a selection, or ideally presented several preferred choices for the Community Meeting to make its choice or choices from, it is essential that all those members of the local Community taking part in the final Vote have had the opportunity to see the ability of the candidate(s) to represent them, demonstrated BEFORE that Vote takes place.
One of the best ways to achieve this, beyond an open Question & Answer session, will be to ask the final candidates to talk through their understanding of a complex area of public policy that the Community Meeting has already identified as being important.
Then ask them to go through, in detail, and explain their understanding of each and every aspect of that issue. How they would go about finding a solution, and what their considerations for reaching a choice of solution would then be.
How many Candidates does your Community Meeting need to Endorse?
This may sound like a silly question to ask at first glance, as many of us are used to the idea that we Vote for one person to represent an area in any Election.
That’s certainly true for Parliamentary Elections when we are voting for an MP to represent us.
However, it’s not always the case for Local Elections when Councillors are being elected.
So, it’s not unusual to be electing 2 different Councillors or perhaps even 3 at the same time – meaning that Voters will need to choose that number of candidates to support when they actually come to Vote.
By rule of thumb, the more local the Council or the smaller the geographical area it covers, the more candidates – and Votes on one ballot, local People could have. The very first time I was elected as a Councillor to a Town Council, my Seat was one of 6!
Therefore, your Community Meeting will need to endorse the same number of Candidates for the number of Seats or Vacancies to be filled, that there are.
This information will be available from your local Democratic Services or Elections department and more information about the different Councils and the Tiers of Government can be found on my FREE to read, web version of How to get Elected.
REMEMBER: The AIM of Community Meetings with Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is to provide all Voters with the exact number of Candidates to fill any elected positions that are vacant within our current System of Government.
The Community Meeting will select those Candidates through the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE process, just like the Political Parties use their own processes to.
The VERY BIG difference is that Candidates endorsed by Community Meetings will be selected to be genuine Public Representatives who work for and on behalf of the Community. Rather than being Candidates who will always be working for someone, somewhere else and out of sight, with an agenda that isn’t in yours or your community’s best interests.
The Vote
When it comes to the final Vote of the Community Meeting and the Candidate Endorsement itself, the Vote to achieve this MUST be conducted in the fairest way that it can be.
On the face of it, it would appear that the easiest way to be assured of legitimacy would be to work with a simple show of hands.
However, when everyone can see what everyone else is doing, it can too easily mean that ‘group think’ or fear of offending or upsetting certain People from within the local Community can get to work. This is something you will always need to be mindful of.
Remember, if the PROCESS and METHOD are compromised at any stage, then the real AIM of all of the work and effort made will not have been achieved. The Community WILL NOT have the chance to be represented properly and legitimately in the way that it should.
Therefore, passing a ballot paper or slip of paper with the name(s) of each candidate listed to each member of the Community who is voting, and asking them to place a tick against the name of one of the proposed candidates listed, will almost certainly be the right way to complete the voting process and to ensure that it has been fairly done.
Supporting The Candidate
Once your Community Meeting has endorsed your Candidate(s), the work doesn’t end there.
The process of supporting your Candidate(s) to connect with everyone across the Community is your next essential step.
You should use all of the social media platforms that you have to make People aware of who your Community Meeting has Endorsed, and therefore who has the Community Meeting’s qualified support.
Preparing for Elections
It is important to remember that Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is neither a Book nor a Guide for Election Candidates, once they have been Endorsed by a Community Meeting will need to do as part of an Election campaign itself.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is about the creation of circumstances where Candidates for Elected Public Offices have been vetted, selected, approved and endorsed by the Community to be on our ballot papers as a ‘recommended for, by and on behalf of this Community’ choice.
In time, being Endorsed by a Community Meeting to run as a Candidate in any Election will be enough, in itself, to attract Votes from a significant number of People. Much in the same way that the majority of political candidates get backed by People right now. Not because of who they are. But because of which Political Party they are running with.
It may be a relatively short time until your Endorsed Candidate(s) attract that kind of support. But that time could well prove be longer than the time between now and the next Election in your area.
Ideally, your Community Meeting will Endorse Candidates to run in the next Election that is scheduled or expected.
Whenever that Election might be, it is essential your Endorsed Candidates begin work on campaigning across the area and connecting with Members of the Community, in very much the same way as you will be doing yourself.
Until such time as a shared name or political vehicle might be needed and agreed upon to bring all Community Meeting endorsed or approved Candidates together, the best way for any Candidate to consider themselves for the purposes of registering with your local Democratic Services or Elections Office, is to run as an ‘Independent’ candidate.
The very first book that I wrote and published, “How to Get Elected” is intended to help Independent Candidates in a way that is almost identical to the support that your Endorsed Candidates are likely to need right now.
You will find the whole book split up into pages and available to read FREE HERE. (The FREE version is much easier to access from a PC, where the page titles are listed in order, on the right-hand side of the screen).
Alternatively, you can buy and download a copy of How to get Elected for Kindle from Amazon HERE.
How to Get Elected is a self-help or ‘How to’ guide that covers all the things a Candidate needs to be aware of or to consider, with a lot of additional thoughts, experience and tips thrown in.
Like Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, the way to get the very best value from the book, How to Get Elected, is to read it all the way through, without missing anything out.
How to Get Elected will fill in all the gaps that need to be crossed by Candidates, before other support and help may become available.
Fundraising
Costs that may occur such as Room Hire, and printing leaflets have been mentioned at a number of different points throughout the TEN STEPS.
Before anything else, you will not need to spend any money or even consider whether you will need to spend money BEFORE you have reached STEP 8 and are in the early stages of arranging your first Community Meeting.
If you have already gained sufficient support for your first Community Meeting, it is likely that you will also have enough support to raise the modest funding necessary to cover any costs of Room Hire and Leaflet Production/Printing too.
Protecting yourself and protecting your donors
The first thing you need to consider if you are going to raise money to pay for any Community Meeting related costs, is that any money you raise – even if it’s just pennies – is NOT yours.
If you’ve told People that any money they donate will be for a specific purpose, or just in general terms to help the creation of your Community Meeting in some way, that is the only purpose that it should ever be used for.
In the stages leading up to your first Community Meeting and possibly beyond, the safest way for you to raise money or receive donations is likely to be through setting up an online crowdfunding campaign using a platform like Go Fund Me or Just Giving. (There are others that you will find by doing an online search of ‘Crowdfunding’ or similar, too)
If you set up an account online, it is likely, depending upon which platform you use, that you will be able to manage your fundraising using an app and you will automatically be able to manage and track money coming in.
Not only that. You will also have the added value that will come from being able to post even more information about your Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE campaign within your local Community – and that can only be a big help!
Managing donations and protecting your Community Meeting
It may not be possible or practical to open up a bank account to manage any funds your Community Meeting campaign receives.
But it will be necessary to keep a written record of what money you withdraw or transfer from any Crowdfunder you’ve set up, and then how every bit of it is spent.
Whatever you spend money on (e.g., Room Hire, Printing costs), you should always ask for and keep a receipt.
Each transaction should be recorded in an Excel spreadsheet or similar – which will also make your input much easier, as the software can be set up to automatically do any sums for you.
It may sound like a lot of effort for very little. But when you are managing other People’s money, it’s the real detail that actually counts.
By keeping a very clear and transparent record of the process of financial management you have used, it will be very simple for you to demonstrate that you’ve done everything properly, IF anyone should ask.
It will also then be much easier and less time-consuming for you to hand over responsibility for financial matters to another person, as more volunteers become involved in building your Community Meeting.
Please Remember:
Donations are always made for what the donor believes they will be used for. Not so that you or anyone else can then use them for something else.
Any money given in the form of a donation belongs to the Community and should be given back to donors immediately, if your campaign stops at any time.
You are raising funds so that the only donation you have to make personally is your effort and time, without there being any financial cost to you.
Part 2: For those who just want to be able to Vote and know that their Vote will have real meaning
First of all, A WARNING:
There’s nothing passive about voting.Unless someone else has stolen your Vote.
Yes, you could be one of many who simply don’t bother to Vote when an Election comes to your local area, right now.
But that’s when you only had the option to Vote for something that’s important to somebody else. With Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and Community Meetings, you will now have the choice and option to Vote for something that will prioritise what is important for you, as well as for us all.
As we discussed earlier, change is always happening.
The choice you have is whether you want to play a part in defining change, or whether you want to sit back and let change happen to you.
You don’t need to be one of the People who will immediately take up an active, facilitator-type role for Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, and undertake the tasks outlines in detail throughout the TEN STEPS in Part 2.
But you won’t be helping anyone who does, and you certainly won’t be helping yourself and the opportunity that we all have for a Political System that genuinely works for us all, IF you don’t at least involve yourself enough to keep up to date with progress, spread the word to others, and attend Community Meetings whenever a choice or important decision that may impact your future, will be made.
If you don’t want to be actively involved, the STEPS you can STILL take that will help your Community Meeting are:
Supporting your Community Meeting on social media.
Supporting your Community Meeting by sharing the word.
Supporting your Community Meeting by sharing your experiences and any relevant information you might find.
Attending your Community Meetings whenever they are called.
Supporting your Community Meeting by taking part in the process of selecting Candidates for Elections and taking part in any Community Meeting Votes.
Supporting your Community Meeting by voting for all Candidates that the Community Meeting has endorsed when an Election takes place.
Supporting your Community Meeting on social media
Whilst there is no genuine substitute for meeting with other members of your local Community face to face, if you don’t have the time or don’t feel able to be involved in absolutely everything that the others involved with your local Community Meeting do, it will be both easy and helpful for you and your Community Meeting, if you support them by following whatever they are doing online.
Not everyone uses social media. But we are now in a time where the majority of People do. Of those that do, only a fraction will openly support or engage with articles, blogs and posts, even though they will have been of interest or made them think in some way.
The simple act of following or liking the social media pages and platforms of your local Community Meeting will be a massive help to build momentum, IF being able to be able to Vote for Candidates who are real and genuinely offer the option of NONE OF THE ABOVE, is all that you really want to achieve.
Because of the way that online technology such as search engines, algorithms and the AI or Artificial Intelligence that already operates many of these ‘platform’ sites on the Internet work, something as simple as a like or follow will immediately tell them that your interest in what your Community Meeting is doing, is real.
As a direct result, they will very quickly begin to ask other People like you, if your Community Meeting is something that would be of interest to them too.
This could make a massive difference for the cost of what could be no more than a couple of clicks.
Remember:
Community Meetings will bring members of the local Community together to select the People that the Community will support to become their Public Representatives.
This is not in itself a political act.
By liking or following your Community Meeting, you are simply sharing with anyone who knows or is interested in you, that you are taking seriously how the decisions affecting everyone locally are made, and that you are concerned enough that you believe it necessary to support the process and method that will deliver genuine change.
Supporting your Community Meeting by sharing the word
Another very easy way to support your Community Meeting is to talk about what local People are doing with Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE to anyone you see or have regular conversation with.
Word of mouth is a very powerful and influential tool. It also demonstrates just how important and helpful genuine and direct interaction with real People can actually be. It focuses on what Community Meetings are genuinely all about.
You don’t have to sell Community Meetings in the sense of eulogising or championing them to other People, unless you actually want to and feel comfortable doing so.
If you are open with people you know, about why Community Meetings are of interest to you and you share the facts about Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, as they genuinely are and what we are aiming to achieve together, the benefits of your local Community Meeting will very quickly sell themselves.
Please Remember:
If it helps to keep the conversation short, just tell People about Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and suggest that they also read the Book.
Otherwise, if you have a little more time and feel able, share the Usernames and links to the social media platforms that you have for your Community Meeting, once its developing and running, you can then leave it to People to take a look and then decide for themselves.
Supporting your Community Meeting by sharing your experiences and any relevant information you might find
Following on social media and spreading the word will be a fantastic help to your Community Meeting.
But you can help even more, IF you use your social media and the remote channels that are available to you, to actually contribute and take part online.
Community Meetings will always be the place for decisions to be made on what the Community wants to do about anything.
But the flow of information between Meetings will help everyone who is actively involved or just following progress from a distance.
If you see subjects or events relating to Community Meetings raised on social media that interest you, please do not be afraid to make comments or add information that might create or promote greater understanding – IF you are happy to share that information in an open forum, online.
People can only learn when they are open to learning. But the most powerful tool for learning is the sharing of others’ experiences. Not because anyone’s experience has more value than anyone else. But because sharing experiences of parts of life that others haven’t had, certainly cuts down on the requirement of time to do so, for yourself.
Interaction and sharing the benefit of your experience to help your Community Meeting and the Candidates that you come together to endorse, is the greatest currency for change that we all have as we focus on real, meaningful change.
By taking part, asking questions, flagging things that you’ve seen or heard, or just making the time to speak to other People about Community Meetings and then turning up at them, you can help the process of change in countless ways.
Remember:
You are never under any obligation to interact with any social media account, just because you follow or have liked it.
You should never post anything online that you would not want to share with People who you see regularly or face-to-face in your real life.
If you disagree with what someone else has said or believe that the information they have shared is incorrect or wrong, the best thing to do is to challenge the information they have shared itself and do so, not by simply saying it’s wrong. But by taking the time to politely and constructively explain why.
Better still, offer the details of the alternative you have based your challenge upon, to what they have suggested too.
But NEVER make your reply angry, or personal about them – and certainly not about you.
Supporting everyone by attending your Community Meetings whenever they are called
Within the TEN STEPS you will have read that it is essential that every member of the local Community is kept informed of anything important that your Community Meeting is planning to do.
On this basis, if a Community Meeting is being arranged to hold a Vote or make a decision, you should at the very least be made aware of the details such as when it will be held and where it will be held – if nothing else.
You don’t have to attend Community Meetings if that is your choice. But if you really want to keep up with what your Community Meeting is doing, and either speak or share your experiences, or just use the opportunity to be an influence in any Vote, it is also essential that you attend.
Remember:
Taking part is everything. By taking part in whatever way you are able to, you are contributing to change. If you don’t take part in any way, you are going to let change happen to you.
Supporting your Community Meeting in the process of selecting Candidates for Elections, and taking part in any Community Meeting Votes
As you will have gathered from reading STEP 10 in Part 1, your Community Meeting will be most effective in the decisions that it makes, by ensuring that the terms for Selecting Candidates and then Endorsing them is done right.
EVERYONE in your Community has something to give in terms of experience or anything else they can share. Everyone’s views are important and attending Community Meetings is the way that you can truly make your Vote count.
Supporting your Community Meeting by voting for all Candidates that the Community Meeting has endorsed when an Election takes place
Your input isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, IF you don’t actually Vote.
The whole reason for Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is the process of depoliticising the British Political system, so that Politics can deliver for us all, in the way that a democracy should really work.
To some – and you may be one of them, taking part in an Election is all that being part of a democracy will take.
But you must also understand and accept that who you Vote for is very important too.
On the day of the Election or Vote itself, your Vote could be one of just a few or maybe just the one itself, that puts a Public Representative into their role who was selected for the right reasons and endorsed as part of a Community Choice.
We no longer have the luxury of leaving our future to someone else. Many of those someone else’s we thought we could trust have already taken the opportunity that our apathy and disengagement has unwittingly given them. They have then done exactly what they’ve wanted, calling it ‘the will of the People’, all because they were supported by the mere fraction of us who Voted them into power in an Election, when that fraction of the community turned up.
You can be involved and support Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and your Community Meeting in any way that works for you.
But if you really want change to happen that works in the best interests of everyone, please keep up to date.
When the next Election comes, please Vote for the Candidate(s) that local People with the same things in common as you, have committed the time and effort to select on behalf of your community – but most importantly, on behalf of you.
Support that will be on offer
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE has been written in the knowledge that once momentum starts building for Community Meetings, support will come from many directions and will come in many ways.
There is no guide to how long the creation and holding of a Community Meeting will take.
Not just because everyone who picks up this book and begins work will approach the TEN STEPS depending upon the way they have read them. But because each and every Community area is very different, is made up of different People and for many different reasons will respond faster or slower to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, in very different ways.
With this in mind, there is a very good chance that all you will need to get started and make good progress before support comes knocking on your door will be included within this book.
However, if you should find that you have any questions, or have the need to understand any of the ideas, suggestions and thoughts that I have shared with you here, PLEASE get in touch.
It will be great to hear from you and I will happily respond to all polite and constructive requests and help in any way that I can, in the most appropriate way that I feel possible.
Will NONE OF THE ABOVE become a Political Party?
Let’s put first things first.
The whole focus of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is to provide the immediate method and means to address the real challenge we face and must overcome with our broken Political System, as it is today.
With established Political Parties and their own motives and agendas filling up the majority of seats across our whole government system, The System itself is effectively broken.
We must also accept that any new Political Party attempting to do things in what is technically the same way as those that already have seats won’t bring the changes that we need, that work in the best interests of everyone. Because if they were to be elected and gain power, the words and the policies might be different, but their approach, attitude and motivation would end up being bad for all of us in exactly the same ways.
Public Policy is the problem, and that problem is hurting us all.
However, to fix Public Policy problems, we have to focus first on fixing the root cause.
The root cause of all the problems are the People who become our Politicians and a situation that leads to the same self-interested and incompetent type of People being the only choices we have and then repeatedly elect.
The Selection and Endorsement of Candidates and the process that will engage each and every one of us to choose and support them in Elections is what Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is here to provide.
When we have created a new system of Community Meetings where each Community selects and then supports its own Council, Parliamentary and all other kinds of Political Candidates, then and only then can we genuinely begin to address the genuine Public Policy issues that we now face.
Existing Political Parties serve a purpose that is not about the whole Community. Their purpose is all about the pursuit of ideas and interests that are their own.
The only way that the formation of a Political Party would be of benefit to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, would be the structure and support frameworks that it could provide to all Community Meetings and the Candidates that they select, endorse and support.
Because of the inherent danger that anyone in key positions of such a Political Party could fall into the trap of going their own way or going off in a direction that doesn’t benefit the whole Community, the governance of such an organisation would have to be very robust and reliant upon people with a lot of integrity, right from the start.
In time, there may be very practical reasons for joining up a network of Community Meetings in some kind of affiliated or federated way, that might then, through necessity, be required to become formally registered with the Electoral Commission as a Political Party.
That time is not now.
But it would be a very nice problem for People like you and I to have, once Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is working and is doing its job across our communities.
Be Positive, Be Optimistic, but above all, Be Real
Whatever happens, whatever any of you do, there are no guarantees.
People have free will. It will be the choice of everyone whether they want to change and be part of the opportunity to influence change, or if they want to do nothing and let change of a different kind happen to them.
It is also important to understand that it is impossible to consider all of the factors or the impacts of events that have already happened or are yet to happen, and what influence they might have upon the short- and long-term future for us all.
We can only do our best and make the most of the opportunity.
Have faith, keep focused and you may soon understand what belief can really do.
More Reading
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.
Not in my name. You don’t speak for us. NONE OF THE ABOVE.
These expressions of frustration, anger, distrust and disenfranchisement from the Political System we have today are shared by a growing number of us.
We feel that because we cannot Vote for good politicians and public representatives, we have had our democratic rights taken away.
The situation goes from bad to worse, each and every day. Everything that Politicians, Government and Public Services seem to touch is failing. And the rules that Politicians are supposed to manage and set, seem to have done nothing but encourage private interests and big business to operate without any real kind of control.
When the People who lead us are out for themselves, how can we expect anyone else to behave differently?
The truth is, that we cannot.
But there is a way we can create alternative options for Candidates on ballot papers for us ALL to Vote for in every Election. That is, IF we accept and are then prepared to make the effort to create and be part of the change that is necessary.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is a ‘How To’ guide, that will open you up to a new way of thinking about the way that Politics in a democracy should work. It provides suggestions, advice and a doorway to easy-to-access tools, using a system of Community Meetings that will help everyone to reject ALL OF THE ABOVE and then have a genuine and meaningful democratic choice.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE will present you with a series of TEN STEPS that can be followed, IF you want the choice of Candidates in future Elections who will work for and on behalf of you and your local Community.
PLEASE Follow it. Learn from it. Improve on it. Share it. Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is here for you.
PLEASE NOTE: This book is not about Public Policy or Political ideas. It provides a method of putting good People into Politics, so that we then get Public Policy that corresponds.
Any Political Solution to the crisis we are in must develop and grow from our communities and grassroots; NOT from any existing Party that still wants to rule everyone Top-Down
One of the key problems with UK Politics today is that it operates as almost the mirror image of wider culture, where most people fall into the trap of believing that their own perspective is the right one. But that anyone with an alternative view of any kind – even in just the smallest of ways, is or will be fundamentally wrong about everything else, too.
Yes, you could easily argue that this is how tribes and groups work.
But politics or rather the UK political system is supposed to be about delivering public policy that is created and then implemented in the best interests of ALL British People.
The one thing that we can be sure of is that when it comes to the political classes who have been running Westminster and our local Councils for decades, there is very little about any of it – apart from the Election campaigns, that has anything to do with or what is best for us.
As I have been discussing in some of my recent blogs, time has now run out for the way that government and our economic system runs. Neoliberalism and everything such as MMT, FIAT money, and the increasingly illogically impractical schemes like Net Zero and everything that pushes people and businesses into being reliant on credit are no longer sustainable.
That is why everything is now in the process of crashing around the Labour Government’s head.
Yes, the politicians in power are incompetent.
No, the mess we are in didn’t begin the day after Labour were elected to power and Starmer arrived in No.10.
And No, not Labour, nor the Tories, the Liberal Democrats, Reform or any other group of politicians currently looking ahead to the next General Election are going to offer and deliver to us anything different. Certainly not in any way that the UK actually needs.
For a time, I was open to the idea that Reform could find itself pursuing a different way. One that would offer the cross-tribal consensus and answers that the UK now needs.
Instead, it has become clear that the mechanics of this 4th evolution of the anti-EU movement certainly hasn’t moved on in any kind of people-centric direction.
Instead, Reform is just reforming itself, but in ways that have a very familiar likeness to political parties that have been in power before, who have increasingly aligned themselves and been led by the machinations of the establishment instead.
The mess over Rupert Lowe and the inescapable optics suggesting that at every level of the Reform Party, the whole thing is all about Nigel Farage, really does speak volumes for itself.
That’s before taking the time to read the outpourings of words from former party activists and ‘officers’ who have recently walked away. Just like better known voices associated with Reform such as those of Howard Cox and Ben Habib.
If any of the names instantly trigger feelings that suggest you have taken a side as you read – no matter the reason, it is exactly that kind of emotion that is our collective problem.
Disagreement over the smallest of things shuts so many of us down to the reality that we all have views about different things that we might never agree on. But when it comes down to all the things that are actually important, there is an awful lot of commonalities between all of us to be found.
Difficult to hear though it might be, it is the division that is deliberately sown between us over issues that we do have in common – by them being presented in ways that make them appear and trigger us as if they are something else – that really plays into the hands of the incompetent political classes that we regrettably have.
As things stand, and without a lot of us choosing to approach our relationship with politics very differently, the same people dividing us and guiding us to hate people we should not have any hate for, are set to keep guiding the ship that we are all beginning to sink on. And they will happily continue to do so, until the whole thing actually goes down.
Westminster is just the tip of the ruling iceberg that we can actually see.
Behind central government sits all the things like power, influence and the wealth accumulation that money controls and which is carefully kept outside of open view.
Because the truth is that the only people who benefit from us continuing to elect politicians who are under the spell of the establishment are those politicians and all those who are benefiting from the continuation of the establishment itself.
Whilst there is very good reason to believe that the wheels could fall off this broken bus at any moment in time, for those who have been aware and watching the direction of travel of the UK (and for that matter the whole of the Western world) for a considerable period of time, both the Global Financial Crisis and then the responses to the Covid Pandemic could, and arguably should, have already been the catalysts that introduced a genuinely new way of doing governance to the UK.
That these two massive events didn’t doesn’t indicate that change cannot or will not come.
The fact that we have been led to believe that what the politicians have done in response is in any way normal just tells us even more about how deeply embedded those who genuinely believe or work with this Top-Down, them vs us culture really are, right across the establishment.
We can see just how far they are prepared to take things in their attempts to stop the whole thing from crashing down, even now. Indeed, they are growing so desperate to maintain The System, they are even attacking the people who their ‘tribe’ have always typically helped.
Whilst the talk of absolutes will certainly sound like a contradiction to the words used as I began writing this Blog above, the one dividing line that we really do have no choice but to observe and then decide upon, is which side we sit between the establishment and all it stands for, and on the other side, the people and what putting people, our communities and the environment surrounding the places where we live and work, first.
Whilst even the Tories are successfully making themselves sound very plausible, just 8 months on from losing power, in the context of everything that the Labour Government is doing wrong, none of these political parties – and that almost certainly now includes Reform, show any sign of genuinely offering an alternative to establishment-directed public policy today.
However, it isn’t today and what is now past that we need to worry about. The most important thing is the future, and specifically what happens when we reach the next General Election and what must be ‘our time’.
The UK and we as its people cannot afford another General Election result that delivers power to any group – whether elected directly, or assembled as a result of some kind of post-election ‘deal’, that then goes on to do whatever the hell it likes.
No political party out there today, currently canvassing for votes in this years Local Elections is offering to do anything in any different kind of way.
We know this, because the way that they are running their election campaigns right now; how they are communicating and most importantly, how they are engaging with real people outside the bubbles of their own members and activists, is exactly the same as it has always been before.
To put it bluntly, we can no longer afford to take the risk that comes with accepting a choice of political candidates in any election, that not us, but the political parties themselves actually choose.
Change will not come in the way that we now so desperately need it, if we keep on doing politics at every level in the UK in exactly the same way!
It is our communities and the people who are around us every day who should be selecting the people who will represent us at all levels of government.
Not people we don’t know beyond the pictures, websites, social media and TV screens.
We need public representatives to represent us who have genuine skin in our game. People who are answerable only to us and who are committed to delivering locality-centric democracy, that is the only way that democracy can genuinely thrive, survive and most importantly, work.
Whilst government and the public sector really do now need to undergo massive change, the reality is that our communities could be working together to select and elect non-party candidates in all elections, right now.
We certainly don’t need any kind of change to the electoral system that just favours the election of more incompetent candidates. Ambitious and self-serving politicians whose actions will be made even worse by the guaranteed requirement for compromise on public policy that schemes like Proportional Representation as a replacement for First Past the Post would bring.
Power MUST come back to the people. Not through carefully crafted labels like ‘devolution’ and ‘devolved power’ that is nothing more than Regional Centralisation sold to us with a very misleading name.
The power – OUR POWER is already ours and that power can be made to work for us right now. IF we choose to use it. Look beyond the manufactured differences. And focus on working together, on the important things that we all have in common, and to deliver a new world and way of being that is happy, healthy, safe, secure and governs life with fairness, balance and justice for us all.
Anyone can begin this process of change and the appointment of new candidates to become the public representatives and politicians who will create and deliver our new future, right now. And we need them to, IF we are going to experience beneficial change.
That change will only be certain if we all change the way that we think. What we can be sure of, however, is that a good future for us all doesn’t and will not start where anything ‘new’ for the politicians and voices that we already recognise as public figures begins.
An 8 – Part Essay on the UK Political ‘System’ from September 2019
Please Note that Restoring Democracy was first published as 8 different blog posts on my blogsite in September 2019.
Part 1: The ‘Old’ Politics
Everyone quietly knows and has known for a long time, long before Brexit, that something is and has been wrong with British Politics.
Because of the relationship that we all have with Government and Politicians, we have simply accepted that this is just the way that things are.
Yet Brexit opened a doorway. Not just to removing the shackles of the EU and Leaving it behind, but to also shining a light on everything that is rotten with our Politics.
We now know and understand that this old politics has to go and be replaced with something NEW.
The old politics is synonymous with everything bad about self-interest.
Like a cuckoo invading the nest of another bird, the old politics has slowly and insidiously taken over every part of or democratic system.
Its effect has been amplified through the manipulation and exploitation of the Political Party system, furthering the interests of people and politicians who only ever see their interests as being combined together as one.
The old politics is what gave birth to the phrase ‘career politician’.
It has created a situation where Politics is not a calling or public responsibility. It is merely an opportunity for furthering the interests of the politicians. It is to them no more than an income, a step to advancement. What most people recognise as the basis of a job.
To be free of the problems that led to Brexit, restore our democracy and then move forward in a confident, beneficial and measured way, we must now end the grip of the old politics on all parts of Government and the Public Sector.
It’s time to manage Public Services and the things that we share in common in a much more community minded, forward looking, considerate, consequence based and emotionally intelligent way.
Part 2: We all have a part to play in change
One of the most challenging aspects of changing politics for good, is for each and every one of us to accept that change on this scale is about everyone being prepared and accepting of changing their own views inwardly and not just expecting everything outside of them to be the people or things that have to adjust.
The world we live in is a place where everything is relative and whilst we look at everything in terms of wealth and the power that people have, the values underpinning all of this are fundamentally the same for us all.
In this sense there is little difference between bankers exploiting the housing market, to a union rep calling a strike to push for unsustainable levels of pay.
It’s simply the toys that look and feel different, whilst innocent third parties are always going to get hurt along the way.
Put into context, there are few of us who cannot appreciate that there is value in thinking differently, whether it be over a few pounds a week, or over multi-million Pound empires that might be under our control.
But saying and doing things differently are themselves very different things.
And if we want to change the world around us for the better and gain benefits from a much fairer and balanced system in the longer term, we must accept that there will be sacrifices to make but sacrifices that are really just ideas and feelings about what could be, because the benefits for the future will quickly outweigh what feels like the immediate cost.
To be different and have different lives, we must all think differently about the things that we do.
Yes, we deserve to have Leaders who will show us the way not through words but by action, giving us an inspirational example that will illuminate our learning and light the path along the way.
But the change that we want will begin when we see that change as being the difference between now and where we want to be.
Part 3: Communities & Locality first
Localism became a fashionable term during the Coalition years under David Cameron. Yet the Localism that we thought it was and the localism that it actually was are two very different things.
Like many of the miss-sold and misrepresented ideas about what serves the public interest, such concepts are presented through sound bites that are cleverly constructed to give the impression that they will take giant leaps towards some form of natural justice. But they don’t.
For example, the creation of the Office of Police and Crime Commissioners and Metropolitan Mayoralties was offered to us as giving power back to local areas.
Yes, they give the appearance of bringing more money in to benefit ‘local’ areas. But this take on giving power back to the People is a dubious representation at best.
Worse still, instead of bringing power back to us, it has instead focused existing power away from Local Government and the decision makers who are closest to us, instead transferring it into the hands of one, rather than a number and range of different local Politicians.
Many People do not realise that there four different tiers of Government in this Country. (Five If you were to Count the European Parliament too)
From the lowest to the ‘top’, they are Parish & Town Councils, Borough & District Councils, County Councils (Unitary Authorities can include all of the responsibilities of the above) and Parliament or Central Government itself.
As in Westminster, party politics plays a significant role throughout these tiers of Government, and we have the very same problems with Politicians at a local level as we do in London.
Far too many local Politicians are motivated by self-interest, pursuing their own interests and furthering their own or particular causes.
In many ways, political injustice at local level can have an even more damaging impact upon our lives. Because the decisions taken by bodies such as Planning and Licensing Committees can and do make changes to the environment that we experience within our lives, every day.
When local decisions are not taken in our best interests – as is all too often the case – the cost for us all can be severely high.
Federalism and the model of devolved decision making that the EU promotes is even worse. It gives the lie to this injustice and abuse of democracy even further.
Together, the real workings and methodology of Central and EU government has implemented a set of rules that are so tight, that so-called decision making and democracy at local level is no more than a tick-box exercise for the local government officers and Politicians involved.
Removing the rot in Politics and getting good people into political roles where they will really fight our corner, would make an immediate difference to how decisions are made locally. It would make life much better for everyone involved.
The difference that could and should be made by good central Government – once we have removed the influence of the EU once and for all, will be to give our influence and responsibility back to us and put back as much decision making into the hands of local politicians and representatives who we have genuine access to and know.
There will always be policies and responsibilities that need to be accounted for at a higher and more appropriate level.
But that doesn’t mean Politicians at the ‘top’ should be the only ones with real or meaningful control.
The reality is that today, the buck stops in London and in Brussels for far too many decisions. Laws are simply interpreted at local level – a process that leads to much misunderstanding and frustration for local People and locally minded Politicians that really don’t have the responsibility and influence on issues that are most pertinent to them – no matter what they are being told.
Getting decision making back to local government and as close to the People as possible is an essential part of creating a genuine feeling of community, re-enfranchisement and that we can have real and meaningful influence on the world around us.
A Good Government could begin giving us genuine localism by:
Overseeing a clean, secure and permanent Exit from the EU.
Abolish the roles of so-called Metro-Mayors and transfer their powers back to more local control.
Abolish the roles of Police & Crime Commissioners, re-establishing the local Committee structure whilst taking measures to ensure that political influence is kept at the minimum and that Committee Members are drawn from outside privileged and insider networks.
Reverse all processes of centralisation within the Tiers of Government and/or restructure to ensure that decision making and influence is structured and administered in such a way that the emphasis is always upon the quality of service and experience of end-users – always ensuring that it is as accessible as possible, rather than simply being about money, the decision makers and the officers involved.
Return the final point of decision making to the level most near to Voters and only use frameworks as a guide unless there are very specific rules such as the minimum drinking age involved.
De-centralise powers that have been given to unelected and unaccountable bodies such as the Highways and Environment Agencies. Create more localised umbrella organisations where it is absolutely necessary to facilitate joined-up thinking, but above all ensure that no decision can be taken arbitrarily by any bureaucrat without local representation having genuine influence in the process and if necessary, having a veto over changes to or that will affect local infrastructure or property.
Part 4: Joined-up thinking, rather than focusing on issues on their own
Politics isn’t just broken. The whole Political System has lost its way, and most of the problem is because of the way that Politicians think about what they do.
Everything in Politics has become about the ‘quick win’.
That’s pulling the white rabbits out of the hat that have the desired effect of grabbing Voter’s attention drawing their focus away from what’s really going on whilst catalysing support.
The whole approach is very shallow. It is all about dealing with the effects of problems rather than dealing with the causes. Worse still, there is very little consideration for the impact of Public Policy beyond the scope of whatever the plan has been put in place to address.
The result is that problems affecting often many more parts of society than just the one that has been targeted by a policy change are created or made worse, whilst the solutions put in place don’t ever last in any meaningful or useful way.
Like putting a plaster on a leg break, Public Policy requires Politicians to do considerably more than they do.
Compromise is not something that should ever be necessary when Public Policy is being created for the right reasons and nobody is focusing on the wrong priorities such as if something doesn’t work out as it should, who then gets the blame.
Joined up thinking is now essential as a part of how every policy is reviewed or how every one is made. There must be consideration and action taken to address the root causes, the effects whilst they continue and then the consequences no matter how far reaching they might be, once any new policy has been implemented and the changes have been made.
Part 5: The new politician – qualified by experience, not experienced enough by qualification alone
We have a system in place where it is technically possible for anyone registered as a Voter and living in the UK can stand as a Candidate for Election to Parliament.
This would be restriction enough, if it were not for the way that the system works.
In reality, it is very near impossible for any person to get elected to Parliament without being a Member of a Political Party, being selected as a Candidate and then being nominated by that Party to represent them in an Election for a specific Seat.
Regrettably, with the way that Politics has been working in this Country, this reality has meant that the real choice of who will or will not represent us in Parliament as our MPs is the choice of the Party that wins the Seat. Because whilst the system works on the basis that we elect the individual representative or MP, it is a habit of ours to Vote for the Party instead.
If the existing Political Parties are serious about system reform, they must adopt a different approach to the way that they select their Candidates for Parliament, putting what’s best for us as the end aim and result.
This will involve prioritising Candidates who have the life experience and wherewithal that will benefit others, not just help the Party to secure Seats.
A Good system for the Political Parties to qualify Candidates might be:
A minimum age requirement that Candidates are 30 years of age or older.
That Candidates have at least 8 years professional experience that has included demonstrable supervisory and/or management experience as well as experience as an employee at junior/team level.
That Candidates have served a minimum of one full term as a Town or Parish Councillor.
That Candidates have served a minimum of one full term as a Borough/District and/or County level Councillor.
That Candidates have fought and won at least one election at local level.
That Candidates have held officer level responsibility within a community, social or student organisation
That Candidates can demonstrate a vocational calling to represent others selflessly and provide a voice for those who cannot or choose not to speak publicly on issues of public policy themselves.
Part 6: Ambition & Direction – not broken promises and being strung along
For decades, generations of Politicians have increasingly become aligned with motivations and priorities that should never be in the makeup of the people who are privileged to hold power in Public Office.
Encouraged by a Party-Political system that has focused more and more on taking only those steps necessary to secure and retain power, it was inevitable that the Candidates for Political Office that they have brought forward would look at their roles in the same way.
For too long, Politics has subsequently only been about doing what has been deemed necessary or politically expedient to get the result that suits the interests of the Politicians involved.
Politicians are always on message, do whatever is necessary to secure position and elevation and do not often take the risk of speaking out or against the system for fear that they will lose their roles after being singled out and ostracized for being wrong.
The most successful of this current Political Class are in most cases little more than ‘yes men’. And the problem with saying yes to all the right people to get ahead and get elevated is that sooner or later, you have to be able to say no – and especially when you get to the top job.
A career and circumstances like these do not encourage and develop skills of leadership.
There are no skills of decisiveness or understanding of the world outside of politics that politics impacts upon.
All that is wrong with the system has been illustrated by the disastrous Premiership of Theresa May.
When Politicians appointed to Lead us actually have no idea how or what it means to lead and only focus on keeping their power, it is inevitable that it will lead not only to disappointment. It is how significant problems for a Country are made.
We never needed this old politics. It doesn’t work for the many. It only works for the few. It is time for something new.
We now need a generation of forward-looking Politicians who are themselves led by Leaders who have ambition for all of us and our Country, not just themselves and what it takes for them alone to get on.
Part 7: Public Services should only have one master
Meddling with public services has become normal part of a politician’s life.
No matter whether its exerting direct deliberate influence or an indirect consequence of anything else that they have done, Public Services have become unsustainable – not just financially, but also in the way that they are run.
The key to solving the problems that the Public Sector faces is relatively simple. It’s already in the name.
Public Services are literally the provision of services to the Public. That should be the priority, the aim, the reason for doing and how any decisions affecting them should ultimately be informed.
The meddling and imposition of rules over employment, pensions and a variety of other targets which have redirected priorities in order to avoid what would otherwise be legally recognisable employee upset has switched the focus of what the NHS, Councils, Schools, Government Departments and what Quangos are there to do, and placed it instead upon avoiding any kind of problems with staff, who have also become too expensive with all the rights they now have for all of them to remain employed.
This itself is one of the key contributing reasons for the employment of commercial service providers and consultants to do jobs that public servants were previously employed to do. And what you rarely hear mentioned is that these private enterprises are often doing exactly the same job, paying their staff all that they are legally entitled to, whilst making a profit on top for the business owner, yet still cheaper than the not-for-profit public sector provider used to.
The problem with all of these different priorities and providing services using contractors is the master is never the Public itself. Yet they are the reason that all of these organisations exist and why the people doing the jobs are actually employed.
A Good Government MUST return the emphasis of public service to serving the public and take whatever steps necessary to ensure that We the Public are always the priority. Not staff. Not profit. In absolutely everything that they do.
Part 8: The Electoral System
As with most things political today, politicians and activists have the common habit of blaming everything they see as being wrong on something or some factor that is outside of them or outside of their control.
Boiled down to its basic components, this means that when something isn’t working – such as their own ability to get power by gaining or retaining enough Seats in Parliament or perhaps a local Council – they believe that the problem must be with someone or something else, and that the way to fix that problem will be to fix that ‘someone’ or that ‘something’, rather than to do anything else.
Right now, politics is broken.
In fact, politics has been broken for a long time.
Politics has been broken for a lot longer than the Brexit question has been around and Brexit is a symptom of the problem – not the cause.
Yet politicians who do not have power, or the working majorities that provide that power in Government and in our Councils, most often believe that the problem or the reason that politics is broken, is nothing to do with them.
Those politicians with power aren’t worried about gaining power. They only worry about keeping it. And that is why they are obsessive about sound bites and vote-winning policies that will keep them where they are. They aren’t worried about anything that has helped them to be in the position they are now such as the Electoral System.
But those politicians without power don’t believe that the Electoral System has served them and their ideas well.
They believe that it is the system itself that is at fault. Not the ideas that might actually be wrong.
Those politicians without power are the ones that advocate changing the Electoral System from First Past the Post (FPTP) to a form of Proportional Representation (PR) with the overt argument that it is much fairer and much more representative of Voters and their intentions – when it is actually nothing of the sort.
The reason that FPTP isn’t working in the way that those without power would like it to do so, is because the content within our political system – that’s the Politicians, the Parties and the ideas, policies and approach that they espouse – are actually undemocratic or unrepresentative of democracy.
In fact, FPTP is actually working very well. FPTP is working just as it should. Voters are simply giving their democratic support and mandate to the Parties and Policies which they believe in the most.
There just isn’t a majority in Parliament, because no Political Party is showing the leadership, reliability, reason, thought and trustworthiness to be trusted by the majority of Voters as any Party of Government surely should.
PR would actually make the problems that we are experiencing with politics in the UK significantly worse.
PR would consolidate the position of fringe ideas, idealistic philosophies and single-issue Political Parties and make compromise a permanent feature of Government.
Good Government can never compromise on key issues if it is to be responsible to all members of the Electorate as it always should.
Those Political Parties that are unhappy with their ‘showing’ or Electoral Results should be looking at themselves and the policies that they are offering; looking inside themselves instead of outwards and accepting that they and what they do are not representative of a majority democratic view.
That they are in effect, in it for themselves.
No Political Party can itself be perfect. But a Political Party can be professional and considerate of its obligations to others in all that it will do.
The acid test of a democracy is when a majority of people vote clearly for one Candidate or one-Party over-all others. Because it is then clear that what that Party or Candidate is offering at that specific time and in that Election Campaign, is representative of the real Democratic and therefore Political Tide.
We must retain FPTP in order to return democracy in this Country.
It is the Politicians and the Political Parties that must change.
Once Politicians are doing what they should be under FPTP, Majority Government will soon be restored.
We do not need the permanent state of flux that we would have if PR were to replace FPTP. Majority Government would only ever then be possible through Coalition – which would mean what we actually Vote for will be set aside in compromise so that power can be shared between different Parties that could otherwise never achieve a majority, whilst what we actually voted for will never be in mind.
Establishing Public Policy & Governance for a New Democracy, the post-Great Reset and putting the Grassroots, our Communities and people first
Introduction
You may not realise it. You may not accept it. But a Revolution of everything that we know and understand is already underway.
Begin to look closely at the news, at politics and how everything that each of us interacts with is now affecting and shaping our daily lives, and you will soon begin to understand and appreciate that there are forces of great turbulence at work.
In isolation, each and every part of ‘normal’ life is being systematically attacked, reformed and reshaped in ways that only seem unobtrusive and without harm, because we fail to see the interconnectivity of everything that is happening.
The reality we are in right now is one where an old world that has thrived loudly by quietly hurting us all is collapsing.
The powers responsible for that old world and its collapse are slowly and manipulative controlling the creation of a new world, whilst manipulating us all into adopting systems and behaviours that will eventually mould its controlling shape.
The role we are playing and the role that we have played.
Whilst the majority of us are either not aware or pour scorn on such suggestions, our collective ignorance of this collapse and process of deliberately intended change is not without considerable risk to our own futures and the generations that will follow us beyond.
That ignorance leads those of us who are unaware of what is happening to believe that the way that are lives are now constructed and all the cultural norms that we employ have been a natural progression and a beneficial choice.
We do not or will not see nor accept that hidden within the mechanics, the toys and the feelings of personal greatness that this whole age employs, lies our own voluntary acceptance of the real agendas that have and still drive all of this. Agendas and plans that are all about self-interest and the removal of anything that identifies the self and what we believe to be our remaining freedom – which is our ability to choose or our freedom of choice.
Few will be ready to accept the direction of travel that we inevitably face, until the hurt and restriction that this grand plan or strategy reaches and then hits each and every one of us directly in the face.
It’s happening now. 15 Minute Cities & LTNs, The Trans Debate, Net Zero, Cows being fed anti-methane tablets, Central Bank Digital Currencies, Cashless Society, Cancelling People, Wokeism, Political Correctness, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and much, much more. These ARE ALL part of a deliberate attack on personal identity, on personal freedom and upon what we used to recognise as Humanity itself – and it’s all driven by selfishness, stupidity and an overwhelming desire for complete control.
It may be hard to understand and agree with. But these things are only happening and are only coming into being because we are accepting them.
We are doing nothing to stop the direction of travel itself, and where we are beginning to stand up and fight, we are doing so only when the issue itself is one that seems to be most important to us.
Understanding the change that our own role in the Community requires of us.
We didn’t knowingly choose to surrender more and more of our own power to people who are abusing the power and influence they have to pursue their own agendas and how they see the world will work.
But we have acquiesced and played an important part in all that is happening, because we have not questioned the perceived benefits of everything we have collectively been given.
We have collectively failed everyone who has already suffered as a result, as the thinking we have become accustomed to has increasingly affirmed that such problems always belong to others and are therefore not our own.
A spiritual outlook upon life is not required to understand that everything is connected and that disadvantage and suffering for anyone will always have an effect on everyone else in some way – even if the events or outcomes are so far apart, that it would appear there is simply no way that we could ever logically join all the dots up.
But by accepting ideas like processed foods are better because someone somewhere else has made them seem cheap, or that we can afford everything in life as long as we are able to keep borrowing, we are actually helping to make what is for some a life that is already un-liveable, progressively even worse.
If things don’t change, if WE don’t change, the problems you see as someone else’s today, will be knocking on your front door too, very soon.
If collectively, or rather as the majority, we continue to accept that a wealth, money and material values base and everything that comes with it is normal, the reality is that what some of us still believe to be freedom, and what is left of the concept we understand as humanity is and will be completely damned.
Yet we do have a choice or an alternative. And that alternative can come to us in either one of two different ways.
Proactive or Reactive Change: Change voluntarily or wait and have no choice.
This is a particularly dangerous time for the world and for everyone living today. Not because we are experiencing the process leading to the end of an epoch. But because so few of us accept that anything is in the process of change.
Worse still, of those who accept it, the majority do not see just how far that change will reach and what impact it really will or could potentially have for us all.
It has been said that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. Couple that up with the deceptive levels of complexity that everything in the world offers us today, and you will soon realise that we have a very simple view of a problem that requires great thought and intelligence to understand, and that we all – or those that represent us – must reach the level of intelligent understanding that is necessary, before the simple solutions that will be good for us all can be created and then put into place to be of benefit for us all.
The people who think they understand the problems today, don’t. So, they keep telling everyone who will listen that they do, whilst doing absolutely nothing to prepare for what comes next.
Ultimately, without us changing, the New World or New Earth that will emerge at the other side of The Great Reset, will be defined by the same people who are controlling everything that we have and that happens to us now.
The alternative is that we all come together, take back the power that is ours – that those leading us today have assumed to be theirs by right, and then define, redefine, re-establish or create our own new system and rules, that must by their very nature be established from the Grassroots within our very own Communities and then without definable hierarchies spread its influence from the Grassroots-Up.
The change we have the power to own can begin right now.
We have the opportunity to begin working on establishing the guiding rules, principles and structures for our New Earth now.
It is a choice that we all have.
One that requires that we begin a proper conversation and dialogue with everyone who is already open to it. That we don’t attack or obstruct those who currently are not awakened to it. And that instead of looking up through the layers of hierarchy with the expectation that the answers and solutions will come from those who are already, or want to be the next ones at the top, we instead focus all our energies on working with everyone at our own level, whilst embracing all those who we would previously have looked down upon and seeing them as the equals they really are.
By switching from talking to doing, many would be surprised just how much could be done. Actions always speak much louder than words after all, and the strongest and most powerful words and commands for the change that we need ahead will always come from people just like you.
We do not need the surety of numbers to know that preparation is the right course of action, or that it is vital for anyone who is already awake to get on and do.
The risk is that by continuing to talk and shout loudly but do nothing constructive or make no proactive contribution when we have the perfect opportunity to do so right now, that we will collectively miss the chance to precipitate and take control of change voluntarily.
If we miss this open goal of a chance, our only further opportunity is likely to come only in the middle of a crisis, when the fear that the powers in charge today have worked so hard to cultivate and evolve, will push and push for the majority to take what appears to be the quick, easy and safest option, that will in fact condemn humanity to a very different and terrible way.
The System Collapse may not be obvious and without us being aware, it could take years rather than happening in just one day.
The emphasis on beginning work to create and build our New Earth now is necessary, simply because the building blocks of change are already in play.
It is human to think and believe that change of any magnitude will take place as part of an event or process that is not only definable, but obvious to anyone experiencing that change as it happens or in real time.
However, change is and always has been happening around us all the time, whether we are conscious of it or not.
The difference between the decisions that lawmakers, politicians and their influencers are controlling now and what they have been over many decades previously, is that the fallout from all of that bad decision making is now really beginning to hit everything.
We are in the end game and death throes of the old world and old system and our failure not to engage and resist the so-called solutions to the problems that they created and which they are also guiding, means that we are accepting their interpretation of what is best for the world, once all the mess they are responsible for has been cleared up – with the full cost apportioned not to them, but comprehensively towards all of us.
The chances are that the mismanagement of everything has been so bad, that the system we have today will reach a point where the seamless change that the Establishment and the elites believe is possible without consequence won’t happen at all.
Things will come to a complete halt, and when events take over from the clever propaganda and manipulation that is so forcefully at work, there will be a flashpoint where we literally have a moment in time to take back control for ourselves, or someone else will do so.
Without us changing the way we think and the way we are viewing and interacting with all this, it remains likely that those who can buy off enough people with promises of a return to what we know as normality – will step in and win – without anyone really understanding the true cost – That is IF the alternative message and a different direction that is credible is not already there and ready to fill the void.
Looking back will not help anyone now.
What we may not realise, as we look forward and think about what might happen next, is the lens that we are viewing the future with was created and formed with our experiences of the past.
We are quite literally thinking about the changing world and what could happen using the reference points and the understanding of everything that we have experienced as the point where we would jump off into whatever comes next.
Some would argue that is what experience is: the benchmark or guide you use for navigating the future. But the experience of the old world and the system that we are leaving and experience of a healthy life, being self-aware and being human in all things are two completely different things.
If we continue to navigate what lies ahead of us with the same value set that got us into this mess, we will condemn ourselves and the generations that follow to the state of dehumanised subservience that is now the ultimate aim of those who created the road that we now follow.
The alternative isn’t some kind of spiritual awakening – that by its very nature suggests that we all have to qualify in some way to ‘get in’.
The alternative to this hinges or is anchored upon the way that we think, and to think differently.
We must all take the leap of faith and open our minds to the reality that it is what we haven’t yet experienced that offers us real freedom and an altogether much better way.
Look to your neighbours, your peers and the people you once looked down upon. Reject the idea that the best solutions and right-minded thinking comes from someone ‘at the top’.
Asking everyone to think differently or change the way we think, does indeed make it sound as if the process that so many of us now need to embrace will be as simple as changing the way that we think about just one thing.
Meaningful change requires that we all have to change the way we look and think about everything.
To reach a place or a level of understanding where we will all be able to see, experience and interact with life differently and in a way that will then be healthy for us all, requires that we adopt the first, most meaningful or profound changes to the way that we think, as a matter of faith.
Only then will we provide ourselves with the motivation and confidence necessary to make sense of changing our minds about everything else that follows next.
The first step is of course the most significant. That is the rejection of the Top-Down system that controls and influences everything that we know and interact with today.
Nobody will underestimate just how difficult not only this change will be in thought, but what is in practicality itself a rejection of the basis of everything that we have been conditioned to believe will be.
Top-Down thinking is ingrained within every part of The System and how everything we know or have known currently works.
Top-Down thinking runs our system of government and the way that our so-called Democracy works. It runs the public sector; it runs large companies and organisations. It structures the way that just about everything else that we know and understands works.
Top-Down is also called centralisation in other – and deliberately deceptive terms.
Top-Down or centralised power structures are only good for the decision makers or the people who are at the top.
Top-Down power structures are in no way considerate of the real-life realities of the people at the bottom.
Top-Down hierarchies only appear to be favourable to those who gain in some way as they climb up the tiers or levels, as they become more important in the process of maintaining the message and in keeping control – again, because to do so is beneficial to those at the top in some way.
Top-Down decision makers and influencers are rarely if ever accessible to anyone other than friends and family, who doesn’t come from one of the hierarchical layers that sandwich them, or more often than not is at peer level or beneath them – again, promoting the idea that it’s all about being better, being the same, or having something more.
The only people you can trust fully are the people who are in your life, who are accessible, who share the same experiences; the people who you can actually see without newspaper, an electronic device or a screen.
Your power sits within your sphere of influence. You can either embrace it or reject it. But there will always be consequences you have no control over, if you don’t.
The Grassroots Revolution (The Great Reset or Great Awakening)
Deep down, the majority of people do at least realise that there is very little that is actually ‘normal’ about any of the things that we are outwardly experiencing now. Whether it be the behaviour of politicians, the group think, the rejection of common sense, the ridiculous speed and growth of inflation, the way that The Covid Pandemic was handled, and pretty much everything that the Establishment now does.
The reason that we are not openly embracing and taking control of the change that is underway already, is too many of us remain invested in the way that the current system still works.
Collectively, we are sleepwalking under the forlorn hope that the unsustainable, self-enriching and selfish ways that we have been living will get us back to how it always was. That once the blips like the war in Ukraine and the end of physical cash are over, the way of living that thrives on each of us putting ourselves and what we want rather than only what we need, will continue unopposed.
We have to be realistic enough to understand that many of us are so heavily invested in the whimsical and take-everything-for-granted lifestyles that we have, that nothing will change the collective mind about the true cost of its so-called benefits, until our participation either causes us direct pain, or the whole lifestyle itself ends or is taken away from us by external and uncontrollable events.
Whether we are dragged, kicking and screaming by events – as in this case it would be, whether we are awakening to all of this now, or whether we have had our eyes wide open to it all for a very long time, the process we are going through is so massively significant that once it has been completed, it will have resulted in a reset of everything that we know.
The Establishment has claimed the process already and called it The Great Reset.
Yet the Establishment are not in control of it.
Although they are using the cloak created by seemingly endless crisis to implement and impose new public policies, closing farms, feeding cows methane blockers, net zero, 15 Minutes Cities, eating ground crickets, Central Bank Digital Currencies, endless ‘human rights’ and using everything else that defies logic to cement the claim that everything is theirs to own for the long term, it is right now and during this period of transition that the choice is ours to reject and walk away from this malevolent and unnecessary plan at any time.
Hope is bubbling, but it doesn’t yet have the process necessary to come to the boil.
On the flipside, there is indeed a movement or rather a loose affiliation of different groups that accept the need for change.
It is made up of individuals, personalities, some smaller (but nonetheless mainstream) political parties, spiritual groups, conspiracy theorists, new ageists, spiritual and religious groups and potentially many more, all of whom are in one way or another seeing the process as being a Great Awakening.
The problem that is common amongst this loose affiliation is one that they share with the Establishment itself.
Culturally and subconsciously, all of them see Money and the Top-Down value set that surrounds it as being mechanically central to how everything works. Rather than life being all about people – as it will always be.
Until enough of us can look at life in a very different way and accept that life can and will be able to operate very differently with a non-money focus, even the most spiritually free of us are still disposed to accepting solutions that the Establishment will continue to offer – even when the critical moment comes when it will be obvious to everyone that it is broke.
Keep it real. Keep looking ahead.
This analysis does sound negative indeed. But it is a genuine assessment of where things are now, written without the wanky hopeism that too many of the people and groups who genuinely already believe that they understand everything that’s happening and that they have ‘got this’, actually employ.
The overwhelming risk to a future with real freedom, that is genuinely happy, healthy, safe and secure for us all, actually comes from all of ourselves.
The fact is that en-masse, we are absolutely open to plotting a future, as long as all the reference points and standards come from looking back.
When you value the past more than you do the future, you can easily be bought off, because the familiarity that comes within the lies, always appears to contain certainty and therefore the deception of a reliable truth.
Real value awaits us in our future if we take it. But to take it, we have to place our faith in it without any hollow promise, and we have to make that decision right now.
Uncomfortable as it is to even write, I believe it to be inevitable that the power of humanity will eventually shine through. But for enough of us to awaken to the level we genuinely need to, we face a reality that will literally mean that the ground underneath us will have to shake, and all that we hold dear to ourselves today will have to be broken or taken away from us first.
Whichever route it will be, we are already on an inevitable path that doesn’t include the designs of the Establishment, the worlds billionaires, today’s politicians, organisations such as the WEF or WHO – no matter how universally appealing or utopian these very silly people believe their vision and control-is-in-humanities-best-interests messaging might be.
One way or another, we are already on a journey and a process of change that will result in nothing less than a complete revolution, which will have meaning for us all, because it will deliver balance, fairness and justice for all, which today seems all but impossible and will continue to appear so for as long as we culturally worship money, and have vacuous and massively selfish people ruling over us from the top.
When this process ends, locality will once again be the most important of all Community tools and our system and system of Governance or Democracy will no longer function from the Top-Down.
Life will be all about the empowerment of the individual and their place and role within the Community.
The system will be Grassroots-Up.
What is The Grassroots Manifesto
Whilst we would probably all agree that it would be wonderful if positive change were to simply arrive, or perhaps more practically, the people we elect to represent us would always work tirelessly to ensure that’s all we will ever get, the truth of the matter is that the world we know doesn’t work that way.
In our personal and private lives, positive change usually begins with us. This troubled world we share is no different.
But in amongst this crisis, the change must begin with us all.
It’s difficult to create change without direction at any time. So when the very nature of this change or reset demands that we create, establish, evolve and develop a system that creates a framework or system of Governance for life which represents something that none of us who are alive has experienced before, we all need some ideas, suggestions and basic materials to work with, so that the meaningful and inclusive debate that we all need to happen can begin.
The Grassroots Manifesto is a game plan.
The Grassroots Manifesto is a document with a plan or strategy that is built on the principle that real change is not an evolution from what we already know but begins with what we will know.
The Grassroots Manifesto then begins the process of creating anew, or adapts that which can be adapted, so that there is a place to start from which includes everyone and builds a system from the Grassroots Up that has no biases or offers no favours, other than being equitable and considerate to the needs and experiences of us all.
The Grassroots Manifesto is a focus upon where local and public policy will be, once control has been returned to the People and their Communities, to where a sense of true Democracy exists, with power coming from the individual, to the Community, to the region, to the nation, to the world, through a process which is undoubtedly Grassroots-Up or even across.
The Makeshift Manifesto and the process that led here.
Public Policy has interested me since I was a teenager. Throughout the time since, I have always followed politics closely, and was directly involved firstly in its delivery, working for a Rural Community Council and then a County Council, before setting and interpreting it as a Town Councillor, a Parish Councillor and as a Borough (District) Councillor, where I was also Chairman of a Licensing Authority too.
Using my own Life and Professional experiences as a pool of information, in addition to the countless interactions I have been fortunate to have with so many different people who come from all walks of life, I worked hard as a politician and regulatory facilitator to understand all of the different perspectives of everyone involved in whatever policy I worked on, and always aimed to understand and have a respect for the range of different influences and drivers that are inevitably involved.
As we approached the December 2019 General Election, I tapped out a manifesto, detailing the different things that I then believed a good government would need to do, IF it really wanted to get public policy moving in a much better and therefore different way. It’s called the Makeshift Manifesto and can be downloaded as a Kindle Book from Amazon, HERE.
Things have moved on from then and the opportunities that our politicians had open to them then and the choices they could have taken and embraced on our behalf no longer exist. This in no small part due to the response that the current Government and MPs from all of the Political Parties sitting at the Westminster Parliament made in response to The Covid Pandemic. Poor choices and mismanagement that have only continued as The Ukraine War came into focus and the all of the fallout from over 50 years of Neoliberal miss-rule has begun to come home to roost.
Why has The Grassroots Manifesto been written.
As someone who has experienced many different aspects of life, faced challenges and difficulties that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, as well as having moments of genuine peace and happiness that it is my hope we will all learn to experience as normal and share, I possess understanding and insights that I have the opportunity to offer others and to share, which will hopefully make sense to anyone ready to embrace this impending change – and more importantly, what kind of shape this change is going to take – IF we want to take back our power and take control of it.
Ultimately, The Grassroots Revolution is already underway. It is the process which will deliver a genuine Democracy that itself will establish a truly balanced, fair and just system, and then protect it, so that happy, healthy, safe and secure lives are prioritised and can never be side-lined as now, or as the current establishment plans – replaced.
How The Grassroots Manifesto works.
The Grassroots Manifesto is presented in three parts.
The first part focuses on the necessary step of creating and implementing a new Democracy and Electoral System that completely replaces the system that exists in the UK / Great Britain now.
The second and third parts focus on the difference between rules which are frameworks that guide and ensure universal standards and then, on the creation and implementation of regulations and laws that might then fit within that.
Part 1 is The New Democracy
Part 2 is The Frameworks.
Part 3 is The Grassroots Manifesto itself.
Democracy
The key step in the process of meaningful change that will benefit everyone in a balanced, fair and just way will be the rejection and end of the existing Democratic System, Electoral System and System of Government that exists within the UK / Great Britain.
With the system of Governance that we have working only for itself and for those within it and 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 by too many different influences for it to be able to provide the assurance of impartiality that will ensure a truly balanced, fair and just system of Governance can be fully accessible to all, and for it to then maintained.
The outline Public Policies that will establish this New Democracy will be, that:
This new age of Democracy will be established at Community level and from the Grassroots Up at The Reestablishment.
All existing tiers of government (Parish, Town, Borough, District, County, Unitary, Assembly, Parliament, Mayorships, Police & Crime Commissioners etc) will immediately cease to exist, upon The Reestablishment.
ALL ‘sitting’ politicians are representatives of the old world. At the point of The Reestablishment, the ‘seats’ they were elected to represent will cease to exist and they will no longer hold any responsibility – assumed, or otherwise – for anything in the public realm.
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 period of 12 years following The Reestablishment.
Political Parties by their very nature pursue ideologies and motives that are not shared by the majority and will be prohibited.
The creation of The New Democracy will not rely upon the guidance of existing establishment figures who have played their part or have been directly responsible for the problems that they have caused.
Former establishment leaders cannot be trusted to work to any agenda other than what already exists and therefore is their own. They will be dismissed.
All public policy decisions and the weight of responsibility and power shall be focused upon Local Assemblies.
Responsibility for public policy decisions will only be handed to a level of Community covering a larger area and include the 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 services provided by stand alone and non-government public service providers will be allocated to Community Assemblies under Public Interest Companies (PIC).
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 that can be carried out and implemented at Local 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 will be defined and used as the catchment area for its own Local Assembly.
The Community will 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 and 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 will possess appropriate skills, knowledge and experience that will enable them to answer questions and discuss policy 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 vote, by all members of the Community present at the relevant 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) but will not be able to volunteer to for that 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 of Community Assemblies.
Local Assemblies shall elect 2 Community Representatives to its Community Assembly.
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 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).
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) but will not be able to volunteer to for that 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 in every way.
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 or change directives for service provision provided by Local Assemblies.
Community Assemblies shall elect 2 Community Representatives to the National Assembly.
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.
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).
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) but will not be able to volunteer to for that 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 vote, with the exception of emergency matters, which will be temporarily delegated to The National Assembly Chairperson 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. Such delegation 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 assembly, council, meeting or parliament, whether constituent with the UK / Great Britain, or outside, in any circumstances or at any time.
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 during their tenure, or for a period of no less than 5 years previously, or 10 years thereafter.
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.
The Monarchy
The Monarchy as we have known it is at its end.
The Monarchy in its pre-Reestablishment form is representative of the Top-Down hierarchical order and any form of hereditary power or influence is not appropriate for New Earth or 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 shall be held within 12 months of the Reestablishment 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 any future monarch 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.
Honours & Titles
Hereditary Titles, Positions and all associated benefits shall end and cease to hold any deferential value at The Reestablishment.
The existing ‘honours system’ shall cease at The Reestablishment
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.
Part 1: Frameworks (A Community Route)
Frameworks For Freedoms
The point sadly missed by many is that the solutions to the majority of the problems we face are not for any one of us, as individuals, to find answers to or come up with the right fix.
Today, we have specific groups, whether that be politicians, banks, businesses, elites or others, attempting and in many cases succeeding in dictating public policy and so-called solutions to problems (that their behavior has usually created), on the basis that they believe their ideas are best for everyone.
Regrettably, although many of the speakers and publicly known influencers that we can all see as recognising the need for change have their own ideas and solutions, and in many cases appear to provide an alternative, these ideas are also made in isolation.
Although the results from them being in control might appear different, if we were to simply exchange what we have now for what loud voices and false prophets are offering us instead, we would inevitably end up with many more problems that would only get progressively worse – which would basically be exactly the same thing as we have and experience now.
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 those public representatives who will represent that Community when decisions are made about anything else.
Regrettably, the point has been lost today, that as long as anyone’s behaviour is not hindering the freedom of others, they will themselves be free and unhindered to do and behave in any way they like.
The obligation of the Community will only ever be to manage and to provide resources, rules and regulations that work for and in the best interests of that Community and nothing more.
These Frameworks for Freedoms 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 own voluntary choice.
In its simplest and most easy to describe form, a framework rule would be something like that we today understand as the minimum wage – where EVERYONE 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 that today’s social conditioning has.
So, no matter how we might have been previously told or required to identify someone – whatever the reasons might be, those reasons that we use to attribute social value to them in some way today, must now be discarded and left behind.
EVERYONE enters and leaves this world the same. Frameworks for Freedom must 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 apparent happiness don’t 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 will allow everyone to thrive and achieve happy, healthy, safe and secure lives – if they so choose.
The real power and responsibility of government is to provide these Frameworks and to protect them. Nothing more.
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, but which sit outside and beyond the specific requirement for every individual to enjoy their own freedom and the related right to exist.
These 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 its own economy or local marketplace works.
People will always be treated and respected as adults, and given every opportunity to choose, 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 changes and times.
Rules, regulations and laws are always open to interpretation and to abuse. If we want the New Earth or New World to work in a balanced, fair and just way for everyone that always puts People First, it is the principles that need to work, to be consistent, universal and reliable, before anything else.
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 Great Reset and to then play our part in establishing the New Earth or New World 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 stood looking at the future right now, as the culture we are experiencing today has taken over everything and considering anything contrary to this can easily leave us feeling overwhelmed.
If we were all consider that everything or the system that we know came into being through an act of domino toppling or through a domino effect, the reality is that it is that the circumstances now exist where we have the opportunity or choice to pick up the last domino that fell and indeed every other domino too, and then set off a chain reaction that switches our way of life and the way that we live to one that everyone will find good and happy to live in.
The last or first domino – depending upon which way you might look at it, is the one that is both key and essential to providing us all with the opportunity and option to make and take every other right choice.
The only suggestion or proposal that A Community Route itself will directly make, is that of a Framework for Freedom is this one.
It is being made, because in a people-first world, its adoption (or the adoption of something that is very similar) is the difference between putting money or People First. It is therefore the defining choice.
The First Framework for Freedom (or The Basic Living Standard) is as follows:
That a happy, healthy and balanced life will be affordable and sustainable for everyone, without the need for debt, subsidies 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 current system and money-based culture, it is unlikely that you will be able to see the defining value of this Framework.
Indeed, you may not even conceive that such a Framework is viable and would certainly not be something that would be supported by choice.
However, if you will take the time to think and work this through, 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, you will soon begin to see how the many dominoes that follow this first one will then soon begin to fall.
Please note that The First Framework for Freedom (The Basic Living Standard) is not the same thing as the Universal Basic Income (UBI), as proposed and being tested in some Countries today.
In the context of the Top-Down, money and wealth obsessed system that we are currently living in, the idea of a Universal Basic Income is a good one. However, UBI relies on the ‘we can create money out of nothing’ mantra that is key to the current Neoliberal or FIAT based Monetary System.
This means that every time pretend or created cash is added to the total amount of money that is in circulation already, the value of UBI payments would themselves fall in terms of what they can buy the recipient, as both the value of the money that the poorest and most vulnerable have becomes a smaller part of the overall pie, and inflation continues to push the cost of living further and further up.
Any help or benefit to recipients would therefore be short-lived. Regrettably, as part of the overall picture, the process of monetary devaluation that UBI will help to speed up will itself just contribute to an overall financial system collapse – that could be only a short time away already.
People need the ability to be able to sustain their lives fully on the lowest full-time wage and in a people-first economy, everything will point in that direction and contribute to making it work.
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, but which sit outside and beyond the specific requirement for every individual to enjoy their own freedom and the related right to exist.
These 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 its own economy or local marketplace works.
People will always be treated and respected as adults, and given every opportunity to choose, 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 changes and times.
Rules, regulations and laws are always open to interpretation and to abuse. If we want the New Earth or New World to work in a balanced, fair and just way for everyone that always puts People First, it is the principles that need to work, to be consistent, universal and reliable, before anything else.
The 11 Principal Frameworks:
We must accept that for many, a world that focuses on living life differently, simply doesn’t make any sense. Just because they cannot see it, doesn’t mean that it cannot 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 and embrace what will soon become necessary for everyone – no matter what we might currently believe.
Governance will always be as light-touch as possible. In so far as it is possible, people must always be allowed to set their own life rules.
However, the success of New Earth or the New World 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 their Communities can thrive.
These are the 11 Principal Frameworks
Economic Localism
Freedom does not hinder and is not hindered in any way.
People First
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 are only used as a medium of exchange
Technology: A tool to improve life, not end 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
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 on processes and the input of people that we will never meet nor 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 it and supports it must be as local as possible, 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, and the balance between us and the sense of justice and fairness is quickly lost.
The priority for all 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 help or support in return for working.
This means that the growing, production, manufacturing and supply chains that support normal life and that exist to meet everyone’s basic needs, must be returned to their most localised and people-centric forms.
2. Freedom does not hinder and is not hindered in any way
We think that we are free, and that the fight ahead is to maintain that freedom.
Let me tell you now that it is not.
The fight ahead is to fight for our freedom. 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.
It would be understandable if your immediate response to this statement were related to something like 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 lives that revolve only around what we actually need.
We are slaves to a wealth, money, power and influence are everything culture and value set.
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, and we are desperate for the same self-interests to reach out and offer us even more.
But 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 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 prioritise this same freedom in others so that it can contradict, or force change upon that freedom to be.
3. People First
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 either.
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 and the smart tech revolution has made the downward spiral that has existed for over 50 years even worse by creating more and more devices that dehumanize relationships.
The internet today creates the impression that people we have relationships with online aren’t actually real. Because as far as real life is concerned, they simply do not even exist.
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 instead of money first.
Using benchmark frameworks that will ensure fairness, balance and justice for all such as that 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, not only to provide a self-sustaining standard for a happy, healthy, safe and secure life for everyone. We can also create a light-touch system of Governance that uses transparency as an open tool for the system to police itself.
Today, humanity as a value set has been lost. We can and will regain our true and most beneficial value set by focusing our new system and New Earth on putting People First.
4. No Hierarchies. Top-Down is at its end.
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 – which can take centuries to reach those at the top – is because they instantly make decision makers out-of-touch.
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 does not and will not 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 comes to 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 do away with these hierarchies. We must do away with everything that functions in the sense of decisions being made with 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
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, unless you are the one with all the power and you sit in isolation at the very top.
Local people – that’s the people you talk to and see regularly or could call on easily and without obstruction – are the people who will always be making the decisions on public policy and Governance that will have any effect upon you.
The truth is that there are very few decisions made by any of the existing levels of government 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.
6. Local Businesses buy, sell and promote Local Goods first
You shouldn’t trust what you cannot physically experience, if it physically exists somewhere else.
Just as we will all 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 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.
The world today has abused the trust that so many of us have placed in it by exploiting the rationale that out of sight is out of mind. So that if we cannot see it, we do not care about it, we are not interested in it, 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 that will 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 or supplied locally – IF we are putting people and a values-based way of living first.
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 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 the process begins where balance, fairness and justice is lost, and 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
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, such as supermarkets, already use every excuse that sounds plausible to convince retail customers that prices need to keep rising. Meanwhile, they 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).
But the problem 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 as they do so, they add and take a fee for themselves.
That profit, made without adding value – 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 where this happens, it makes it more expensive for everyone to live.
There will 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 – and by so doing, almost guarantees that other 3rd parties with no positive role to play, will then become involved.
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 and choose to supply or play a role in what are the necessary supply chains that are needed, rather than being wanted by 3rd parties, because of the way that money has become involved.
Supply chains must be as short as it is possible for them to be, and 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 they do. No other interests other than those that are adding value to the chain will ever become 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
Money isn’t real. Yet we have been conditioned to believe that it is.
Money is a unit of exchange. Yet we have been conditioned to believe that money is a thing, that it 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 which dictates the value of life and the value of every individual’s existence.
For as long as this money-based order, reality or culture 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 doesn’t believe that non-essential or basic goods that it cannot itself produce must be secured no matter the price.
The value of 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.
They have increased exponentially as we have picked up speed through the digital age, with advances that we have now, 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, with advancements being used by industry to increase profits and as being seen as a way to reduce the numbers of people employed to work, 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 will 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 will 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
Many of us still 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 the way that it will.
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. It is helping to dehumanise every aspect of life that we experience as it does.
Like all technology, the value of the internet and all things online cannot be understated – so 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 only 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. It 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 right now.
11.In a People First system, the people will always be the first to speak.
We have been told over and over again that we live and enjoy the freedom of 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.
The truth is that 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 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 they 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 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, simply shouldn’t ever exist.
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.
But we 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 from this pool.
Part 2: The Grassroots Manifesto
Some things to bear in mind.
The Grassroots Manifesto is itself, in its entirety, no more than a starting or stepping off point.
The Grassroots Manifesto is presented as a tool to support and guide decision making at the most local level and in a way that then feeds into all tiers of Governance that may then be deemed necessary to ensure that all decision-making fits the appropriate level of shared Community.
Whereas Frameworks are the universal rules and principles that create and sustain freedoms for all, Communities will, for reason of locality and the specific needs and requirements of that locality, need to make localised rules and a create a system of Governance that meets its specific needs – whilst adhering to those universal principles or Frameworks.
The suggested Policies within Part 3 of The Grassroots Manifesto are a guide and in no way meant to be used or considered to be absolute.
Change of the kind we are all set to experience and the Establishment of a new system require fluidity and flexibility with specific or localised public policies, whilst working within and in support of overriding principles after all.
As such, any figures used, for example percentage % tax rates, or specific values for rates of pay are included only for purposes of illustration. They are used purely to demonstrate the mechanics of the new suggested system at work.
Above all, this work is by no means perfect. It is a rough and ready guide, that will provide our new Grassroots legislators with the open door that invites them to step inside.
The key to change and to a future that is genuinely free for everyone, that offers a happy, healthy, safe and secure existence which is part of a way of living that is balanced, fair and just for all, is the agreement, respect for and protection of the Universal Frameworks that will be recognised and adhered to by all within and at all levels of the Community.
The Policies that follow are suggestions for the kinds of Public Policies that will be used to formulate, create and implement laws, rules and regulations at a level where every member of the Community has been involved or has had meaningful influence upon them – if they will so choose.
The points within the following Policies provide an idea or guide to what workable Governance for New Earth will look like, once the value set has switched to People First and our different priorities mean that we will think, act, be and behave differently to now in a way that will mean we all have a very different experience of life.
We must all remember that nothing good will come from the period of change that we are now in unless we first change our minds and the way we think about a lot of things that we accept as normal, feel very comfortable with, or feel to be of benefit to us in some way. We then have to complete our part in the process by turning that thought into action, becoming involved and proactively taking part in being the change we want, from the Grassroots-Up.
If you are looking for errors, checking the sums or looking for anything else that doesn’t add up within this book, you are already missing the point that what comes next is all about YOU.
You have the opportunity to get involved with your Community right now. You have the chance to discuss and propose ideas to others that may well be different or better than these – but end up with outcomes that mean we will all, collectively experience the same beneficial things.
It’s the outcome that matters for everyone; not the route that we take to get there. So don’t treat what’s in front of you as if it is already the end!
An Uncomfortable Truth
One of the hardest realities that we must all face, is the role that we have all been playing in creating and feeding the same system that is hurting us, and that if you are here reading this book, there is a very good chance that you already hate.
Whilst we have been led to believe that we can have what we want, how we want it, where we want it and when we want it, even thinking like this is unsustainable. We cannot continue without more and more of the things around us going wrong.
Whilst you may already accept that the world and the way that we live must now change, the chances are that you have not really thought hard about what that could really mean.
You may well fall into the tarp of thinking that as long as everyone else does the right thing, it won’t matter if you just continue doing what you are doing and having the things that you’re having – so that for you, things just stay the same way that they already are.
Voices that currently sit on the cusp and champion the coming change do so too, challenging parts of the programme that the Establishment is attempting to force upon us, such as the phasing out of fossil-fuelled cars – rightly speaking up and fighting against any policy which is dictatorially imposed.
But they do so without realising that some of these policies present a picture that different thinking on the part of all of us will deliver anyway and at the very least in part, through necessity, but also voluntarily, and most certainly in very different circumstances, by choice.
To believe that we can have a people-centric world that puts everyone first, on our own personal terms, is oxymoronic to say the very least.
It is therefore vital that we all understand that for as long as any of us remain fixed on wanting this thing or experience or wanting that thing or experience, rather than having faith that we can share a world where we will always have what we need, we are still and remain ‘bought in’ or invested into the system that we are now leaving and which at some point very soon will come to its end.
The Reestablishment
If we will fail to change our way of living, our way of being and the focus of our value set voluntarily – as part of the opportunity that this period is offering us, change will be forced upon us and the change we experience will go beyond systemic collapse.
We will be forced into a situation where everything that we recognise fails to be as it was anymore.
Our failure to believe that there is an alternative way of being and of living – no matter what role or at what level we have been involved in the old world or old system – will not stop or prevent events that are outside human control from taking over, IF we do not embrace positive, people-focused change, by choice.
It is this part of the process – the changing of the way that we think or the way that we perceive the world and the other people we have relationships – that will be the real spiritual awakening or change of mind that so many have already talked about.
This change of direction; change of thinking; change in the way that we relate to everyone and everything; the process we undertake to bring Governance, civility and values to the new golden age in which we all rule – will be nothing less than The Reestablishment.
Everything must go. Everything must change. We must begin again, building from the Grassroots Up, re-establishing rules, processes and structures with the approach that nothing has existed before, whilst being open to the reality that some infrastructure, technology and methods of working can and will have a positive role to play in New Earth, as they can be repurposed or reformed.
The Reestablishment will begin at the most local level, within our Communities. Its reach will then work its way outwards, always aligning with decisions being made at the most local level possible, with old power structures answering to localities until they have either been reassimilated or removed.
A temporary power structure may be required to oversee the period of refocusing that The Reestablishment will require. But this must be time limited and built upon an achievable reform plan that allows all the necessary reformations to be made.
The Rejection of The Money, Material Wealth, Influence and Power-based Order
The Key Step of The Grassroots Revolution and The Reestablishment will be the rejection of the current establishment, the system and everything that it stands for.
Money, material wealth, influence, power and the values that are associated will no longer be accepted as the benchmark or guidepost upon which all meaningful decisions in life are made – be they personal or on behalf of others.
Without rejection of the way that everything works today, change that will benefit everyone will not be possible.
Grassroots Policy 1: The People First Economy
The impact and consequences of all of our decisions upon others will be the new guide for life.
People and their Communities will always be cognizant of 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 they may be in terms of the existence of any impact chain.
People and their Communities will never engage in any activity or process where the decision to do so will inflict harm or consequences on anyone, whether alive today or yet to come, that they have not consciously or knowingly agreed to.
People 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.
People will be free to do, be and say what we please, when doing so will have no physical implications or offer no physical threat to the physical existence of others.
Putting People First
The value of the Economy shall be tied to the number of people living within the UK / Great Britain at any time.
Each member of the National Community shall represent a Fixed Base Value to the National 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 will exist that relates to the input of each person to the Economy itself.
The only circumstances in which money or currency can be created from The Reestablishment and thereafter is from 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 will be payable to the individual, their parents or guardians, with an equal sum being added to the Local Assembly balance sheet.
The creation of money will be the responsibility of Community Assemblies.
At the point of any death, the economic value of that adult 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 of any kind will 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 will be illegal, with financial penalties and lifetime industry bans applied to anyone directly or indirectly involved.
The Basic Living Standard & The Basic Living Wage*
The Basic Living Standard and the corresponding Basic Living Wage shall be the benchmark 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, which itself shall equate to the value apportioned to one full working week within the lowest paid employment.
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 in any way during the process of providing essential provisions 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’ above, for a description of The First Framework / The Basic Living Standard.
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.
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.
Community Contributions
Every working person shall be required to give 10% of their working time or the equivalent of each and every 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.
At the age of 40 or above, the person may opt to pay the equivalent of 10% of their weekly income as an alternative tax, to the local Community Assembly, where 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.
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 them 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 will not be redeemable in cash.
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.
It will be the aim of The National Assembly 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 will 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 will be treated the same as any normal benefits payee.
Poverty
People will be valued before money, profit and technology.
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.
Homelessness
A system of Community Hostels and services for the homeless will be created with provision and running them 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.
Right to be Forgotten
It is essential that everyone 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.
Everyone will 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, the individual 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, but will require the individual to break all family ties and associations with any people or Community / Communities known to them.
Those who have 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.
Anyone 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.
Anyone convicted of identifying of making the details of a person who has exercised their Right to be Forgotten known to others, without good reason, will be charged with compromising another’s right to freedom, and shall be judged in a Community Court.
Grassroots Policy 2: Financial Levelling
The Reestablishment will be accompanied by the devaluation and end of the British Pound and the values associated for anything using it.
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 will not be transferable to the new National Currency or any Local Currency.
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 will 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 the exploitation of the circumstances of others – whether it 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 at the time of The Reestablishment.
All property owned / held* at the Reestablishment 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.
Financial Resetting & Restoration
At the point of Reestablishment, or within 6 months thereafter, the prices of all goods, services and transactions within the UK / Great Britain shall be revalued and reset with their real or uninflated value.
Following The Financial Reset, all prices will realign to their ‘natural’ value, in line with the People First system of economics this document proposes.
Where values are attributed to a material object or to property of any kind, its 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.
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).
Currency speculation of any kind will be illegal, with financial penalties and lifetime industry bans applied rigorously to anyone directly or indirectly breaking this rule.
Money shall not attract interest 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 will 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 only time that the value of foods, goods or services of any kind may vary is 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.
Local Marketplace Exchanges
Self-sufficiency and home production is expected to become a key part of the People First Economy.
Local Assemblies and Community Assemblies shall create, operate and manage a system of Local Marketplace Exchanges (LME)
Local Marketplace Exchanges (LME) 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 (LME) must be maintained, managed and based within the Community Assembly area, with no form of remote management or updating required following purchase and instalment.
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 has 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, based on the location, access and publicly owned infrastructure that supports its use. These sums shall be set by the Local Council 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 the individuals 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, the individual 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 legal.
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 that year. The Tax year shall end on the 31st day of December of that 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.).
Grassroots Policy 3: Business & Finance
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 that do not 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.
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.
The Local Economy Model
Following The Reestablishment, The UK / Great Britain will adopt an unashamedly protectionist, UK first approach to all industries and services.
All businesses will 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, which will be renewable, by majority vote of The Local Assembly.
Independent 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.
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 or financial institution which has voting rights.
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.
Finance
No privately owned or managed credit agencies or services offering credit worthiness checks shall exist.
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 or any other form of betting on any market shall be prohibited.
People’s Banks
A National Peoples Bank will be established.
Peoples Banks will 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 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.
Communication
Support will be provided to the public telecoms industry to ensure 100% Broadband coverage across the UK / Great Britain within 3 years 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, without compensation 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.
Local Production will be focused on the shortest supply chains and where possible those supply 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 supply chain and provide centralised retailing where farms to not run their own shops.
There will be an expectation that resources such as Milling and Abattoirs will be shared between all local farms to ensure that light touch processing will be available with minimal travel or haulage required.
New framework rules for food production will be introduced, with appropriate sub legislation agreed by majority vote by Local Assemblies where necessary.
Growers will 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 or animal feed production.
UK / Great Britain 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.
No experimental chemicals or pharmaceuticals shall enter the food supply chain at any stage and no foodstuff maybe 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 in any way.
The focus on growing shall be the use of organic and traditional production methods and the development of systems and processes which support these.
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 illegal.
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.
Home Growing
Self-sufficiency of people 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.
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.
Help will be provided with home growing to the elderly and the vulnerable through the Charitable Provision Scheme.
Animal Welfare
No animal will travel beyond the boundary of the local Community Assembly area from farm to slaughter.
Hunting with Dogs Legislation will be revised to 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 flout Ban using birds of prey or other by-pass devices.
The RSPCA will lose any remaining charity status, be taken into public management and given evolved role to support the work of Community Services dealing with Animal Health & Welfare.
Grassroots Policy 5: General Public Policy & Service Provision
The Public Sector, which will include 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 priority of The Public Sector and the requirement that all activities and decisions made under the trust of the Community to Public Sector Officers will be that consideration for the impact of any or all actions taken 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) will be created to provide all municipal services and administrative services across all Local Assembly areas within a Community Assembly area.
Public Interest Companies will be responsible for operational delivery and will have their strategic direction set by each Local Assembly for its Community area.
A new standard or charter will be created and set for public servants, requiring prioritisation of the end user, members of the public and the Community before anything else.
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 cannot 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 Trust, must be carried out by a business offering such services which is based within the Community Area. Out of Area Commissioning for such purposes will be the responsibility of the local Public Interest Trust but will be referenced directly to the local Community Assembly.
All supplies required for ongoing operational functions will be provided by the local Public Interest Trust, 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 delivery 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 unemotional way.
No stand-alone pension scheme shall exist exclusively for Public Sector Officers.
All former EU Tender & Procurement Legislation shall be discontinued at the time 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 at The Reestablishment for all Public Sector Organisations.
NHS
The NHS will undergo complete reform, reinstating the prioritisation of clinical delivery and patient care above all necessary management functions.
Anyone in receipt of The Basic Living Wage or its equivalent shall continue to receive free medical treatment at point of care.
Anyone 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.
The NHS will 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.
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 key function of any NHS.
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.
All People who have mental capacity and have no recent 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’ will be legalised, Regulated and managed as a Public Health concern, under the strategic control of Community Assemblies and partnerships with Community Assembly Health Trusts.
Covid, Vaccinations and future Outbreak Management
The term ‘vaccination’ will 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 The Human Genome 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, it will be the obligation of the Community only to provide support to those identified as being at that additional risk.
The Community will 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.
Members of the Community will be expected to take precautions on their own behalf and those they will have contact with, in order 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 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 with the carrier, as part of that person’s immediate immune response.
In such circumstances where any form of Lockdown is necessary, all forms of economic activity and liability for those affected will cease and fail to exist for the period of that Lockdown.
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 environment, free of bias and the ideologies of politics or anger.
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 driving licenses and vocational driving licenses.
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% (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 will 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.
Bogus, ‘worthless’ or ‘mickey mouse’ degrees will be discontinued.
Commercialism will 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.
Housing
Basic Housing will be an essential service.
The provision of basic or essential accommodation for the public will not be carried out on a commercial basis.
No residential property will 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 that are additional to a main residence thereafter shall be forfeited and passed into the ownership of the Local Assembly for use as Community housing, or where appropriate 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 the mortgage.
Public Interest Companies will provide a private room letting register and service.
Homeowners with spare rooms that they are happy to let will 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 at The Reestablishment.
Planning
The former Local Planning Committee structure will end at The Reestablishment.
Planning Determinations will 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 will be created collaboratively by the Community & National Assemblies.
Planning Applications and Reviews will 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.
A new Planning Investigation Unit shall be created with remit to investigate historic consent, overturn decisions not made in the Public Interest. It will 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 at the cost of the Applicant.
Science & Technology
There will be a Policy of UK / Great Britain Science & Technology First.
A new national pharmaceutical development company will be established, under the guidance of The National Assembly.
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 will only be provided within Community Assembly areas.
No web or internet-based platform will provide the same or access to any 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, 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.
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 or examinations 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.
Media
Each Local Assembly area shall provide its own Local News Service (LNS) using all available media platforms.
Local News Services shall be considered to be a Community service and will as such be operated and maintained in the main part by members of the Community as part of their Community contribution.
Local News Services will provide daily news bulletins and updates that are purely factual and are provided without opinion.
Where Local News Services provide opinion or views as any part of their programming, the programmes will carry or air a notice that 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 will be published alongside or proceeding each programme which makes the sponsorship clear to readers and listeners.
Rules for the Internet, the Metaverse and the Online World
The Internet and all online software shall operate on a localised basis.
Social and Retail business models will only operate and be based within Community Assembly areas.
Social and Retail business models may not be based on ‘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.
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)
Upon 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.
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.
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.
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 or 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 in their ‘real life’.
Unique users will 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 value offline.
Grassroots Policy 6: Caring for Our Environment, for our today and for everyone’s tomorrow.
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’ debate became a dead cat argument that cynically buried the damage that ‘free markets’, ‘globalisation’ and a world driven by consumerism is and has inflicted upon the world and our environment, with a focus on feeding greed and without any 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. It requires change and with it the acceptance that we leave all forms of unsustainable living behind.
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 by The Reestablishment and the resulting changes to our behaviours.
Planning & Environment
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 will end.
Both Fluvial and Pluvial flood modelling will become a basic standard in all development planning and priority will always be given to the risk to existing infrastructure and property, over ‘additional’ need.
All river systems will be regularly dredged and cleared.
Water Companies will be prohibited from discharging untreated effluent into the sea or any water course and any treated discharge will not impact the environment in any way.
Soil restoration will 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 will be commissioned, making best use of natural features where doing so will not impact or harm Communities or irreplaceable infrastructure.
There will be a National and Community Assembly level focus upon water capture, desalinisation and micro storage technologies, where possible ensuring a crossover with green or free energy production
Business
Planned Obsolescence will 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 will 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 implemented within 3 years of The Establishment.
Ban on all non-UK based Companies moving into UK Marketplace which do not meet UK Environmental Standards
Roads & Transport
All forms of public transport shall be returned to ‘public’ ownership under the management and operation of Public Interest Companies, with strategic direction set by Local and Community Assemblies.
Public transport will be prioritised as the accepted form of transport for everyone who has access to it and will be improved to meet expectations as well as need.
Each commuter using Public Transport will receive no less than 50 free journeys on one form of public transport per commuter per year.
Further development of air and seaports will end.
HS2 and all other planned or incomplete transport projects will be discontinued.
The existing railway network will be enhanced, with 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 will always be prioritised over being replaced.
Commuter 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 households will be prohibited.
Households will 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 necessary where more than one member of that household can demonstrate that car ownership is essential to their employment and that no alternative is available for that location.
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.
Recycle, Repair, Reuse
The throw-away culture will end with the Reestablishment.
Everyone will 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 this is not possible, all the recycling of any product must be possible locally and without extensive transport or mechanical processes.
Make do and Mend
Single use clothing and essential goods will be prohibited.
There will be an expectation 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 as a minimum.
Local Lending Libraries (LLL)
Each Local Assembly shall establish and manage Local Lending Libraries 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.
Grassroots Policy 7: Foreign Policy
The UK / Great Britain shall have and exercise a non-interventionist Foreign Policy, unless a) a legitimate foreign government, democratically elected by the majority of its people has requested such intervention and/or b) that to not do so, will 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 within that country, rather than just funds or contracts to private companies.
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.
Defence
Defence management and strategy shall be one of the few areas of Public Policy that will 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 will 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 following the Reestablishment and in no less than 12 months in any case.
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 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)
The legality of any civil prosecution against alleged military ‘crime’ of any kind – whether current, recent or historic shall end.
A New Naval Ship Building programme will 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.
Immigration
Immigration shall be on a qualified basis only, with the exception of genuine refugees who 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 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.
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 at 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 at 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 will not engage in relationships of any kind with The EU without the consent and democratic 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 will 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 maintain trade neutrality or experience net gain within all trade partnerships for basic essentials.
Protection orders will immediately be made at 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 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.
Grassroots Policy 8: Freedoms, The Courts & The Legal System
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.
The existing Magistrates Court & Local Circuit or County Court system shall end at The Establishment.
The role of Volunteer Magistrates will end at 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 will 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.
Law & Order
All Policing targets will be discontinued at 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, bail or release, 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 enrolled to complete National Service of no less than completion of the full apprenticeship period plus an additional 3 (three) years.
Policing
The role of the College of Policing shall undergo immediate 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, whose priority will be the provision of visible, Community policing and with the burden of bureaucratic 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 at The Reestablishment, with all existing PCSOs expected to complete Police Constable Training within 18 months.
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.
Terrorism
All terrorism shall be treated as treason and an attack upon freedom.
All convicted Terrorists will receive whole-life tariffs, which may be upgraded by The National Assembly to a capital tariff at any time, will a majority vote within all Local Assemblies restore the Death Penalty.
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 will 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.
Religion, Freedom of Thought and Freedom of Speech
True freedom of the individual 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 will 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 without their consent.
The act of ‘cancellation’ shall be a criminal offence, whether committed directly or in part.
The spiritual independence and individual value of every individual, 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 such rights have been surrendered, they will only be surrendered on a temporary basis, with the cognitive ability of the individual maintained to have their self-sufficiency restored at any time upon demand.
There will be a recognition that the 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 court of their peers.
Appropriate punishment shall be decided by the same court.
In any circumstances, punishments will be 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 done.
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.
Grassroots Policy 9: Transport
Public Transport is an essential public service and will be provided on a not-for-profit basis.
All Public Transport provision will be made by Public Interest Companies
The technological development of Hydrogen, Battery and free energy powered vehicles shall be supported and prioritised at all Assembly Levels.
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 at The Reestablishment.
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.
Roads
All road building plans and projects will be halted where the cost of continuing will be higher than to cease and restore the previous infrastructure.
Utility companies to be made liable for all road repairs where they have devalued the structural integrity of a road surface.
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.
Investment will be made in new road surface technology research to extend the lifetime and durability of all roads.
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.
Cycling
A new system of Bicycle & Rider Licensing shall be created for all bicycles, scooters and mobility carts.
A Word to The Wise
You may only be here to ‘borrow’ a few ideas to write an article. You could well be here on behalf of a political master or party, to pocket a solution you will use as something akin to a sticking plaster or plug to fill a black hole, so that when the next set of awkward questions are asked of you or them, you have something that will get you through.
You’re welcome. It really doesn’t matter. There are no shortcuts that will see us through.
Contrary to what today’s political class believes, solutions for the public that will help and benefit the public are not any persons to own. They belong to us all, because they are for us all.
But if you are already here or there and cherry-picking ideas and suggestions like these, you would do yourself and potentially many other people a great favour if you were to stop, look at the much bigger picture and then begin to work your role in all of this through.
An approach to public policy for the future that involves or incorporates anything less than wholesale, comprehensive or universal change – and not least of all in the direction of the values that drive ALL of us – will do.
It will remain possible for anyone and everyone to change the way they think, until the very moment that it isn’t. That will be the time when there is no longer any choice.
Dare to be different. Dare to think Differently. Dare to be a leader of change, NOW!
Comments, Questions or Get in Touch
If you have any genuine thoughts, questions or ideas that you would like to share, I would be very happy to hear them, especially if they will help us to help others.
The Grassroots Manifesto 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.
Change is underway. Change must happen and it is no longer a choice. But we do all have a choice over what that change will be.
Many now recognise the reality that we are already within The Great Reset. But what just as many of us still don’t realise, understand or accept, is the direction that the Establishment and the World Elites want us all to go is only their aim. It’s not ours or what is best for us in any way.
The risk that we all face for our future, is that the apathy of the many, and the lack of direction suffered by the few who have already awoken will end the opportunity for all people to take back control of our future, before any real fight to do so has even began.
However, we have the choice to take back control and decide what we, as people and as a Community, wish the outcome of this period of unavoidable change to be.
The Grassroots Manifesto provides the reader with an outline and direction of what real people-centric change will look and feel like, and what for us all personally and as members of the Community, meaningful change that will benefit everyone will mean.
The book focuses on the pathway to a genuine Reestablishment through changes and transformation to our system of Governance and includes:
Establishing a New Democratic & Electoral System.
The use of Universal Frameworks that provide equity for all forms of Governance
A series of suggested Public Policies that provide a guide to what legislation will look like when created by the people, for the people and implemented from the Grassroots-Up.
Whether you are looking for answers or have already committed yourself to being the change, The Grassroots Manifesto will open a door for you and is a must read, whether you are resident in the UK or not.
Adam Tugwell 