The fact those with power and influence don’t understand what Poverty really is makes the ‘solutions’ they come up with potentially more harmful to those in need, rather than making the genuine difference that so many who have been left behind now need.
As someone who experienced poverty as a child, a research project for a Postgraduate Course project in late 2023 enabled Adam to compare the realities of living in Poverty in the UK today, to the experiences from the 70’s and 80’s that were his own.
In his own words, ‘The experience was sobering’ and the brief paper he wrote for assessment based on his question ‘Is Poverty invisible to those who don’t experience it’ is contained within this short Book.
Today, Adam often states: “You have to experience or be touched by Poverty to understand it.”
Even though the political terrain was different, from the point of view that the British Electorate were days away from trusting Boris Johnson with an Election Result that very few saw coming because the Conservatives promised to get Brexit done, the truth of the matter was that many areas of the UKs public policy had already gone massively wrong.
Regrettably, it had been doing so for a time that has spanned many different governments, led by different political parties, before.
Within months, we were all subjected to the stupidity and poor leadership that manifested itself in the form of both the Government and the wider political response to Covid 19 and the Covid Pandemic.
We are unlikely to have experienced all the fall-out and consequences of such levels of incompetence and political delinquency that were set in motion, even now.
However, back in early December 2019, I decided to commit all the things a ‘good’ government would actually do to paper. I then shared it with the world.
Since then, The Makeshift Manifesto seems to have been a popular read. So, earlier this year, as I contemplated the run up to the coming General Election, I began to question whether I should revisit the book and update it to reflect what has changed and where the further problems with Public Policy have developed over the 4+ years of time since the first edition was published.
With the original work set up on a screen and being sat ready to dive straight in, it didn’t take many moments for me to realise that if ‘good’ policy was no more than a wish list at the time of the last General Election, because of the quality of the politicians we had back then, the uncomfortable fact is that with the political options we have available today, such suggestions would be pretty much impossible to deliver through the current structure of government, in any meaningful way.
But at this point I realised, that without people being open to the change that is possible now and which I covered in the book Officially None Of The Above, or there being some kind of Black Swan event that has the power to change everyone’s minds, the only way that meaningful change could be delivered throughout government, the public sector and within every area of Public Policy itself, would be with pure single-mindedness. The kind that could only be achieved if it was driven and directed by one person with the power necessary to command and dictate that massive scale of change.
I worked this thorough as briefly as it was possible to do so.
Leaning on different books that I have written and published over the past two years that included A Community Route and The Grassroots Manifesto, I also added a policy wish list that would be good for everyone, but that in today’s reality, it would only be possible for Good Dictator to deliver and achieve.
There remains a very big question about whether the individual exists who:
Would have the knowledge and experience necessary to change such a massively broken system for the better
Has the desire, drive, motivation and public spiritedness to see it through
Possesses the ethics, morality and principles to stay true to the public cause, when there would be so much temptation to cast what’s in the best interests of others aside
After completing and publishing the book, I concluded that in times as we face today, where politicians and those who aspire to be politicians don’t see any route other than their own, and the public itself has surrendered to the idea that all ‘public’ problems are the responsibility of someone, somewhere else, if nothing else should change in the way we view the importance of the things that are common to us all, the solution of having a Good Dictator, might end up being the only way forward for us all.
As I’ve been working my way through a short list of topics to talk about on my new YouTube channel, one that has kept popping up, as I have been wading through social media has been Gaza, or more accurately the protests that we are hearing about at Universities, and the potential impact of voting for candidates in UK Elections who are telling us that they are going to champion Gaza as a cause.
Considering just how important the subject of politics and the politicians we have representing us really is, it is very concerning to learn that candidates were elected on a platform of promising to pursue peace in Gaza and whatever troubling suggestions that go with that as a cause. Not least of all because Local Elections have absolutely zero influence on Foreign Policy (Which itself doesn’t EVER give the London government the right to dictate policy in other countries anyway).
One-issue activism of any kind completely overlooks the public service delivery and policy areas like Council Tax, Bin Collections, Schools, Roads, Planning, Licensing and a whole range of other LOCAL issues that these elections are really all about.
One step on, and many will be surprised to learn that voting for the Westminster Parliament and the Constituency MPs who sit there in a General Election is also about much, much more than Foreign Policy itself.
Foreign Policy is actually a lot more about our relationships across the world and using real leadership to influence other countries to behave and act in ways that are good for us all.
We have a growing list of problems around the world, because we haven’t been electing politicians who:
Put our needs first and
Don’t understand the consequences for us all of not building responsible relationships with other countries that genuinely put the interests of the people and the businesses in those countries before those of private interests and companies in our own.
Whilst the passion, anger and frustration of young people at University is understandable, the truth that they could easily damage their career paths, at a time when changes in tech and AI are already unnecessarily limiting the opportunities for everyone, is hard to fathom.
Real change can only come about by electing people who get the solutions to ALL of the issues that effect all of us right, each and every day.
These will be the same people and politicians who know and understand what real leadership is. Leaders who will be able to see how important it is that we don’t have relationships with other countries where the only consideration is the headlines and what potential voters are going to think when they see the next days offerings from the mainstream media.
Poor politics in the UK and across the West for far too long has aided and abetted many of the problems that are being manifested across the world today.
If we really want to change them, the best way we can start that process is to think more carefully and deliberately about the people we are electing to represent us in each and every election that we have, across the UK and in particular, when those votes are going to decide who makes the decisions about everything that happens in our communities and closer to home.
Thanks for following if you are a subscriber to my Blog and a very big welcome if you are a guest and have found me as you have been having a look on the net.
I’ve been writing blogs and publishing books for around 12 years now, since I was still sitting as a local councillor in Gloucestershire and started off writing about some of the issues that were important for my constituents near Tewkesbury. You can find these on their own Blog HERE.
As technology has moved on, anyone who writes regularly will have become increasingly aware that beyond the people who are already attuned and looking for whatever it may be that we have to offer, our potential audience is increasingly likely to prefer watching a video that shares our messages, rather than reading through our missives, no matter if it were easy for them to be found.
About 2 years ago, I picked up a DJI Mini camera to see if I could make the transition or rather expand my online offering to YouTube and video platforms beyond.
To be honest, it didn’t feel that easy and although I published a few films on another channel, it just seemed easier to keep writing – especially as my focus seemed to be driven by creating and publishing what has now become a long list of books.
Reaching the point where it felt like I have covered all the things that I didn’t originally realise that I had set out to say, I recently found myself going back and beginning to review my books.
Now any of you who self-publish and don’t have the luxury of editorial help or that second pair of eyes when you first publish will understand what a traumatic experience this can actually be! I am however comforted by the reality that anyone who is genuinely interested in the content will not be looking at grammar and long sentences – no matter how unforgiving the general inhabitants of the online universe can be!
Going through this process made me appreciate that the books are all well and good and once people want to understand the topics better – as I remain confident that in time they will, it might be time to dig out that rather cool DJI and see what a refocus of my creative and publishing efforts might make of it all now.
About a fortnight ago, I set up @TugsRamblings as a new YouTube channel and quickly got to work.
The idea being that as a rule, I will film a talk as I walk or ‘ramble’ in potentially more ways than one, and that the film will hopefully come across as if the viewer is walking alongside.
Not the easiest thing to imagine for me, when the best angle from the camera is looking down and I am 6’5”!!!
All the same grumbles quickly came back to the surface, ranging from ‘I ummmm too much’, to ‘What the hell do I do if people keep appearing and I have to stop and can’t edit the film?’ and of course, ‘Will I be able to remember all the things that I need to say?’
As I write this blog to share what I have been doing so far, I’ve just uploaded video number 14 and am hopeful that they are improving all the time.
The good thing about all of this is that video creation is a learning experience at every step of the way. I’ve already learned a lot more than I knew two weeks ago and I feel sure that my knowledge can only improve!
Please drop by and take a look. Your support with likes and subscribes would be greatly appreciated, as would any questions you might have where answers could help you or might help others in respect of the topics and issues that I generally cover.
Best wishes,
Adam ‘Tugs’ Tugwell
PS. Please find a link to my first video on @TugsRamblings below!
It doesn’t take much reading of today’s news and social media streams to work out that the Conservatives are now fully into clutching at straws mode when it comes to saving themselves and the forlorn hope that they will somehow find the credibility to deliver a record fifth victory in the next General Election – whenever it should come.
That a government that was elected with an 80-seat majority in December 2019 (yes – it’s actually the same one!) should have fallen so far in the polls in less than 5 years is in itself a very profound tell about the state of the conservative party today. And that’s before we consider that we are on the third Prime Minister to have welded themselves to the keys of No.10 during the time between.
To believe that their demise is all down to a poor run of leaders would be foolish of us all, for no better reason than the Tories have themselves elected as leaders (and therefore as Prime Ministers), the best that they have got.
Yes, it could be argued that the right person didn’t get the chance when they should have got there. But that itself sends just as powerful a message that tells us the Party is filled up with people who don’t work in a democratic way, or in anything like the sense we should be able to expect from an organisation that brings people together to do the best possible for the electorate.
The truth nobody will face in politics is that the days of the big beasts of politics are now long gone. The ability to look good carrying a ceremonial sword or time served as an establishment public servant in a top job are not qualifications for leading a country at any time, least of all when we are facing the uncertain and turbulent times that we are now in.
Decades of weak leadership, then awarding top jobs to politicians who are even weaker than they are, has meant that the politicians we see leading all the political parties today, keep getting even weaker leaders. Each and every time that there is a change.
Under the current system, the only way that politics can therefore change is if the political parties change themselves. And that would mean the current crop of politicians that we see in the news each day giving up their seats and walking away in the same way that we might ask turkeys to vote for Christmas.
There is a good chance that the result of the General Election will be nothing like the polls are currently suggesting. And we should all be minded that the collapse of one 80-seat majority and the numbers that underpin it in less than 5 years can also work the other way.
However, if the Tories want to be taken seriously by anyone other than themselves again, they will have to accept that it has been a long time since any of their politicians have behaved like they are genuine conservatives.
Both the public and their own membership are crying out for genuine public representation and leadership. Not more glory-chasing and media headline obsessives who believe that they are the only ones that matter and that politics is nothing more than a game.
Adam Tugwell 