From Here to There Through Now | Full Text

Living through the end of the FIAT Money Based Order, Surviving and Thriving through the Great Reset & Establishing Principles, Systems and basic Governance for the People-Centric World to come

A note to readers about this online version of From Here to There Through Now

Published as an eBook for Kindle on Amazon on 3 October 2022, From Here to There Through Now follows here in the form of the original text, with some minor editing principally to allow publishing in this online format and in PDF form.

Much has changed across the world and the UK political environment over the time since the original publication and it is important for the reader to bear this in mind. Not least of all as the relevance of the content may now feel clearer than ever.

Here is where we are, and where everything is as we know and understand it, right now.

There is where we are going; the destination and outcome(s) that many of us cannot or will not recognise with the understanding of the world that we have today – which we too easily allow to draw the outline of what we expect to experience tomorrow.

Now is the moment and every moment that we must experience on the journey that takes us From Here to There and what we may encounter in the Here and Now.

The third book, following the original versions of Levelling Level and The Basic Living Standard, From Here to There Through Now focuses on the practicalities of change and what it is likely to take to Thrive and Survive through what might be a prolonged period of turmoil and chaos where little as we know it today will continue to work as we have been conditioned to believe it should.

The books that follow create an unplanned series that go on to cover different aspects and approaches to voluntary change and what a fully people-centric, community-driven and locality-based way of living and governing ourselves might look like. All of those that are available to buy as eBooks for Kindle or Download as FREE PDFs will be linked at the end of this version under ‘More Reading’.

Thank you for your interest.

AT, Cheltenham, UK. 6 March 2025

Introduction

I will begin with an apology. Not for the content, words, ideas and solutions to our current, transitory and longer-term problems that follow. But for the fact that whilst I have attempted to put all of the material together so that it flows in a conventional way, the subject matter or content within the different subjects that most definitely relate to each other, do not relate to each other in any kind of accepted-as-being-conventional kind of way.

Indeed, many of the problems that we face and that we have faced for decades have existed as they do. Because very few have tried and almost all have eventually failed to join up the dots of the complicities of the system. One that fools everyone into believing that their own view and experience is the only one that is true. And therefore, the only one that counts.

As an observer, interpreter, commentator, strategist and understander, I appreciate that if I were to set about presenting this work in the form that would cover everything and every subject whilst considering the interchangeability and relationship that every part of life or policy has directly or indirectly with the other(s) – AND do it in such a way that would make sense to everyone, the reality is that even as a halfway house or completely esoteric form of work that would perhaps only be acceptable to the most open minded academics, this is not something that could not realistically be done.

Life doesn’t actually work that way. In fact, the pathway to real life is following that gut feeling, trusting your instincts or learning to be discerning enough to really listen to your heart, that gives anyone and any of us the real opportunity to succeed in a genuinely good and healthy way, in any part of life.

If you’ve picked up this book, or any part of it, the chances are that you are and have been following that internal compass or radar system either knowingly, or in an indulgent way where something has just prompted you to look at things a little more closely and take those little steps that take you beyond.

I would simply ask that you read everything ‘as you go’ and focus on the immediate content as you do so. As I have found as the different blogs that make up the majority of this Book have been published, some will resonate with people simply because of the very specific lens or experience they have that dictates or flavours the way they look at the world.

However, if you really want to get the benefit of the ‘bigger picture’ that I am only trying to open the door to – and not even really begin to get on paper (because as I’ve just said above, it basically cannot be done), From Here to There Through Now, along with Levelling Level will certainly help you step inside and offer you the opportunity to see a world and life experience that’s as good for you as it is good for all.

Just try and leave your prejudices – which will have come from the old world that we are now leaving – behind.

The Structure of this Book

This is not a conventional book and was never intended to be so.

From Here to There Through Now is not a story either. But it is an invitation to write a different story.

The intention is to begin by making some sense of what is happening at the present time – very much as a carry on from my previous Book ‘Levelling Level’.

We then move onto the aspects of surviving and thriving through the very challenging period that lies ahead, and then begin to establish new systems and governance that will support the kind of change that we need.

From Here to There Through Now offers and suggests an alternative approach to embracing the destructive chaos and inaction that ‘false prophets’ as well as the dying embers of this establishment will continue to offer us, throughout.

This is not a perfect work. Rather a patchwork of different work that will only interlink when the reader can see everything that is happening in a very objective way, stepping beyond the idea that subjectivity IS objectivity when the individual blocks out reality with simple mantras such as ‘I am right, so everyone not with me is therefore wrong’.

My sincerest hope is that before we reach a point of crisis where unthinkable alternatives will be empowered and march in, more and more people will step outside of their bubbles and recognise the commonality that we all have with the people we share each and every day of our lives with. Rather than maintaining blind faith in the people we rarely or will never meet, but media tells us are more important to trust.

Whether your interpretation of this book is random or not, I hope that it will help you and others just like you and I as we turn that different page together.

Levelling Level

In early 2022, I wrote and published an e-book called ‘Levelling Level’.

Levelling Level was named as it was as a direct rejection of both the so-called ‘Levelling Up’ agenda that the Johnson era Tory Government created and the ‘levelling down’ way of thinking and doing that successive Labour governments in the UK have destructively lived.

‘Levelling Up’ was created by The Conservatives as a sop to do little more than keep ‘The Red Wall’ happy by doing nothing more than spending money. Whilst the decades-old socialist-driven Labour ideology of ‘levelling down’ has proven to be a perverse idea of equality that thrives on destroying anything considered ‘better’ or ‘elite’, so that everything stops at mediocre and is therefore considered ‘fair’.

Levelling Level discussed how we got to where we are and the need for change. It concluded by suggesting the fundamental building blocks that would facilitate real change and lead to the creation and ongoing maintenance of a genuinely fair and balanced model of governance, the systems that would support it, and the ideology that would have to be adopted not only so that it would work, but also to ensure that our society could experience genuine happiness and real freedom to enjoy the human experience too.

The role of Levelling Level in this Book

When I wrote Levelling Level, I didn’t focus or go into any great detail about the changes that are coming, or that by the time ‘From Here to There Through Now’ is published, will for many of us already be very clearly underway.

Whilst I began writing the content for what was to become this book almost straight away, I chose to publish all of the content in the reverse way.

However, as one, then two and finally three shorter e-books took shape, I decided that it was only the further work that I had completed on bringing more shape to The Basic Living Standard that should be published.

Much of the material I have written could be argued by some as being predictive after all, and I would be the first to admit that even I recognise the apocalyptic flavour that accompanies the idea of some kind of manual to help the reader ‘survive & thrive’, even when the intention is for the work to be nothing more than a map or guide through a challenging and difficult period of history to help people get restarted and established to make the very best of things for everyone once we are on the other side.

By ‘other side’, I do of course refer to the problems we are only beginning to experience now in the form of the ‘cost of living crisis’, energy problems, threats of war, currency crisis, inflation, shortages of every kind and more – all of which were touched on in ‘Levelling Level’, and will be referred to in greater detail as part of the ‘system collapse’, ‘Great Reset’, ‘crash’ and other, where appropriate in the pages of the book that now follow.

Things will get much worse before there is any hope that they will get better. But whilst it is only human to focus on the problems, difficulties and challenges that are looking us in the eye, the real door of opportunity for a better world, a truly balanced and fair way of life, and a whole system that promotes a way of being that values people, communities and our environment in the way that it genuinely always should, is now opening slowly but very surely, with everything we all have the power to influence and change now reaching the point where it is for many just hiding, albeit briefly, in plain sight.

Why Levelling Level is important now

Beyond the quick fixes that will solve the problems as we now see them or are only consciously aware of, the change that is now required is so profound that it is only a unique set of circumstances that touch everyone and causes pain to each of us in some way, that will provide the incentive for us to think differently.

Only then will we be open to a change in thinking that will create a much healthier way of living for us individually, as well as making fairness and balance a part of everyone’s life.

Such a unique set of circumstances or events now exist and are underway.

Government responses to a series of events, which began with Brexit, then The Covid Pandemic, the Invasion of Ukraine and latterly the energy crisis, have become the catalysts that have precipitated and accelerated everything that we know to change around us.

They are the first steps of a Financial and Systemic collapse that none of the current political elites have the power to control.

Somewhat ironically, it is the decisions that these same ‘leaders’ have been making in response to these events that are the real cause of all the problems that society faces today. This same malign influence has been at work, not only for the past six or seven years. But for what we must recognise as being decades of time.

These same few are using the term ‘Reset’ or ‘Great Reset’ as a forewarning that we will ignore at our peril.

Their misuse of these terms is a forewarning that the existing elites intend to use the collapse that is underway as an opportunity to reboot the existing system that has benefitted them so well, so that it will work even better for them – all under the auspices of what will be much tighter and fully digitalised control.

However, what the elites haven’t banked on, is that things are set to change in such a way, and to such a degree, that all of the reasons and motives that drive these people – at considerable cost to us all – are going to be exposed to daylight. The actions and motives of the elites will then be seen and understood by all.

The unsustainable ways that we have been living under their manipulative leadership will come to an end.

We will be forced to revalue life and what the important parts of it are.

Times ahead are likely to be painful for us. But the pain of experience is how we really learn. And as we learn and realise what the basic essentials for life – in both a practical and mentally healthy way – really are, we will also understand what any of us would need if we found ourselves in circumstances where we were having to ‘just get by’.

How to Read Levelling Level

Levelling Level is available and downloadable as a Book for Kindle for a small cost.

However, Levelling Level is also available to read FREE in blog form and can be found HERE:

A Community Route: The process of moving from Top-Down to Grassroots-Up

Obsessed as we are with the Money-focused world, even the most intelligent of our economists and academics cannot see or rather visualise the world being able to function in any other kind of way. Even the reality that many have or are quietly admitting that they cannot see where the growing crisis ends, hasn’t brought into question the belief that whatever happens next or whatever the world may look like in the future, it will still revolve around and be completely money-based.

The alternative truth that even the greenest, socialist, new-worldish of our communities cannot reconcile is that an economy doesn’t have to be all about money or even based on money for that economy to either be successful or for that economy to exist.

Money is only the blood or medium that conducts or rather carries the different elements or functionaries that carry out all the functions. It is just a question of priorities and the basis upon which all our assumptions and our entire value set is made that counts.

Changing that value set all begins very close to home. Firstly, it’s about the way that we think. Secondly it is then about getting everything right in the world that we can see.

Everything will therefore be about locality and community. Today, it’s just not all that easy to see.

Redefining government, governance and the way we live from the grassroots up

Who makes the choices in your life? Who takes the decisions that really affect your future and all the things that happen to you? Is it you? Or is it actually someone else?

We are all remarkably good at using the power of imagination to picture or visualise the way we would like our lives to be.

We use this power to be drawn in and taken over by the power of stories written by others. Stories that find their way to us either through books, magazines and the media. But also, through the different genres of film and cinema too.

This power to see, feel and even empathise with characters in stories that may not appear real, is very profound. So profound, that it can be confused with reality right across our range of senses.

That is, until a story and the reality it represents threatens the reality around us that we consider to be real. The reality which we believe to be our own.

Everything going on in the world around us today, whether it be inflation, problems with the cost of living, a distant war in Ukraine and even the death of Queen Elizabeth II appears real to everyone, in some particular way. But unless these events have reached beyond words or a screen and have come directly into our lives where they have touched us, they remain real, but outside of us. They are only real for someone else.

The things that we have in life and the way that life works around us are something that we all take for granted, for as long as we remain unaware of change. Even when change is happening around us – often through sleight of hand.

Change of one kind or another is constant. It is happening all of the time

Yet what is it that is common to all the things that are happening around us? What is it that influences everything in life without most of us even being aware? What is it that really sits outside of us that has fooled us into living our lives in a way that has been conditioned to benefit others, whilst making us all believe that the decisions, we make have always remained our own to define?

The commonality that flows between everything and everyone in this world today is money.

Everyone and everything is connected by the creation of money, its accumulation, its worship.

Life as we know it is run by a money-based system that has conditioned us all to believe that the value of everything in life can be determined by what somebody has, where somebody lives, what somebody earns, what somebody owns.

What few of us realise is that we have all been enslaved by a money-based system. A culture that has affected us all so deeply, it has even taken over the way that we all think.

We are enslaved by money and chained by the value set that accompanies it

We may not be the bankers, the politicians or the world elites. We may not have the material wealth, the power and influence that they think they do.

But their plans and the actions that they have taken to help themselves over a prolonged period of time, have made everyone inherently selfish, focused upon themselves and acting and thinking the same way.

Yes, the process may be nuanced and working at different levels. But the vein of commonality that runs throughout life makes us all responsible for what is happening to the world now in some way.

In the world we live in today, wealth and the flow of money is the only thing that matters. And if we follow the money and where it always goes, we quickly understand where the power behind all of the decisions that each of us makes really lies. That money flows following an upwards and funneled path to whoever it is who sits at the top.

We are trapped in the thinking that those at the top of this hierarchy or triangle are better than us, simply because they appear to be higher up, and we are placed further down.

This Top-Down system gives the impression of being fair and necessary so that there is some kind of order at work. But it is all about money.

Hierarchies of any kind are not aligned with the way that real humanity and true values in life should ever work.

The FIAT Money System or Money Based Order that we are currently in

When money and everything to do with money (which is basically everything) is the most important value system or value set that we have, it naturally follows that those who have most of it or have most influence over it will always be the people who are in charge.

Whilst the concept, suggestion or idea that whoever has all the money dictates our lives may be one that we find somewhat hard to accept, anyone who can stand still long enough, look at themselves and look at the way this whole system around us works and operates for long enough, will soon understand where the real power, influence and decision making that affects all of our lives really lies.

As the sickness which is the money based order and the worship of wealth and money has slowly  but steadily taken over aspect of life, the disease, habit and addiction that money as the only value set really is, has permeated through every decision, every action and every activity to the point where we have not only lost sight of basic decency, humanity and care for others in everything that we do. It has gone even further and made us jealous of anything threatening to the money-based value set that comes into view.

Sickness cannot last if anyone genuinely wants to be happy. Ultimately, sickness must be cured, or life will remain unfair, unbalanced and in all likelihood intolerable without both the cause and the effects being addressed. The alternative is that life reaches its end and dies.

A Bright and Happy Future. But one which requires a leap of faith from us all first

The good news is there is a cure for the sickness of this world which is today all about money.

The cure for the money and greed-based problems that we face, is to value people and everything about life before anything else instead.

Valuing people and everything in life is the greatest power that any individual has. It is the way to cure all of the problems that we have in our lives and around the world, and it really is this powerful, because the change  that it represents is all about each of us learning to take full responsibility for our actions, and rejecting the directives, the influence and the commands of others than come from outside of us and placed as a burden we no longer need to carry meaningfully in our own hands.

Rejecting the money-based system itself doesn’t mean rejecting the use of some form of currency, or the great advances that have come as a result of the money-driven technical age.

It quite literally means switching the priorities of life to their polar opposite, so that the focus of everyone and everything is to provide the fairest, most balanced, happy and equitable life for absolutely everyone, instead of one where those at the next level are always doing better, are treated better and expect to be thought of as better, so that the few at the top will always prosper, whilst life becomes increasingly difficult and the experience of it increasingly more painful at each and every level or tier that sits below.

Fear: The biggest barrier to change (as its easier to keep cowering, than to stand up)

Today, even the most intelligent and learned of the specialists and commentators who beyond the mainstream media are discussing the details of the financial and economic catastrophe that is underway as it unfolds, cannot tell us what the solution to all of this mess that the collapse of the elite-driven money-based system and globalised order will be.

Even the cleverest people we have in the public spotlight, cannot see any other way of life and of living life being possible, when everything operates and everyone has been conditioned to think life is literally all about what we have, what we want, what we can get and what we already own.

The pain, the flashpoint, the scarcity, the depravation, the hunger, the want, the unrest, the anger, the frustration, the intolerance, the hatred that are all coming are now unavoidable, literally because we will not accept the alternative way of being and of living life in every sense, until the pain and tragedy has hit each and every one of us in some way.

Yet this is the point when we have to be brave. It is the moment when we must be big enough to break our links with the selfishness and unacceptable behaviour of the past.

Yes, even when people are in the streets, there is hunger and everything we know as civilization is under threat, there will be many who just want things to be returned to being just as they always were.

For as long as such thinking exists, for one to gain, someone else will always have to lose. And this is neither acceptable nor necessary. It is just the easy – and very selfish or self-serving choice.

A New Beginning isn’t a choice, but it is the commitment to see it through

We already know that we can visualise and therefore write a new story. A story that is very real. A story that is very good for us all.

As difficult to believe as it may seem, this coming change is no longer a choice.

Those who still worship the money-based order can only delay it. Their attempts will ultimately prove futile, but the delays they cause by creating lies and baseless objections will prolong and cause a lot of needless and unnecessary pain.

Whereas the money system has grown, developed and suffocated everything through the use of smoke and mirrors, manipulation, lies and pretending that only those with special knowledge can ever understand the complexity of the game, the alternative life and way of being is simple. It is a code or mantra that simply states that the basics of life should be the priority of everyone and everything, and that the circumstances that surround the basics of life should be and should always remain exactly the same for us all.

The code or statement that everyone and everything should be focused on is The Basic Living Standard, which follows as one of the Chapters later in this book.

If your only thought as you look at the world is ‘how does this affect me’, think again

We exist in very selfish times. Without even realising it, we, our families, our friends and the generations of those before us, have all lived through and experienced changes in the way that everything around us works. Changes that have often happened in such small ways, that we have not even realised that change was underway, until that moment we might have suddenly thought ‘that’s not the way that this used to work’.

The change and the many changes that I speak of, have made us increasingly selfish. Bit by bit, they have delivered a whole new culture that focuses on money and material wealth, rather than values and humanity.

We have literally reached a point in world history where we have forgotten what it really means to live and to be alive.

With our cultural and therefore our conditioned focus being all about what we can get, what we have, what we want, rather than being about who we really are, our default setting is to see and experience every interaction in terms of its value to us, rather than it being just the next opportunity to grow by being who we are really supposed to be.

Relationships and our own Humanity are key

It is important to understand how we interact and relate to everything going on in the world, because our failure to do so, will leave us dangerously vulnerable and ill-equipped to function, to survive and to thrive through the turbulence and challenging times that have become unavoidable and now lie on a timeline which is very close ahead.

The world that we will soon leave has taught us that selfishness and self-interest are good things to indulge. But in the world that we are about to enter, it is our relationships, collaboration with and care for others that will dominate our priorities in ways that nobody living today will have experienced within their lifetime before.

Forget what’s on your screen. Forget what’s in the paper or in the news. Forget what anyone wants to tell you about the world you cannot see or feel but have been assured by others that it exists somewhere beyond.

Life is now about the people, the neighborhood, the places and the communities that you experience firsthand in your life, each and every day.

That’s where a life of true value already lies and it’s by getting everything right in this very localised sense, that we can all now create a much better world for us all that lies in everything beyond.

The Story (or rather, the current story, so far)

The challenge of writing meaningfully about societal and systemic change, when the majority of people genuinely a) believe that they are happy b) believe that things will always remain the same, and c) that there is no way of doing anything any differently, is far from being negligible.

It is however pretty certain that the same majority of people do already quietly acknowledge that things aren’t good, no matter the direction that any of us look. It is just the case that when people reach that point, there is some kind of conditioned internal dialogue that tells us these issues aren’t worth looking at if they aren’t touching us, and that someone else will deal with them and make them go away.

If you’ve read this far, you will not need me to spell out the answers to the questions that any of these points raise. But it’s probably going to be helpful to think about them more deeply and in different ways:

Something is happening. Something is underway

As I am sat with a coffee and my laptop in a Starbucks, early on a Monday morning in May 2022, I look out of the windows ahead of me.

I see a world that looks the same as it did three months ago – before the Invasion of Ukraine began. The same as it did two-and-a-half years ago – before the Covid Pandemic Began. The same as it did six years ago – before the Brexit Vote and all the subsequent drama began.

But things are not the same.

The one thing that I am sure of is that even the most optimistic of us, or those of us who feel most insulated and secure from problems that we can see and hear about on the news and TV have one thing in common with the rest of us that we are likely to agree on: That something doesn’t feel right.

Yes, your response might be to overlook that niggle you have and immediately look at people like the politicians running our Country, or those with zillions in the bank who are ‘at the top’. You think to yourself, ‘That guy doesn’t see or feel like there’s anything wrong – so how could that possibly be so?’

No matter who we are or what role we are playing in a game which is to all intents and purposes, a very complicated life for us all, there has never been anything more certain than the reality that each and every one of us knows that something isn’t right about our personal experience of the world we all share and live in right now. Right here, today.

We all know deep down that something is wrong. We just have very different stakes in the game.

For some to be rich, it does not follow that everyone else must be poor

Only accelerated by the arrival of the Internet and the media age, the dehumanisation of the relationships between each of us and any of the people we do not know has become destructively profound.

Greed has always been a problem, particularly for those who are insulated by the privilege of their positions, conditioning or upbringing.

But the impact from the lack of care or the consideration of the impact or consequences of actions that are increasingly profitable for the self-serving who have power, have never done so much damage to the lives of others as they are doing right now.

As the unscrupulous have increasingly taken more influence and control, they have changed the rules and frameworks that govern our system to push balance and fairness further and further away from us. Meanwhile, they have continued to consolidate the grip that they have, enriching themselves and those they identify as being of their kind, in a process that works purely on the basis that so they can win, it follows that many others must be the ones to lose.

There is nothing natural about the way that any of this works. The system is based on the accumulation of wealth and of money. Money, that has power only because of the belief that we have all foolishly placed in it. Money that doesn’t actually exist.

Money makes money, when it should only be effort and the contribution that any of us make, that defines any of us beyond a Basic Living Standard or benchmark that should exist and be maintained at the same level, so that there are the very same opportunities as a basis for all.

Until we reach the point when we all realise and accept that it is our values and our integrity in our relationship with others and the world around us that makes us ridiculously rich, rather than the money we have or the things that we own, no matter what we have, we will all remain very poor.

A Complicated World means Complicated Lives. Complication means the truth gets lost in the detail

You cannot and will not see the problems that are creating the feeling that something isn’t right, unless you are open or receptive to that information, or you are actually looking out for it.

To do that effectively and rationally, you have to have experienced those kinds of things before.

You will need to have studied them, worked with them, or your life needs to have already been touched by similar experiences in some way.

The chances are you don’t ‘get it’. But that doesn’t make you wrong. In fact, it really is OK

The world we live in is ridiculously complicated. And by that I am referring to the many different worlds or rather the world or bubble as each and every one of us experiences it. Worlds which sit billions or times over, beyond the one that we feel is more than complicated enough in which we personally exist.

No. Our lives really are not the same.

We are the sum of our experiences.

Even the conversation that I am about to have with the barista when I order my next coffee, will make me a different person in the sum of those experiences. I will be different to the person that I am right now, or rather the person I was before.

We don’t know all the details that make up the stories of all the things that come into our lives. How food was produced or how it got to the supermarket shelves. Where the computers and phones that we use were designed or where they came from. What it took and who was involved in bringing everything to us.

We certainly don’t understand or appreciate the whys or how’s of how decisions were made by different layers of government, that are having an effect on just about every part of our life.

Just because you cannot see a problem, doesn’t mean that a very big problem doesn’t exist

None of our lives are simple – no matter what anyone else thinks.

The complications within our own lives or ‘bubbles’ mean that we really are blind and deaf to anything and everything going on outside of our own bubble – unless there is something within our bubble which gives us a specific interest is something that could also be very specific outside of our bubble. A specific something going on in one of the many worlds that make up the whole world that sits beyond our own.

A disaster could be unfolding in the world bubble and life of the person sat on the table next to me in this Starbucks, but I cannot see it because I have had no reason to do so.

This is the way that we all look at everything.

It’s how the whole world and the many worlds that exist within it work.

Until any problem or the many problems from many bubbles come into our lives and touch us directly, they may as well not actually exist.

That feeling that something isn’t right is your real alarm clock going off. It’s time to wake up!

That feeling of disquiet that we all have, is like a knock at the door or an internal alarm clock going off. It’s the real you, reaching out to say that something that isn’t good for us is going on right here, right now.

Whilst I am using the metaphor of an alarm clock and telling you that it’s time for us all to wake up, this isn’t the clarion call of the ‘great awakening’ that those who are converting a material form of self-interest into one sold as spiritual piousness would like us all to buy-in and believe.

Insisting that anyone must be part of this or that or have specific knowledge or experience to be accepted is no better than the demands of a money obsessed society that insists you have to demonstrate your wealth to be accepted, to ‘get in’ or ‘to be someone’.

The awakening, or process of waking up I am talking about, is that of learning or rather re-learning to trust yourself and the feelings that you might inexplicably have.

Instead of looking to the worlds and words or others and everything outside of yourself for answers to YOUR questions, you should instead look to the yes / no, right / wrong, feelings that come without internal dialogue or commentary and without reason and without emotion.

Instincts, when trusted, will always deliver. Simply because you have had the good sense to look within and not gone without.

Trust Your Feelings. Know Your Emotions.

Feelings are a funny thing. In fact, we are constantly told by people and the world around us that our feelings, gut feelings or the instincts or that knowing that cannot always be elucidated with words, should be overridden.

The messages of the world insist that it is the messages and ‘things’ that are outside of us that are the only thing we can trust.

That is of course, unless those feelings are not really feelings at all, but are in fact the emotions that relate to our own perceived vulnerabilities and ideas of isolation. Thoughts that we are then ‘progressively’ encouraged to shout about from the rooftops.

‘Weaknesses’, celebrated openly with others can then be exploited to weaken others and make them believe they are vulnerable too. All at our own expense whilst our willing participation in this charade fuels a system that has evolved to benefit only the few

What’s Really Happening

Everything in our lives is interconnected with everything in everyone else’s lives in some way.

Like a giant jigsaw puzzle, all the different parts come together to make one big picture.

But the parts are always changing (people, technology, thinking etc). And as we can only look after or move the parts of the puzzle around which are our own responsibility within our own lives to do, we have been led to believe that it has become necessary to trust others with responsibility for the parts that we believe to be beyond our own control.

Over time, that trust or rather the power over others that it commands has corrupted the people that hold it. Yes, that’s our politicians. But more importantly, it’s the people leading business and finance who appear to have or possess all the things that our politicians believe that they need to have or possess – just like we have all been conditioned to think we need too.

A Broken System. A System Out of Balance. A System Where More Wants More

It is a strange and regrettable truth that a system of any kind doesn’t have to be principled, ethically run or morally correct to exist, to survive or to experience longevity – no matter what the cost, impact or consequences might be to anyone not directly involved or those who are in reality its victims or those that it exploits.

What any system does need to work well, to work efficiently and to survive in the very long time or in perpetuity, is balance, and for it and everything it produces or projects to be fair.

The system that we have is well established in the sense that nobody alive today could tell you either an accurate or true story about what it was like before it existed.

But the system that we have today is built on the foundation of the belief in money. And money doesn’t exist.

The Lie About Balance & Fairness

We are told that the system we have is the fairest that we could have. That by having so much emphasis on ‘the markets’ and the role that money plays in everything, we can keep having more and more of the best things that we have ever had.

But the system isn’t fair, because it is driven and motivated by greed. But that greed is not just at the top. Those at the top have been able to do all that they have done to benefit themselves, because they have used the system that greed has created to convince all of us that we can keep accumulating little pieces of all the things that they have.

The irony is that even within a system built on and servicing greed, there is a point of balance, which once exceeded, may appear to keep working. But it is in fact on its way – through increasing and accelerating disfunction – to ending in a massive and potentially epoch defining crash.

How did we get here?

To put it as simply as possible. The reason that we are here today, is because we have accepted and enabled the wrong people to be in control, and those people have been in control for too long.

Greed, envy and the desire for wealth has built, propagated and redesigned existing parts of the system so that the values that we once had and should always have had, have been replaced by a view of the world which makes us always ask the same question: ‘What is it worth?’

Real life, a life based on values, care for each other, care for our environment and care or respect for all the things that we don’t understand, has been completely replaced by money and material wealth as a benchmark.

We have literally forgotten what we are all about.

When, Where & How did all the economic problems we have today really begin?

Okay, so we have to wind back the clock. Not just a little. But a very long way, before we can begin to start a whistle-stop tour of the key events and motivators that have contributed to or rather their impact on everything else have accumulated to create the situation that we are facing now.

Firstly, it’s important to understand that this is a story about human nature before anything else.

It’s a story about what happens when people obtain power, influence, wealth or a mixture of them all, and either don’t have the moral fibre, ethics or principles to always do the right thing for everyone at the start, or they end up that way because they have been corrupted by what they have experienced or gained along their life path.

Oddly enough, morality and values seem to become increasingly absent across society, the further from general hardship or real hardship that effects everybody within it becomes.

Without the experience of hardship, or ‘making do’, even the poorest members of society can quickly become mesmerised and emotionally tied to an obsession for what they could have, rather than really appreciating all that they have already got.

More wants more. And in 1971, with promises of benefits that could only be unleashed by so-called ‘market freedoms’, deregulation of financial systems and services, and the proposition that an economy unhindered by government will always look out for us all, Neoliberalism was unleashed upon the western world when US President Richard Nixon did away with The Gold Standard, and a world based on FIAT or rather created money was born.

Commercialism had been picking up great speed before 1971, particularly in the United States. The emotional fix of material possessions and the social benchmarking that became definable by ‘showy wealth’ for the masses played perfectly into the hands of those economists with an agenda. False prophets who were able to whisper their intoxicating poison into the ears of politicians and influencers who didn’t have the scruples to know or even suspect any better.

So, with the launch of the FIAT system – that the western world has all but since adopted – a cultural shift from values to ‘money is god’, through a process based on the success of media manipulation and brainwashing was well and truly unleashed.

The cultural shift from having values to nothing but the worship of money was built on our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities, exploited by those at the top

The dreams of big money and corporate interests had all come true, the very moment that this age of Neoliberalism was born.

Not only because the elites had untapped the rivers of gold that only ‘those in the know’ had access too because they or their friends could literally print money out of thin air to invest in whatever they wanted with ‘real’ money from customers coming back at them in return.

Not only because the elites could use the useful idiots they had found in the form of stupid, ambitious and above all corruptible politicians who would change rules and regulations to favour their interests at every turn.

Not only because they could move just about every form of production and manufacturing that existed to Countries far away, where the rules that more westernised nations had fought for and took for granted could be ignored and ridiculous increases in bottom line margins would result.

But because above all, this group of politicians, business leaders and people with a lot of money now knew that they had the power to tell people who were losing their jobs, losing their incomes, losing their communities, losing their value and losing their integrity, that the whole thing was in their best interests, and that they would be much better off financially and materially as a result.

The whole thing has been the world’s biggest confidence trick. But it worked and it has continued to work for as long as it has done, simply because so many of us have been blinded by the ‘easy money’, the great cars, the fashionable clothes, the foreign holidays, and the blinding light of money becoming the ruler of everything.

This is where self-interest and the lack of questioning from us all has now led. And it’s all about to collapse.

Why our broken system has lasted for so long

Some of you, probably many of you will be thinking that a system that works ‘successfully’ for over 50 years, cannot really have all that much wrong. But that will probably be because you haven’t yet been knowingly touched by the fallout from the collapse of a system built only on greed, as you can and will be.

The foundation of this entire system has been making money and how to improve or develop the ways to make more and more money, along with ways of increasing the profit margins from what everything within the system already does.

Rather ironically, it has been the same time and distance from the hardship caused by wars and nationwide events that allowed the ‘elites’ to manipulate us all into believing this created world was real, that wooed them into their own false sense of security. One that encouraged them and the people desperate to be and become like them, to overlook the basic rules of contingency planning, of making reasonable provision against risk and of not doing things to make even more money – not because they should, but because they can.

The whole global economy or global economic system has been built on luck and not judgement. The luck being that until 2020, there had been no nationwide or world events that had been big enough to blow the whole house of cards down. That is, before some other clever device or fudge could be invented that could arrest the timeline decline of the system, or keep it going long enough so that the incumbent elites could wash their hands of it, pass it on to the next generation of greedy bastards and proclaim, ‘keeping the lie going is now your problem, not mine’.

The role of Brexit, Covid & Ukraine in The Great Reset

It is important to understand that the whole system has been dysfunctional for a very long time.

That is, if it can even be said that the system was genuinely functional at any time.

It has been momentum or a seemingly unending direction of travel that has kept the whole thing going. Just as long as the lie didn’t get uncovered, there remained untapped resources to exploit and the elites or those in their pay could find new ways of rolling this turd of a story in glitter, so that the truth remained hidden in plain sight.

The European Union has been a very useful part of this money-making con. It is no accident that the steps towards increased EU power picked up speed and political acceptance in the ways and on the timeline that it otherwise inexplicably did.

That is why the Brexit Vote in 2016 hit the elites and the establishment with such a bloody great big shock.

In fact, Brexit was to be only the first blown tyre on a bus that was never meant to be stopped. The elites didn’t bank on Covid, nor Ukraine being the next two to go. Nor, that in terms of political drivers in time of an unplanned crisis, they had only ever made provision for there being useful idiots at the wheel or ready to step in from the bunk.

Even a corrupt, unethical system that exploits others can survive for a very long time. That is, as long as those with their hands on the levers of power, don’t overreach and break the systems own rules.

The End of Globalisation, The FIAT Money Based Order and the collapse of a whole system dressed up as change

Objectivity in a world that is only able to function because it distracts so many of us from asking the questions that we really should be, isn’t at all easy. We all lead very subjective lives with our focus, perspective and experiences very much controlled by what interests us within what many refer to in social media terms as a ‘bubble’.

Bubbles today are very much the same at the most base or practical level to the villages of old, where every part of life revolved around the locality itself. The difference is that we take every functional part of life and how it comes into being for granted and believe that nothing outside the views and motivations that we share with the others in our bubble is important. The major commonality is the subjectivity and the reality that our lives are almost perfectly insular, and we have little time for learning about, understanding and even stepping into the world beyond.

All well and good. That is until everything that allows us or facilitates our lives so that we can continue to think that way stops or comes to an end.

What everyone beyond those who have an interest in pretending everything can continue to work in the way that it has been will soon realise, is that life as we believe it to be isn’t sustainable and hasn’t been sustainable for a very long time. In fact, if there ever were to be an example of the perfect lie, in terms of just how long it has worked for and benefitted those doing the lying, then Globalism, the FIAT Money or Money Based Order and everything wrong with the system that we are living in today, would be it.

The Great Reset, Great Correction, System Collapse or Crash that lies ahead

You’ve probably already heard the term ‘The Great Reset’ being used by other people, by politicians and by representatives of an organisation based in Switzerland called the World Economic Forum or the WEF.

Whilst many people with an interest in doing so are trying very hard to take ownership of the events that are now happening and giving the whole process its own name, the reality is that it doesn’t matter what terms we use or attribute the period of history that the world is now going through.

After decades and possibly centuries of the world being run and ruled under a system that has become less and less fair and more and more unjust, the collapse of this system and a period of rebalancing, refocusing, resetting, restarting, restoring and reforming has always been inevitable.

It was always just a question of when, how that change would begin and what it would be that the people who have been controlling everything would do to precipitate its end.

Some things can no longer be controlled

Whilst the cumulative effects of a system that benefits the few by taking from the many have been taking their time to work through and become any real threat to its existence, they have been in the offing for quite some time.

The question of something happening that would act as a catalyst for long overdue change was only ever about when such an event would happen. It was never about if.

Yet the arrival of Covid nonetheless caught the elites on the march. Indeed, the response to the ‘Pandemic’ by the fools we have in Government, by printing far more money than the system could absorb without exposing the truth of the entire money lie, was only made worse by the knee-jerk implementation of draconian social distancing measures that weren’t thought through and were simply too obvious in their intent to hide in plain sight.

In time, it was always inevitable that the game was going to be found out. And nobody can control the narrative when we are all victims of a crash.

The ‘Great Reset’ and the role of The World Economic Forum & The World ‘Elites’

It is only our belief in this system that makes it work.

The people at the top of what is our top-down hierarchy are only there today, because we have a misplaced sense of deference to power and money, and we are continually still being conditioned to believe all that they say.

These people look at people like you and I and they think that we are all stupid, because we have been fools to give them our trust.

Yet they are all the truly stupid ones. Because they have been given the privilege of power and influence which they could have used for good. But instead, they have neglected our trust.

They have known for a long time, that the system built on lies that they sit on top of, has been at growing risk. This is why talking shops like the World Economic Forum (WEF) actually exist. It’s why so-called leaders like Klaus Schwab have been creating narratives over many years, in order that the same people in control now can use the same system of manipulation that has served them so well to ensure that they ‘own’ the inevitable process of change.

They hope to then reposition themselves to lead and benefit from exploiting us all in just the same ways, when they have taken credit for leading us through an inevitable period of crisis and pain for everyone else – that they all themselves helped to create.

‘The Great Reset’ is probably the most appropriate term for the process that is now happening. It was no accident that with the arrival of the Covid Pandemic and the realisation that ‘their system’ was in existential crisis because of the different ways that it was being handled, the WEF were very quick to begin upping the publishing of plans for ‘The Great Reset’.

This was so that they could immediately begin to create a credible narrative in the minds of people, that those at the top of all this had planned it and had been in control of it from the start.

Call it planned acquiescence if you like. Albeit, an emergency fire-fighting version, that deep down they know can only succeed for as long as we, that’s the general population, believe that we are ok, happy, in some ways and that the problems we have are problems that we have alone.

The elites know that the game is over if we reach the point where we are ready to take to the streets – because we have lost faith in their authority and no longer are prepared to accept that we have anything to lose by doing so.

There is no new world order conspiracy. There is just what the elites are confident they can get us to believe and do as the old one collapses

A lot of people are very nervous about the things we are hearing from the WEF.

Let’s face it, after the very strange experience that we have all shared over the past 2 or more years, logic hasn’t appeared to be present in any overwhelming force. A lot has happened that there simply doesn’t seem to be any explanation for.

However, whilst many of us are convinced that there is some great conspiracy underway, that Covid and every part of the response to it was orchestrated and part of some ‘grand plan’ to create a new dystopian New World Order, the real truth of that matter is that our deference is being given and credibility is being awarded to the elites because of the role that they appear to be playing in all of this.

None of the respect given or fear we have of any of these people who eat, shit, breathe and think just as we do, is based on what they are actually doing or have the ability to do.

Power, position, wealth & influence are no insulation against complete stupidity

Anyone can be as clever or as intelligent as they like or as the world considers them to be. But if they don’t care about anyone but themselves at the end of the day, the outcome of their actions will always end with consequences that we might expect if we were to knowingly place the world’s greatest fools in the very same roles and handed them the same power, influence and ability to control.

These people at the top, across governments, business and the financial worlds today, cannot and will not be able to continue to ‘reign’ over the world or any country, IF we all stop believing that running the world and our country is only something that these people – who we don’t even know – can do.

The real risk to us and to our future is the way we think; the way we see power and the people who are in control of everything today

Right now, we have idiots controlling everything. People who are fundamentally just the same as you or I. But because of their experience of life so far believe that everyone outside of their ‘bubble’ is stupid.

They think that we are all stupid, because most of us do not understand what is going on and aren’t even looking out for what is happening around us that is hidden in plain sight.

They are confident that the world as they see it or plan for it to can be maintained, as enough of us can always be bought off (because we are also selfish and greedy), and that this is how they will ultimately always remain in control.

The system collapse and ‘The Great Reset’ is already underway

Many of us cannot see that the collapse is already underway. Simply because we are still tied to wealth and material things that we cherish and are emotionally tied to, that we still believe we possess.

We literally still have skin in the game, for as long as we believe that the system continues to be beneficial in some way.

The really frightening thing is that for many of us, that perceived benefit is likely to be very small.

This Money-Based system will exist only for as long as we fear material loss

The obsession with material wealth and money that so many of us have, is what the so-called elites are using to control us.

Because the world they have created around us teaches us that there is nothing that we could be more afraid of than losing the ‘things’ that we possess, or of having more than anyone or rather somebody else.

It only works – that is, we can only continue to be duped, conned or tricked into thinking that this is really the way things are, and that it is in our best interests for it to continue in this way – with the elites remaining in charge – for as long as the bogus mechanics of this very perverse and exploitative system are maintained.

What is really happening now, that makes the collapse of the system and ‘The Great Reset’ something that we actually need?

The problem for the politicians, the elites, the people who like trips to Switzerland to have expensive dinners around a table with their chums at the WEF, and ALL the people who remain ambitious to be where they are and just like them – is the system they have created has always been flawed, and because of the things that they have done, it has become inevitable that it is going to completely crash.

  • Nothing is going to work as it has been.
  • The Global Economy and Global Supply Chain is collapsing.
  • The Markets – based on ‘FREE’, non-existent money, are going to crash.
  • Selfish ‘commercial interests have control of all the services, products, manufacturing and services that everyone needs to live and enjoy a basic life – meaning that self-serving individuals and private interests – rather than public representatives – can dictate what qualifies as a ‘good life’ and what should be its £Price.
  • Businesses can no longer sustain the rights and regulations that have been imposed universally, but only work and exist to benefit big companies that are usually shareholder (market) owned.
  • Real life for everyone and the communities that we live in is no longer sustainable, because we have completely lost touch with and don’t even understand the lives and experiences of our own neighbours.
  • We are having our ability to think as individuals labelled as a crime and are instead having our ways of thinking dictated to us by people we will never meet or never know, who appear to speak on behalf of everyone, from an app that everyone seems to have on their phone.

The list goes on. But none of it is sustainable or in the best interests of us ALL.

When the system has crashed – or rather, once enough of us have been touched by any one or a number of the many things that we cherish, suddenly coming to their end, that is the time when we will realise and have the opportunity to understand that none of this is what our lives are really about.

That’s when we will understand and accept that we really do need wholesale change. It is when we will know that the days of the top-down hierarchy have to end.

The Opportunity we all now have for something much better may not feel like an Opportunity, YET

I did suggest earlier that the content of this book may appear to jump around. When it all makes sense, it will make sense.

The underlying reality to all of this, no matter how apocalyptic the content may or may not feel, is that everything under discussion here is about the process that covers, surrounds, leads to and is facilitating the opportunity for change that we, our communities, our countries and the whole world so badly now needs.

However, the challenge that we all face is the reality that whatever happens next, it is all about our own interpretation, our own participation, our own CHOICE.

If we choose to let somebody else make all of our decisions for us, we will only have ourselves to blame for everything that happens next.

The process, challenges and period of massive change that we are now entering calls upon us all to awaken and see everything happening around us for what it really is, and where our continued blind acquiescence will actually lead.

Counterintuitive as it may feel, this is the time to reject the concrete options that politicians, the media, the establishment and people with platforms will give you. It will all come down to a momentary leap of absolute faith.

What happens after The Great Reset is your choice. OUR future is not the Elites nor the WEFs to decide

The politicians that we have, the business ‘leaders’ running the corporate world, the bankers & financiers and all of the so-called elites of today can and will only be able to continue after the Great Reset IF it is what WE collectively allow them to do.

The decision that we must make will be between waiting for them to come up with all the solutions and the answers to the problems we are facing – as we are already trapping ourselves into a false sense of security by doing now. Or to accept that nothing about the world around us and the lives that we have been conditioned to live really serves us in the beneficial way that people we don’t even know have been using their power and influence to make us think.

Some of you will be thinking that this sounds like a lifestyle that nobody is going to accept by choice. And that’s why we are still in the position that we are right now, staring at the steady but nonetheless downward spiral of a systemic collapse that we will continue to refuse believe exists until we no longer have any skin in the game.

When the system no longer benefits you in any way. That will be your time to decide.

The Great Reset will not happen overnight

One of the most challenging aspects of understanding change, is accepting that change is happening constantly and all the time.

Even the biggest changes that affect us all happen not in a moment. But as a process that involves many different events and actions, that can actually take a substantial period of time.

Just like the way we experience illnesses or diseases, change often goes through minor, chronic and acute stages.

When it comes to change of everything that we know and the very complex world around us – or what is being called ‘The Great Reset’, this is already happening many times over, right now, around us too.

The change going on already will be perceived as minor for those who do not feel directly affected.

It will be feeling chronic and unending for those that already are. People like those who are already struggling to pay for food, energy and any one of a number of things that would not make sense to anyone else who hasn’t been there or experienced that kind of hardship yet themselves.

That is just the cost-of-living crisis.

Every part of life is already being touched. And what you have yourself already started to see as being broken or dysfunctional, is a pointer for you to where changes coming as part of The Great Reset will be.

Sadly, this whole process will not stop there. The systemic collapse will mean that all the things we take for granted are likely to go through a period where they simply do not work.

What will happen during the acute stages of The Great Reset?

Whether it’s the supply chains that bring us our food, clothes and the things that we need just to survive, or the utilities, fuel, transport and other services that we are used to having access to, the chances are that they we will not be able to access them completely, or that access will be reduced to a rationed or irregular form.

For some things, the experience of shortages or going without will just be temporary, simply because they really are the things that we actually need.

Where the things that we only believe we need but are things that we only actually want are concerned, we are likely to find that the supply of many of these ‘things’ will never return.

It is during this ‘acute’ stage of ‘The Great Reset’ that things will be very uncertain.

The acute stage of ‘The Great Reset’ is when we will have to make do in ways that we have never experienced. It will be a time when we will not only have to do our part, but also rely upon the goodwill and a sense of community around us in a way that we have never lived our lives before.

The acute stage of ‘The Great Reset’ will be a period of time when we will need to learn to survive.

Why do we need to survive The Great Reset?

The uncomfortable bit about change of the scale that ‘The Great Reset’ will be, is that all of the things we take for granted are going to stop, at some point, at least temporarily.

Locking yourself away in a cold-war era bunker with a year’s supply of everything, your own power and water because you can financially afford to do so, might be taking it a bit far.

The best way to get your head around this is to think about or list ALL the things that you actually need to be able to bring into your home, or that automatically come into your home each and every day and then consider how you would feel if any one or all of them were to suddenly stop.

Let’s just have a quick run through of the things we need, that come or are brought into our homes in this way, each and every day. Let’s start with the immediate essentials:

  • Food (BIG HINT – this isn’t takeaways, or anything pre-prepared by anyone else. It’s the basics – it’s what we actually need)
  • Water

Then the things that we might use each day, that are important, but would not always be essential during a crisis:

  • Electricity
  • Gas
  • Solid Fuel (Wood, Coal etc)
  • Accommodation
  • Toiletries
  • Transport to obtain or access essentials

Then the things that help to make life easier, or improve quality of life:

  • Phones & PCs
  • Internet & Broadband
  • Transport for other purposes
  • Essential Clothing items

The things we don’t actually need, but want:

Okay, so if you’ve read this far, you probably already know and understand that it’s never a good idea to criticise taste or appearance.

The point is that beyond all of the above – which really is a sliding scale down from absolute essentials to stuff that should provide us with a happy life, to the rest that makes it a good life, there is a colossal section filled up by things can be very different, but which each and every one of us like or want.

NONE OF US need these things. Things like takeaways, £subscription TV streaming services, trips to coffee shops, the latest phone are all things that we want. They are things WE do not need.

You will know what yours are, once you look beyond the lists above.

Once you recognise what you really need if everything stops, then you can begin to plan ahead and insulate yourself against the risks from what lies ahead.

At best, by doing so, you will make a very difficult time much easier to bear and potentially even help your community or help others.

At worst, you may be able to stay away from social problems and civil unrest, if the worst should happen and frustration boils over into anger when no help comes, and others haven’t done anything to prepare.

If the Great Reset is already happening, why can’t I see it?

There are a lot of very big political, business and financial interests who believe that they have a massive amount to lose if the system that’s already in free-fall around us, does reach the point of a completely non-functioning crash.

This is why politicians, the media and all of the big interests that are behind them are doing so much to avoid changing the narrative, saying anything or even doing anything that suggests that a systemic collapse is now under way.

To speak of it would be to admit to it or acknowledge that the collapse – which makes The Great Reset necessary – is underway.

By doing so, they would ultimately be admitting that they all have responsibility for everything that is now going to unfold.

If you continue to listen to all the messaging that comes from politicians, big business, and the media, you are likely to suffer a lot more than any of them will, when part or all of the collapse finally steps right into your life.

These interests are very powerful. That is why things seem to be ok for many of us right now, because they are doing all that they can to keep the plates spinning.

The intention is that they will be able to weather what they hope is just a storm and then put everything back to where they want. They intend to continue doing it quietly and without too many of us being aware of what they are doing behind the scenes.

For the purposes of clarity here, behind the scenes really means the truth, rather than what we actually believe. Because the signs that the collapse is happening – like the cost-of-living crisis – are happening right now, but because they haven’t directly touched us yet, we don’t believe there’s anything to fear – and the collapse is as such being successfully hidden in plain sight.

The Great Reset is here. It’s time for you to refocus and think about who you really trust

Not everyone can see, will want to see or will even consider the reality that things are going to change in the way that they are.

However, if any of this is beginning to make sense or strike a chord with you in any way, this is the right time – yes, RIGHT NOW, to begin thinking about what you can do to prepare, produce and make provision for what are likely to be the very turbulent times that lie ahead.

Some of you will be asking what kind of timescale we are on, before the things that we are experiencing are really bad.

The truth is that it’s not really possible to say, as the problems that will touch us all, will arrive at different times and in different ways that mean we will experience much of the process differently.

As I wrote previously, The Great Reset will not happen overnight. That isn’t to say that some of it – perhaps something acute like a power or water shortage – won’t affect us all exactly the same and at the same time.

People are already going hungry because of the cost-of-living crisis. But because there aren’t enough people going hungry, the politicians don’t believe that people are really going hungry.

So instead, politicians are setting out to belittle those who are hungry and exclude them from ‘the accepted community’ in some way. It’s as if reaching out for help when the system created the problems we face, is a socially unacceptable disease – just because they say so.

How would you feel if you reached out to the people who are supposed to be there to help you at a time of need and they went on TV and laughed at you whilst saying you’ll have to perform a trick to show that you actually need help?

I for one, hope that neither you nor anyone else has to find that out.

The Great Reset: Knowing that others think so little of you only has consequences for you when they are the ones who are in control of everything

There’s a lot of irony in this statement, given the situation that we are now in.

Some people – like those needing food banks right now – are already experiencing the truth of this reality and the way the system actually works against us, rather than for us, right now.

Those of us who care about others may not be able to help those who need help right now, today.

But we can change and learn to do so. And by helping others through The Great Reset, we will end up helping ourselves.

This is what ‘Levelling Level’ is fundamentally about.

STOP believing that everything you need will always be on the supermarket shelves or simply arrive at your front door

Before anything else, we should dispel one rather large myth: That’s the idea that you never need to make provision for anything you might need for any period of time, more than a few days or perhaps for the week ahead.

We have been conditioned to take it for granted that everything we need or want will always be available to us either online, or at a ‘local’ shop (For as long that is, that they continue to exist).

There is a reason for this. It means that without even thinking about it, we have become dependent on commercial, profit-making supply chains for everything that we need or want. Simply because we have become very comfortable with the way that everything seems to always be there, and increasingly with the speed and low level of our own engagement and effort that is required for any of it to arrive.

We have been led to believe, through messaging, and our experience so far, that this is a good way to live. And that with tech gurus falling over themselves to find easier and easier ways for us to get everything and then pay for it too, the lives we are living can and will only get better too.

The problem is that this isn’t reality. It’s a myth that only works because the original lies that started it and formed one way of doing things have been covered by many other lies and other ways of doing things that were all about benefits being funnelled to the few.  Sooner or later, the lies and a dishonest system was always going to meet up with the truth.

That point in time is here now.

An uncomfortable truth about what we believe about life and how everything works today

It is no accident that there are children in our cities and towns who have absolutely no idea that the milk they drink each day comes from a cow.

Somebody somewhere is benefitting from the accepted narrative continually going this specific way. And what you need to understand is that it is ALL about profit for the few.

None of how or why this system runs as it does is about anything that is good for you financially – as the messaging and culture we have tells us, or indeed your mind, your body and certainly not your spirit.

The age of consumerism is making us forget who we really are. It has dehumanised relationships, and this process has only been made worse by the arrival of the internet and smart technology – which pushes the focus of everything to the self or to our self-interest – which for all the good that the Net has the power to still do for us, this is above all the most hideous and socially destructive part of its darker side.

The truth of the matter is, that it is good to think ahead – even when we are not facing a national and worldwide crisis.

We need to learn – or rather relearn – to Prepare, Produce & make Provision.

We cannot rely on existing supply chains for what we need any longer

We cannot rely on any system where its reliability is based upon things that we cannot see or have no way to understand – i.e. you can’t pick up the phone or visit and speak to the farmer and ask in which field the wheat being sent to the local mill and then to the local baker is being grown.

The only system that we rely on is one that we either have responsibility for ourselves, or is being driven and managed by other people we know and can trust – because they are people who we may not be interacting with, but are around us and perhaps without us being aware, we are passing them and they are therefore in our lives each and every day.

As I write, I’m smiling. I know that there are people – and lots of them, who would respond to where this is going by jumping in and scornfully suggesting that what I am talking about does nothing more than hark back to either a medieval or romantically impractical age.

All well and good – if you live in a world that does everything for you, tells you that you can be everything to everyone else and does everything other than help you to help yourself, the very moment that even the smallest thing goes wrong!

The simple things are the most intelligent. It’s the process of storing up problems – and potentially catastrophic ones for us, where the real £benefit for others of hiding behind complexity and very complex systems lies.

The Supply Chain Break-Down that’s beginning to happen right now

You might have already noticed that different things that you usually or often buy when you visit the local supermarket or shop online are unavailable for some reason.

You might not have worried too much, simply because at the time you usually shop – let’s say late on a Saturday afternoon – you have become used to some of the shelves seeming to be a bit bare. It’s been a busy day, after all, right?

For most people, the experience has been a little different. In fact, no matter when people have been shopping, certain items have increasingly been absent from the shopping list. Perhaps temporarily – with them returning. But then they have been disappearing all over again.

The reason for this is that the supply chain for some foods and some goods is already at breaking point. Like a broken car, the supply chain keeps stopping and needs to be restarted or fixed, before it will work for whoever is running it again.

The problem for governments and big business, is that both the Global and National supply chain break down is not symptomatic or just a direct result of recent global events. And it is not just about the way that they have responded – although this has actually made things much worse.

The problems with the Global Supply Chain are all about the system now crashing.

Whilst we might see it as being possible to go without an expensive bag, a new smartphone or even a brand-new car for a short time whilst someone else solves the problem – as they always do, things are going to feel very different when the shortages start affecting all the basic essentials we need to live each day, and specifically food.

No, you may not believe this is going to happen. We are all, after all, used to and we take for granted that things can continue to go as well as they have been doing. That just like the shortages that happened during the Covid Lockdowns, after a few days, the problems will just go away.

They won’t.

The problems that we are only beginning to experience with shortages aren’t going to go away.

The only similarity to the experience we had during the unnecessary Lockdowns was what happens when certain things like toilet rolls and foods like flour and eggs suddenly disappear from the shelves and other people begin to hoard more of them than they could ever need or use, because they are terrified of going without.

Welcome to a drawn-out Global Supply Chain Crash. Welcome to The Great Reset. This is just part of what all the problems we now face are going to be about.

The Global Supply Chain only works because of lies. It’s breaking now, because the truth is catching up with it

If you read the papers, listen to or watch the news, or follow news on social media, you will be aware of a narrative that is increasingly anchoring supply chain issues and shortages of all sorts of things on the fallout from the Covid Pandemic, the Invasion of Ukraine and even Brexit.

It is because supply chain disruption has been involved with all of these events of what has followed them, that this very specific truth is being rolled out as the excuse for the systemic crash or ‘The Great Reset’ that is now underway.

After all. The greatest lies or marketing plans inevitably hinge on the tiniest of truths.

Sadly, we are all destined to wake up from the unreality of a world where everything has just appeared in our lives after a click or a short trip.

The Global Supply Chain has been built on greed and a convenient lie.

We have just accepted that it is cheaper to make and grow the things that we need on the other side of the world and then transport them to our front doors more cheaply than it would be for them to be made or grown and then sold to us at the end of our street. We believe that it has benefitted us to do so.

We have never thought to ask the question, ‘Do we really need these things if they are coming to us from this far away?’

We have never asked the question, ‘How can it be possible for these things from far away to be cheaper than they would be home-made or home-grown?’

We have never asked the question. ‘What is the real cost to all of us?’

The reasons for the Global Supply Chain breakdown are as complicated as the Global Supply Chain itself

On the face of it, the problems with the Global Supply Chain could appear to be the way the goods are transported. It could be just a temporary shortage of the goods we want supplied.

But Worldwide logistics systems are in freefall. Not only because of the impact of covid or other recent events on the world stage that have left ships queued up to be unloaded outside of ports for weeks. Not just because thousands of shipping containers stacked up and unmoved. It’s because of a very complicated web of issues.

Problems that we are aware of like the spiralling costs of fuel and energy, and shipping companies inflating prices exponentially, just because they can, are only the tip of the iceberg of the massive problems associated with the way we have been living, that we now face.

Amongst many other reasons that exists, you can be certain that less and less people are prepared to work very hard and unsociable jobs, for money that buys them less and less and is leaving them living lives that they can no longer afford. When other people to do less but appear to get more than everything they could ever possibly want.

In terms of the practical, technical or operational aspects of the collapsing global supply chain, there’s very little that can be questioned about the efficiency, planning or the sheer brilliance of how each and every part of a supply chain that can get a plug made in China to your door for a couple of £Pounds, all fit together like millions of pieces of a very large jigsaw.

The Global Supply Chain appeared to be truly brilliant whilst it was working. But the greedy and ambitious people behind all of it have been blind to its biggest flaw.

The absence of real values is the terminal flaw of our greed-driven Global Supply Chain

What is missing from the Global Economy. What has always been missing from this Globalised Economy are the real values that underpin stories of real, genuine human success. Experiences that are built on our care and consideration for others.

Where the Global Economy and the Global Supply Chain is concerned, their only values have been profiting, advancement and greed. The Global Economy has only functioned because we have forgotten and actively been encouraged to forget who we really are.

There has been nothing about the creation of this ‘Global Economy’ in terms of care, consideration or love for our fellow man, that exists in the system we have today.

It has worked for as long as it has done, because it has played to the same self-interest that distracts every one of us for as long as we believe we are benefitting, whist completely blinding those at the top for the care and responsibility that is required from privilege towards everyone.

Like the money that the Global Supply Chain and Economy has always been about, the whole thing is a house of cards, waiting to be blown down. The whole thing is a lie that only works for as long as enough people believe that the benefits to them of it existing and being used in the way that it is continuing to outweigh the disadvantages – which have been for too long not talked about, or deliberately hidden from our view.

The terminal weakness of a greed-based supply chain has always been present, hiding in plain sight

An entire generation of business and industry managers have been trained and qualified on systems that are all about reducing costs.

Their ‘qualifications’ play up to the belief that very elaborate supply chains that take or harvest raw materials to be refined, and then to be made in to small parts, and then to be made into bigger parts, and then those parts to be made into perhaps cars or machines, and then those cars or machines appear at a dealership where we buy them – with all of the transportation, sorting and storage in between – going back and forth around the world – can be maintained ‘just in time’ and with the minimum of anything being stockpiled ‘on a shelf’ at any location along that supply line.

The system that has developed around this idea has not only affected the apparently low price of the products we buy at the end of the chain. It has also relied on pushing every part of every possible chain involved to the limit where minimising the cost of raw materials and production of any kind to the absolute minimum is concerned.

Profit has been the only driver. But even the drive for profit against the steps that are necessary in any supply chain have been further complicated and exploited by the reality that people and interests that are completely unnecessary to each supply chain have become involved.

So-called ‘agents’ step into the middle of supply chains and buy goods and then sell them on at a profit – sometimes even years before they have even been grown or produced, making a profit and adding to the end costs – without adding any value to the end product. This often happens many times.

People or self-serving interests could not keep taking from and exploiting others in the way that this Globalised System has allowed them to do so without the cost to others becoming too high. In financial terms, that point has now been reached.

But the real price hasn’t just been the fact that the poorest and most vulnerable are no longer able to afford to live.

Neither is it the reality that poverty and hunger is an issue that more and more of us are about to face.

The real cost is that all of the ways of living and the localised systems that meant we always had access to the things that we genuinely need to survive each day have been removed or have been replaced, and this monstrosity of a system that works for no god other than profit, has been choking us all without us even realising, as it has aggressively been put in its place.

Today, we have literally reached a point where our farmers are not being paid what it costs them to produce foods at the first stage of a supply chain. They are now choosing to stop producing, because it costs them too much to do so. Right at the very moment when worldwide food shortages are coming into view.

Today, we are perhaps weeks or months away from the point when trouble for us all will really begin.

The Cost-of-Living Crisis, Inflation, a Bank of England that doesn’t know what to do and MPs who are blaming everyone but themselves: We are witnessing the first stages of a systemic collapse

In my book Levelling Level, which was published at the end of March, and in the blogs that I have been writing as a follow up since, I have been talking at length about a systemic collapse, which is now underway.

There is no joy in knowing that everything we are already experiencing and that we are soon going to experience, was never necessary.

This all could have been avoided at many different times, if we had elected politicians to be our public representatives – and they were people who actually cared for others enough, to put their own ‘necks’ on the line.

The so-called leaders that are already in office, along with those who are hoping to replace them, have no solutions to the crisis that is unfolding around us all, right now.

They, and the MPs from their political parties and movements that were here and influencing everything even from before when they were elected, have been responsible for all that is happening – often without even knowing. Because their own greed and ambition has blinded them to the things that have always needed to be done, and how they could use the great power and responsibility that they have – to create something better for all.

Generations of these same politicians, who talk differently and look different – but are fundamentally the same, have all played their part in allowing and facilitating the rise and evolution of a system based on nothing but greed, money and profit from the very start.

Yes, people are rightly shouting out at these politicians and the whole of the establishment that people need to eat and that the growing number of people at the acute end of the cost-of-living crisis, all need that help to come right now.

I’m afraid that the help that could make a real difference from any of the politicians we have got already isn’t going to come – no matter which of them we could elect.

The tools and thinking that these people have used to create this system and the problems that are now manifesting, cannot be the same tools and thinking that will affect a proper and permanent fix that works for us all.

Yes, they might print even more money as a way to say they have done something and stop people from literally rioting. But anything they do will amount to nothing more than a quick fix.

Quick fixes will be all that these same people – whether Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat or the others – can offer any of us now.

We are at their mercy until this horrific system has broken completely and WE have accepted that change and a fairer and more balanced way of living for us all can only come by changing the way that we think.

None of this helps those who are going hungry today, nor those of us who will have nothing in the coming weeks and months that lie ahead.

The light at the end of a very dark tunnel, is the opportunity and the direction that we can take next.

The opportunity to live in a very different way, governing for everyone from the grassroots up and turning away from a self-serving system that can only thrive through the imbalance which is top-down.

We need a Basic Living Standard for ALL.

Deglobalisation is underway and there will be permanent changes to the supply chain

The very challenging thing for everyone to accept as we look at the world we have been used to today, is that everything we have been taking for granted is going to change.

We will discuss other fundamental or building-block areas of change elsewhere. But in terms of the Global Supply Chain collapse that is underway, which has only been aided and abetted by the responses of Politicians to Brexit, The Covid Pandemic and the War in Ukraine, the massive change across the world that’s coming, will be felt by consumers and end users in terms of what goods we will be able to buy and what foods are readily available for us to eat.

The reality of this change will be the reconstruction of supply chains that focus on home and very localised production, processing, distribution and retailing, all of which have been progressively and aggressively dismantled as the shift from localised marketplaces to the so-called Global Economy has taken place.

The change and transition from Global to Local will be permanent. Globalisation is over. Our values and priorities are going to fundamentally change.

Yes. It was always intended by big business, politicians and the elites, that Global networks and systems they developed and sold as being beneficial to us would always be permanent. Unless or until they could find even more profitable ways to make even more money at even lower costs, without any consideration for the lives of everyone else apart from what money anyone else had to spend on the products that these increasingly nebulous systems brought to our doors.

But the Global System is no longer functional. The motivation and aims that created it are being exposed for what they are. This means there will be no going back to a greed-based economy.

A robust local economy is all about people and values, rather than money and wealth. There are benefits to our wellbeing from what lies ahead that money and marketing could never buy.

It’s time to think beyond just surviving The Great Reset to the light beyond and how we can then begin to really thrive.

The motivation behind the Global Economy brought us to this place

The Global Economy and Global Supply Chain have been based on this idea, aim or motivation:

That those who have the power and influence to do so, should take each and every step possible to maximise profit and the accumulation of wealth for all those who are intimately involved. And that the accumulation of wealth and power should be used to motivate those who work within and lead in support of the system.

Yet the calculations used in this equation were only ever based on the profit and the accumulation of wealth for the few who really benefited being involved.

There was never any factoring in for the loss of jobs, the loss of skills, the loss of communities or indeed any of the human costs that running a system based solely on greed and money have inevitably imposed.

The people responsible for all of this have quite literally had to create a monetary system that finds more and more innovative ways of funnelling money that doesn’t exist to the people who can’t earn enough – all through lending and often unpayable debt, so that the broken system they have built keeps running, and the flaws in the whole thing would not become exposed.

Be under no illusion. This is not a conspiracy. It’s what happens when people without values or good moral fibre find themselves in possession of a lot of money, power and influence, and then do all that they can without care, to increase and keep increasing all that they have.

This is the Story [metaphor] of The Ring [money/power] and the influence it has on Gollum [Politicians/Big Business/The Elites] in its most real-world and hideous form. And all those corrupted by this system and what they believe it gives them, are completely blind to the true cost of their actions to us all.

The Transition from Global to Local Food Production: What it really means for us

The complexity and size of the Global Economy has provided access to foods and goods that we do not need, along with access to some foods and goods that we do need, that could be home produced, but are being produced and shipped to us more cheaply from what might be continents away.

The collapse of the Global Supply Chain is already proving to be a massive shock and it can only get worse.

The transition that will be required so that we can ALL eat and access the basic essentials that we ALL need will require that as a Country we become as self-sufficient as it is possible for us to be.

Self-sufficiency of this Country will mean that our focus of growing and production will have to focus on the basic foods and goods that we need. Not the production of anything that some of us want.

This process of inevitable change will mean that many of the ‘fancy’, highly processed foods that we are used to eating and being readily available for us to buy, won’t even be available on a shelf or online. They simply will not be available to buy – no matter how much money someone might still have to spend.

Being ‘fine mouthed’ or enjoying the ‘finer’ things, will no longer be there as a real choice.

We will only have access to basic foods. Foods that are actually a lot healthier for us. Foods that will have very little processing and that we will prepare ourselves.

We will relearn to thrive on meat and two veg, and we will do this – not because we are being told to, but because we will be happy just to have it.

We will not miss having a so-called ‘choice’ that only serves to hurt us, whilst enriching others.

We surrendered our power to the money-driven world. Its collapse will allow us to remember who we are

Whilst there is a theme of warning or raising a red flag about the process of change that we are now within, Levelling Level is not here as some kind of apocalypse guide.

Although there are likely to be periods of time in the coming months and possibly years too, that feel like everything is about to end, that will only be because of how momentous the transition or shift we are going to experience will be.

After all, we are now in the early stages of a shift that will take us from a system where we have been continually programmed to believe that everything around us is normal, to one that many of us today believe not only to be an impossible way to live, but completely incompatible or at odds with where everyone believes that we currently are.

The material-focused, money-is-the-benchmark of everything world has been a very intoxicating experience for just about everyone.

One of its most compelling aspects is the way that more and more complication of everything convinces us that we are now beyond living more simplistic lives.

But the cost has been high. That complication has distracted us. We have given away our power to everything outside of us and have forgotten who and what we really are.

No amount of power, material wealth or money can buy, beat or outrun the universal laws of balance forever: Top-down hierarchy has reached the end of the line

There is a natural order of things. A system of universal laws that revolve around balance. Laws that defy the influence, will of control of even those who believe themselves to be powerful.

When those universal laws have been pushed too far, it is inevitable that they will return to where they should be. They will do so, without anything or anyone being able to stand in their way.

The problem for every one of us, no matter what part we have played in taking us to where we are, is that the pendulum of balance has been lifted from happy rest and balance to a world led by what we want rather than only by what we need.

That pendulum has now been released. It will pick up frightful momentum and it will cross back and go beyond that point of happiness and balance to where we go without and cannot meet our needs.

Only then will that pendulum return to rest and where it should always have been – and would have been, had we continually had respectful and caring leadership in control, not possessed by everything they want.

Even the path of that pendulum follows a process of observing that universal law.

It is through the hardship and the experience of what real want really is, that we will learn or rather relearn who we are. We will begin to remember the purpose, meaning and use of real values. And only then, will we collectively be ready to embrace the new future that is built around balance and fairness for all. A world that reflects who we really are.

Profiteering is alive and well and thriving today, fuelled by a culture where Politicians have proven that writing cheques is the only thing they know how to do

There is a cost-of-living crisis underway, right now, that is going to get exponentially worse. So much worse, it’s going to contribute to a complete systemic collapse.

However, the people least aware of what is happening and what this means for everything that lies ahead of them, aren’t necessarily the same people who you might immediately think.

So good have big business and corporate interests had it over the past two and a half years, whilst our stupid and inept politicians have tried to solve every single problem by writing cheques, that they have now fallen into a trap of their own making. They have decided to keep on inflating prices of the goods and services they sell – being as certain as they are, that government will have to step in and sure-up the price and the ability of everyone to keep on paying the bills.

Wholesale energy prices have come down, as have the prices of wholesale petrol and diesel in recent days. All this comes amongst other goods and services that each and every one of us are using every day, shooting up in retail price. Or being reduced in size or value – which in real terms amounts to exactly the same thing – as people have to buy even more of everything, just to stand still.

Yes, the very stupid people we have running the Country are responsible for creating the myth that no matter what happens, everyone will still continue to get paid. But that isn’t a green light for businesses to keep charging more and keep charging whatever they like.

Just because you can, doesn’t make it right.

Greed-driven, unethical business have been at the creative centre of the cost-of-living crisis, right from the very start.

Yes, our poor excuses for public representation have allowed industries to plunder resources and exploit us all and everything with it for profit. But that doesn’t make these private interests right.

The question of legality does not put any of these actions above that of morality and the duty of care that we all have to everyone else.

Life for all exists so that ALL of us can live. Not so that a profit can be made by the few.

No, we are not heading back to the stone age – even though it has become certain that some of us are going to feel that way during the months and possibly years that lie ahead.

But the technology we have has been used for purposes that only serve the interests of greed, profit and those who are ‘at the top’.

Technology doesn’t need to be used on a massive scale to make it work. Technology doesn’t have to replace people or human input – just because it can.

In fact, the technology that we have isn’t being used in the best way possible, at all.

Up until now, technology has all been purposed on the basis of maximising profit and then repeating the process of obtaining that profit, over and over again.

The technology we have has been pursued, funded and purposed without regard for the practical reality of life, that:

Life for all exists so that ALL of us can live. Not so that a profit can be made by the few.

Local systems and micro economies that use advances in technology in the most practical, localised and intelligent way, keeping people at the centre of everything, are the only way that a genuinely healthy society can advance.

Once you believe there is a need for change, you will need to change everything else that you believe

One of the hardest realities to get our heads around is that much of the way we behave with others and interact with the outside world is based on nothing more than belief.

Furthermore, we too often then fail to recognise that the beliefs that we have – which govern our behaviour for the future, are actually based on experiences that we have had in the past.

The past is quite literally governing how we will interact with our future.

We are allowing rules that we either created for ourselves, or that society created for us, to dictate what happens in circumstances and situations where those rules are no longer fit for purpose, or don’t serve any of our interests very well at all.

Yes, it can be quite a strange moment when we realise that we are living in the past. But what many of us don’t understand beyond this, is that our acceptance of this part of our reality – without question, means that we also don’t question change or the behaviour of others, when that change or behaviour can be quickly labelled with ‘That’s the way things are supposed to be’. ‘That’s just how it is’, or ‘That’s just the way that things have always been done’.

To be quite fair, it will feel to many of us that the system we have or the governance structure around us has been a good one.

It has allowed the world around us to keeping turning. It has kept everything outside of our own bubbles working, so that everything we want is ready and waiting wherever it should be. It has made us believe that life is easy and can only get easier, without us even questioning what the real cost of this automatic surrender of our trust would be.

But we don’t really think about what’s going on around us. Because this is the way that things have been done for so long.

We trust that the people we elect are in office to represent us.

We trust that big business always put the needs and interests of their customers first.

We trust that the public sector works and operates to make life for the public better.

We trust that the establishment together, will always do right for all of us.

Yet as an increasing number of us are now realising, the time when any of these beliefs were created, was a long way back in the past.

We are beginning to understand and accept that placing our trust in the establishment was at best a mistake. At worst, it is being proven completely wrong.

The ‘system’ no longer works for the people. But because of our collective belief and deference to the way we believe things should work – even when they clearly aren’t, we fail to realise that the power everyone within the establishment has isn’t theirs because of the money, status, position that they ‘have’ or because they are special in some way.

It is because we have given them that power. And we have forgotten that power is ours, and we have every right to take it back.

Getting your head around the reality of where power really lies is hard enough. What becomes even more challenging is taking the next step to understand and to accept that all the tools that the establishment have been using to make life so easy for us, only work because we believe everything that we are being verbally or experientially told.

We are collectively blind to the fact that any or every part of the system would stop working immediately the very moment that we stopped believing what we believe about it. And that at the very moment we did so, we would be withdrawing from the establishment, what is our assumed consent.

There is a very good reason to make the effort to try and making sense of how the governance or ruling frameworks of the world that we know around us really work.

That reason is the system as we know it has not been run or managed in our best interests for a very long time.

The cumulative effect of decision after decision being made to benefit the specific interests of those within the establishment has been catalysed by the government response to recent events and the whole system is now in the process of a massive collapse.

The challenge presented to us all by what is happening around us right now, is that you quite literally have to see it, to believe it.

And if you still believe that the ‘system’ you have spent your life believing in will always work for you, even when it becomes very clear that it doesn’t, it hasn’t and it won’t, then you will not be able to see the damage that it is and has been doing when the time comes for us all to do something. The people and people just like them who we have all believed to be ‘in charge’, will simply be able to continue to count on your vote.

If you have read this far and have concluded that I am talking bollocks, I’d like to thank you for doing so and sincerely wish you all the best.

However, if you can see any of the truth in what I am saying, or even suspect that at least some of it could be right, please do keep reading as we are all on a journey that can no longer be avoided.

What happens next, is all about us realising that the power to do everything that needs to be done is in the hands of each and every one of us.

The power for creating a much better future isn’t based on the past and won’t simply appear in the future. It’s all about what we think, decide and do right here in the moment or in the ‘now’.

When it’s crunch time, you can’t eat or there’s rioting outside the door, whose story will you believe: Yours or Theirs?

As I’m writing this, it’s the beginning of the last week in May 2022, and the stories talking about things like inflation and the cost-of-living crisis are picking up pace.

With the establishment invested in maintaining a narrative that will continue to capture yours and everyone else’s belief, we are facing a situation where our own senses will tell us more and more that everything around us is being consumed by some kind of fire, whilst all the people our experience and conditioning has told us to trust are continuing to shout a message akin to ‘Don’t panic – all is calm!’

Because the system is built on myths and beliefs, rather than basic practicalities, it regrettably stands to reason that we will not accept the practical message of a systemic collapse until such time as we have experienced something which shatters the myths that we still believe.

This is why talk of people needing help from food banks, or senior police officers being unable to pay their bills in the news isn’t registering with us, or if it is, it is only to look down on them with the thought that it must be their own fault.

Difficult truth to face as it may be, the systemic collapse is underway. It is showing up as problems faced by somebody somewhere else today, but will soon touch everyone’s life in some way, and it will come knocking on your door too.

It could be just the spiralling costs. It could be that you can no longer afford to eat. It could be that the goods you usually buy are no longer available. It could be that you cannot buy any food to eat. It could be that the civil disorder, rioting and violence outside your door proves to be the final straw that tells you that something in the world and system we have put our trust in, has gone very wrong indeed.

The interesting thing is that the Establishment has known for a very long time that their behaviour and the things that they have been doing have been unsustainable, and that sooner or later, the current system would reach a breaking point.

That’s why organisations like the World Economic Forum (WEF) have been busy for years creating the narrative for a new world. One that would not only allow the existing establishment to control the transition and period of change. It would also allow them to control whatever system supersedes the broken and unsustainable version they are already responsible for that they knew would have to be replaced.

Interventions from the WEF and other bodies such as The World Health Organisation (WHO) have only become so prevalent now, as the events that we all know as Brexit, the Covid Pandemic, the War in Ukraine and above all the responses of governments to them all, have catalysed or supercharged the disintegration of the existing system and the establishment is now in firefighting mode, and quite literally blagging its way as we descend into crisis, hoping that keeping enough of us believing they are credible and have our best interests at heart, will allow them to come out the other side of ‘The Great Reset’ and still be in control.

If no matter what happens that hurts you or makes life difficult for you in the coming weeks, months and years, you continue to believe everything that the establishment tells you, there is every chance that either they or people who will be just like them, will continue to control your life once we are through the Great Reset and have come out the other side.

Your life and everything about it will depend on the will and wants and thoughts of others. You will physically appear to still be free, but you will be held hostage or kept prisoner by your own mind under the control of other people and all you and everyone else will fall over yourselves to do will be to smile at, agree with and show your support for whatever rules are imposed upon you from the world outside.

No, it won’t feel voluntary for you. But that won’t matter, because everyone else will think that it is. It will appear that everyone is supporting this all to happen voluntarily, because of the collective belief in the system. Because of continuing consent.

By waiting for someone else to fix all the problems when everything has broken, you will be allowing someone else to choose and dictate what systems and ways of doing things – the governance of our system – will be created and implemented instead of the broken one that must now be replaced.

But you have a choice. You can contribute to, inform and be an active part of creating, developing and implementing the governance and system of a world that is balanced, fair and respects who each and every one of us are. Or you can accept all that happens to you, wait for someone else to solve your problems for you, and then sit back and watch the future unfold and keep asking yourself quietly why is it that after all that has happened, the deck is still stacked in the establishments favour, and everything seems to work for us, but only really benefits them.

A new, fair and balanced system, can only be built from the Grassroots-Up

There is no part of the system we have today or the governance framework that allows it to function and dictate every part of our life, which has been left untouched by somebody somewhere changing it to further or to protect their own interests in some way.

Whether it has been local public service provision, local interpretation of planning law, the way non-government organisations are run, the rules that govern imports, exports and supply chains, or how public policy is designed by civil servants in Westminster, EVERYTHING at EVERY LEVEL has been built to serve the mechanics of a system that is Top-Down.

If you are anywhere in this hierarchy or pyramid at a level which is below the top, it has only worked for you by giving you things you have been led to believe you need, but which you actually want that are outside of yourself.

The price will have been that to some degree or another, you will have forgotten something or perhaps everything about real life, real values and the fundamental building blocks of who you really are.

How we interact with others and with everything in the world outside of us, is a mirror image of the person inside us at that very moment. Its who we believe we really are at that time.

If you pause and take that in, you may begin to see the part that everyone has played in allowing the world to become the place that it is today.

However, rather than dwelling on the things you’ve said to others, or the things you have or haven’t done, the way to put that behind you and play a role in shaping a world that is fair, balanced and works in the best interests of everyone, is to put the value back into everything in your life, and make everything that feeds into your life experience have meaning. This is not only your first building block of a new life for you, but also the very first step towards the creation of the new world around us, beginning by changing the way we think about everything around us. It’s how the old world will be replaced.

YOU ARE THE GRASSROOTS – no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you have or haven’t already done.

Before anything else, it is you, the Grassroots that must come together as neighbourhoods and then as communities. We can then work together to rediscover, reinvent and reinterpret localised systems that work for and on behalf of everybody. Always prioritizing people’s needs before anything else, and not what money or profit can be accumulated, or what glory, status, power or influence can be attained.

Top-Down is over. It’s all about Grassroots-Up. And it’s the people who are the GRASSROOTS who must always come first.

Survive & Thrive: Living through the collapse of everything and ‘The Great Reset’ whilst learning to live a very different life as you go

I’ve tried to keep From Here to There Through Now as far away from the idea of ‘prepping’ or suggesting that we all become ‘preppers’ as possible.

However, the reality we face is that at some level or another, we will soon face a period of difficulty, where everything we are used to or that we take for granted will no longer continue.

The stoppage, shortages or delays may be temporary. They may be permanent. What we can be sure of is that on the other side of all of this, nothing will ever be the same.

The journey there will be easier for some than it will be for others. Not because of what we would consider to be the advantages that some have in life as things currently are, but because of the genuine disparity between where everything is and how it works in the system as it is now, and how things will need to change or be changed and the process and time that it will take to get them from being broken, to where they may be different, but in practical terms we will all recognise them as being fixed.

In this chapter, I will cover the changes and experiences that it has now become reasonable to expect. I will touch on some of the reasons for it happening. I will also make a series of suggestions or offer proactive solutions regarding what you can to now, to prepare, in a way that is realistic and based on the premise that the world as we know it is going to change, but life itself is not actually going to end.

Shortages of Food & Goods

In the coming weeks, months and years too, we are going to experience shortages of everything that we are used to being able to buy.

The shortages will not only affect the things that come from outside of this Country. And many of us will be surprised by just how many of these there really are.

The shortages will also affect the things that are still made and produced in this Country – such as very basic foods that are produced and grown even very close to our homes.

The reason for these shortages is that the system that we have become used to and that we take for granted, is now beginning to break.

Once we have accepted that the collapse of the system is not a problem that will be fixed – which will take us all a period of time, there will be a further period of time where necessary changes have to be made to everything and a new system of supply is developed that can be relied upon and that is balanced, fair and works in the best interests of everyone.

Some of the shortages will be temporary.

In some cases, the shortages will be perhaps as short as just a few days.

But in terms of many of the things that we believe we need, but actually want, the shortages will be permanent.

Production resources that we have available here will be re-tasked to growing and producing the foods and the things that we all actually need, as opposed to the things that some of us think we need but only want.

Think of the first weeks of Lockdown, when ‘panic buying’ left people unable to bake things or wipe their bum.

Roll that idea out across everything you really need to eat, drink and take care of yourself each day, and that is a reflection of the experience we will all have, that is to come.

Rationing

If you have been paying attention to the news, you will know that rationing has already been discussed with some things like Petrol and Diesel Fuel.

But as shortages of everything that everyone needs to live and survive each day begin to really bite, the reality that we face is that rationing is likely to become a legal requirement with allowances for certain foods and goods that are available being imposed.

We are not talking about a kind of rationing that is just the choice of a supermarket that knows how much of anything it has and can put on the shelves for its normal customer base, every day of the week.

That will be a sign that things are still pretty good.

We are talking about rationing of all the basic goods and foods that are necessary for each and every one of us to survive.

If you would like a good example of the kind of rationing that I am referring to, you need look no further than the period around the Second World War. When everyone had a ration book and was allocated a certain amount of each kind of food and the essential items that everyone needed to live.

Rationing ensured that of the very limited supply of foods and goods that we had available from being grown or produced in the Country, or that we could get from overseas using ships that were regularly being sunk by German U-Boats, was being divided up fairly.

Wartime Rationing existed so that the shortages that we did have were being shared as a burden by everyone. But that above all, everyone had just about enough to live.

We may not have a world war going on that means Europe is a closed door to us today. But in terms of a Global Supply Chain collapse that is now underway, the result is likely to be experienced in very much the same way.

When we experience shortages, hoarding food and goods will help none of us

We all saw the Lockdown videos of very silly, selfish people stacking up toilet rolls to block their toilet windows. Or making an assault course for their jack Russell dogs or their cats.

But we also saw the pictures of very elderly, frail and vulnerable people. Stooped, looking despairingly at empty shelves and wondering what the hell they were going to do.

When shortages bite us in the way that we can expect they will do, many of the goods and foods that disappear from the shelves, will not quickly find their way back.

In fact, many of the foods and goods we take for granted today, will in time, be replaced by alternatives that are foods and goods that we actually need.

From the moment that things we need become short, people will react irrationally.

It is vital that those of us who can do so, remain calm when shortages really get going. That we keep see the bigger picture of what is happening in view at all times. That we remain mindful of the forces that are at work.

A big part of the necessary transition that we face, is the process of changing the way we think about life. The change will be about everyone caring for and considering ALL others, rather than facing every interaction and every situation and thinking about it in terms of how its outcome will affect us, alone.

Taking only what we need – for as long as we still have the choice – will mean that others return that favour or that they show the same kind of care – when we are all short, and we no longer have the choice of what we can eat, or what we have to help us survive.

Once rationing of the goods that are still available through existing supply chains gets underway, it is reasonable to expect that like social distancing measures, the supermarkets that remain open will quickly put rationing management systems in place.

Until time slots to shop, pick up or take delivery are in place, we will all help ourselves greatly by thinking about the times that we go to a shop, or what we can reasonably expect when we get there.

For instance, if everyone goes to the shops at the most obvious time, we will all end up queueing, and beginning to worry about how many others are waiting in the queues around us – in front and behind us in the lines.

With proper rationing in place, we will only be able to buy or collect the supplies that we have been allocated anyway. So why not box clever. Manage your visit so you can reduce the amount of stress?

A fair and balanced world is the Aim. But we are on the first steps of very challenging journey, and it is essential that we Survive AND Thrive so that we can get there!

A better world and experience for us all is not only an aim. It is about the process or journey from where we are today, travelling through the turbulence of transition and change, so that we not only survive and thrive, but then recognise and fully utilise the keystone of the foundations that we will all build a fair and balanced world for everyone upon.

Looking after ourselves, so that we remember that every element of life is not just something that can be given a price tag and bought, will be a very big part of what our experiences in the near future will be about.

There will be shortages that mean there isn’t new to replace old.

There will be shortages that mean finding different ways to do the same things.

There will be shortages that mean we can never do the same things that we have been doing ever again.

When it boils down to it, the world as we know it and as we have experienced it is going to stop.

The good news – that many of our politicians, elites and those at the top don’t want any of us to remember, is that humans are intrinsically resilient and resourceful. As soon as real adversity knocks at the door, it reminds us of who we really are.

The very small amount of tolerance we have left for the people who are running this shit show today, will evaporate very quickly, once their continuing stupidity really has taken everything we are being led to experience, too far.

Then we will reimagine who we are, what we can do, how we will do it and who we will do it with.

Please get used to terms like community, local, reuse recycle repair, make do and mend, grow your own, rationing, sharing, cooperatives, swapping, bartering – and anything else that could frame living for at least a time where money isn’t available as a medium of exchange, and life is focused the value of what we need and what we can offer, rather than being all about what we can or cannot afford to buy.

Self-sufficiency and rejection of the current wealth-based rules structure

The thought or rather the question of how anyone can survive without money is not a pleasant one.

Indeed, please spare a thought for the many who are already in that place, not only in the UK, but right across the world.

People, like you or I, who are only different to us, because they don’t have enough money to even afford the basic essentials of life.

These are human beings, just like us. People who don’t have the option of becoming self-sufficient, simply because they are relatively few in number.

We frown on them or look down on them because the normal way of doing things is based on money being the benchmark of life.

Once enough of us don’t have enough, the shibboleths and miscreated rules of this current societal structure will no longer hold their meaning or purpose. We will no longer shame others, be shamed, feel shame or be restricted from simply doing the things that we need to in order to survive and live.

Make do and Mend

Make do and Mend is not a new catchy term that I have dreamed up to make a point. I am unashamedly borrowing this one from the most recent period of human hardship that I can reference around the Second World War, when Rationing and shortages of just about everything meant that people applying principles to their daily lives then, that in today’s world might seem to be lightyears ahead!

Yes, the supply of everything we either buy or have supplied to us could stop for at least a short time. But the shortages of everything will almost certainly fluctuate, with some things being available when others are not. Let’s just say that it is going to be a very interesting time!

What this means in reality, is that when anything we wear or use breaks, it’s quite likely that it will not be something that can easily be replaced.

The choice that we will have, will be as simple as this: Throw it away and go without, or repair it and continue to have it to use.

Regrettably, one of the massive overhangs from the world we are now leaving, will be the comparative poor quality of the things that we use daily, that because of planned obsolescence, were deliberately designed not to last.

Create your own self-sufficiency toolkit – NOW!

When we were kids, all had bikes, and were allowed to go off for rides, it wasn’t uncommon for us to have a puncture repair kit handy – even if we didn’t have any idea how to use it if we had a punctured tyre and would usually rely on a parent or another adult fixing it for us if we did.

Good times. Especially when there was always an answer to the problem, and everything could always be fixed.

As we navigate our way through the challenges that lie ahead, it won’t just be punctures on a bicycle that we need to think about being prepared for.

In fact, it would be a good idea for us to have the most practical contingency plan in place possible, to take care of anything that we have a genuine need to use regularly – if it’s something that can be easily fixed, or something that we need to use to feed, heat or support ourselves when we are unable to access our ‘normal’ supplies.

Some of the following items are things that we will need. Some we will use regularly. Some we will never need – but it will be better that we have and don’t use them, than finding ourselves without them if we do!

There will be others – and if you start thinking about what you would need if there were no power, water or heating, you’ll begin to get an idea of the things you might need for you to be able to do all the things that you need to do:

  • Sewing kit (including some needles, different coloured thread)
  • First Aid Kit (including plenty of plasters, some antiseptic cream etc)
  • Paracetamol/Aspirin or other basic pain relief tablets that you and those with you would normally use
  • Large air-tight resealable bags
  • A ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of multi-tool gadget that you have tested for robustness
  • Water Purification Kit – the kind you would take for a long camping trip
  • Firelighters
  • Matches
  • A small torch with spare batteries
  • Candles and/or Tea Lights
  • A wind-up / solar radio and phone-charger
  • Cable Ties (assorted sizes)
  • A hatchet or small handled axe
  • A small pan for boiling water that can be heated on a naked flame
  • A small frying pan / griddle pan that can be heated on a naked flame
  • A small sharp cooking knife
  • A few packs of baby wipes / wet wipes
  • Some basic dried and canned foods including pasta, rice, fish and the types of things that you can turn into a meal without need of anything else – clearly depending on what your dietary needs (NOT WANTS!) and those of the people with you normally are
  • A can opener (if there isn’t one on your tool gadget)
  • Batteries

There will probably be others too. But again, the emphasis is all about what we will need and not about what we want. The two are very different things and this is all about being happy with what we have already got!

Please remember that this is just a guide. Visualise a situation where nothing is available, and you will soon know what you will really need.

You will find all of these things online, and most of them will be available in supermarkets, DIY and home stores too. Please remember that as distribution systems increasingly fail – as they are going to, even goods that are available online, won’t be shipped or even delivered to local stores so that you can buy or collect them there.

The time to prepare for all eventualities is NOW. NOT when there are shortages of everything and being prepared makes real-time sense!

Reuse, Recycle, Repair

Whilst I have already touched on the revival of Make do and Mend, it cannot be understated just how much we can all help ourselves as this period of crisis deepens, by stepping away from the reliance we have, that everything we need, will come to us ‘new’.

It won’t. Easy everything is at its end.

Yes, the supply of new goods will appear to continue for a time, with that supply coughing and spluttering in terms of those things that remain available. But many other items – particularly those which are items we want, rather than what we need, or that come to us from great distances across the world – will simply disappear from our lives for good.

One way or another – affecting those most who find affordability the main issue first, followed by all those who believe they have plenty of money now and find that it quickly becomes less and less until what they ‘have’ has no value at all – ‘new’ simply isn’t going to be the ‘go to’ option anymore.

It’s all going to be about what we can reuse, how we can reuse it. What we can repair and how we can repair it. What we can recycle and how we can reuse goods that cannot be used again for their original purpose, and then repurpose them in the best way possible – to benefit ourselves and to benefit us ALL.

Think smart. Think about the skills that you really have already or those that you could easily learn. Think about a very practical world where everything revolves around life, living and the community, where people and not money are the centre of everything, rather than what we only appear to have going on around us right now.

If you have an interest or talent in arts and crafts, or even feel quite proficient at DIY, the chances are that you can put that interest or ability to good work. First to help yourself, but also to help others around your neighbourhood and community too.

The End of Throw-Away Culture

The throw away culture has been sold to us as making life our lives easier. Easier on our time and easier on what we can afford.

We have been paying little more than lip service to recycling for far too long.

The emphasis has been on what has been politically expedient for the political classes. That has been for us only to concentrate only on rubbish and changes that are perceived as being easy for everyone to do, of having no real effect, and of having no cost in terms of money or on what we perceive to be our quality of life.  

Before they were emboldened by our willing response to their unnecessary Covid Measures, this was the only way that spinless politicians could be sure that anu kind of open green policy would not cost them votes.

But the throw away culture has come at a very high price. It has been built on the unnecessary use of resources that cannot be replaced. It has damaged the environment through the unnecessary processes of production, transport and the level of waste disposal necessary to cover the amount of discarded goods that were deliberately designed so that they would quickly have to be replaced.

We have unlearned the value of making the very best of everything that we already have or could even share or borrow. Meanwhile, we have been drip fed from every direction that the idea that we can have absolutely everything that we want – just as long as we can afford the £price.

Sucked in – as we have been – by the reality that we now qualify everyone and everything by what it looks like to us and to others, and what it tells everyone else about who we are or what we can afford, we have willingly taken every step possible to walk away from who we really are and leave the values that really help us all far behind.

The world around us reflects who we are inside. We have all played a part in what is happening. So, for us to accept that change and a different way of doing things in the world outside of us is now necessary, we must all embrace what that change really means for us within our minds.

A helpful lesson from our Farmers on Preparing, Producing & Making Provision

If you really want to understand how the basics of providing for life work, look no further than the cycles of activity that take place on one of those farms that too many of us overlook for providing our milk:

  • The grass that grows in the early spring is cut in mid-late spring and early summer. The earlier cuts are turned into silage (fermented grass which in a process not unlike brewing, means that nutrients for the cows are increased). The later ones into hay (dried grass which you often see as very green looking bales).
  • Silage and Hay are stored over the summer and early autumn, whilst the cows go out and enjoy all of their fields, whilst grass continues to grow.
  • When the autumn and winter comes and the grass has stopped growing and the ground has become too muddy for the cows and their hooves, they move inside and under shelter, where they are fed with either their Hay or Silage, and sleep on beds made from the straw of cereal crops, so that they are all dry and warm.
  • The Farmer will have planned and made enough Silage and Hay the previous spring and summer, to make sure that the cows have more than enough to eat for the whole time that they have to stay inside.
  • Throughout this period, the herd of cows will be providing milk perhaps twice or even three times a day – that’s during spring, summer, autumn and winter, so that milk, cheese, yoghurt and anything else that is made with dairy products or ingredients of some kind can come and will continue to come your way.
  • The whole process is a cycle that goes round and round. It never stops or finishes, if the cows and we want to continue to eat.

The Farmers prepare, produce and make provision. That way, their cows are always fed, can always produce their milk, so that we can all be fed and not go hungry too.

Why we need to be able to Prepare, Produce & Make Provision

Because of the way that the system around us has been developed to keep increasing and funnelling profits at the few, more and more of the lessons for life and good living – which are more often than not metaphorical – are being hidden from view.

Not only that. Very regrettably, because this whole system only works or benefits financial interests by becoming increasingly big, it means that the supply chains that get food to us – like the example of the production of the dairy products from cows – get more and more spread out over our Country, or even across borders too.

Supply chains involve more and more processing that involves more and more people and interests that we do not experience or see. And all the time this form of centralisation has been happening, the very stable, short supply chains that would mean all of the food that is grown or produced for us locally and where we can be in touch with the whole process, has all but been completely wiped out.

We are now in danger because we have become over reliant on a system that is already beginning to crash. And it’s a system that has been rebuilt so that it supports the way that big business works.

Farmers are not ready for the change. So, we must be ready until they are

The current system is not set up to get all the foods we actually need grown and prepared for us locally. So, when the acute stages of The Great Reset happen and the big profit-focused supply chains have irreparably broken down, the reality is that there will be a period of time when this ‘old system’ stops providing for us, and when the new (or rather renewed) local supply chain system has been put in place.

Yes, there are some really good examples of Farmers here in the UK and elsewhere too, who are offering us all their dairy products, meats, produce and even beer that has come from crops and animals grown and prepared on the farm.

If you’ve tried what they produce, you will already know that its fantastically good. But right now, it’s also very expensive – because of how the big corporate interests have such a ridiculous level of control.

If our politicians were awake enough and forward thinking enough to recognise what lies ahead – even though they bear much of the responsibility for it happening themselves, they would be doing everything they could to support our Farmers – who by their very nature are great innovators – to turn production on its head and grow and produce everything locally, either on their own, or as part of small and localised cooperatives that make practical sense with how different animals are taken care of and how different produce and crops are grown.

Politicians will not do that today, because like the big interests that profit from it, they have too much invested in everything continuing as it appears to be at the moment, and for it continuing to be run and to make money or to continue to benefit them in the same way.

We will have no option but to work with and support our local farmers to reequip and redesign their operations and business models when the time comes that we need them. This may even mean some of us literally getting out there and helping on the land. Otherwise, the future beyond The Great Reset will be one where our lives revolve around little more than the question of what we will next have to eat.

The hard message to take in and consider here, is that without the changes in policy and the contingency planning that our out-of-touch politicians should today be taking care of, there is a period of time – that will hopefully be short – when in respect of at least some foods, but potentially a lot more and possibly everything that we need, we may have to go without.

We cannot rely on our politicians to do the right thing. We cannot rely on Politicians to keep everyone fed. We cannot rely on Politicians to keep the things that are vital to our life working, when things will no longer work, and the only solution Politicians have is to ask how much it will cost.

We have to Prepare, Produce and make Provision.

It’s time to start growing your own food.

Grow Your Own Food – AND GET STARTED NOW!

Of all the things you can do to help and provide for yourself and those around you during The Great Reset and then beyond it too, the most helpful will be growing your own food.

Even during the acute stages of the Great Reset, the chances that there are absolutely no basic foods available for any prolonged period of time should be thankfully very small.

But that doesn’t mean the choice of what could be available over weeks or possibly months, isn’t very limited. Or, of that which is available, specific foods are not available either as regularly or in the quantities that we have become used to, or that we would like them to be.

As you read this today, many and indeed most of the ‘fancy’ or rather the highly processed foods that you are probably telling yourself that you need will still be available. Either on supermarket shelves, in chillers or in a frozen form.

But that availability is already changing.

Items you normally buy each week might already be missing one week and then back the next.

The number of items you are experiencing this temporary shortage of is probably already increasing.

The next thing that could happen is you could go online or walk into your local supermarket and find that the deliveries of all the things that you consider to be important hasn’t come in for your next shop. Then it doesn’t appear for weeks.

This could happen at any time. And it will.

AND IT IS NOT JUST A MATTER OF WHAT YOU CAN OR WILL BE ABLE TO AFFORD.

Grow Your Own: Take control now. Whilst you can. Whilst resources are available.

Anything that can happen probably will in some way. So once the idea of something happening has entered your awareness, it’s probably a good idea to make provision for its eventuality. So that you at least have a contingency plan in place.

However, there is a clear caveat to this. That is that at the same time, you DON’T let the possibility of something happening take over your life. Especially not in the way that you have probably imagined it could happen!

We don’t know what every part of The Great Reset will look or feel like for any of us. But what we do know is that food supply is now at a very high level of risk.

The time to offset the risk of food scarcity and food shortages for us and the people we care about is right now. NOT when the food supply has already stopped.

Your immediate reaction might be that you don’t have any idea how to grow food. It could well be that you don’t have the space. It’s very likely to be ‘I don’t have a garden!’.

None of these issues are likely to stop you from ‘growing your own’, if you really want to take the proactive steps that are available for you to make provision and start preparing for shortages right now.

FOOD AVAILABILITY WILL NOT BE ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD!

Basic Foods that YOU CAN GROW

You may be surprised to learn that the number and range of different foods that you can grow at home is surprisingly large.

However, whilst there be the temptation to run off and start growing mangos or something that tastes sugary and nice once its picked, a lot of the options that are available won’t be practical either because of the time they take to grown, lack of space or the restrictions placed on you by the environment that is available to you.

The next and possibly the most challenging part of this big step towards what might feel like a very new way of living will once again to focus only on what you need and not what you want.

The aim above anything else is nutrition, so that even if you cannot reach the intake of the daily number of calories that would be recommended specifically for you, what you do have available to eat will always be good for you.

These are the kinds of vegetables that you can grow from not already doing anything – depending on what resources you have available or are able to secure:

  • Potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Lettuce
  • Cauliflower
  • Cucumber
  • Marrow
  • Turnips
  • Swedes
  • Parsnips
  • Tomatoes
  • Sweetcorn
  • Onions

The chances are that there are more options and different varieties of the options that are available to you, that will become clearer to you as you determine what your options really are, and what will work best for you in your situation.

My suggestion would be that you identify which growing systems are available to you, and that you then research which foods it will be easiest to grow in the shortest times possible.

You may also want to consider things like what resources you will need to keep providing on an ongoing basis, so that once you have harvested each crop, you will have all that you will require so that you can grow and harvest the next.

Like everything in life, growing food is a learning curve. Every time you go through the cycle you know more than you did before, and when growing food makes a real difference, it will help you to have already learned the lessons about what kind of growing works best for you and to have knowledge of all that is involved.

The best way to be able to Prepare, Produce and make Provision is to start growing your own right now!

Use the wisdom of others

It has never been easier to get help and advice on how to grow things. Gardeners and the people who already grow their own vegetable and fruits for themselves or on a small commercial scale are often very happy to share their experience and provide tips that will prove very helpful when it comes to growing your own.

There are plenty of blogs, websites and low-cost downloadable books and pamphlets available and you will find these literally by starting with a search of ‘grow your own’.

If you are a fellow blogger and author writing about growing your own food, nutrition from basic foods, growing methods or even if you are selling good, easy to set up and use equipment without looking to cash in, NOT for the apocalypse – but as a long-term thing, I would love to hear from you and share some links. We really will help ourselves if we work together to help all!

e-mail levellinglevel@gmail.com or let’s start a conversation on @levellinglevel on Twitter or Facebook.

Get Some Seeds & Seedlings

If you’ve ever heard someone you think of being a nerd, going on about saving or storing seeds, this is probably the moment when you will begin to make some sense of why.

Pretty much every vegetable, fruit or cereal that we eat can only be grown because someone has had the good sense to harvest, store and then distribute their seeds.

You will need seeds to grow whatever vegetables or fruits that you might choose.

Seeds are available online and even in some supermarkets, depending on the time of year. I picked up number of sachets a few days ago in Sainsburys (That’s well-known chain of supermarkets in the UK) and you are likely to find them near the flowers or any gardening things.

Again, it’s worth having a read up to check what you will be able to grow. Very little that you can grow in the garden will provide a crop year-round, if at all. So, the next question will be what, where and how you can grow (or store) so you have something available year-round.

If you are lucky – and especially so at this time of year (spring/early summer), you might happen across seedlings that are vegetable or fruit plants already beginning to grow on sale by the side of the road, at a garden centre or even in the plants section at your local supermarket. Grab a few if you can, as this is a great way to get a head start – and encourage yourself to get the growing bug – which can be very rewarding once you do!

Greenhouses & Glass Boxes

The easiest way to improve growth of vegetable that grow above the surface of the soil, is to grow them under cover of plastic sheets or glass.

If you have these available now, that’s great. If not, do have a look online, or go and visit one of the big DIY chains to get some ideas, and then go back online and find the most cost-effective versions of whatever you have been looking at.

Bigger greenhouses can be heated, and if you can heat a greenhouse cost-effectively when energy to do so is available, it will mean that you can grow some produce that would normally be seasonal, year-round.

However, the best use for glass or plastic coverings is to secure and keep your food safe from animals, insects or other pests – when you are growing outside.

Again, please do a web search using terms like ‘what to grow under glass’, ‘how to grow under glass’, or ’10 best foods to grow in my greenhouse’.

Using Your Garden to grow food

As you read this, you may be able to turn your head and look out of the window and see a beautifully manicured lawn, a play area dedicated to private use for your kids, or a yard space where you can just make out the evidence of a recent visit from your dog.

Either way and whatever you might use your garden for today, gardens have historically had a much more meaningful, practical and yes – essential use.

Lawned gardens outside houses today are a luxury. So, if your outdoor area is in sunlight and can clearly grow leafy or grassy things, there is a much better use for it than growing grass – right now.

The space that you have available and how much you use of it is up to you. But the more you can use, the more food you could grow and then have available, the more types you can grow, and the list goes on.

Once again, research on ‘how to dig my garden’, ‘how to cultivate my garden’ or terms like these should give you some great pointers on how to get started.

In terms of tools, a good strong step-on fork and a possibly a spade too might be all that you will need to get started, and these are all available online, at DIY stores or any large retailer that has a section for outdoors.

Something to bear in mind: If food does get really short for everyone – which is a very real risk, people who for whatever reason do not have food of their own available are likely to grab anything that it’s easy for them to do so – especially when its quiet or nobody is around at night. If you can, do grow your food somewhere that’s out of everyone else’s sight. You can always share, exchange or give away food that you have harvested when you have more than you or those around you will need. But that won’t be possible if you should find yourself short for reasons that are out of your control.

Use Window Boxes

If you don’t have a garden, you almost certainly have windows. These are great places to grow things you can eat – and they can behave a little like greenhouses do too.

Depending on the size of your window ledge, you may be able to place some trays or troughs along the ledge or perhaps affix some brackets with a trough or trays just underneath – as long as there is nothing like a radiator or similar in the way.

Do a search on ‘window gardens’, ‘what to grow in a window garden’, ‘setting up a window garden’, to get some ideas of what will be involved.

If your window box is outdoors, you may need to make sure that it is secured against wind or bad weather.

If the only windows you have available look abut a public pathway or road, growing food outside may not be the best plan for you – as your produce could disappear overnight when others who might be desperate can see – and easily reach – what you have grown.

Using an Allotment

If you don’t have a garden that you can change to grow your vegetables and fruits, it might be worth thinking about renting an allotment, so that you can grow and manage your basic foods for the longer term.

An allotment is basically a piece of open ground, often part of a large field or area that has been divided up into equally sized spaces or ‘allotments’ by the owner – which more often than not will be a local parish or town council.

Allotments are already reasonably popular. So, if you check with your local council, you may already find that there is a waiting list for those that might become available.

In the challenging times that lie ahead, it may be the case that ground which is already owned and managed on behalf of the community will be repurposed for allotment use, other ground is secured by the community for this purpose, or that farmers and landowners set aside and rent out land they manage as allotments for others to use.

Using Hydroponics

If the space you have available is limited, you don’t have a garden, window ledge or anywhere else you would immediately recognise as somewhere you could repurpose to grow your own food, Hydroponics could be the answer for you.

Hydroponics is basically growing things in a tray, trough or tank with flowing water, which contains all the nutrients that the plants, fruits and vegetables in them need to grow.

It is an amazingly efficient way to grow food, because of the limited space, energy and input that is required – once you are set up. And the great thing is that you can set up a Hydroponics system anywhere – often with only a very minimal requirement for energy or light.

In some ways Hydroponics is the most practical and most efficient way to grow your own food. It’s just that the food that is actually the easiest to produce will not look as appetising as we might like it to be.

The important thing is that you and the people you care for can eat and get nutrition for however long the system and food supply chain change and related shortages might be.

When it comes down to the absolute nuts and bolts of not going hungry for any period of time, having a Hydroponics system working away in your home, might by the best bet you can make on yourself right now, today.

Please do a web search on ‘Hydroponics’, ‘Buy Hydroponics’, ‘Foods you can grow with Hydroponics’. There is plenty to see, read, learn from and buy online.

Once again, the time to be setting yourself up with a Hydroponics system at home is right now. When food is short, it might be short because the system of distribution has stopped or broken down. As most of the equipment you will need will be online, it won’t be any good to you, if you can’t get to it or it can’t get to you!

Establishing Our New World in a time of crisis from the Grassroots and our Communities up:

Many cannot either see nor accept that there is an alternative way of being, of living and of doing everything that actually can and will work out much better for us all; YET.

Of those who do begin to sense or realise that there is something much better ahead that is available and that works for all, many become fearful when they listen to others who without explanation (and as such, understanding) condemn any alternative way to their own.

The reality is that nobody alive today can offer anyone an accurate or fixed idea, picture or understanding of what ‘good for everyone’ really looks like, because none of them have actually experienced it, and by its very nature, a societal transformation and change of this kind requires a collective leap of faith, rolled out individually many times.

Each and every choice or decision is as important as any other. And when it boils down to it, a good and happy future for all will depend not on everyone doing whatever is easiest but making the conscious decision to always do what is right – no matter how hard things will appear to be.

The Withdrawal of Collective Consent: Don’t riot or engage in civil unrest. Start building our new fair and balanced future for everyone instead

If you are of voting age in the UK (18 years or older), the chances are that you will be able to remember the 2011 Riots, which are sometimes referred to as the London Riots too.

During a period of 5 days and nights that August, many people took to the streets in different places and engaged in civil unrest.

You didn’t have to be there or in the middle of a riot, or anywhere near a shop being looted or burned to the ground, to be shocked, concerned or frightened by what you could see was going on.

It doesn’t seem normal or rational for people to behave this way. But we all need to understand that when fear and desperation leads beyond frustration to anger, and people no longer believe they have anything else to lose, there is no logic, no form of words and no out-of-the-moment promise that can be made to them, that will make the desire they have to act irrationally or without care, go away.

If people in the area you live begin to engage in any form of civil unrest, or you yourself feel desperate enough to join any group of people which has taken to the streets, please think about the point that we have all already collectively reached, and what we can all do together constructively without damaging anything or the relationships that we have with anyone, who or that can become part of the new system we can build from what we must now replace.

You may see policemen, paramedics, firefighters, soldiers and public sector representatives as representatives of the system. But they are real people behind their badges or uniform. People just the same as you and I.

We do not need to destroy anything or hurt anyone else to achieve change and to create a new system. We only have to withdraw our collective consent from the one that we must replace.

Nobody has to continue working for the existing system. But it will help us all if those who have public responsibility continue to fulfil the genuine purposes of their roles, and help and protect all others, whilst sense begins to be made of what we all need to do to ensure that above everything, each and every one of us is safe, has shelter and the things we need, and has access to enough of the basic essentials with the priority always given to basic foods.

The power that politicians and the elites have is ours and was only given on loan. The time is coming soon when we have the choice to reclaim our power and take it back

The system is supposedly democratic. But there is nothing democratic about a political system that exists around a Top-Down structure. One that is insulated from constructive change by a political party system that has effectively bolted the door to anyone who could have or still could bring real leadership to the Country, and with it much less difficulty as we are all forced to embrace change.

The collapse of everything that we know, or what we might otherwise call a systemic collapse is underway. It will get increasingly worse for everyone. It will touch everyone’s lives in some way.

Despite what appearances might be used to tell or suggest to us, the collapse of everything will come in the form of massive problems like shortages of food and essential goods, rationing, scarcity, delays, shut down of public services, strikes and may other changes to what we have considered to be normal or what we could expect. The collapse itself may not be recognisable if you wait around for absolutely everything to stop working or completely shut down.

The that we all must understand is that the Collapse of the System is not likely to be obvious, especially to those who are aware of changes, but have not had their lives directly touched.

Good people who care about others, will continue to do their jobs as best they can, because it is the right thing to do. But that will do the right thing could easily keep what’s left of the existing system coughing and spluttering long enough, that the same Top-Down interests can consolidate what they have left and begin to build their new system in its place.

The worst that is likely to happen, is people without food and essentials or the money to buy food and essentials, will take to the streets and seek out a focus for their blame.

One way or another, the moment will come when you will either be able to see, or you will simply know that the game is up for the system that has brought us all to where we are.

It is this moment or point in time when we all have the real opportunity to withdraw the consent, we have unwittingly given to this system that has hurt all of us. To realise that power and the power to change everything is actually ours. That the choice we have is either to take the easy option and let someone else create the new system. Or withdraw our consent to more of the same and instead take and act upon the decision to take all of our power back.

Each and every one of us gave our consent to this shitshow of a system – by the simplest acts of taking part

We previously discussed the role of belief, and how it is belief that makes things real.

By believing in the system and supporting or acquiescing to it by taking part in it in any way, we actively take that believe to a level where we are giving it our consent.

It doesn’t matter whether the people running the system and every part of it are doing so dishonestly once they have that power. By voting for their politicians, by taking their loans, by playing their stock market games, by betting on their sports, by taking their benefits, by being qualified by their education system and degrees, by believing everything they tell us through the mainstream media outlets that they own and through many other actions that cover almost every part of life today, WE ARE ALL GIVING THEM OUR CONSENT – to continue doing all the things that they do.

Some of you reading this will immediately scoff and be thinking something like ‘I’ve got their number. I know how it all works. I’m not part of this. I DIDN’T GIVE THEM MY CONSENT!’

But even those who are awake enough to see everything today for what it is, are continuing to give consent to the system that we have, by even the smallest act or action of taking part in it.

In fact, the system is now impossible to avoid, for as long as it continues to exist.

This broken system that is hurting us all, has a name: It’s called ‘Top-Down’

If you want to live in a different kind of world, where everyone is valued for who they really are and not what they have or what they can afford, it’s important to recognise what the building blocks that will make that world real will look like.

It’s also very important to recognise what represents the key tenets and elements of the old world, and the thinking that will keep the majority disadvantaged in some way, whilst benefits of every kind continue to be funnelled towards those either at or very near the very top.

The system that we have and that we are in the process of leaving, functions with people in positions of power and responsibility for the lives of others. People who believe that they are special and behave as if they are special in some way.

It doesn’t matter what the behaviour, skill or attribute might be that makes them believe they are special, whether its knowledge, popularity, position or wealth. If any person of group of people who have influence over or responsibility for others believe that they are different and better than those other people in any way, the system that they are influencing will always be about them and never about anyone else.

The people with power and influence who consider themselves above others, look down on everyone that they believe they have that power or influence over. This is the very basic mechanics of the system of ‘Top-Down’.

In its broader sense, ‘Top-Down’ is a hierarchical system. Power is always funnelled from the many to the few above them. Then from the few to the one or two that are then above.

The process can and does repeat itself over and over again and often resembles the shape of a pyramid.

It’s a relationship that thrives on the creation of distance. Because those with power we are in direct contact with and easily able to access in a way where they listen, are often much further away from those that they themselves are subservient to. This means that those who we should most be able to rely on to do what’s best for us rarely even understand the rules, diktats and instructions that come from their own hierarchy ‘above’.

You will recognise those who are beholden to the ‘Top-Down’ system, because they are always better in some way than us. They thrive on peddling the myth that there are those ‘in the know’ and that they have special skills or special knowledge. When in fact all their ‘position’ or ‘role’ does is give them an excuse to avoid truth or avoid make decisions based solely in the moment and on doing only what is right for everyone – not just their masters or themselves.

Question the integrity and values of anyone who presents themselves as a leader at any level, who has come from management within a large company or corporate structure, has been in a leadership role within community organisations or within local councils, or has been a politician and member of one of the well-known parties and not demonstrated an ability once elected, to stand out without their party on their own.

Beware the people who have said a few things that have struck chords with some people and given them what appears to be great popularity. Popularity and leadership skills in the untested are usually two very distant things.

Above all, be on your guard against anyone who tells you they have knowledge and networks but cannot give a credible and open overview of what they are or how they attained them. Run a mile from anyone whose credibility as a leader rests purely on a name or who they are directly linked as nepotism is one of the most insidiously destructive and corrupt elements of the Top-Down system by far.

Getting to Good Governance when everyone wants someone else to come up with the solution and someone else’s solution is what we’ve already got

The entire aim of Levelling Level may appear only to be a functioning and fully localised society that is built around a Basic Living Standard for All. In reality, it is all about the journey or process of getting there through this period of change and crisis too.

Governance or how we are governed in respect of everything, is key to achieving a new system that is built upon the foundation of a Basic Living Standard.

Work can only begin on building the new System of Governance that will provide a fair and balanced framework for all our lives, once we have rejected the current system that we know as ‘Top-Down’.

The point at which we will all accept that the current ‘Top-Down’ system cannot be fixed and has not or will not serve any of our best interests at any time will be different for each of us.

But when that moment comes, our thoughts will move on to what comes next.

The immediate problem is everyone wants someone else to come up with the solution, when someone else’s solution is what we’ve already got.

It is vital that when that moment comes. we all recognise that the solutions to the problems and the answers to many questions will not come by having another bogus election, where the faces and words might change, but we continue to have people motivated by self-interest at the ‘top’.

It’s time for us all to accept that the ‘Top-Down’ system of governance is over

We should avoid falling into the trap of believing that because something exists, it actually works.

Do bear in mind, that just because you can see a fantastic new car parked by the side of the road, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it has an engine, has fuel or even has a driver that will not crash it, just as soon as they get behind the wheel and are left in charge of it!

The ‘Top-Down’ system of governance that we have is completely broken.

It is because our system of governance that we have is broken, that we have all the problems that we have.

Yes, we can keep changing the politicians and even the policies that this system has. But the more things change, the more they stay the same.

We MUST reject the system that we have completely. IF we want to experience a way of life that is fair and balanced for us all, all of the time and throughout our lives.

What will make us accept we need change? What will make us change our minds? What will make us embrace a NEW System of Governance, built from the Grassroots-Up?

If Levelling Level were to depend only on changing the way people think to succeed, its success would be far from being assured. After all, people will not easily change the way that they think, unless they feel there is a good reason for them to do so.

The good reason for people to change the way they think, and what will make Levelling Level successful as an aim, process and outcome, is the system of governance that we already have does not serve our best interests.

The ‘Top-Down’ system has been used as a plaything to further self-interest and greed for far too long.

Those who have held power and influence within the ‘Top-Down’ system have broken and exceeded the laws of their own system. This has resulted in the collapse of everything that we know, and pain reaching each and every one of us somehow and in some way.

When things in the world outside of us aren’t working for us, we will be ready to change what’s going on for us inside of ourselves. We will be ready to change our minds.

The change in thinking required from us all, begins when we stop thinking that someone else will always take care of the things that we don’t or have no interest in, and accept that we all have a role to play, and that begins with each and every one of us taking part.

The part that we have to play, is stepping out of our doors and working with everyone else in our community to ensure that everyone has access to the food, goods and resources that they need. That when they are available, they are accessible fairly to all. And that where anything that any of us need isn’t available, we work together, harnessing the skills, experience and abilities that we can offer to our communities, to provide anything that we need in the quickest and most efficient ways that we possibly can.

When everything you know no longer works, be very careful who you trust

If everything breaks down and we are forced to navigate our way through and experience a period of civil or social disorder, we cannot be reliant upon the integrity of any person being reflected in the role or position of responsibility that they previously held.

When everyone is afraid, even the people we think can normally be relied upon because of who they are or what they do, are likely put their own interests before those of anyone else.

There will always be people present in any crisis who are ready and willing to exploit the fears of others to benefit themselves.

Stay with and around people you know before anyone else, and then only with people you are already aware of or recognise. Do not extend this circle to other people until you have together defined and agreed upon any rules you will use to define who you can trust.

Community Governance during any critical period of Crisis that we face: Roles & Contributions

Everyone has something to offer the community. But it may not automatically be what they think.

Despite the trauma of the experience that we may all be living through, some people will still be ruled by their egos when it comes to what they are prepared to do, offer or actually give.

The age of bullshit jobs and invented professions came with the Top-Down system. Incentivisation turbocharged the rejection of the risks that come with responsibility, building a backroom culture that gave license to the demand for more of everything whilst at the same time giving less.

Just because someone has been a manager, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they can manage. But a plumber is almost certain to know how to plumb.

When it comes to having food to eat and all the basics that anyone will need, everyone will need to quickly lose the ego that tells them they are this, they are that or they are anything that makes them different.

Everyone will need to fulfil any role that means that in return for having their fair share of everything that they need that is available, they are contributing whatever they have that can bring value to all in return.

Necessity is the seedbed of Innovation

Whilst my aim may be to provide a guide to navigating the very difficult times that may lie ahead, I also recognise the resourcefulness and creativity that lies within so many people – even when in many cases they have not recognised it, or perhaps do not have confidence enough to qualify it within themselves.

You can never be an imposter when it comes to taking responsibility for yourself.

When it comes to surviving The Great Reset, taking responsibility for yourself is the part you will play in a community taking responsibility for us all.

Too many of the things that we are used to about the world we have been experiencing have been reliant on very complicated supply chains involving great distances and many different people, as well as in most cases relying upon the accumulation of many different parts.

Any one of what could be hundreds of different points on these chains may no longer be available or be an option once the real stoppages and shortages have begun.

Any number of those points could be one or one of many, that means the goods, products, foods or experiences that is no longer available, meaning that we can no longer get something, or that if we have it and it breaks, we cannot get new supplies or parts that will enable it to work.

We MUST make use of all of the people, the resources and the opportunities that we have, so that everyone has access to a fair share of everything that they need, beginning with making sure that everyone has adequate basic foods to eat.

People in every community will have ideas, knowledge and skills to make existing resources work on a localised basis, to invent new ones and even create new equipment that can do the jobs or help fulfil the tasks that will help achieve the goal of ensuring that everyone can get by, whilst things remain acutely difficult for us all.

To innovate and provide the solutions that the community will need, people just need to be asked and then given the opportunity to respond.

It doesn’t matter who has an idea, who makes, grows or fixes anything. EVERYONE benefits when a job that needs doing for the whole community gets done. The priority of supply is the survival of everyone in the community. It is NOT about how the process was ‘owned’.

Let those who can, get on with it. Don’t get precious about what it looks like when and if you can’t.

The model for a NEW System of Governance that puts people FIRST

If you believe that we need the ‘Top-Down’, complicated and highly centralised system of governance that we already have to run a whole Country, I’m afraid I’m here to let you know that you have made a mistake.

A system of governance that works for the governed does not create more questions about it than it answers. Its intelligence lies in its simplicity. It only touches or guides the areas and functionality of life and business where the outcomes, impacts and consequences of any activity will reach beyond the thoughts and actions of the individual themselves. It does not promote the interests of any one above those of another. It recognises the best interests of all people as the qualified majority in all things and especially so when no form of election or plebiscite can be called.

It sounds serious, I know.

But in very basic terms:

  • Good governance is about always doing the right thing for everybody.
  • Good governance is about keeping systems relatable to the people who are being governed, as well as the people who are working within or otherwise contributing in some way to it.
  • A system of Good Governance is as decentralised as it can be.
  • A system of Good Governance prioritises the people it serves before the jobs of the people who work for and within it, or the consideration of any other material outcome in any way.
  • A system of Good Governance is responsive to change, technological advances and to genuine progress, but always seeks to harness these only to improve quality of life and not what people really need.

Yes, in time thought and action will need to be taken to provide governance at geographical levels where it makes practical sense to do so – but only where necessity really does make sense.

However, the key to making governance work at national or even international level, is to create governance models that genuinely work with people as the priority, and that model of governance has to begin and then be tried and tested within and based upon our Grassroots Communities first.

A Systemic and Financial Collapse is now inevitable, but a Great Reset as the WEF see it is not. We can define our own future, but it means doing politics like we have never done democracy before

If you have taken a close, objective view of every part of the Government response to the Covid Pandemic, you will see just how much power and influence can be brought to bear on normal people, by politicians and government officers when they want to use manipulation to bend people to their will.

With months passed since the end of Social Distancing measures, there are still many people who believe everything they were told about the risks of Covid. So much so, that they continue to allow fear of the virus to dictate how they live their lives when there is no need to do so.

Do consider your own experience of how messages from the Government and the Establishment were used to control the public in a situation that existed purely because the politicians we have are incompetent, were afraid, and thought that control was the only way they could lead.

The fear of politicians on all sides of Politics drove the Government response. It directly led to them making decision after decision that has contributed to the cost-of-living crisis we are fast descending into now, along with the inevitable financial and systemic collapse that is on its way.

The unavoidable collapse we are facing was supercharged by the Government response to Covid. But it has also been pushed massively by the response to the War in Ukraine and by Brexit before.

The Government responses to all three of these world-influencing events have catalysed the coming collapse. None of them alone or together were the actual cause.

The cause of the coming collapse are the ideals that have driven the way that everything around us has worked and has been governed for decades.

The entire Top-Down system has always been about putting the interests of those at the top first in all circumstances. Only lip service has ever paid to the problems that a greed-driven hierarchical structure inevitably causes for everyone else, and ever since the Gold Standard was abandoned and FIAT money was adopted in its place in 1971, it was inevitable that the piggies at the trough would keep going further and further with the aim of accumulating as much wealth as they can.

The people who have been controlling and driving the system that has enriched them at our collective cost, know only too well that the system of governance they influenced into being and developed always had a terminal flaw.

The flaw in this darkest chapter of a self-interest and greed-driven system was the inevitable growth of income inequality and with it, the rich – poor divide.  

Those of their number who have been clever enough to come up for air, knew that in time, the mechanics of their self-serving system would push that divide too far. That through a systemic collapse that would likely involve complete societal breakdown, their system as it stood would meet its end.

The people responsible are the world elites. They come together in organisations that we know of such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). So-called Public Bodies that have become the sanitised or ‘acceptable’ face of everything their self-interest is really all about.

They have known for many years that their system and the way that it functions would come to its end. But in the same way that Government rolled out its narrative to control all of us during the Covid Pandemic, the Worlds elites have been developing narrative about ‘The Great Reset’ to establish the idea in the public consciousness that their control both through and beyond the collapse that they created, is already a done deal or an inevitable thing.

But the elites never banked on Brexit, Covid or Ukraine. They certainly didn’t factor in the knee jerk way that governments such as ours would react, looking to the creation of non-existent money to solve all the problems that they faced, in the very unimaginative and unnecessary ways that they did.

The alarm bells started ringing just as soon as the Covid Virus emerged. They went into a frenzy once Government responses to the Pandemic and the Lockdowns began.

Those at the top knew they were out of time. That is why the amount of propaganda being pumped out of Switzerland began flowing at what feels like a constant rate.

The elites have always known what is coming. It was always just the question of when and not if.

The elites know what a systemic collapse will mean.

The elites know that the only way that they have any chance of remaining at the top is by creating leverage through systems of societal control that are aimed to maintain their position throughout the collapse, so that they can then ensure they dictate the ‘resetting’ of everything so that they maintain the Top-Down structure within the new world that follows beyond.

However, the elites also know that the power they have to succeed in their aims comes down to everything that we already know and that we continue to believe.

Right now, all the things that the WEF and mouthpiece Klaus Schwab have talked about really could happen. Not because anything they have planned is inevitable. But because we could easily miss the opportunity to take control of what happens during the collapse and The Great Reset, and because we fail to make the Great Reset (or whatever you are comfortable calling it) our own.

Everyone in power today, is tied into the Top-Down hierarchy that swirls around and fuels the whole system that tips its hat to the worlds elites.

Many of our Politicians don’t even know what they are doing or what they are really doing it all for. Pretty much everyone and everything is coin operated at the top!

There is no original thinking. No real leadership. And worst of all, no care or consideration for the lives of real people driving this Country – as in a democracy there always should be.

Today normal people are nothing but playthings at best. Slaves within a financial or wealth-related prison at worst.

For many, whole lifetimes revolve around an unnecessary fight just to be able to live.

Many of us do see the wrongs of what is happening, even if we don’t really understand why. Some of us even know who are to blame, but see it as a conspiracy, rather than being the result of the way that any small minded and selfish person would behave if they had the same wealth, opportunities and power that these very self-obsessed people have, and wanted to maintain all of it at any cost.

The existential risk to our future – as we face challenges that none of us have ever experienced – is that we will keep falling back on the same people and the same ideas to try and change things, in the very same ways that we have always done before.

Instead of accepting that we must all embrace a very new way of doing politics that puts people first and functions from the grassroots-up, we are in danger of falling back on what feels comfortable, relying on personalities, individuals with a loud voice or anyone who promotes a message that suggests the same as we’ve always had before: Only they know how to lead. Only they know what’s best. Only they and their own set of special chums have the secret formula for success in a system that has already closed its doors to them.

Approaching political change with the tried and tested formulas that have always failed to break into or influence our political system before.

Doing so again will only help maintain positions for the same self-interested politicians we already have in power or waiting to bask in it – whether they are Left, Right, Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, or are motivated just the same with a different name.

There are many false prophets who are talking up change to us today. But they are quietly linking up with the same old faces, the same old stories and the same old motives as all the people who have wronged us have done so before.

The more obvious are groups like Tony Blair’s ‘The Britain Project’. But then there are many others like those who missed the realities of single-issue politics who have been left over from the Brexit movement too.

What they share in common is a hope that they can become some kind of phoenix that emerges from the ashes of an already broken system, which will work better once they lead it. They are unaware that their current behaviour and outlook amounts to little more than the same sum total as the motives of the ‘leadership’ we have already got.

However well intended any of them might look, their motivations and failure to connect with real people or even read the room will only help to make the strategies of the WEF and those around it all the more secure.

This isn’t to say that none of them have anything to offer us. It is simply the case that no public representative will be putting any of our needs first, if the system they work within and benefit from is based on ‘Top-Down’.

If you really want to experience the genuine freedom that only independence from a system of governance based on material wealth can bring – before the opportunity is lost, you MUST embrace your own Power first.

Now is the time to collaborate and contribute to your community with everything you have the ability to give.

Everyone is waiting for someone else to come up with a plan. But the plan we are on the arse end of right now, was someone else’s plan too.

If we don’t come together and make a new grassroots/up, community-based form of politics and system of governance work, the somebody else will do it for us.

The WEF and the Worlds elites will continue to live gilded lives. But their ever-increasing fear of what will happen when enough of us do wake up to the myths they have created, will drive them to use every form of new technology they can in order to increasingly control our lives.

If you think that life is shit now. Wait and see how you feel about everything then.

We are approaching the crossroads, and the way out will soon be here.

But there is no easy option when it comes to the road to real change.

A fair and balanced system of governance that works for and on behalf of everyone is not the easy road.

What works for everyone fairly will not be represented by anyone or anything that feels familiar, makes feel comfortable, or makes you feel like you are the one on top before even the slightest amount of work has been done.

A happy future is about having faith in yourself, the people immediately around you and taking a massive leap into what appears to be the great unknown.

Are you ready to embrace and take yours?

We are in the End Days of a Money Based Order or System

The World is now in a period of massive and irreversible change. Change that has come about because of years, decades and yes, centuries of political and government mismanagement.

Leadership right across the World, has increasingly got its values and motivations completely wrong, leading up to and funnelling into the massive crisis that we are facing right now.

This age of public policy mismanagement is based upon and has revolved around one thing: Money.

Today, we are experiencing the death throes of the Money Based Order.

Money Based, because the desire and pursuit of wealth, influence, power and everything that goes with it, all feed into the same perverse and twisted reality. One that over a period of many generations, has led to money becoming the benchmark upon which we measure the value of everything in our lives

The greed that the creation of the Money Based Order unleashed could never be satisfied by the actions of those addicted to it.

Generation after generation of wealthy and powerful people, who have then handed that wealth and power down, have always wanted to accumulate more and more, with the next generation inevitably wanting to outdo the last.

What the elites responsible for all this have neither realised nor appreciated has been the true cost. The fact that every product, industry, profession or any other innovation or tool that has been created, that they have then harnessed purely with the intention of increasing the bottom line, has always come at an increasing level of human cost. One that could never be offset by the redistribution of even the largest sums of the profits they have made.

Through the cycles of the industrial ages, leading right up to everything and every innovation that we are experiencing now, the exploitation of the poor or poorer by the rich or the richer, has always been cleverer and better hidden than it ever was before.

The Money Based Order has gone through an entire process of evolution that began with slavery and people quite literally being physically shackled, through a process of evolution to the contemporary equivalent that we know as debt and every kind of financial misery that go with it.

Our plight today is arguably even more sinister and cruel. Because the prison cell is our mind, and the shackles hide in plain sight.

Why the Money Based Order or System is collapsing now

Even a system that is built upon a value set that is completely wrong, has rules that must be obeyed if it is to survive and last.

As generations of politicians, business leaders, bankers and other elites have passed, they have increasingly lost sight of the very framework that protects them.

They have taken their positions for granted, and increasingly failed to put enough back into the system to ensure that the myth still works for the very people they are abusing through their acts.

The combination of Globalisation and the adoption of The FIAT Money system took their greed too far, with the result that the divide between rich and poor has never been so far apart.  

‘Wealth inequality’ quite literally leaves people living and experiencing entire lifetimes with their productive focus being only upon what they need to do to keep their heads above water.

Life for far too many, has literally and unnecessarily become all about the fight to survive.

The people who struggle at the hands of The Money Based Order have done nothing wrong.

Many are innocent victims of a system that quite literally exists on the basis that for some to obtain and maintain excessive material wealth, it necessarily follows that others must fail or go without – so that the few can quite literally win and keep on winning.

But it doesn’t have to be this way and it never did.

The Money Based Order lives and functions within the lives of us all

I have alluded to a history of the Money Based Order that covers hundreds of years, simply because it is important to understand how established the system that we have today really is.

In fact, so established is the Money Based Order both around us and within our lives, that many of us have still not awoken to the reality of how our attachment or rather our addiction to the world that qualifies each and every part of our existences based on money, really is.

The house we have, the areas we live in, the holidays we have, the car we drive, the career we have, the degree we qualify for, the clothes we wear, the phone we have, the streaming services we watch, the number of TV sets we have in the house – and what having or failing to have these things at any of the levels that they all seem to come, all play a massive part in the way that we value ourselves, how we value our friends, and how we believe everyone else looks upon us – when in the overwhelming majority of cases, each and every one of the people who have the views we are worrying about, are doing exactly  the same things as us.

Whilst generations of marketing men have spent amounts of money that even today’s billionaires could never earn telling us otherwise, this whole way of looking at life and living our entire existence is all about what we want. None of it is about what we need.

It is Money, not the Technology that it finances, that dictates the way we behave in a Technological age

The myth of technological advancement is that innovation only exists to make money and that life must change to fit around it.

The truth is that innovation exists to improve and enhance the ways of living that we already have.

Those who have owned or financed technological change have simply harnessed and continue to harness it to make more and more profit.

Meanwhile, their actions have directly resulted in lowering the quality of life or even destroying the lives of the very people that every technology – used without the focus being on profit – could be utilised to improve.

The Money Based Order – The part we currently play

Sadly, we are or were all in on the con.

The very clever thing about the Money Based Order, is that its addictive nature thrives because it plays to one of the darker and most self-destructive parts of human nature, which is to put ourselves first.

When we indulge selfishness of the Money-focused kind, it simply doesn’t matter how big or how small the gain or advancement we perceive the accumulation of ‘wealth’ or ‘power’ in our lives to be. We are meeting the needs of that addiction, and somehow have the perverse message playing like a soundtrack that tells us all that we are on our way to the top.

As this is the way that every part of life now works, we have reached a point where pretty much everything we do, we look at or even the interactions we have, are all based on the bottom line of what value will come out of that interaction for us.

The strange thing is that by playing along with the workings of the Money Based Order in even the smallest of ways, we have dedicated ourselves to a pathway of addiction. An addiction that has the ability to change our lives and destroy our integrity at a personal level immediately, whilst at a community, cultural or national level, the whole process can and has taken decades or centuries to reach the outcome of its various plays.

The World can be focused on money, or it can be focused on people. It cannot be focused on both.

Man cannot have two masters.

We either value everything to do with money or we value everything to do with life.

The biggest challenge we face in the coming months and years, isn’t the cost-of-living crisis, the financial turbulence, the monetary or systemic collapse. It is the process of understanding, accepting and finding the resolve to live our lives in what seem to be an unfathomable way. That of putting People First.

Many will read this and argue that putting people first is what they already do. But they don’t.

In fact, if wealth, power and the accumulation of money in any form or in any way, comes into our thinking as the priority in the way that we approach any part of life, the reality that we all have to face is that our thinking is part of the problem and is therefore part of the cause of all the problems that we collectively now face.

This is not a question of having things or money of any kind. It’s the question of how and where our values are genuinely placed.

If we always consider the impact of what we do upon others, and what the consequences of our actions upon others will always be – not just in the room, but what the impact on the next person to visit or to follow after us might be, there will still be enough of everything for us to have and to enjoy our lives, but everyone else will always have that very same opportunity too.

We can only have a society, culture, way of living and experience that is fair, balanced and considerate of all, by putting People First in everything that we do.

We can quite literally live our lives with our focus only upon money, wealth, power, influence and everything to do with it. Or we can live our lives putting people and our relationship with others first.

There is no middle ground. There is no ‘so many parts of one’ and ‘so many parts of the other’. Our focus will either be on money and selfishness with an inevitable cost for others – no matter the part we play. Or our focus will be on people and putting people first in everything we do, knowing that we are always doing the right thing for everyone, and that by doing so, we are actually putting our own values system first.

What we have to accept is that rejecting the Money Based Order won’t result in loss. In fact, we have everything to gain. The only real difference is that we will not see money and the things that revolve around it in the same way again.

Money is our master now. But it is people that we should always be putting first.

Economics, Finance & Currencies: Thinking Differently

One of the most unforgiving but least of all discussed aspects of the way politics works today is the reality that idealism always overshadows practical reality. It’s a problem born of the way that our money driven and money obsessed world works.

Turning everything on its head, means being very practical about the way that we use money and currencies now, and how we will have to change our habits, systems and way of thinking about money too.

The following Chapter focuses on some of the more practical aspects of Economics, Finance & Currencies.

However, this really is no more than just the start.

Our way of life should be our economy. The economy should never be our way of life

In the Book Levelling Level, we discussed the crisis we are heading into which will revolve around not just the collapse of our financial system and the money we use, but also a complete collapse of everything we know involving the way that business and industry run, and even our government and political system works too.

The most difficult message to covey as a speaker, and to receive as a listener is anything that makes clear that we have all played a part in what is happening to some degree. Even if it is just down to the products we buy, or what we do or don’t do when it’s time for us to vote.

Use the words economy or economics, and you will probably have the word ‘money’ come immediately to mind. But the idea that money = the economy isn’t really the truth.

The truth is that money is just a part of our economy. It plays a part, just like all the other things that we do and interact with in any relationship that we have with the world outside our door.

It is because of the reality that life is the economy, that it has been very easy for us to accept that there is a monetary value to all things, and that anything that cannot be given a monetary value, simply has no real value at all.

Life has literally become all about money. Money – and everything to do with it, whether it be power, influence, ambition and anything that can be considered to be material wealth – is how our world qualifies absolutely everything. But the price has been not only that we have forgotten, but that we also place no value on who we really are.

Money is an addiction. An addiction like every other, whether it be alcohol, smoking, drugs, gambling or anything else. An addiction that brings nothing but misery whose lives are on the arse end of its power, and the deception of being happy and in control of something that has complete control over you, for those who believe that they are still getting a buzz.

As with people, our culture, community, and entire country (and World) has become addicted to the money myth and everything that surrounds it too. What we are experiencing now collectively are the days of that drunk or drug addict, which is we have together become, rolling around in the gutter, thinking all about the next ‘fix’, but with no idea what and who we really are.

Those who have experienced the realities of addiction, know what comes next. Remove the metaphors, and the collapse of everything we know is now knocking at the door. This is who; this is where we are right now.

We can have a money-focused economy, or we can have a people-focused economy. But we cannot have both

The really hard bit of the coming collapse or crisis that through things like price rises and the cost-of-living crisis can already be seen to be underway, is understanding, accepting and then acting upon the reality that our destructive relationship with money is all about the way that we think.

We quite literally have to do ‘cold turkey’ to get over the money-based addiction that is destroying us and the world around us.

And as part of that process, we have to accept that as is the case with every other addiction, there really are no different levels of addiction involved.

There is no halfway house.

If we continue to maintain our belief in money and continue to award it the value that we do in any way at all, we will damn ourselves to repeating exactly the same mistakes of the past, no matter how much we do to correct everything in life as we have the opportunity to do so right now.

The real value of Money and Cryptocurrencies (DeFi) today

Crypto or Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular in recent years. But in their current form, they have a massive and potentially terminal flaw: Today’s Cryptocurrencies are worth ZERO.

Today’s Cryptos work on the same basis as the FIAT Money system that they were intended to side-step.

The value of Cryptocurrencies is based only on what anyone believes.

For many of us, this is a very difficult message to understand. We only have to look at news in the media that suggests Cryptos such as Bitcoin are worth tens of thousands (x10,000) of £Pounds, $Dollars or the equivalent in many other currencies or monetary terms to see what people think they are worth.

Yet Cryptocurrencies are not tied to anything of value. They do not have anything of value linked directly to them. Even the arguably sensible idea of only creating a limited or finite number of them doesn’t answer the fundamental questions or realities of what a currency or any form of money is, and how they should really work.

Money is a unit of exchange. Money is a value transfer tool. Money is a medium and nothing more.

Money has become the benchmark that is set against everything in our lives, because making us believe that its value is real has benefitted someone else’s greed for wealth, power and influence in some way.

With the FIAT Money system about to collapse, we are all going to go through the process of realising the real value of the things that we genuinely need, as opposed to the things that we want.

That process will lead to us rediscovering what the real value of money and any form of currency really is.

When money or currency of any kind can no longer be used to buy anything, either because we simply don’t have enough of it, it’s not tangible, or because what we need is not available to buy, circumstances will force us to appreciate what the value of the things that we need really is.

The Tipping Point of the coming Economic & Systemic Crash

Whilst a systemic and financial collapse may not appear to be or have the stop-start feel that the ending of one system that will have to be replaced by another suggests, the reality we face is that for what may only be a short period of time, none of the currencies we use either in physical or digital form, will have any value when it comes to being able to secure anything that we need to buy or survive.

Despite what your immediate thoughts might be after reading that we might find ourselves having to function without any form of money for a period of time, it is within or as part of the collapse of the financial part of the current system where the seedbed of the greatest opportunity for getting everything right for our future exists.

When boiled down to the purest elements or the nuts and bolts of what the current Top-Down hierarchical system really is, it is all about the belief that everything we do or that we can achieve in life is based on money and the accumulation of material wealth, and the power and influence that supposedly goes with it.

At the point when circumstances and practicality tell us through our experience, that this belief, idea, principle, motivation – or whatever you want to call it, no longer works, we will have reached a seminal moment when the light can shine through on the darkness of our current reality, and our true values and understanding of what life is and how it should really be will have an open door to changing life for the better for us all.

I’m not trying to make light of what happens when the world we know that runs on money in every way, simply stops functioning because money doesn’t work anymore.

It will be hard. In fact, it will be very hard. But adversity really is the mother of invention, and it is at this point that we have the opportunity at local, community level to establish a new True Economy, based on Local Market Exchanges, that will feed into and provide the basis of how our entire new system of governance works.

Where and how is it safest to invest now?

Whichever direction you look in, somebody somewhere will be telling you where to put your money. They are making promises about where your money will be safe. Some are even offering you cash back for signing up to loans, finance and other kinds of schemes.

The only part of the messaging put ‘out there’ for everyone’s consumption I agree with right now, is that we are heading at a rapid and increasing pace towards a massive financial crash.

What those so desperate to sell you financial products and even precious metals like silver and gold don’t tell you and probably don’t either realise or already know, is the coming collapse will not just stop with a recession, depression or anything else we equate historically with a ‘financial collapse’.

The collapse, crisis and the problems that go with it are going to be much, much bigger and unlike anything any of us have seen before.

In terms of so-called ‘financial investments’, this could prove problematic and very painful for many of us. Money and every kind of currency based on the current ‘FIAT’ money system, is quite literally about to go over the cliff, to where the intrinsic value of all of it will be found. (ZERO)

The collapse or rather the end of the money-based system or order as we know it, doesn’t mean that money or currencies will have no future use.

It is simply the case that in a People-centric economy, we will only value money and currency as the medium of exchange that it really is. We will no longer value everything and every part of life in monetary terms like we are doing right now and as we have done so before.

We are going to move from a system of finance and governance where money, material wealth, power and influence are the baseline of everything, to one where everything revolves around a reality where we put People First.

This means that the way we value everything today, whether it be houses, cars, holidays, clothes, qualifications, loans, credit cards or anything and everything that relates to money and how it can be used to demonstrate ‘wealth’ will not be valued as we have ever known it to have been before.

The money or currency that we have now will be worthless. And this means that those who are watching the horror story and dark part of this painful but necessary change arrive, will already know that owing money against anything we ‘own’ as we head into this crash, is not a sensible place to be.

You may be desperate to buy a house because you have been led to believe that house ownership is the only way to increase your wealth. But this story is a myth. Right now, that myth is quickly becoming a very dangerous lie.

Please think very carefully about taking on financial debt of any kind. And especially debt that either has variable rates of interest linked directly too it, or which you would be unable to immediately repay in full.

A period of doubt and uncertainty, along with what might be chaos for all:

The transition from a money based economic system to a people focused economic system will not happen in one stroke, or in one moment in time.

There is going to be a period of uncertainty over money and the supply of everything that we have become used to being able to access without any thought.

If you really want to prepare and invest for the future, it is preparing for what you will need to get through this stage of the crisis where you really need to invest and give yourself the springboard into what comes next.

This could be a very challenging time, with social unrest and civil disorder. Planning ahead now is one way that you will be able to reduce the risk to yourself and keep the people you care about safe.

Yes, the money that you have in your pocket or in your bank account right now, has value today. In fact, it will continue to have value right up until the very moment that it doesn’t. This will either be when you don’t have enough – because inflation and prices rises have just gone too far, or it will be when the things that you want are simply no longer available for you to buy on the shelves – because there is no longer any supply.

The best time to make provision for this happening is now. The real value in the money that you have available to invest today, is to invest it in making provision for yourself and the people you are responsible for, so that all the bases are covered then.

Food & Basic Essentials:

The key consideration is food. What will you eat when there isn’t any food on the shelves?

The best way to invest now, is to quite literally start growing your own. So that you have a supply of fresh, healthy food available to you regularly – even if you will always be eating the same things over and over again.

Start stocking up non-perishable items such as canned fish, beans, pasta and anything like that, which can be used many months or even years into the future, as long as it is stored properly and kept safe and dry.

Other items that it would be well worth putting by can be found in a list HERE.

Goods that have value as an exchange:

With money not working, there will be a period of time before the community can get a new system up and running. It will probably take much longer before universality of a local currency is restored.

During this time, bartering and exchange are likely to be the primary method of securing anything that you need from others, that you don’t already have.

Yes, you will probably have many things already that will not have the same value to you, when it’s a question of having enough to eat. But with the values that everyone has changing too, it may quickly become a shock to learn what little value something you value highly in financial terms right now, then really has.

The best way to equip yourself with a real, practical currency so that you are fully equipped and ready to get through this period of time, is to stock up on extras of all the things we have discussed above, so that you can trade them with others for anything you need but don’t have.

It may be as simple as growing more of the vegetables or the fruits than you need, because you have the space or the resources to do so, so that you can trade all that you cannot use for the things that you will.

It’s not the end of the World:

Yes, this all sounds very ‘end of world-ish’. But it isn’t and won’t be. Although it is likely to feel like it is for a period of time.

Change or transition of the kind that we are going to experience isn’t going to come without cost. But we no longer have any choice.

The decision made by politicians, business leaders, bankers and the world elites, to keep pursuing their ideals through globalisation and economics based on nothing more than greed, has committed us all to experiencing the crisis that is on its way next.

But it is within our power to survive and thrive.

You have the choice to remain ‘invested’ emotionally and financially in everything as it is. But you will lose the money and the value you believe that you are investing in any of the financial systems, products and devices that exist today, and what is more, the loss of the freedom that you believe you have and enjoy right now will almost certainly be lost – and that will be the real price that you will have to pay.

The alternative does indeed involve a very big leap of faith. But if you stop buying into the propaganda and take this opportunity to invest in yourself and the part you have to play in your community thereafter, the benefits will soon come to you in every non-financial way.

The pressing need for Local Market Exchanges and Local Market Exchange Platforms

One of the reasons that we should all feel confident that we can survive and thrive through the coming years and months, and that we can all play an active and positive part in creating the new system that is balanced and fair for all, is because much of the creative and innovative thinking is already out there that will build every part of it.

It is just the question of what, why and who people will be doing these things for that has to be settled before work on our new world and The True Economy can begin.

When money doesn’t work for the majority of people, we will have reached a point where things could go a number of ways.

Please look kindly on anyone who loses their shit in these circumstances. Desperation doesn’t excuse poor behaviour of any kind. But it does provide good incentive to organise anything and everything that we have available to our community and the people within it, as quickly as we can.

The first step to maintaining order, is to pool everything that the community has available and to be fully transparent about what the community has, and how it can and will be shared.

If it comes down to a situation where people are going hungry, transactions cannot be based on exchange, and must be based on the simple act of sharing what we have and don’t need for our own immediate requirements, and not on what others can ‘afford’.

The next step is to create a system of fair exchange, that functions on what everyone can give, or what they can trade or barter.

The principle value of this exchange system, or Local Market Exchange, will be based on the time, skills, experience and basic labour that it took to provide whatever the essential foods, goods or services being exchanged might be, or what it would be when the complete process of putting that food, those goods or services would be, when considering the process from end-to-end.

The creation and development of the Local Market Exchange will take place in two primary stages:

  1. Bartering & Exchange of goods, supplies and services that the community already has available, or which it has the ability to grow, manufacture or provide, and
  2. The creation of a new localised currency linking, anchoring or pinning transactional value of foods, goods and services directly to the number of people and/or the contributions (input to the system) that they make.

Developing New Local Currencies (Cryptocurrency, DeFi)

The Basic Living Standard and Basic Living Standard Wage creates the basic principle or governance requirement for how a complete Local Market Exchange, True Economy and System of Governance will work.

Everything quite literally anchors to or hinges upon The Basic Living Standard, which is a universal benchmark, which in terms of the Basic Living Standard Wage, provides the basic exchange rate between all local or decentralized currencies, or any umbrella, centralised or connective currency that then can link them all.

A currency that works on a fair and balanced basis must correspond to its own system of governance.

The fairest, most balanced and most democratic form of governance is where power it attributed and responds in its most local form.

As such – despite the commonalities between different currencies, the power to govern local currencies must remain local – not for the purchase of essentials – but so that non-essential goods, can always be exchanged at rates which correspond to the idiosyncrasies of production in their very localised form.

Beyond the practicalities of the requirements of the Local Market Exchange system, it is also ethically correct to keep the balance of power that accompanies use of digital currencies and finance in their most dispersed, local and transparent form, so that they cannot be used as a leverage tool within an oversized governance system that relies upon coercive control.

Local Decentralised Finance (DeFi) in the form of Local Cryptocurrencies that are linked only by the Basic Living Standard, assure our personal freedom from tyranny in any kind of form, in the most basic sense.

That process or supply chain must always be as simple as its possible for it to be. It is through the accumulation of additional stops or steps in a supply chain that don’t add value, but add additional and unnecessary costs, where so many problems begin.

The roles that we have will be redefined and reconsidered as the evolution of our new system takes hold. In fact, some of the jobs that have been highly regarded for all the wrong reasons during this dark age that is now ending, will simply no longer be ‘needed’ and will no longer have any reason to exist.

A call-out to App, Platform and Crypto Developers who want to support their communities

The chances are that if you are one of the many people with an interest in new currencies, new ways of living and a new (or a return to) people-centric world and way of living who has been reading through Levelling Level, my blogs and material I am continuing to create, you will by now appreciate that the collapse that I have been talking about, is already well underway.

I cannot overstate just how challenging it is for many people to understand that systemic collapse doesn’t necessarily mean that absolutely everything stops.

Because it could very well be the case that not everything stops at the same time, many of those same people will still continue to believe that the world around us is continuing as it always had.

This creates two specific dangers for us all:

  1. That these same people will literally stand still, do nothing and allow those who have created all the problems we have now, to dictate and recreate a system that continues to work only for them, and:
  2. That when things do reach a critical point and we are experiencing social disorder, people will not look to ourselves and to our communities for the answers and the solutions, and instead will continue to listen and go around in circles – back to point 1!

Whilst I have little doubt that the world elites have simply gone too far to turn everything around this time (as they did when they last lost control during the Great Financial Crisis of 2008), it would be foolish to fall back on confidence alone to mitigate the inherent risk, that plans like those being pushed through the WEF narratives will succeed.

Preparation now, is and will be one of the most effective ways to counteract and lesson that risk. But more importantly, it is the best way to help ourselves, then people we care about and everyone within the communities where we live.

There is no doubt, that the success of the Local Market Exchange and the True Economy hinge on building new app-based exchange systems for foods, goods and services, and that these are fully interactive and linked to or with the fully localised or Decentralised Currencies that we need create and correlate them with.

All Local Market Exchanges will need a localised or franchised version of an app that works as follows:

  • Operates within geographical parameters that are definable using existing postal codes or GPRS
  • Allow an item (or group of items) to be swapped directly for a rate of currency to be agreed, OR another item (or group of items) IF the two parties involved in the direct transaction should agree
  • Allows a source of community governance to set the values of basic or essential foods, goods and services, but prohibits any other kind of change.
  • Shows what essentials foods, goods and services are available collectively to the community transparently at all times.
  • Makes any goods that are not essential to community members, (which could be the surplus of otherwise essential foods etc.) available to other Local Market Exchange Franchises – in the order of prioritising immediate neighbours first.
  • Is based on a membership structure that requires sign-in and acceptance of all terms
  • That will either be or can quickly and easily become fully interactive with a new Local Digital Currency that is directly linked to the number of ‘members’ in terms of the structure of its value, with the ability to change or rescind those values on the membership status of each member of that community group
  • That is fully open source.
  • Each ‘franchise’ will be owned by the community that manages it, with a salary to be paid from the local governance body to those administering the system on behalf of it.

Some of you brilliant people will know how to do this now. I realise just how time consuming this could be. However, the contribution that you could be about to make – if you can do this, or contribute to its creation – could be incalculable, in terms of the new world that we have to work together to create.

I will be happy to work with any of you who are developers to write the governance notes and create the process diagrams for the Local Market Exchange system model, so that a formal barter and exchange system that interacts with the creation of a localised Cryptocurrency can be created and be ready for when we need it, so that none of us have only the choice of beginning from the start with no help from others, when things are in a real mess.

It doesn’t matter where in the world you might be. Everything is about to become local in a way that many of us have never seen anything like before. However, it is also vital that we work from those grassroots-up, to ensure cooperation at every level right up to the equivalent of worldwide and international in the way that we understand it right now.

Love is international and has no boundaries. Practical reality always meets us at the front door.

We all have a stake in making sure that each and every community survives and then thrives as we transit through the change from the dark world we are exciting and meet the challenges that we face as we open the door to the new world of balance, fairness and light that lies ahead.

Please talk to me openly on Twitter or Facebook (@LevellingLevel or @AdamTugwell), or get in touch by direct message or by e-mail on levellinglevel@gmail.com

Why a New Economy and a New Economic Model is no longer a choice, but a necessity

The point that many knowledgeable and very clever people are missing, is that they cannot or will not accept that the current economic model or paradigm is broken beyond repair.

They cannot see an alternative, often because it would not be in their own career or financial interests to do so.

However, whilst most of the economically related material in From Here to There Through Now is presented as an alternative, the reality is that whatever the alternative to the FIAT Money-Based-System might be, adopting an alternative is no longer a choice.

The FIAT Money system we have today is in the process of collapse

Perhaps the biggest change that we face in the coming years and months, is that which will accompany the collapse of the money or currencies that we are used to, along with the system or rules that underpin every part of it, the way it functions and the way it can be manipulated by those ‘in the know’.

‘What would we do without money’ is a valid question. But it also reflects the situation and circumstances that we have been in for a long time. One where money has become the reference tool for just about everything – and regrettably for some, the way that we have started to value life itself.

There is no part of the monetary system that we have and use today, that hasn’t been broken and redefined to serve the self-interest and greed of people who have had the power, influence and ability to manipulate the monetary system in some way.

There is a natural order to everything. So even though it may take decades to happen, any system that is wilfully created and manipulated to serve the interests of a few at the cost of the many will always meet its end.

Every ecosystem has a point of balance and when that point of balance is out, the balance must be restored – either by the inhabitants doing the right and respectful thing, or when they refuse to do so, by the system itself breaking and coming to its end through collapse.

This is where we are now.

How we got to a place called stop: The Gold Standard to FIAT

What was historically intended to be a very practical way to exchange what you have for what you need, by creating a medium or go-between, so that your exchange or transaction wouldn’t be held up by what the person or business you wanted something from, wanted in return, has become all about the value of that medium itself.

For a very long time, there was a very distinct set of rules in place that meant the assumed value of money as a medium was underpinned by the value of the gold that the government – or in the UK, The Bank of England, held in its vaults.

This monetary system was known as The Gold Standard.

Over time, Bank Notes and coins became promissory notes, never actually holding the value they represented themselves, but bearing ‘the promise’ that if you were to produce the money you had in your pocket, the Chief Cashier of the BoE would ‘pay the bearer on demand’. (If you have a banknote on you, take it out and have a read of the details on it!)

Money, or rather the value of money has always been played with by ‘those in the know’. But in recent centuries, the way that the real value of money was manipulated with tools such as leverage – where typically a central bank like the BoE was allowed to print perhaps three times (3x) the monetary value of the gold it held.

The more adventurous those playing with the money system became, the more freedom they wanted so that they could do even more. After all, right from the very start, it was those who knew the so-called ‘secrets’ of money, that would always end up with more and more of the stuff.

In the history of money, the most influential or pivotal moment that led to where we are today came in 1971, when the US financial system rejected and removed the anchoring that The Gold Standard provided, and the current trajectory based on the FIAT Money system was born.

Realities of the FIAT system

There is nothing small about the irony that the introduction of the FIAT money system we have today was overseen by US President Richard Nixon, who was later impeached and had to resign because of dishonesty in Office.

There is little doubt that Nixon did away with The Gold Standard and brought FIAT in under the influence of the post-war business and explosive consumer culture that had grown exponentially in just two decades.

The role and use of money was quite literally being restrained by the rules that were meant to restrain it. Those with influence wanted to legitimise their freedom to do whatever they liked with money so that they could make more of it. This was the real moment that money became the real king.

As money, greed and the envy that propels it replaced the real system of human value, it also began to jet propel those who had most of it to the top of the ‘Top-Down’ hierarchical structure we currently have.

The ‘Top-Down’ system is where money and wealth are everything. Every part of the system corresponds to what you earn, what you spend and what you have.

There have always been wealthy people, but they have never been assumed to be ‘qualified’ previously, in the way that we do today’s ‘Billionaires’.

The FIAT Money Culture has made us all sick

We don’t realise it, but the money system we have is not only sick, but it has also been making us sick too.

Like every other addiction we could become blinded by, under its intoxication and the stupor that accompanies money today, we do not perceive either the harm it does us personally, or how it has numbed our inhibitions or values, to how we act, treat other people and how we generally behave.

Just like every substance we can otherwise abuse, the damage we can do to ourselves and those around us personally with our relationship with money does have limitations. But those limitations simply don’t exist when the addiction that surrounds the money and greed culture are prevalent – if not even worse – amongst those who are already at the top.

FIAT Money and the myth that the elites can print money and create value out of thin air without real cost

I could write an entire series of books on the technical workings of the FIAT monetary system. But many good books, videos and podcasts already exist, and there is little to be gained by taking any more time to talk about the detailed workings of a system that is about the break and will have to be replaced.

The point about FIAT is that the politicians, bankers and financiers who control the system have maintained that control by printing more and more money that isn’t itself pinned to anything of value being introduced to the economy or economic ecosystem that we have.

There are fixed or finite numbers of cars that exist, houses that can be built or tons of grain that can be grown and put in a shed.

Yes, the output may grow over time. But the amount of money that has been literally forced into the system – so that those in control can either have or do more, or both – has meant that what already exists – that’s what you or I earn or have as cash or in the bank, is always becoming less in real terms.

One of the most perverse elements of the FIAT part of the greed-driven story is the way that property values have continually shot up, giving the false perception of growing wealth – just as long as you actually own property, or can afford to buy it in the first place.

The rich get richer whilst the poorer get poorer has never been truer.

But a system built on nothing more than a myth or clear air was never going to last.

FIAT was always doomed. The speed of its damnation was always directly proportional to the stupidity of those in charge.

So, it was only ever a question of when those in control would succeed in devaluing that which the poorest had to the point where they couldn’t afford to survive under the rules of a system that the wealthy had themselves created.

For a long time, the continuing future of ‘Top-Down’ depended upon whether between them, the elites who influence the political classes could reimagine their top-heavy system in a way that would maintain the necessary belief of the masses. All before they lost control of the whole thing and it finally collapsed.

They had been working on solutions for a long time. But then Brexit, Covid and War in Ukraine came along, as did the ridiculous knee-jerk and ill-considered responses of the political classes. The elites then realised – like we are all about to, that their bogus greed-based system has now run out of time.

Our Divorce from FIAT Money

I sat for a time, thinking about the best way to make sense of a key part of The Great Reset that WE MUST OWN. What we are going to experience as the collapse of the monetary system that we know and have been led to believe serves our best interests.

I realised that the easiest way to describe it will be like that of going through a divorce. The process went like this:

We got together with and committed to an all-in relationship, lifestyle and way of living where we have compromised who we really are, because we convinced ourselves that this was what we needed, that we couldn’t live without it, and that this is who we really are. Over time, little things became evident that started to tell us that we weren’t really that happy with the choice and commitment that we had made, but we then talked ourselves out of acknowledging or dealing with the downsides we were uncovering, because to reject any of it would be to reject all of it, and that might come at too high a cost. Over time, the problems we experienced just accumulated and the pain we were experiencing just got worse and worse. Then we had a lucid moment when reality finally hit home and shouted, ‘this really isn’t you!’. We accepted it was in our best interests to divorce.

This might immediately resonate. It might not. But if it doesn’t, you might want to think about or perhaps visualise all the other kinds of reasons – usually painful and unpleasant – that bring a major relationship to an end.

One way or another, that divorce or end of our very personal relationship with money and all currencies based on or built around the FIAT system is fast approaching its end.

The good news here is that you don’t need to get an expensive lawyer. In fact, the benefits in the long term will make you happier, feel more relaxed, feel in control of your life and be at peace with everything in a way you might not even be able to imagine right now. And it all begins with the way that YOU think.

A point will come where you will be faced with the reality that the money you have is worthless. It won’t matter what form it is in – whether its cash, savings, bonds, shares, pensions, crypto or any other form that we currently equate with ‘wealth’ that is tied, anchored to or built around the FIAT system. It’s all going to return to the intrinsic value that our politicians, bankers and financiers have given it, just so they could extend their own bogus power, influence and wealth.

Money = ZERO VALUE.

It’s time to begin a new economy and story around it. It’s time to accept that the basic unit of value in any economy is the people within it. Not the wealth they can create.

The People First Economy

Everything today, is about money. Everything tomorrow will be about people, community and the environment around us.

By focusing on people and by using The Basic Living Standard as the focus, aim and benchmark, all areas of life that are currently out of sync and causing problems in any way that it is possible to imagine, will come back into balance, parity and fairness – so that everything works as it should, in a healthy way for all.

Starting anew: The economic phoenix without any need for ashes being involved

So, lets imagine we have reached the point where the financial system as we know it has collapsed.

Money simply doesn’t work. What happens next?

Well, people need to eat. People need to be able to buy essential food. People then need to be able to secure the basic essentials that they need too.

With no money in circulation, or no money that has value in circulation, people will begin to exchange or swap what they have and have accepted they don’t need, or can do without, for the things that they do need and that they cannot do without.

No law, regulation or threat from any authority will stop this.

When people are going hungry or need to provide, they will do whatever they can to secure whatever it is they need, and swapping, exchanging or bartering is a lot more civilized than what will happen if theft or violence becomes the next step by default.

The good news for us all, is that whilst the system may have collapsed around us, the technology and infrastructure are unlikely to have disappeared. The issue we face is that the technology and infrastructure isn’t currently set up to work in a very localised or microeconomic way, when this is how we need technology, infrastructure and the governance that oversees it, to help all of us.

A True Economy is all about People. Not money. Not things.

The foundation of the new economic system ‘The True Economy’ will be the value that we place on people in a very practical and measurable way: The input or contribution that each person makes.

The ‘True Economy’ is quite literally all about putting People First.

By basing and then building our entire economy on the value of the input or the contribution that each person makes, we will create The Basic Living Standard for All.

It will be the priority of our whole new system of governance to maintain The Basic Living Standard, as by doing so, the majority of the social problems that we have, won’t just disappear or be removed from view. They will be gone for good.

A True Economy is founded on value that each person contributes to it, partnered by the raw materials and resources that the world and environment gifts us

We have sadly all been drawn into an interpretation of life where money and the wealth that it appears to give us is considered to now be the benchmark or reference point for everything.

We literally value money to the point where it has not only become a thing in its own right, but it has also become the de facto god or deity that rules each and every part of our lives.

Today, we look upon others in terms of what they have, what status they hold, what they earn and what capacity they have to earn.

Yet the intrinsic value of money is nothing.

Money is worth zero.

Money is a unit of exchange and nothing more.

It is simply a change in our beliefs that has allowed the value of money to take over our lives in this way.

What we not only fail to realise, but have actually forgotten, is that the real point of value in anything is its beginning or its foundation. What it was built on or built with.

The true value of anything is not even the end product, or whatever the parts, inputs or elements of any constructive process add up to – or what things become.

People, or each and every human being on the planet are the basic elements or building blocks of The True Economy.

It is the Labour, Time, Skills and Experience of PEOPLE that add value, through process, to the raw materials and resources that we take from the world.

The Basic Principles of The True Economy

Each and every person should always have the right to contribute to the Economy on terms that are universally accepted through a Basic Living Standard. So that for the equivalent of a week’s contribution of the most basic kind of labour, they can be self-sufficient. Or through choice, ability or accumulation over time, they can add recognisable value to the contribution they can make, through the assimilation of skills and experience.

Neither people, nor the raw materials or basic resources that the world and environment offer should ever be under the control of private commercial interests.

The economic value of the person should always be definable on their own terms, with the only exception being at any time that they need help or support from the community to be able to live, when it should always be applied at the same rate or standard as the Basic Living Standard for All.

Resources such as Land, Water, Mineral Deposits, Fossil Fuel Deposits and anything that is derived from these are and should always be treated and regarded not as being ‘owned’, but as being the source of raw materials for every purpose and are under the stewardship or directive of the community at large.

Where any resource or raw material is not being used expressly for the production of the things that people or our communities need, those using or borrowing those resources should only do so under a non-negotiable license, that requires rent or a form of tax at a level that makes plundering and misuse of those resources unprofitable. It must also make provision for maintaining or where necessary restoring the environment from any impact that processing of anything beyond what we need will have.

The Value Benchmark of economic input in The True Economy = Labour, Time, Skills, & Experience

Our Time, Labour, Skills and Experience are the basic units that give value to what we can contribute to the world, to our communities. To The True Economy.

These units of value – our Time, our Labour, our Skills, our Experience, are what we have to use or to exchange before anything for the things that we need.

It is Time, Labour, Skills & Experience that develop and process every resource and raw material from their basic forms to everything that we need, including the machines, computers and tools that we undertake those processes with.

In a world that should always be focused on people and the worlds environment itself, we must be responsible enough to understand, accept and most importantly maintain, that it will always be the contributary elements of the human Time, Labour, Skills & Experience that it takes us as a community to sustain a Basic Living Standard, where the key values that determine how our Economy works – no matter how deceptively large it may be.

So-called economies of scale or ‘efficient’ working in the production of all essential foods and goods, should always be taxed to ensure that the prices of end products reflect the true level of human input for their end-to-end production, no matter what machines or labour-saving devices or technologies have been introduced. This will ensure that the value of everyone and the contribution they can make in creating and securing what we need, can always be maintained.

The transition from the Global FIAT Money Economy to The Localised True Economy ‘Exchange’

When the money that we have and use has lost its perceived value – as it is almost certain that it now will, the most orderly transition we could have to The True Economy and our new ‘post Top-Down world’ will not be possible until we leave the money and currencies we have behind and recognise their true value – which is nothing.

Yes, in time we will need to re-establish currency as a practical means of exchange. These new currencies might even still be called $Dollars or £Pounds.

However, we cannot create and develop the True Economy and ensure that the governance is agreed and secured that will ensure we always attribute value to everything in the way that we should, unless we recognise what the priorities dictated by genuine need really are first.

To bring an ordered system that works for all using money as a medium, we have to remember, recall and reinstate the basics of that order before we do.

The process begins first by recognising that money no longer works. It then continues by accepting that to survive and thrive, we must have a system of exchange at least temporarily in its place.

The end of the money system for many will come in the form of a crisis or critical point that they will recognise when they don’t have enough money to secure the basics that are essential to life.

Others will have to be big enough to recognise that the game is quite literally up, and that they can make a positive contribution to change, before avoidable circumstances finally give them an unwelcome push too.

Survival during this period of crisis and transition from the old system to the new, will rely on exchanging whatever we have, or we can offer to others, to secure whatever we need in return.

When we were children, and we swapped sticker cards, sweets, marbles or anything else we no longer needed but might want to exchange for something that we did, the stakes were no higher than the emotional value that you attribute to either. A process which may not have felt like it but was nonetheless very much under our own control.

When we are faced with the realities of swapping or exchanging anything that we have so that we or the people we care or are responsible for can continue to have the basic foods and goods that are essential to survive and live, the stakes will not feel like they could be higher. For many the emotional entrenchment of that process will reach to the sky.

It is inevitable that bartering and exchange will take place between individuals as reality begins to hit all of us very hard.

However, one-to-one transactions in these circumstances are likely to lead to greater levels of frustration, anger and violence than necessary.

The best way to address social issues in the community quickly and effectively will be to establish a non-monetary Local Market Exchange – that will also form the basis upon which The True Economy can begin.

The Basic Principles of Non-Monetary Exchange

What anyone wants, rather than what they need, will always be priced on the basis of what the ‘giver’ and get and what the ‘taker’ can afford.

The purpose of creating a non-monetary Local Exchange is to bring order to the transactions between people that involve the production and provision of the basic foods and goods that are essential for us all to live.

It is the first rule of a good community, that everyone adheres to the rules that are there to benefit and be fair to everyone, and especially so when they are there to ensure that everything that governs processes that apportion that which is available by sharing between everyone, is balanced and therefore proportional in every respect.

It is essential that everyone is fully committed to taking part, and that no level or partial form of opting out is allowed, so that people can do favours for friends or secure a higher return by taking part in a ‘black market’ or doing business on the side.

Yes, an individual should be able to opt out. But if they opt out in part, their non-participation should be taken as being in full and they should be excluded from taking any further part.

It is essential that all foods, goods and services offered are transparent and openly available to everyone within the community and participating within the system of exchange. The Local Exchange System will not be fair to everyone, if participants are able to ‘pick and choose’, as it will literally skew the value of everything on offer and diminish the value of ‘the community’ – taking us all immediately back to where we have just come from.

The People First Economy revolves around the mechanics of a real minimum wage: Welcome to the Basic Living Standard

The Basic Living Standard for All is based on what we would today recognise as the minimum or living wage.

Today’s minimum or living wage is just a sum that is set by government as the minimum amount per hour that every employer must pay.

The Basic Living Standard instead tells suppliers of essential foods, goods and services, what the recipient of The Basic Living Standard Wage will be able to pay for everything that is set within the standard. Suppliers will not be able to charge more for essential foods, goods and services.

It would be a legal requirement that every supplier provides essential foods, goods and services of some kind. ‘Luxury’ products must always be secondary purpose, not the primary purpose of any business or organisation. They will not be able to develop their primary business, based on what people can ‘afford’.

Through the creation and implementation of The Basic Living Standard, we will give back the real value that is provided to us all, by everyone who at any time contributes to the community by working in any basic employment or role.

It is essential for everyone to recognise the value to all of our lives, that the most basic of roles actually have.

People who pick fruit. People who empty our bins. People who fix the roads. People who stack the supermarket shelves. People who deliver parcels and takeaways to our doors. People who make and serve our coffees. People who serve us a pint in the pub.

These are the people who undertake all of the very different tasks that make our life experiences easier in the most real and everyday sense.

These are the people who must be recognised through the award of The Basic Living Standard Wage, so that contributing to all our lives by filling any of these roles can be a genuine and happy lifestyle choice.

Some Working Values for the People First Economy?

If you have read this far into From Here to There Through Now, it’s pretty safe for me to confirm that this whole work isn’t and never was supposed to be a rulebook or any kind of fixed plan. Rather a guide or stepping off point with many discussion points to begin this journey along the way.

There’s so much that I haven’t written, not least of all because I am just one person, and we all have a role to play and influence to bring to reshape, create and determine all that happens next.

As I wrote, I found that there were ideas spilling out on to paper that even I thought weren’t ready to be published, or would seem a step too far to consider, when much of this will already feel – at the time of publishing – like one colossal quantum leap!

The truth is, that what seems pretty ‘out there’ today, will not do so for very much longer.

In this Chapter, I have published some of the pages that have already been written, but haven’t been published elsewhere.

Local Market Exchanges: Suggested Foundations of Value

For the purposes of illustration and suggestion, I am going to call the unit of currency for The People First Economy a ‘Goal’ and give it ^ as its symbol.

So, if we begin with the BLSW being set at 75 units per agreed working week, it would be written like this: ^75

^75 is the rate that everyone will have available to them as a gross wage, before any deductions are made.

The percentage apportionments for essential foods, goods and services will be set at agreed levels:

The Essentials:% Proportion of Income / Time (Suggested)
Basic Food20
Accommodation20
Utilities10
Healthcare5
Transport5
Clothing5
Communication5
Entertainment5
Savings, Investments & Other Eventualities15
Taxation and/or Community Contribution10
  
TOTAL (%):100

To establish the system, every entrant to it must be given or awarded a residual value, so that the total value of the currency available within the system is always proportionally and directly related to everyone who exists.

So, at the establishment of the system, let’s say each person is awarded ^75.

The ^75 apportioned to each entrant is added to the Local Market Exchange Balance Sheet, so that a ‘market value’ and record of the ‘Goal Currency’ always exists from that point.

The entrant can spend the ^75 or begin using it as a medium of exchange within the Local Market Exchange immediately. But the entrant can never withdraw or draw into this sum in cash or equivalent form.

When the entrant leaves the system, the ^75 must be removed from the Local Market Exchange Balance Sheet.

New-born babies (and children under 14) would be added to the system @ ^25, with their ‘account’ being managed by their parents or guardians until they are 14 years of age, with a further ^50 added to their own independent account.

Local Market Exchanges: The value of currency is anchored to the value of the contribution or input that every person makes

We have established that money and cryptos or digital finance in their current forms have no real value, other than what any of us believe.

The existing money or currency system may now be over (even if it doesn’t look like its over yet), but that doesn’t mean that physical money and cryptocurrencies won’t have a place in our future.

In fact, digital currency in local forms that are built on a Local Market Exchange platform or exchange, will be the best way for our communities and a world built on many local supply chains and microeconomies to go.

To make them work properly, we have to give or attribute a system around them, that underpins their value as a medium or a unit of exchange.

The basic unit of value is the Basic Living Standard Wage, or any part or unit thereof.

The figure agreed for The Basic Living Standard Wage is not the important factor.

Once the whole system works around The Basic Living Standard, the figure itself is a technicality.

It is the value or de facto guarantee that we attribute to it that is where the importance of the whole principle must be placed.

Working from home, Sports, Spiritual well-being and Sundays (or their equivalents) off

In an economy where you work only to live, rather than being expected to live to work, we will all be much happier with the way that our days are broken down.

A working week will cover five and a half days and be the same for everyone in our new localised world, with only very few public services needed to be operated around the clock.

Working from home (WFH) will be normal for every job where no physical presence is required, with those who have to attend their place of employment to do their work doing so very locally and paid higher remuneration if there is any need for them to travel beyond their locality.

Saturday afternoons should be dedicated to community activities and sport, which should always be participatory for those who wish to take part.

Sundays shouldn’t normally be commercial or work-focused in any way and should be a day of rest and spiritual development in whatever way anyone would choose that to be.

Weekdays are used for illustrative purposes only. Different Religions place different values on different days of the week, and there is nothing contrary to the principles of a People First Economy if rest days or spiritual days should be defined as a personal preference or choice. In fact, the overlap is likely to be beneficial to the community, ensuring that the number of those working when others with shared priorities are not is kept to the absolute minimum in every respect.

A Public Sector Run by and for us all

The system of Community Contributions will allow the cost, influence and involvement of the public sector to be returned to the level where it should be, with its focus being service to the community and not as a business or sector in its own right as it now is seen by too many to be.

There will always be a need for full-time roles. But the emphasis will return to front line professionals that carry out purposeful and dedicated professional roles, such as Police Officers, Doctors, Nurses, Firefighters and Paramedics, rather than disproportionately sized backrooms and systems of managers behind them, that refocus energy and resources away from what public services are actually there for.

Taxation & Community Contributions

Taxation would run not on a Pay as You Earn basis (as in the UK now) or as a simple income tax.

Taxation would run as a Flat Tax at the equivalent of 10% of income, OR the contribution of one-half days’ work, within any basic role that the community needs fulfilled, or the equivalent professional skill that the individual can offer – if and only if it is something that the community needs.

Community contributions rather than tax would be obligatory for a period of 5 years from the end of full time any person’s period of full-time study or apprenticeship (vocational pathway), which would normally be 21 years.

The half day to be worked as a contribution to the community would be given ‘back’ at any time during the standard working week which would be mornings and afternoons on Mondays to Fridays and Saturday mornings too.

Employers would be expected to release staff during the week, with any such absence made up on Saturday mornings.

The Basic Living Standard

If there was one thing and only one thing from everything that I have written, discussed, suggested and proposed, that I would ask everyone to really think about and consider, it would be The Basic Living Standard, put in the context of being the alternative basis to our way of thinking, to the way that we regrettably all think now.

The Basic Living Standard is ridiculously simple as a principle. But it runs into trouble immediately, simply because it runs contrary to everything that we are used to and therefore, the way that we currently think.

If you can look at the way you will challenge the principle or nature of the Basic Living Standard, as soon as you here your inner voice say ‘it won’t work because’, you will have just found the first of many reasons that become barriers behind you, rather than in front of you, just as soon as you can see that a people-centric life is an all-encompassing direction of travel for the world, rather than a money-based one. It is just question of turning everything and harnessing everything we know to face a different way.

The Basic Rule of The True Economy or Grassroots-Up System |

There is one fundamental rule of a new system that is balanced, fair and works for everyone: That every rule and law remain subservient and respectful in relation to the Basic Living Standard, and that its existence or impact will or cannot compromise the principle of The Basic Living Standard in any way, no matter how unrelated in may appear to be.

In effect, the adoption of The Basic Living Standard, whether that be as a resetting of the current system of governance or as the result of quite literally everything stopping and then starting all over again, is the act of completely overturning the Top-Down or hierarchical system of governance, and turning the whole thing on its head, so that the system becomes ‘Grassroots-Up’.

The Basic Living Standard is the rule that puts people first, instead of the prioritisation of money, the accumulation of material wealth, power, influence and gaining more of anything and everything before considering anyone else.

A Fair and Balanced Society can only work properly and maintain the fundamental equality of its system by creating and maintaining a framework of rules relating to everything that ensures that the material independence of the person cannot and will not be compromised by either the action or will of any other, and that it is the primary objective of the community and any structure of governance around or beyond it, to ensure that this principle is maintained at all times.

By adopting and maintaining the principle of The Basic Living Standard, the overwhelming number of issues that society faces will be addressed.

As long as the individual remains respectful of the dynamics of the principle of The Basic Living Standard which is and always be ‘treat others how you wish to be treated yourself’, almost everything that needs to be fixed, needs answers or requires solutions will create its own fix.

The Basic Living Standard (BLS) Defined:

Adults, working a full working week in any job at any level, must be able to feed, house, clothe and provide adequately for their own transport needs, whilst providing basic necessities such as communication themselves, without the need for credit, loans, benefits or third-party support of any kind.

Everything must prioritise The Basic Living Standard as its focus and run with this priority in mind at all times.

For absolute balance and fairness across society, the commitment to that system of balance through fairness must be absolute too.

How The Basic Living Standard works in practical terms: The BLS Wage (BLSW)

The Basic Living Standard (BLS) functions on the proportional division of what a working adult would earn for the equivalent of a working week in the lowest paid role.

The BLS Wage must itself always equate or be equal to the minimum amount necessary for that same adult to live safely, securely and healthily in a self-sustainable way, without the need of any kind of subsidy, or the requirement to engage in debt of any kind.

It is likely that the immediate thought of many reading this will be something along the lines of ‘But that’s not the way that wages work. We get paid and then we see what we can afford!’ – or something like that.

But this is the thinking of the old age. It is the thinking of the system and the governance that we are now leaving. It is the thinking of a system that is about what’s best for somebody somewhere else. It is the thinking that always prioritises someone other than us – all too often without you, me or any of us realising that’s the way that it always works.

Once we have set the framework that says the first rule of the new system will always be the principle of the BLS Wage, then everything that relates to or relies upon it, will have to redirect, recalculate, reform, reset and even restore.

The BLS and The BLS Wage will mean that people and personal freedom through material independence will ultimately be assured.

The BLS Wage and The Basic Living Standard will dictate that greed or the accumulation of wealth of any kind, will no longer lead the way for everyone in how they conduct their lives.

Personal Freedom through material independence is how life should always be.

The Basic Living Standard Wage (BLSW): Proportionality & Breakdown

In Levelling Level, we discussed what everyone’s genuine basic requirements to function and survive at a basic level are.

The Foods, Goods & Services that provide for everyone’s basic requirements are essential.

Essential Foods, Goods & Services are what each of us need. They are not what we want.

What we need and what we want are two very different things.

The Basic Living Standard is a benchmark that means anyone who genuinely wants to work to live, rather than live to work has the choice to do so. That in return for providing the most basic functionality to fulfil the most basic role, the individual can live and maintain their own Personal Freedom through material independence.

The Basic Living Standard is not inflationary. Therefore, the Basic Living Standard Wage is not inflationary.

If a person wants more than the Basic Living Standard, they will have the option to gain more through the accumulation of skills, experience and/or time served that they can then offer to fulfil the needs of business and/or the community.

People can fulfil a role that needs a greater level of skill or experience once they have it, but the role cannot change or be awarded a higher wage, just because it’s what that person wants.

If the principles of The Basic Living Standard are always being adhered to, the highest wage within any organisation will find its own natural ceiling. However, this will take time and in the first instance, it is suggested that the highest paid employee or income earner within any organisations should not receive a gross income larger than the Basic Living Standard Wage any greater than five times (5x).

The following Table provides a suggested breakdown of how the BLSW should be apportioned:

The Essentials:% Proportion of Income / Time (Suggested)
Basic Food20
Accommodation20
Utilities10
Healthcare5
Transport5
Clothing5
Communication5
Entertainment5
Savings, Investments & Other Eventualities15
Taxation and/or Community Contribution10
  
TOTAL (%):100

Businesses & Industries must back-work or redefine their prices based on providing the BLSW to their lowest paid employees

In Levelling Level, we used the term ‘The Great Correction’ as a way of describing the ‘reset’, ‘restart’ or complete flipping of the system in which we are now beginning to engage. For practical reasons and so that it is relatable, we have increasingly referred to this process as ‘The Great Reset’ – simply because the world Elites and World Economic Forum have been building a narrative around this term and it is vital that we all recognise that ownership of this process of change and the future beyond it is ours. It is not theirs.

Calling the process, The Great Correction, is likely to prove to be the most accurate term, as whatever is done or however we look at it, unless the world is completely destroyed, there will be restarts, reestablishment and resets of everything at all levels. Everything will be corrected so that it works fairly and in a balanced way – as it always should.

With the collapse of the current system taking place like a series of falling dominoes, where one is knocked and then they all follow, it may perhaps seem strange that the reconstruction process that will create our new world, will happen or be set in motion in a very similar way.

It is the adoption of The Basic Living Standard and with it, The Basic Living Standard Wage that will be the first principle that must be adopted. Adoption of the Basic Living Standard Wage will serve to be the first domino that knocks over all the others that need to fall into place so that the Basic Living Standard becomes the benchmark for all.

Our system of governance only has to adopt and get the framework that guarantees The Basic Living Standard right, to set off the process that will ensure that it works and operates in every way that it should.

Once the Basic Living Standard becomes the principle upon which all rules and laws governing business and finance are based, all activities will then realign away from profit to people.

Defining where the prices of ‘Essentials’ should be

Within the system that is based upon The Basic Living Standard, there are two forms or streams of commerce which can be identified: The Foods, Goods and services that we need (The Essentials) and The Foods, Goods and Services that we want (The non-essentials).

The retail or consumer cost prices of ‘Essentials’ and every part of the process that provide for them must always correspond to the requirements of The Basic Living Standard in every way.

If all the rules and principles of The True Economy and the Basic Living Standard that underpin it are followed in every way, the system will function as it is intended to do so and as it should.

On this basis, business and industry would be able to rely on the following basic formulas to identify where the prices of Essential Foods, Goods & Services or their proportional attribution. For purposes of illustration, this Table is based on the current Minimum or Living Wage (£9.50 per hour, per 40-hour week) and shows us what maximum corresponding prices or compounded values should be:

The Essentials:Monthly % AttributionEnd of Month Value £UK
Basic Food20329.33
Accommodation20329.33
Utilities10164.67
Healthcare582.33
Transport582.33
Clothing582.33
Communication582.33
Entertainment582.33
Savings, Investments & Other Eventualities15247.00
Taxation and/or Community Contribution10164.67

For anyone attempting to gauge how unaffordable life really is for people on the minimum wage and why we are in a cost of living crisis today, this table demonstrates just how much they would or should be paying, if their wages were to be apportioned in a way that was both affordable and fair for the basic essentials at the end of each month as things stand in May 2022, with there being no requirement for Benefits Payments (subsidy) or taking on debt (loans & credit cards etc) in any way.

For reasons of practicality the attribution or proportionality percentages suggested are likely to be changed before the Basic Living Standard Wage system is adopted.

However, the change is unlikely to be any more or any less that 1 or 2 percentage points either way (+/- 1 or 2 %).

Rates of apportionment will never be changed because one interest or another claims that their business or industry wants, is entitled to or must have more.

The relationship between the Basic Living Standard Wage (Minimum Wage) and the cost of monthly essentials MUST remain fixed

The relationship between the Basic Living Standard Wage (BLSW) and the monthly prices or values attributed to Essentials or the combinations that make that value thereof, MUST always remain static, for a Fair & Balanced Society to function and for the True Economy underpinned by the Basic Living Standard to work.

Setting the exact value of the Basic Living Standard Wage, versus the End of Month value of any Essential Cost is not the most challenging issue to be faced.

In today’s terms, the Minimum Wage would have to rise, or the current prices would have to fall to meet the requirement of the change either way.

Because of the emotional ties that we have to the perceived value of the £Pound ($Dollar etc), it will be practical to use another form of nomenclature or currency in order to establish the Basic Living Standard and Basis Living Standard Wage at least on a temporary basis.

Quality of life for everyone should never hinge on one name!

The Basic Living Standard: A Direction

Everyone is looking for answers to the growing number of problems that we are all experiencing. But what many of us don’t realise is that the difficulties that we now face all boil down to the way that the world – or the system around us works, and has been doing so without real scrutiny, for a very long time.

Today, the world operates in a Top-Down and hierarchy-heavy way. It does this, because everything has become money or wealth centric, and completely focused on what people have, what they earn, what they are or what they can be. The whole undercurrent is little more than greed.

To put everything right, we have no choice but to change and put people first.

The Basic Living Standard is the benchmark and foundation of how we can create a very different world where everyone has the same framework of support from which to step off into life from the start.

Yes, it’s a very different way of looking at life, at people and at the world. But at its heart is the reality that if we want life to work fairly and in a balanced way for everyone and not least of all ourselves, we have to make every decision about life and living not with money, the accumulation of wealth and what everything costs us personally; but with people, with relationships and with what’s really important in life, in mind instead.

The Basic Living Standard is “The winning line where everyone crosses, or nobody crosses at all”

The Basic Living Standard is the practical living formula for a people centric, vales-based world that is balanced and fair to everyone in each and every part of life

Success and results are always related to the use of formulas, whether it be in the form of an algorithm or what we learn through our experiences in life.

Creating and maintaining a people-centric and values-based world is no different, and the Basic Living Standard is the formula that once adopted universally will lead to a fair, balanced and values-centric life.

The Basic Living Standard can be defined as:

Adults, working a full working week in any job at any level, must be able to feed, house, clothe and provide adequately for their own transport needs, whilst providing basic necessities such as communication themselves, without the need for credit, loans, benefits or third-party support of any kind.

The people-centric, fair, balanced and values-based world that is ready and waiting, hidden in plain sight

Few may see it or even understand what it would mean for us all, but the alternative to this destructive and inhuman money and wealth-obsessed world exists and has always existed hidden in plain sight from us today.

The difference between the two worlds is surprisingly simple, but on its own would be perhaps the most challenging voluntary choice to make.

The choice for us is literally to reject the money and material wealth-based order, and to live a people-centric and values-based lifestyle in its place.

The change to a people-first order, isn’t about the rejection of money itself or even the latest forms of technology and advancements that we have; everything in a balanced and fair world still has its place.

The choice is about refocusing, returning and reforming our basic values set, so that we place value on only the ways of being and the experiences that should be valued, instead of placing value only on external ‘things’.

Learn to see or hear the news and understand how much of it is opinion or distanced from facts

In the blogs and pages I wrote specifically with the idea of DIY Politics in mind, I focused on our need to begin and to become good at filtering all of the information that is being pumped at us from every direction.

It’s not nice to think that we are being conned and even harder to admit that we have been, if we for even the slightest moment believe that we will look silly for having been so.

The reality is that to one degree or another, EVERYONE has been conned by the system that is now collapsing around us – even the people who still think that they are in charge and in control of what happens next.

The basic but nonetheless profound challenge in terms of our relationship with the world, is to cut through the noise and listen to the messages that the world outside of us is so desperate for us to forget.

Actually, it’s not the world outside of us. It’s just what the world outside of us represents. It’s what somebody else wants from us, or what someone else wants us to do.

The only really genuine source of guidance we should be listening to, is what comes from deep inside. Our gut feelings, our instincts, our inner voice or whatever you want to call the messaging system that we can really depend on – that often doesn’t even come with words or a voice – is the only thing that any of us should really allow ourselves to trust.

We will have to work with many others that the way the current material driven world suggests that we cannot trust – because they don’t currently have power, a public platform or a job title that tells us that they show us the example of who we need or should be.

So when people we don’t know or don’t recognise come into our lives and offer to take a lead and provide the help that we will need, it will be vital that we put our faith in what feels right, rather than what we are being told is right, and that above all, we can identify and then reject anything we might be able to call ‘Fake News’.

Fake news is a term that we have heard an awful lot of. But is it really all ‘fake’? Can we really trust journalists because they appear to be credible or represent a media outlet that appears legitimate from the outside? Are influencers and public personalities credible just because they have a platform with a ridiculous number of ‘likes’ or ‘follows’?

Speakers & ‘Influencers’ who need to invent credibility because their arguments have none:

Like most subjects being knocked around in the forums of public debate today, fake news is just another ridiculous umbrella term that has been coined by someone who wants to dismiss the arguments or facts being given by someone they disagree with, and they felt the need to be able to hide the inadequacy of their own views or ability to engage in a sensible debate by hiding it behind terms that people go along with – because the term sounds credible and they are afraid of what will happen if they don’t.

In this specific sense, throwing around terms like fake news just to dismiss someone else’s point of view is not only lazy; it is pretty much the same resorting to being nasty or calling people names when you are desperate to hide the truth in what they have to say.

Alternative Truths or Perceptions of the same experience or things:

OK, so fake news is a broader church. But that broader church is most often the difference that exists between one person’s truth, and the truth or true perspective on the same situation or topic as observed or experienced by someone else.

It doesn’t matter how persuasive an argument from one side can be. From the perspective of the individual, none of us experiences the same thing in exactly the same way. Indeed, even in an accident where only you are involved, there are always at least two truths: what actually happened, and then there’s how you experienced it yourself – i.e., your own.

Opinion presented as News:

Finally, there’s news which is actually opinion. And no, opinion is certainly not news in itself. Unless that is you were quite literally reporting something very subjective such as a story about a celebrity making a public statement about which political party they are going to support.

Regrettably, journalism within the mainstream has either become so poor or so corrupted by the wishes and aims of media platform owners, that very few of the so-called professionals that we access through supposedly credible channels every day, either don’t have the self-awareness to discern between what is the news and their own opinion, or they are deliberately pushing their opinions and abusing their position to influence the public in any number of different ways.

Learning to be a Critical Thinker:

Any one or all of the above may be at work within the news sources that you watch, read or listen to. It is therefore very healthy for us all to watch, read and listen with care.

Pick out the facts. Acknowledge and respect the content and presence of the opinion. But above all, do not let the opinion you have heard then influence how you feel about or how you have interpreted the news.

The easiest way to learn critical thinking – if you have not been taught and you don’t have the time to study the skill by reading a book or studying a course – is to follow and where possible read as many different sources on the same topics as you can.

Just by following different journalists and media platforms from right across the spectrum, you can quickly begin to appreciate the common themes – which on a universal basis will probably be the real news – and then begin to see the opinions, biases and yes – the propaganda at work.

Whatever you do, don’t let tribal thinking stop you from watching, reading or listening to media sources that are outside your ‘bubble’ or sit outside the mainstream. This is how echo chambers are created. It’s how we easily fall into group think. It’s how the destructive processes of relying on confirmation bias to legitimise views and perspectives is born.

It would be fair to say that even the most objective of writers will present their stories with a little bias – even if it really is the lightest touch. Simply because we communicate outwardly with the world based upon our past experiences and what information and interpretations of everything, we have experienced we have then taken within.

However, once you can break down the structure of a news report, an interview or even a Facebook Post or a Tweet, you will soon realise that all forms of news and information about current affairs can be a much safer place that we are being told or than it would immediately seem.

Stop reacting and being blinded by the agenda. Be proactive. Help create and frame a new system that works proactively for us all instead

The chances are that in terms of the world as we know it collapsing around us, you fall in to one of two categories.

Either you have confidence that the government and establishment have your best interests at heart in all that they do – and that we are just living through unprecedented times. Or you are already so convinced that such mismanagement and ineptitude on the part of politicians can only be deliberate, and that there really is some grand plan or conspiracy that links to the plans of the world’s elites and the WEF at work.

Sadly. No, very regrettably. There is very little, and in fact there may as well be nothing sat in between the two.

The funny thing is, that whilst pretty much everyone fits into one of these two categories today, these affiliations, de facto groupings or whatever you want to call them, aren’t where the majority of people within them either should be or indeed would be. IF they were to stop for a moment, stand back, see and consider the whole of this degenerating situation for what it all really is.

Predictions in the ‘let’s sit around the table and have a reading from the crystal ball sense’ don’t really help anyone when we are facing the wide-ranging problems that we are.

In fact, you don’t even need predictions now. Because a respect for history and some deep thinking about human behaviour and how it relates to the world we live in and how it has been developing to reach a situation like this today over decades, will tell you all that you really need to know.

Exploding inflation and the cost-of-living crisis as we understand it today – really is just the start.

Food shortages, famine, mass migration that will make the channel crossings look like a comedy show and a collapse in public services, financial systems and our whole system of governance is now locked in (or baked in – as our hapless outgoing PM likes to say it). So, in terms of what is on its way, you really aint seen nothin’ yet.

This isn’t something to celebrate. There will be no happy ‘I told you so’s’ or anything like that, when all that is now inevitable has come to pass.

Like many others on the outside looking in, I look at all this with a feeling of dread and sorrow for my fellow man. Not because it’s going to happen (It is inevitable and cannot now be stopped). But because we are all, collectively, doing absolutely nothing to mitigate, slow or resist any of it. And instead, we are en masse, continuing to make all the same mistakes.

The narrative that the WEF and the elites has crafted and uses the media daily to mould continually into a ‘this has already happened and cannot be stopped’ way of thinking, is very clever. Because the majority of people – even those who are the most vocal against it all – are actually accepting everything that they are being told.

That much is clear, simply because of the level of inaction. Or lack of meaningful action that is instead replaced with this way of thinking that comes with the social media age where otherwise very sensible people have fallen into the trap of thinking that getting your message of criticism and cries of war out there online or into some kind of highly myopic protest, are all it takes to precipitate an alternative to this elite serving reality, to unfold.

Only today, we have the example of these ridiculously stupid politicians who are now competing in a beauty contest to be the UKs next Prime Minister, crying foul of the Don’t Pay UK ‘movement’. Claiming that the groups plan for a million people to stop their energy bill direct debits in October are irresponsible. (Pot calling the kettle black, perhaps?)

I sympathise completely with the sentiment of the organisers and those who have signed up to take this action.

But just like a politician who claims they invented the concept of Free Ports as a teenager and who will no doubt soon claim the design of the wheel as being one of theirs too, the point is, that everything that everyone is doing or failing to do when it comes to public policy now, is making or will make an already catastrophic direction of travel, even worse.

SPOILER: The Government is no longer ‘in charge’ of anything. But neither are the politicians’ paymasters or the WEF. The ‘system’ is now so broken, that it simply cannot be fixed. It is simply existing momentum and the belief or investment that people have in it, that is keeping the wheels turning on the bus as its picking up speed and about to fire us all over a massive cliff.

Oh, and the people we are led to believe are competent politicians…. They really are not who we believe they are.

If we continue to do nothing. Everything that the WEF and their political puppets are saying and working towards will savagely and very painfully become true.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. The outcome they intend is not the only way. Their planned outcome may include us, but it is certainly not ours.

All it takes is for us all to stop going along with their agenda. We must use the momentum of this worsening situation to create our own alternative way and plan for the world. One that actually works for and on behalf of us all – instead.

Don’t be mad, angry or nasty to anyone who is still under the establishment spell. Some, yes many of them won’t wake up until it feels like it is too late. But wake up they will.

And when they do wake up, we must all come together and work constructively to rebuild, reform and regenerate everything in a much better, fairer and more meaningful way.

One that doesn’t value money, wealth and all things based on greed as it does today. But instead, simply puts people – and that’s all of us – first.

Pain is now inevitable. And there is trauma fast approaching us that is going to test all of us in ways that to many are simply unknown.

The most effective way we can make the best of a very bad situation, is to start working on the solution and the answers to what happens next, right now.

None of our politicians would know what to do, the moment that they experienced a genuine political threat.

Think Brexit Party and Vote Leave and the European Referendum in the UK in 2016. Then put it on steroids and think of something like it – this time not left or right but includes everyone – covering every kind of public policy that touches each and every one of our different lives, and in very meaningful ways.

It’s all about creating our new system from the grassroots up. And doing so as the very greed that this collapsing system was intended to serve finally destroys the whole meaning and existence of everything that seems important.

Musings

As the reader will now be well aware, there appear to be no snug fits in the way that all of this fits together.

Continuing this theme right to the end of From Here to There Through Now, there were a number of blogs that I wrote between books, which are certainly relevant and should be part of this book, but which I found myself unsure of in terms of where they should find their home.

This Chapter, that I have titled ‘Musings’, is the home for all those apparently random entries that didn’t find a place to sit above or elsewhere:

Money is the lifeblood of this upside-down world, and that lifeblood floods our heads when we are hanging from our feet

What we fail to realise and understand, is that in an upside-down world where all things money and material have become the benchmarks upon which we qualify each and every aspect of life, it simply doesn’t matter what your tribe, your group or your politics are, because we are all operating upside down.

In this upside-down world, where we unconsciously perceive benefits from the differences that we believe to exist materially between us, every value we have is completely upside down or belly up. So, the failure of one is the failure of all and failure for any one of us is exactly the same thing.

Selfishness and self-interest are borne of exactly the same value set, whether they are politically left, politically right or sat in the so-called political centre ground that sits in between.

It is only the forms in which that selfishness and self-interest is manifested, interpreted and perceived that is different, whilst the outcome for individuals, communities and the country alike, are exactly the same things.

This is a world where nobody wins – not even the elites who think they control everything. Because when any part of a world that operates on a values system that is upside down continues to exist, it is inevitable that it will always pull everything and everyone back to earth in a journey that will always end with a crash or a bang.

The Top-Down, Hierarchical World Deception

We are surrounded by illusions that only become real for us based on what we believe them to be.

Some, in fact many of these illusions are ridiculously convincing to the point where there seems to be little value in questioning them and our immediate response is automatically to believe.

Perhaps the most destructive of these on the level of our reality, is the concept, suggestion and the accompanying belief that the way the world works and can only work is with a hierarchical structure that you might otherwise know as ‘Top-Down’.

We live a life that tells us that someone always has to be at the top or at a higher level. That for anyone to win, someone else will always have to lose.

By doing this, we completely miss the point that by accepting and by playing an active part in this system and way of thinking at any level or in any wat, we have instantaneously bought into the myth that a world that values everything based on money, greed and that values that we attribute to every form of material wealth is normal and right.

In fact, this whole way of being, thinking and doing is representative of a world that is completely upside down.

This Money and Greed obsessed world wasn’t the only option. The alternative has always been with us, hiding in plain sight

Perhaps the most deceptive part of the reality we live in is the idea that the money and greed obsessed world and the way that it functions and has taken over everything around us is and has only ever been the only available choice.

To be fair to many, the intoxicating way in which a world that perpetrates self-interest at every turn works, leaves the option to see the mechanics of the deceptive lie and the myths upon which our whole way of being sits, very difficult to see, and even harder to believe for those who genuinely can.

In fact, the level of self-awareness that it takes not only to understand but also accept the role that each and every one of us is guilty of playing in this very unfair and imbalanced form of life is indeed the antithesis of everything this whole system has been constructed to be and how it governs and influences every part of our lives.

However, just because we cannot see the alternative, doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.

It doesn’t mean that the alternative to all this isn’t available to us right now.

It doesn’t mean that the alternative to this world hasn’t been a genuine option for us, all the way along.

Expect the unexpected in so far as the coming collapse is concerned

If there is one elephant in the room that nobody wants to see or experience in the coming months and possibly the years beyond, it will be the depth and nature of the crisis which the collapse that is now underway involves.

To say that this is a wilful blindness on the part of pretty much everyone would be wrong. It is instead much more to do with the reality that each and every one of us sees the world around us and everything that goes on within it in terms of what is important or relevant to us.

This view of the world that we all have is sometimes talked about as being a lens. Not only does a lens point at a very specific scene or picture, but it can also have filters added and be manipulated in all manner of other ways too.

It is from this perspective that without looking any further, all of us will already or will soon see the unfolding challenges that we all face coming into view. And that means that there is a very good chance that we are already missing, without realising avoiding, or simply bypassing real issues that don’t appear relevant to us because they do not feature within our current world view.

Wake up! Politicians cannot and will not change. They will not avert the disaster that they have created!

Uncomfortable as it may be to accept, the whole of the UK is on a downward trajectory and has a date with destiny that is going to touch everyone’s lives and will be very painful for most.

Many of us look at everything happening as if the problems that we are facing are only the result of or are related to other things that are happening right now, today.

In fact, that’s what politicians and the establishment want and like us to think. Because it distances them from any of the responsibilities from everything that has happened, is happening today, and what will happen in the days, months and the years to come.

Yes, there are a lot of very greedy and self-centred people out there who are making the race into not only a cost-of-living crisis but a complete systemic collapse that will accompany it a lot worse than it should be, by deliberately exploiting watered down rules and the incompetence of our politicians to stop them for doing all that they are doing.

It doesn’t matter whether its fuel prices, the obscene profits that energy companies are making when they complain that prices need to go up to cover wholesale costs, of the prices of food and essential goods in supermarkets that are jumping up purely, because the people responsible have nothing to stop them doing any of this, and they sleep at night with the idea that the government will simply fire more cash at us all to keep covering the incendiary cost.

They wouldn’t be able to do any of this, if we had politicians who held the responsibility of being our public representatives who were actually up to the job.

Instead, we actually have the complete opposite. So inept, incompetent and absorbed in their own race to obtain public glory by obtaining jobs that hold a level of responsibility, that our politicians do not understand and certainly do not want, the 650 people who ‘lead’ us don’t have the wherewithal to understand the consequences of anything they do.

Our politicians do not know how the systems of business and government really work. Worst of all, as they are not even leaders. Politicians do not have the ability to get all of the information and the wise heads together that they need to make decisions on our behalf in one room. And so, management of crisis after crisis by specialists from the most obvious sector, industry or area was born.

It is because we have had such levels of ineptitude running the UK (and in Countries across the World) for so very long, that we are in the mess that we are today. It’s why life for us all is now set to go very, VERY wrong.

Don’t be lazy and try to blame this on Brexit, on Covid or even Ukraine. Because by doing so, you are simply playing into these ridiculous people’s hands.

All of this mess was created by the people who are pretending to lead us today and by the people just like them who have been masquerading as our leaders from across all of the political parties for decades.

What is more, we really do have only ourselves to blame.

We have elected these people and every politician just like them. And if we want politicians to change, it is us and the approach that we all have to politics that cannot possibly remain the same.

Change starts with the way that we think about politics. The top-down hierarchy, the destruction it causes and the lives it is wrecking just so that the few can be happy has to stop.

Power must come back to our communities and reflect the lives of real people. It’s time for grassroots up!

It’s just the way it works, is no excuse

What makes you do the same things every day? What makes you behave with other people the same way that you do – even with someone new? What makes you accept things happening in the world that you know are wrong and are probably hurting somebody? What makes you believe that changing the world doesn’t have anything to do with you?

Even now, you will at some level have a twinge or even a thought that suggests these few words have hit a nerve, even if your inner voice is shouting something like ‘what a load of crap’!

Nobody wants to hear or read anything that speaks a deeper truth. Especially when we have convinced ourselves that the truths that we have been conditioned to accept by others are in fact ours, and that each and every one of us who is ‘normal’, does exactly the same.

That ‘normal’ is of course what we might otherwise call ‘the narrative.’ The narrative is all about what someone else wants us to think, how someone else wants us to behave, and most importantly, what someone else wants us to do.

The problem with all of this is that we are so convinced that we have to follow, submit to and in many cases promote that narrative, that we have completely lost touch with who we really are.

Never mind the talk of new world orders and WEF agendas. We are already behaving subserviently to the will, whims and choices of others, each and every time that we blindly accept that anything we do, say or think must be or correlate with what the narrative and the system around us tells us it should be, look or sound like.

You surrender your power every time you take instruction from someone or something else

Life is so busy around us that we rarely – if ever, give any thought to the part that we are playing and the contribution that we are making to everything that is now going wrong.

Harsh words I know. But we have all, at some point, fallen into the trap of thinking everything that happens, good or bad, is because of someone else.

Yes, you can make what seems to be the logically sound argument that this is the way that the world works. That everything outside of us is the reference point that tells us how our lives should be.

But this isn’t the case. We have all either forgotten, or rather been encouraged to forget, that we all have an inner compass that you might call gut feelings, your instincts or something else. And that when it comes down to having happy and rewarding lives, it is the messages coming from these real but nonetheless crowded out messages speak a certain truth about where every decision and therefore where our whole lives should be.

Think of it like this. If you were to think of yourself being blindfolded and being guided through the maze of life by a trusted friend, these messages or feelings represent the only source of guidance that you can really ever trust. The other voices and noise come from others who will benefit from each and every step that takes you the alternative way.

Of course, pictures are as noisy and as convincing as voices and sounds, as are unfounded emotions. And each time we listen to those words or follow the pictures and signs that appear to be outside of us – without even thinking about it and making it a fully conscious choice – we are surrendering our power to the will of others. We are taking a step away from who we should really be.

The UK will go hungry as the food supply collapses. But Boris and all the political buffoons seat blocking our Parliament will continue to have their day…

It’s difficult to imagine that anyone in big business or government has any real concern about supply chain security, when the Conservative-friendly Daily Telegraph carries a story about the CEO of the UK’s Marks & Spencer retail chain now being on a 4-day week for a salary of £750K. Meanwhile, the real people at the other end of the wealth divide are working every hour they have and cannot even afford to buy food from one of the stores.

I will leave the timing and reasoning for this announcement, along with the raft of announcements from No.10 suggesting that our self-regalvanised PM is only now ready to his job to the reader.

But to say all of these deliberate distractions overlook the many elephants in the room and particularly the questions surrounding what happens to us all next would be comical, if it were not the fact that for the majority of us all, shit is about to get very real indeed.

Call me dramatic if you like. But few of us will accept that we are already in the process of a massive financial and systemic collapse until it actually hits us, and we can feel the pain pushing into our own existence or life bubble in some way. Regrettably, that day will soon come.

However, whilst things like the housing market collapsing, or small businesses going bang because they simply cannot raise employee pay will inevitably hit or touch the lives of us all differently, there is one very profound and potentially very hard-hitting way that the collapse of the systems we currently take for granted is going to touch all of our lives in the same way. That’s the production, supply and the availability or shortages of food.

Before I go any further, it is important to get to the point that the supply of many of the foods that we probably all enjoy at home, from takeaways or when we go out to a pub or restaurant for a meal, are simply not going to be available in any of these ways anymore. Furthermore, this change to our lifestyles could well be pushing its way into our lives in perhaps just weeks or months from now.

The ingredients, the processing and the transportation of the foods that contribute to what might best be described as our very exotic, but nonetheless unhealthy diets aren’t just sourced from right across the world.

The foods we eat, and the ingredients used to make them are processed here there and everywhere too.

The journeys that make up the pizzas, pies and puddings that we have all been conditioned to love crisscross continents and countries in various and accumulated forms. All before they finally reach the shelves of our local supermarkets or distribution centres, usually wrapped in a load of packaging that will immediately be thrown away, just as soon as they have come through our doors.

That the global supply chains that support and provide for all of this are collapsing right now is problematic enough.

But the real problem for us all that accompanies this collapse, is that even the majority of our most local producers (that’s local farmers and growers) buy the materials they need and then supply the meat, milk, cereals, vegetables and fruit that they produce into what is in effect part of this highly centralised operational business model.

Farmers and growers in the UK and across Western Countries do not produce or supply in a way that means that any of us could simply walk up to the local farm and buy or trade with the farmer to get the basic foods that we need, when everything that we know and take for granted about the supply of foods and goods today breaks down.

The processes that take raw foods from farms and turn them into the products that we love to eat and buy are massively complicated.

This complication has itself been encouraged and legitimised by the creation of many different industry-serving laws and rules. Not least of all by our friends in the European Union, which became just another way of dressing up greed-driven globalisation, but in a more politically acceptable continent-wide way.

What we or rather more importantly all of our seat-blocking politicians in Parliament are failing to grasp right now – whilst they keep on attempting to distract us with soundbites and other hollow scheme imaginable, is that we have a massive food crisis ahead of us. A food crisis that is looming large that will not be temporary. And that in terms of re-tasking, repurposing, redirecting, and reimagining the most essential forms and mechanics of our basic food supply chain – we are now critically unprepared.

It’s not as if Farmers and Growers aren’t trying to make our politicians aware that there is a crisis coming either.

The issue with the politicians we have today is that everything they stand for, have bought and dragged us into and has been motivated by or is tied up in the money or greed-based system that we currently have.

By even acknowledging that the focus of food supply must immediately become local, as part of the now essential drive to make the UK self-sufficient in all basic foods, goods and services in the shortest time, our politicians will be admitting to the wrongs of the part that they and many others before them have played in contributing to this mess over decades.

That, however, is not an excuse for those in power and in our Parliament not to act now.

When we are all facing a change to our reality and a process of transition where there is a growing possibility that British People are going to starve, the public representatives that we have elected to look out for our best interests should be prioritising this change to local supply and UK self-sufficiency in every possible way.

We cannot win by fighting politicians over issues that are only important to us. We must fight them on the ground that’s important to them too

In the UK yesterday, protestors took to the motorway network to create a protest ‘go slow’, by deliberately blocking two lanes of three lane motorways with vehicles that are only travelling at fifteen miles per hour.

The protest itself was overtly against the cost of fuel duty, which makes up a disproportionate percentage of the rising cost of vehicle fuel – which most of us will agree is now completely out of control.

Whilst many and probably the majority of us sympathise with the reasoning and motivation of the protest, it is clear from the comments from people who have had their ‘normal’ days disrupted by the action, that not everyone has bought in to this particular action plan.

Indeed, in terms of any kind of protest, blockade or strike amongst what we can now expect will become a steadily increasing  number of events involving direct action to demonstrate discontent to politicians and the government, the point that these actions not only divide, but can actually polarise what would have previously been support – all to the benefit of the government and those who are responsible for the problems – is being regrettably missed.

The truth is that the majority of people know that the system is not only broken. They also know that everything our politicians, the elites and the establishment does is now wrong.

The problem that those of us who have woken to the point where we are no longer ‘bought in’ to the system have today, is that for the majority of those who actually know they are being hurt by what’s happening and how it is already directly affecting them and their lives, the system still feels like it is working for them. As such, for that majority, the benefits of acquiescing at this moment in time, still appear to outweigh the cost.

That a point in time will come when for the majority this is no longer the case is now inevitable. It is not a case of if, but when. But that when could still be a very long time.

We are doing ourselves no favours in the meantime, by failing to box clever and fight the politicians in a way and on ground that is important to them and in ways that they have no way to ignore or to deliberately misunderstand.

The only fair and just solution to the problems we face, isn’t left or right. It is a middle way that no political or economic ‘expert’ will like

The only thing worse than the failure of the capitalist experiment – which is the reason for the cost-of-living crisis and the systemic collapse that we are now in the early stages of – is a new narrative, already at work across podcast, vlogging and social media platforms, telling us that capitalism is absolutely great – it just has to be done in a different way.

If this ‘we would do it better and make it work’ mantra sounds familiar, it’s because it’s almost exactly the same one that we have been hearing for decades from the apologists and champions of socialism. Or rather communism or even Marxism in its most inhumane and punishing forms.

Uncomfortable as the reading may be, the painful reality is that what socialism and capitalism in their many respective forms have in common, is it is only their leaders, crown princes and elites that benefit from these perverse systems of governance. They just play to the vulnerabilities and ignorance of the very people they keep captive, through idealism or an obsession with money and wealth, in their most malevolent and destructive forms.

Sadly, our cosseted and entitled world, is a very long way from the experience of Stalin’s historic Gulags, contemporary North Korea or some of the very dark places that China’s ruling CCP hides away today.

So, the innocent idealism that accompanies the inexperience of our massively overlooked young, is all too easily taken in. It is manipulated and misled by the militant generation and their sleepers. Unforgiving victims to the realities of life, whose anger, bitterness and complete lack of understanding of the human experience beyond their own bubble makes the young all too easy for them to betray.

At the other extreme, greed, self-interest and an obsession with power and wealth that drive everything in this failing system, have intoxicated even the most virtuous at every level and nuance of life.

Decades of manipulation and propaganda have made us believe that material wealth is the only way that happiness can be obtained. Old and young alike are so drunk on all that they have or could possess, that they do not believe it possible that a system that feels so good, could never ever fail them or go completely wrong.

Few understand that we are all part of an addicted society, where everyone’s habit is money, wealth and whatever it takes to get it.

Yes, the rules are set by some very wealthy and very greedy people at the top. But they have successfully bent every part of our lives to the will of a greed that has then infected our lives so effectively, that we have forgotten the true meaning and value of any part of life that doesn’t carry a price tag.

The most bizarre twist of similarities between capitalism and socialism is our obsession with this same material wealth. It’s just on one hand the messaging tells the unprivileged population that it should reject it and every part of it. Whereas the other demands that we allow it to take over our lives in every possible way.

Wealth, prosperity, ownership and individual success are not wrong. It’s how we behave when we have them, or what we do with them, that can lead to unimaginable crimes.

The biggest crime of all that has been visited upon humanity by these religions and wealth based political ideologies, is their success in making everything in life all about money in some way.

But it is people, not money or things, that we should always put first.

No Labour Government, no cryptocurrency, no Liz or Rishi, VAT Relief on Energy Prices, Cash Handouts, Qualifications without study, Universal Basic Incomes, Strikes, Inflation beating wage rises, The WEF ‘You’ll own nothing and will be happy’, or any other self-serving tool of the political left and right alike will work to benefit anyone but those who are sat at the top of these top-down, self-serving trees.

There’s a flow chart for all of them. It always goes in exactly the same way. The flow slowly but surely takes everything. In return it sells us much, but in truth gives very little back.

Yet the flow of life should always go full circle and come all the way back around. So that everyone is able to exist and just exist if that’s all they really want to do. Anything and everything else should just be effort related. This is the meaning of ‘you get back what you put in’.

The alternative to these failed and flawed political and economic philosophies that all belong to a money obsessed world, is for us to choose to take the middle way.

The only option or choice to solve all of our problems, is to put People First.

A People First society works from the grassroots up. It puts people and their communities first, providing the legislative, social, business and supply chain networks that put the sustainability of life and the self-sustainability of each and every individual who can work (supporting those who cannot), before anything else.

A People First society requires that all businesses and their processes place the needs of essential living for the community and the advancement of working conditions as their priority. That earnings beyond break-even, are responsible and not traded beyond those who have a direct interest or are actively involved.

A People First society puts governance of the people, for the people, by the people above all things, and always prioritises localism first. It recognises the need for collaboration at every level. But respects collaboration should never itself require the surrender of relative powers at any level of local agency or of our own control.

The central tenet, pivot point or anchor of The People First Economy is The Basic Living Standard or The Basic Living Standard for All.

The Basic Living Standard requires that the minimum wage or wage paid for the least demanding role that any society may have, will always be enough for the person who earns it to cover the basic essentials of life.

The Basic Living Standard for All requires that an independent adult will always be able to feed, clothe and home themselves. To provide for their own basic communication, transport and entertainment needs, along with everything that is essential to ensure that person can exist without third party support, without subsidy from government (benefits) and without having no choice but to go into debt.

By adopting this formula and requiring every part of society, business, industry and other to focus on The Basic Living Standard and doing nothing that will compromise it, either intentionally or unknown will assure its success.

The Basic Living Standard for All will ensure that every part of society, our system of governance and fundamentally the ways in which we live, will redirect to putting People First – which is now the only sustainable way that we will survive and live free and happy lives.

The Basic Living Standard will encourage people to achieve, excel and do whatever they really want to do. But in a People First economy, nobody will be able to do so by exploiting or riding off the back of others, or without regard for the real consequences or true cost of anything they do which can or has the potential to affect the lives of others.

The prioritisation of People, communities and locality first, will not only solve the problems created by greed, by envy and the hatred they promote. It will also address the climate issues, which are the consequences of years of greed-driven abuse of the environment and overuse of natural resources too.

***

With things as easy right now as we have been brainwashed to believe they are, change would not be possible for any of us in what we understand to be ‘normal’ times.

However, most of us already know we are no longer in ‘normal’ times, even if it’s not something that we find easy to say out loud.

Whilst politicians and the elites are still pushing a narrative using their pet media that suggests that everything is planned and thought through, there are no alternatives, and above all – that they are in control; the truth is that they are not.

The cost-of-living crisis and everything that is now going wrong with public services like the NHS in the UK, are all part of a systemic collapse. A collapse of everything we know that is both their responsibility and their fault.

When it hits YOU and the people who are important to YOU – in whatever way that will be, that will be the moment YOU have the choice to decide what YOU want to do.

Just remember; a leopard never changes its spots.

***

The Basic Living Standard is proposed as the solution to our problems in ‘Levelling Level’, a book that I wrote and published in early 2022, where I also discuss how we got here, what’s really going on, and how it’s possible for us to thrive and survive throughout the difficulties and challenges that we will soon face.

Both Levelling Level and my shorter e-book about The Basic Living Standard are available to read as books for Kindle and can be bought and downloaded from Amazon by clicking the links below.

However, the complete content is available to read FREE on this blogsite www.levellinglevel.wordpress.com, where you will find the index of all pages on the right-hand side of the PC or Laptop viewed screen.

10 Spoilers about the so-called ‘New World Order’ and what is really now underway

Despite the increasing talk about the plans of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and their dastardly plans for a New World Order, a lot of people have been blinded by the fear of what all this talk represents.

Sadly, many of the people outside of government and establishment influence who have public platforms have been drawn into behaving like rabbits in the headlights and they are unwittingly fueling this fear too.

Everyone needs to take a step back; count to ten and do the reading, research and thinking necessary to see the wider situation we face for what it is.

Yes, there is a massive system collapse underway. But this isn’t the birth of a ‘new’ world order. It is the death of the one that already exists. One that has been hurting us all more than we are ready to accept for a very long time.

Today we are watching the death throes of the world order that already exist. And the chaos is set to continue to get worse as all those who have knowingly benefited, desperately try to put out the flames of this collapse by adding even more of the fuel they used to create it (MONEY!).

If you are looking beyond the establishment and the mainstream media for answers that will only begin to make sense once you can move beyond the betrayal of trust and begin to reflect on how you have bought into all of this too, here are 10 SPOILERS or hacks for you to get started with:

SPOILER No.1: The WEF and all its cronies represent a dying world order. One that was once new, and you’ll find politicians talking about it historically too. However, their ‘new world order’ is being destroyed by the very same tools that they designed to propagate and assure their own power decades ago, whilst they filled their own pockets at the expense and impoverishment of everyone else.

SPOILER No.2: The System and Economic collapse are happening, because the clever system that the world elites created to enrich themselves had its own set of rules. Generations of foolish and stupid politicians and the bankers and business leaders who influence them – motivated by their own ambition and greed; have long since forgot, completely ignored or been left out of the loop of their own secrets. The mess they have created is what we are all now experiencing as it unfolds.

SPOILER No.3: The only tool that this Money-Based-Order ever had was to create money out of thin air. The aim was always to benefit the few who understood the reality of ‘The Lie’, whilst perpetuating the myth for the many, that money has always been real. They quite literally created rules to support ‘The Lie’, making it a crime to work against a value and morality set that is no more than an idea which is based on making something real out of nothing but thin air. The many have not only increasingly lost out, but they have also been punished for the inadequacies and unfairness of this duplicitous system too.

SPOILER No.4: The people behind the Money-Based-Order don’t have any way to solve the problems that they have created that we are all now facing today. Their only option now is to print more and more money that has no value other than the belief that we all still attribute to it. Then, when the system finally collapses, they will do all they can to attempt to maintain and further impose control. The desperate steps that the elites are taking under the guidance of the WEF (such as stopping farmers from farming) are no more than a pre-emptive attempt to destroy the infrastructure that they know people will quickly harness for the common good, once the collapse has destroyed any remaining practicality to their plans.

SPOILER No.5: YOU CAN SAY NO MORE TO ALL OF THIS AT ANY TIME. The secret is hidden within us all. The secret is all about the way that we think.

SPOILER No.6: The only reason that the things we consider to be normal and part of daily life around our Countries and around the World appear to be continuing to work, is because too many people still believe that the system they are living in and experiencing is beneficial to them in some way. We – that’s the people that this system is hurting – are actually the ones who are keeping this dying system alive right now!

SPOILER No.7: The collapse that is now underway will affect everyone. The Money-Based-System was built and perpetuated on greed that has benefitted the few at the cost of the many. Anyone – and that’s pretty much all of us – who has bought into the wealth-driven, money-is-god way of valuing everything in life, will be hurt as the material ‘things’ we believed to be important that it gave us – which it never really did – are taken away. No, not everyone will lose everything they ‘think’ they now have. But what is left after the collapse and the period of crisis is over, will be valued by us all in a very different and much healthier way. We have the opportunity and will think about life very differently to how we do now.

SPOILER No.8: The Money Based Order is OVER. We may not realise or even see it yet. But the Top-Down system has been on a downward trajectory for years and in reality, from the moment that the post-war pathway to globalisation began. The responses of Governments to Brexit, Covid and War in Ukraine – and now the resultant energy crisis too, have made it impossible for the Money-Based-Order (That’s the FIAT Money System) to be saved. That is why the collapse is now underway.

SPOILER No.9: We ALL have TWO CHOICES coming up. We ALL have the collective choice of becoming little more than caged animals, shackled with digital chains, kept happy with virtual reality and computer games in a world that revolves around an open secret which is our mass enslavement where existence will be about nothing more than making up the numbers for the few who believe that the world and everything in it was put here for them to own. The alternative choice WE ALL HAVE is to take back control of our own lives and rebuild society from the grassroots up, rebuilding and restoring a value set that revolves around the value of people, consideration for others and our whole environment before wealth or anything else, returning technology to its rightful place as our servant and money as the system of exchange it was always only supposed to be.

SPOILER 10: Your Community, Your Locality, the people you know and regularly see, is where the real power behind life for you and everyone around you should always be. By getting decisions in our localities right and stepping back from the dependence on systems and people who we do not know and will never ever see, we will return to a form of living and governance for us all that places true value upon everyone who takes part and is involved. Take care of what’s real first and the rest will follow!

WARNING: If you continue to live in fear of what people like those who represent the WEF are threatening, promising or arrogantly committing everyone too, that is exactly how the world you know will become.

THE OPPORTUNITY: No, we may not all be awake to what has happened and what is now happening and why life is now as it is. But the collapse and the effects and reach that it will have into the lives of everyone will present a real choice for everyone.

THE TRAP: The risk is that too many will hear the promises made by people they should never again trust and take what sounds like the easy options and a route back to how things were for ‘everyone’ before. Unfortunately, there is no route back and the days of endless abundance and the selfishness and loss of integrity for us all that it has encouraged are no more. If you listen to that lie, you will discover too late that the freedoms you never really had but which you still covet are no more.

THE ENDGAME: Freedom of a kind that you have never really known starts in the mind. Pain and difficulty are now inevitable. The choice you have is whether you want to experience it so that someone else controls every part of yours and everyone else’s lives, or whether you take the leap of faith and trust the people you know and see every day, and work together to make life better for everyone, beginning and getting it all right from the grassroots up.

Most of us already know deep down that the world as we have known it can no longer go on. The way we have been living has been completely unsustainable and we have placed our value for life on nothing but money and trinkets, whilst we have traded our integrity, our health, our happiness, our relationships and our humanity for nothing but thin air. It has been a very convincing lie!

Nothing is really free – whether we talk about how things are valued right now in terms of money, or how they should be in terms of thinking that really could be as simple as saying that ‘In life, you get back what you put in’.

Things are going to get very tough, very soon. The choice you have to make won’t be like voting, signing a form, buying something or agreeing to follow someone or something else. It will quite literally be about saying no to what appears to be more of or a continuation of all that you have known, and then to take the leap – with others – into what will only appear for a brief moment look like the unknown.

See you there!

More Reading

From Here to There Through Now was the third book in a series that I began writing about three years ago in early 2022.

Each of the Books that follow are a variation on a shared theme, working 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.

Levelling Level (30 Mar 2022)

Amazon

PDF Download

From Here to There Through Now (3 Oct 2022)

Amazon

The Way of Awakened Politics for Good Government (3 Dec 2022)

Amazon

PDF Download

A Community Route (28 Mar 2023)

Amazon

PDF Download

The Grassroots Manifesto (18 Apr 2023)

Amazon

PDF Download

Officially None of the Above (18 May 2023)

Amazon

PDF Download

Actions Speak Louder than Digital Words (8 Jun 2023)

Amazon

PDF Download

One Rule Changes Everything (23 Dec 2023)

Amazon

PDF Download

Food From Farms Guaranteed (3G) (15 Feb 2024)

Amazon

PDF Download

Days of Ends and New Beginnings (7 Apr 2024)

Amazon

The Basic Living Standard (14 Apr 2024)

Amazon

Our Local Future (18 Aug 2024)

Amazon

PDF Download

Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future (14 Nov 2024)

Amazon

PDF Download

Your Beliefs Today create Everyone’s Experiences Tomorrow (11 Jan 2025)

Amazon

PDF Download

Manifesto for a Good Dictator (26 Jan 2025)

Amazon

 

How to get Elected | Full Text

Preface

In 2013, I had been a Borough Councillor for six years. I was representing a mixed rural and market town Ward near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire and had also been Chair of the Council’s Licensing Committee or Local Licensing Authority since the beginning of my second term in 2011.

Since being a teenager, I’d always seen politics as a way to achieve something better for everyone. However, I’d also been aware of the way that ‘democracy’ had appeared to work in the UK and had opted to join and run and work with a political party.

That September, in a decision which felt instant but had been several years in the making, I finally accepted that British politics is fundamentally broken.

That the party-political system in the UK is rotten to the core.

That no matter how genuine the reasons for getting involved in politics, representing any political party today requires elected public representatives who are aligned with political parties to forget any obligation to prioritise the best interests of their Electors.

That there is a de facto requirement to ignore opportunities to deliver public policy which will consider and ultimately be of benefit to all.

Knowing that my decision to leave my political group would almost certainly result in losing my seat in the next round of Elections for that Authority in 2015, because of the way things work and how I felt at that time, I went ahead and did so anyway. My role as a Councillor was never just about ‘me’ or the political party, after all.

The period of time since I left active politics has continued to provide me with good opportunity for reflection.

Whilst I find frustration at every turn as I look at the public realm, I recognise that politics is still a good place to observe, to watch and yes – a place to learn.

Learning is after all the first and biggest step to making a difference to anyone’s life experience – not least of all our own.

Today, although many of us have no idea how, we also know that one way or another, things simply have to change. That there really could be something far better for us all. And that the Politicians who are currently in charge should either be showing considerably more concern or should simply be replaced.

No matter the political party, tribe or leaning that they have, an increasing number of people are thinking about the possibility of seeking election to one or more of the Tiers of Government in the UK. As the way to make that difference. As the way to do something tangible and deliver that ‘how’.

If I was now in that very same position, but without the experience of British politics that I now possess, I know that I would be grateful for the opportunity to speak to someone who was prepared to help me. To hear a helpful voice that would honestly tell me what I could expect. What I really needed to consider, and what I could do to help myself with my aim and wish to help others as a campaigner and as a good politician and public representative as I campaign for election and then begin to fulfil my responsibilities once elected.

In early 2018 I wrote and published the e-book for Kindle ‘How to get Elected’ as the conversation that I would like to have.

Now, in early 2025, I feel that the political and government environment has changed sufficiently enough that the original work could do with an update, and that it might help more if How to get Elected were to be made available in more ways.

How to get Elected offers a guide, suggestions, ideas and the benefit of experience to those seeking election, either completely without help, or with minimal support or guidance from an established political party that will never be as invested in the community, in the same way a dedicated public representative can and should always be.

I hope that it will offer anyone considering this pathway to help others and our communities and perhaps be the political mentor to them that I never had.

Adam Tugwell

February 2025

Introduction

If you are thinking about running in a UK Election, How to get Elected could be for you

It feels like the political world has gone completely mad.

‘They don’t know what they are on about’ is a thought that most of us will share, the moment we start thinking about today’s politicians. 

Whilst we may not choose to say it openly and loud, few will disagree with the idea that our political classes are out of touch and pretty much ‘in it for themselves’ – even where they represent a political party that we may have voted for unquestioningly at every election, for all of our lives.

As you are here and reading this page, we can be reasonably certain that you are either

  1. A political anorak (yes, they really do exist) or
  2. Thinking seriously enough about running for an elected office that you are beginning to do some research.

Whilst the political anoraks are very welcome here, ‘How to get Elected’ has been written with helping anyone from group ‘b’ firmly in mind.

It doesn’t matter where your loyalties lie, or whatever political philosophy you might follow. If you really want to hold the responsibility and fulfill the gift of trust that comes with being elected by members of the public, there is a process which alone and on your own you will almost certainly need to follow. A process that will also help you to succeed and become a good representative of the people, once you have been elected and taken your seat.

Getting elected sounds very simple. But for most, the reality is very different.

It’s very easy to make mistakes, lose motivation, get sidetracked or distracted and then find yourself waiting perhaps 4 years or even longer for another opportunity to make the contribution to the community that you may now be seeking.

In the form of this book, I will cover and discuss all of the key issues, considerations and actions that you would normally have to take to get yourself elected without the help of an organised political party, whilst keeping yourself in the running and out of trouble with everyone else and politicians who may have much more experience of the ‘political system’, as you do.

There are no guarantees in politics.

If you do everything that you possibly can to the best of your ability and spend every available minute doing so between now and your next opportunity to get elected, it is still possible that someone else will get there first.

That’s just the way it is in politics today.

It’s a reality that you must accept and be respectful of as you work on, develop and deliver your strategy and plan.

Hopefully, you are here because you sincerely believe in and want to make the most effective contribution that you can in delivering ‘something better’ for all. 

I wish you every success with your worthy aims. We have never needed genuinely selfless and considerate politicians more than we do right now, and especially those who are prepared to make every effort to make their responsibility count.

What is ‘How to get Elected’?

How to get Elected began as a website, which has evolved into an eBook for those thinking about running in public elections in the UK, primarily as independent or ‘non-aligned’ candidates.

How to get Elected is also for members of political parties who are aiming to do the very best that they can on behalf of their constituencies, wards, divisions and the electors that they represent too.

Whilst pages are dedicated to talking about getting elected as an MP and the issues that surround setting up a new political party, these are not the primary focus of this Book.

How to get Elected is here to focus upon the areas of politics where right now, anyone who is motivated enough, has enough self-belief, courage of their convictions and is ready to listen and consider the opinion of others, really can begin to make a difference for their local community, if they so choose. 

The places where real differences can and are ready to be made are Parish & Town Councils, Borough & District Councils, County Councils and Unitary Authorities. What we collectively call Local Government.

How to get Elected has been written to help you plan, campaign and ultimately provide good representation, so that you can positively influence the things that local authorities do.

Good luck.

Part 1 – What you should know and do before you decide to run

1.    Age & Eligibility to become a Candidate

The basic formal requirements to become an official candidate and run for a local council are as follows. 

To be eligible, you must be:

  • A British or a citizen of the Commonwealth or European Union
  • At least 18 years old
  • Registered to vote in the area or have lived, worked or owned property there for at least 12 months before an election

Legal eligibility is often considered to be the only real factor preventing anyone from running as an independent candidate in a local election.

The political parties have their own selection processes and you can read more about those later when we will discuss joining a political party.

Whether or not you are ready to take on the responsibility of being a councillor is a question that only you can answer.

It is as likely that a candidate of 18 years of age could be a brilliant community representative within a multi-seat parish or town council ward. Whilst another, aged 38, could be the poorest choice possible for a single-seat county council division.

If you are unsure about your choice or decision, it might be useful to seek the unbiased opinion of others.

You might also take some time to think about the life skills and experience that you will bring to the role.

Being a good councillor is not just about being passionate about issues and public speaking alone.

To be a good public representative, you must be able to put yourself in the position of others and then relate that experience within the bigger setting. It will be necessary for you to communicate arguments and where possible, solutions too which will need to be objective and considerate of different views if they are to really make a difference to the people you will be representing.

Having experience from as many different areas of life as possible, where you have already interacted comfortably with as many different kinds of people as you can will help you to do this.

Being able to have a conversation with someone experiencing a housing problem one minute and then walking into a meeting with the council’s chief executive officer to discuss something completely different the next is a real possibility.

You must have both the confidence AND the flexibility to be who you will need to be, exactly when you need to be it.

2.    Ask yourself, is Politics really for me?

Even though everybody seems to hate politicians, politics can appear to be a very glamorous place when you are thinking, “It would be different if it was me’.

Also, it’s not unusual to like the idea of having power. So, when we want power very much, politics really can seem like the best place to be.

Hopefully, you will be one of the growing numbers who will be ticking ‘none of the above’.

That’s great.

The problem is that many of the people who have not become involved in politics to serve the better interests of people and our communities are motivated in very shallow and selfish ways.

There are plenty of them too. And that means the presence of a self-serving mentality can create an unpleasant working environment for people who are there for genuine reasons and care about the impact and consequences of everything that they do.

As a good politician, you should never take things personally. But you must also be aware that plenty of other politicians already do.

That means you could easily find yourself feeling victimized. You might even feel threatened by others in what seems to be a very personal way, just because you are doing your best and doing what you do.

Making complaints to appropriate authorities is now encouraged as a politician. And if you feel threatened, you always should do so.

But it is also important to understand that even threats and bad behaviour of this kind come at different levels and can present itself to even highly experienced politicians in many different ways. Some of which are very subtle and not that easy to define.

Odd as it may seem, anger leveled against anyone in politics can be quite innocent. It may just be the result of your achievements having upset someone who in some way sees your success as being their loss.

It never is. But you will certainly struggle to get anyone who is that small-minded to see it that way!

If you can see yourself managing to keep going when others appear to want to do everything possible to make you quit, and you can do so whilst also keeping a smile on your face and continuing to do the best that it is possible for you to do, the rough and tough of politics might just be suitable for you.

3.    Success in Politics is NEVER guaranteed

I know I am right! 

I can do much better than the people there now! 

I can provide a real voice for voters!

These are all views which will sound familiar to anyone who has run in a public election in the UK and may be very much along the lines or exactly how you are feeling about the prospect of becoming a politician right now.

Unfortunately, you are not alone.

Just in the election you plan to fight, there may be many others.

The others may be members of political parties with all kinds of support.

Other candidates may have been elected many times before. They may even be considered publicly to be ‘successful’.

One of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of running for a publicly elected office is the competition that you will face.

Even if you are 100% certain of the justification and righteous nature of your campaign, and why you are the best person to have that role, it doesn’t mean that the people you are asking to vote for you will ‘get it’. Indeed, to many people, you may be seen to simply be very wrong.

As in most things, perception is everything in politics. How you are perceived as a candidate by the people you are asking to elect you will ultimately reflect their choice.

Regrettably, no matter how credible you may be as a candidate, your importance to voters may be something that is simply not yours to influence.

Only so much of getting elected is about the work you do, the words you say and the effort you make – even when you do much more or really are a better option than every other candidate.

Party Politics plays a regrettable, yet significant part of what will happen on any Election Day when you are a Candidate. So, if the Election you are fighting falls on the wrong day – for instance you are running for your local district council on the same day that there is a General Election, the results of the local election you are fighting might well be dictated by the national poll – just the very same.

Yes, it’s wrong.

No, it’s not fair.

But it’s how politics works in the UK and one of the most important things you can do to help yourself emotionally before you make a start, is understand and accept that your success within the political world is played out very much like a game.

If you don’t understand the rules or are not willing to work with them, you would be very wise to decide not to play this game.

4.    It’s not about you

Many of the key failures in UK politics today can be attributed to the egos of politicians.

If you’ve already talked to other people about the perception of those in political office, it’s almost certain that you will have heard someone say that having a big ego is part of what being a politician is about.

Put simply, politics isn’t or rather shouldn’t be about having an ego.

It just looks that way because that’s how politics has got itself into the mess that it’s in today.

Yes, a good politician needs to be confident. Yes, a good politician needs to have guts. Yes, a good politician must be prepared to say things that some people may not be very happy to hear.

But if you are going to represent other people openly, honestly and with motivation, that is all about what’s best for them, you will need to use these skills and abilities with honesty, integrity and with the common good in mind at all times.

There is a distinct difference between someone drawing attention to themselves unintentionally as they make an argument on behalf of others, and someone who is grandstanding purely for the benefit they perceive they will receive for themselves.

Oddly enough, when you do things and are supported for the right reasons, the detail rarely gets overlooked.

This is an integral part of becoming a good constituency councillor and is a skill that will quickly define you amongst your peers as someone who is looking to get the right results.

If you are always true to your electors, you will make allies in places you would not normally expect, and when it comes to really making a difference, they could provide the support that you really need.

Yes, big egos do get people elected and regrettably to very high office too. But a poor politician’s personal gain is very much the electorate’s loss.

Shallow politicians will only ever deliver shallow policies, no matter how good they try to sound or how good they might look.

If you are and can be true to the best interests of the people who elect you, no matter what adversity or distractions should come your way, you will always be successful as a politician. Even if the results of your battles don’t always appear to go your way.

REMEMBER: it’s not about you. Getting elected is all about what’s best for the people who are going to vote for you and everyone within your constituency, once you have successfully been elected.

5.    Once you are in Politics, your footprints will follow you wherever you go

With the Internet now available to almost everyone on their phone, and public records of almost every kind now being made transparently available wherever they are located, it is inevitable that we all now create a footprint with everything we do publicly.

Whilst I will discuss communication, social media and media relations later, it is important to understand just how far reaching any news of your public activities can and will be.

Whether right or wrong, good or bad; people you meet socially, prospective employers, admission committees, people you might want to date, and many others besides will have easy access to any material that features your name and activities, that has found its way on to the Internet.

What will find its way on to ‘the net’?

For the purposes of making a decision about whether to campaign and run to become a politician, it would be sensible to consider everything – YES EVERYTHING you do and say to anyone as having the potential to find its way into the public realm.

For a start, that will include:

  • Anything you say in public
  • Anything you say to anyone about what you are doing, or what you have planned
  • E-mails (Nothing should be considered private or personal – even if you state that its content is confidential)
  • Pictures
  • Articles which mention you in newspapers and/or online news pages
  • Public Records (Nomination papers, interests, voting history, attendance, comments etc.)
  • Blogs
  • Social media posts (Please be aware that as soon as you are a candidate or have told anyone that you are likely to be, the chances that anyone reading your posts will screen shot anything they believe can be used to trip you up will increase rapidly!)
  • Any other form of digital communication including but not limited to WhatsApp, Telegram and any other form of group or direct messaging that might be shared in future – even if that seems unlikely because you trust those you are communicating with at the time.

Anything political can be divisive.

Politics creates barriers or walls in relationships that would otherwise be perfect (Take Brexit and the Remainers vs Leavers as a very real example).

We have no control over how anyone will react to the position we take on anything politically. Because it is possible for each and every one of us to feel so passionate about our beliefs that we can feel automatically opposed to any alternative viewpoint.

It takes a lot of thought and a deep level of self-awareness for anyone to see the opinions of others as an outward expression of the private person that another person is.

It is challenging for many to understand and accept that political expression is not personal and is not usually leveled against them personally in any way.

As a rule, we should always treat politicians and their views as being of no threat to us personally.

Regrettably, that’s not how many people think or feel able to think today, and that means it becomes necessary to be aware of what the worst could be that anyone might think of us, and what that could mean.

If you can be objective in politics, you will always know it is possible to win. But you have very limited influence on how others will perceive you or your past.

Going forward, it is therefore essential to always do the right thing.

Politics can be a very unfriendly place. If you have any information about you which is already out there on ‘the net’, which you would potentially find embarrassing, difficult to explain or might be seen by some as a way to hurt you for their own purposes, think very carefully about whether you want to expose yourself to emotional pain in that way.

6.    The downside of having a public profile

When we are young, it is not uncommon to imagine what it would be like to be famous, and to be recognised wherever we go. 

Some of us make it a life aim to be famous and well known.

Some find fame or a high-profile arrives as a consequence of the job or jobs that we choose to do. 

What we don’t realise when we covet the idea of being well known publicly is that it can have as many negative consequences for us as positive ones, and possibly a whole lot more besides. 

Whilst you may not be thinking about becoming our next Prime Minister, it is important to be aware that as soon as you begin campaigning to get yourself elected, you will become known publicly by people you don’t already know – and almost certainly by people who don’t agree with some or perhaps everything that you have to say. 

Politics solicits very different reactions from people in a way which can make someone you thought you knew very well seem like they are a complete stranger.

You could easily lose friends by getting involved in politics, simply because different political viewpoints often thrive on building stereotypes based on the political opinions of others. 

We don’t have to look far to see this today. You will almost certainly know some people who voted leave and others who voted remain in the European Referendum in June 2016 which has resulted in the so-called ‘Brexit’. 

No matter how careful you are in what you say, write or discuss publicly with others, there will always be some who will automatically view you as being an enemy, from the moment you go public and tell people that you want to be a politician. 

Some will never see you as a normal person again and will only ever see you in the light of any public office that you attain, or the campaign you have run as you try to get there. 

It is wrong for people to view politicians they don’t ‘identify’ with in this way.

But if you are going to go forward and seek election with your eyes wide open, you must accept that people will automatically judge you and be ready to judge you on the basis of everything you do. 

You do not get the choice over what people can judge you for either.

Once you step into the public spotlight, it is essential that you consider everything you do to be fair game and a source of information that can be used for some political purpose by someone else, AT ANY TIME.

REMEMBER: You are always on duty the moment you step into the public eye.

7.    Being a politician can be very frustrating

As you go up the Tiers of Government, the more politics and an ongoing war of ideas will become apparent with almost everything you do.

As elected seats become part of much bigger local authority areas where there might be 30 or more councillors ‘sitting’ from different political groups, your vote can also feel very insignificant too.

This is especially the case if you are fighting against policy which is being promoted by a political group which has a controlling majority on the council but doesn’t even have a representative in the area you represent.

However, there are many positives – if you are prepared and willing to focus your energies on what you CAN do.

What you can ALWAYS do as a councillor typically revolves around directly helping the people you represent within your Ward or Division, and fighting to make sure that issues you do not appear to win are nonetheless raised, debated and recorded on the public record, so that your electors can see and know that you have done all that could be done.

8.    Seek unbiased opinion on whether running for a Council Seat is a good idea

OK, so this sounds like stating the obvious.

But is it really?

To be elected successfully, your preparation begins the moment you start thinking about what you have to do to get elected – and what you are going to do once you have been elected – if and when you get there.

In the first instance, you need to decide if your approach and the ideas that you have – your ‘platform’, are going to resonate with enough people to give you a fighting chance of success when election day arrives – and you should be doing this right now, before you even think about starting any kind of campaign.

For many of us, the first thing we do with an idea like running in an election, is immediately go and seek the advice of friends, family and our loved ones.

Yes, we always need the encouragement of those close to us. But the people we know well who care about us have a habit of being biased – and not always for the best.

Their opinion could easily set you on an unfruitful pathway to a lot of avoidable heartache and hard work. Or alternatively turn you away from doing something which could ultimately prove to be very positive and beneficial for everyone else.

More often than not, people who are close to us will tell us what they think we want to hear – and in politics, that really doesn’t help anyone.

If you’ve identified issues upon which you can base a good campaign, talk to people who could vote for you and who are outside of your normal social group and ask them what they think of what you have to say.

Don’t grandstand and roll out impromptu speeches to anyone who will listen. That will just annoy them and make you look little more than a fool.

Ask questions; see how people feel. Discover why their experiences have made them think in a particular way.

Find out what the different experience from their choice would look and feel like.

It will not take many conversations with different people to tell you whether you might be going the right way.

What is more, you are likely to gain even further insight into the perspectives of others that could well support and develop your own thoughts and arguments.

SUGGESTIONS:

  • DON’T tell people who are strangers what you are thinking about doing, or why you are asking the questions. You will draw unnecessary attention to yourself before you have even decided if you want to see the process through – and may even break Electoral Law by doing so.
  • DO take the opportunity to speak to everyone you can. Everyone likes to feel their opinion is valued and you will soon become aware of common themes and facts that deserve greater focus. What is more, every conversation is a step nearer to being comfortable talking to anyone in any situation – a prerequisite for becoming a good and respected politician.

9.    Running for Council as an Independent or ‘Non-Aligned’ Candidate

How to get Elected was written with people in mind who want to run as Independent, ‘Non-Aligned’ or what we should perhaps start calling ‘Open’ Candidates.  

Some people will make a very clear argument of the benefits of joining a political party before becoming a candidate.

Being ‘independent’ and appearing to be alone in politics can immediately sound like a very lonely place.

When you look at how democratic decisions are typically made by a majority of votes, seeming to be a councilor on your own can also look like it will be a very isolated place where you have the power to influence very little – especially when a large political group may appear to be in control.

I say ‘appear to be in control’, because looks are often very deceiving. It has regrettably become the case that in most of our Councils and even in our Parliament too, the power sits with the people or person at the top of a hierarchy.

‘Junior’ councillors belonging to a political party therefore have perhaps even less influence than an Independent, and as such are very much restricted in what they can really do.

The unspoken truth is that whilst political parties were at some point created in order to ‘get things done’, they have long since passed their point of being able to achieve any real good.

Political parties are some of the least democratic organisations that now exist.

It’s all good if the people or person at the top of a political party know what they are doing.

But the political parties themselves exist only to secure their own futures.

That means political parties don’t have room for anyone becoming a politician ‘wearing their colours’ who has a genuine, public centered desire and motivation to get things done.

Sadly, genuinely good and well-intended people who do get through candidate selection and then get elected, will soon have a very difficult time with their political party if they do not ‘toe the line’.

This isn’t to say that councils and publicly elected bodies don’t do anything democratically.

It’s just what they do and what they appear to achieve will rarely be all that it seems.

As an independent councillor, you can ALWAYS represent the best interests of the people who elected you without any requirement to defer to some bigger plan or idea that may not actually be in the best interests of the people you represent at all. 

Regrettably, some of the decisions made by a local authority may not even be in the best interests of all the people living in the area, which is under the council’s control, when that council is controlled by a political group – no matter how many wards or divisions that there might be.

Being independent will give you the opportunity to work with others to achieve results which will be beneficial for all, whilst allowing you to stay true to your responsibilities to the people who elected you.

On the rare occasion when an issue is very specific to the ward, division or constituency that you represent, you will have nothing stopping you from going the right way for your residents – even if every other councillor votes another way. 

Being a member of a political party will mean you cannot do this at the times when it will really count.

In principle, the idea of political parties has its benefit in bringing like-minded politicians together, in order to get things done. 

But this process is not restricted to political parties alone. Ultimately, if you have your priorities right and are ready to remain true to what you are aiming to do, you can group up or vote with anyone, at the times when they are looking at solutions to problems and developing policy in the same way that you do too.

With us all now being in times of great uncertainty, independently minded politicians who are not tied to the ideologies and political philosophies of the political parties that exist today, may well be a big step towards the solution to all the problems that we have.

However, for independents to achieve the results that we already need and for them to deliver the change that will almost certainly be required to come, independents will need to be open to working proactively and grouped alongside others in order to succeed. Open to the differences in experiences and therefore the ideas that we all have. Open to putting what’s right for others before what is right just for them. Open to a new way of working together with others which delivers on aspirations and facilitates the development of a new way of government working which is open, transparent and delivers the kind of life experience for all that we all would want to see.

Change has to start somewhere, and more of us being elected to our councils as independents will soon encourage and help others to consider their options and to then decide to join with others, work with others and perhaps create a new beginning in UK politics too.

10.                   Which Local Authority should I run for?

If you’ve decided that you want to become a councillor, but are not sure of where you could achieve most, help others in the way you would like, or potentially achieve the biggest impact, it would be worth considering the roles and responsibilities of the different Tiers of Government, and what work Parish & Town Councils, Borough & District Councils, County Councils and Unitary Authorities do.

Many people think of all councils being or doing the same thing.

In some cases, where there are unitary authorities, they basically are.

Otherwise, if you want to influence things in a particular way it is important to know where each local authority’s responsibilities lie.

If you are already an activist, your decision may be much easier. For instance, if you feel your community needs far more dog and litter bins, you are most likely to influence this by becoming a member of your local Parish or Town Council – if one exists in your area.

If you are fed up with building on the green belt or on flood plains, being elected to your local Borough or District Council – where Planning Decisions are made, will be your best step.

If tackling potholes is your thing, it will be your County Council.

11.                   Where is it easiest to get Elected?

If you are asking yourself where it is easiest to get elected, you may be thinking about politics for the wrong reasons.

Being entrusted with a publicly elected office is a great responsibility. One which everyone standing for election should take VERY seriously indeed.

If taking the time and making the effort to secure enough votes to win an election sounds like too much work for you, 4 or 5 years with the responsibility of fighting for what’s in the best interests of your electorate certainly will be.

12.                   How much work will it take to get Elected?

Very few candidates find running in elections easy.

Being a candidate is usually a lot of work – if you are taking the prospect of being elected seriously.

The hard work often begins long before the election itself is called.

Some elections are not contested. When this happens, and you are the only candidate, or there are the same or a lower number of candidates including you standing for election than the number of seats available for the Ward or Division, you become ‘Elected’ without having to actually run a campaign.

Non contested elections happen more regularly at Parish & Town level, where interest in becoming a councillor varies, and there can be a number of seats representing a Parish or Town Ward.

However, non-contested elections do happen at Borough and District level frequently too, and it is technically possible to be elected without contest as a Member of Parliament, if nobody decides to stand against you!

It is sensible to expect that an Election will always be contested and prepare on the basis that if you are going to win, then you will have to run a good campaign and fight very hard for votes.

As a candidate, the amount of work necessary to win a seat will in many ways be based upon the number of electors there will be for your Ward or Division on the Electoral Roll, coupled with its physical size and location.

The number of electors is fewest for a Parish or Town Council Ward and will increase as you go up the Tiers of Government.

In real terms, if you want to meet everyone personally who you are likely to represent if elected, you will have a greater chance of this if you run for a Parish or Town Council Seat.

The bigger the area a seat covers, the more help you will need to reach everyone and once you reach County or Unitary level authorities, direct contact with every voter will be almost impossible to achieve.

It is important to also be aware that as you go up the Tiers of Government, the level of politics increases too, and this can have a considerable impact on the type of campaign you will need to run and how much effort you will need to make in communicating your messages to the people who you will be asking to trust and elect you.

Part 2 – The things you need to know

13. Whenever the Election is – you need to get started – NOW!

When you have access to all the information about the next local elections in your area, it will be easy to see the election process itself as being between the date that the election is officially called – which is usually at the end of the March before the election, and Election Day itself, which is usually the first Thursday in the May of that year.  

This period – between the date when the Election is ‘called’ and the day of the Election is the formal campaign period, when all political and electoral activity must be carried out under the requirements set down by the Electoral Commission under Electoral Law.

There are very specific rules about what you can do, say and the amount of money you can spend on your campaign during this period, and I will come back to this later.

What you shouldn’t do is fall into the trap of thinking the only time that anyone is running for an election, is during the formal election period itself.

Anyone who is going to get elected and then get re-elected as a good councillor will understand and respect the fact that everything they do has the potential to have an impact on the result of the next election.

However, what a good community representative will not do, is only focus on doing things that they believe will get and keep them elected – as regrettably most of today’s politicians sadly do.

Yes, there is a difference.

You should be under no illusion that if you do your job well and always keep the best interests of the people you represent – or aim to represent firmly in mind at all times, you will gain the support of people you didn’t even expect.

That way, even when you don’t achieve the results that you might have hoped for, in terms of doing what’s right and maintaining your integrity and the relationship you have with your electors, you will always win.

So, whether the next election you can run in is this coming May or is in a year, two years or even three years’ time, if you are committed to representing local people and doing what’s right, your work needs to begin right now.

14. Get to know your local Democratic Services Department

We all love to hate our local councils (At least until we are part of them!). 

But whatever the council you hope to be elected to represent by your Ward or Division, it is essential that you get to know the role of the Democratic Services Department at your local District Level Authority, which takes responsibility for managing ALL Elections in your area.

Your local District Level Authority or Council will usually but not always be known as a Borough, District or City Council, unless it is a Unitary Authority, in which it could be a County or perhaps a Metropolitan Borough or similar.

This will be the same local authority which collects the Council Tax for residents in the area where you are planning to run to be elected.

All the information you need about who to contact, the name of the Monitoring Officer (which is very important if you should experience a problem during your official campaign) and the timetables you will need to keep to, will be available on this specific council’s website.

The website should also provide the address where you will need to attend to submit your Nomination Papers, provide information on how and when you can obtain your Candidate Pack, and also advise upon how you make an appointment to do so (Your Nomination Papers will need to be checked to make sure they are ‘valid’ – and it’s very important that you give yourself enough time to re-do them if there’s a problem!).

It is very easy to think of the Council as being in some way against you as a new candidate. But the Officers you will meet and interact with as a candidate may well be the same as the ones you will have lots of dealings with very quickly if you successfully become an Elected Member.

As such, it is in your mutual interests to have a positive and professional relationship, even at this stage.

Whenever the next election for your Parish, Town, Borough, District, City or Unitary authority might be, if you are going to run, you must keep up to date with all the information that your local Democratic Services Department makes available.

15. The Tiers of Government – an overview

One of the things people often overlook is that there is a series of different Local, Regional and Central Government Authorities to which anyone eligible can be Elected as a Member, and they all have responsibility for different parts and areas of government or public service delivery.

Once you begin campaigning, you will quickly come to realise that many voters do not understand the structure of government and where responsibility for different public services is held.

The structure of Government can be confusing for many reasons, and this is why it is important for you to understand:

  1. What the authority you wish to be elected to itself does, and
  2. What all the other authorities covering the same area do – as you may quickly find yourself needing to contact them.

The different authorities are known as the Tiers of Government. Because they overlap, literally on top of each other in the same geographical area.

It is currently possible for a voter to have different elected representatives representing them at up to 5 different levels, depending upon the local structure of government and where the responsibilities for any specific geographical areas lie.

The Tiers of Government are:

  1. Parish & Town Councils
  2. Borough & District Councils (District Level Authorities)
  3. County Councils
  4. Unitary Authorities (an amalgamation of the responsibilities of 1 and/or 2 & 3)
  5. City & Regional Mayors
  6. Parliament (The Westminster Parliament, headed by The Prime Minister)

16. Parish & Town Councils

Arguably the most accessible form of Government in the UK today is local Parish and Town Councils.

Parish and Town Councils are also the most diverse local authorities, in terms of their size, the regularity of when they meet, their budget, and the assets and activities which they have responsibility for.

Parish & Town Councils typically only exist within rural or countryside Boroughs or Districts and they often hold responsibility for the area around and including a Village, a definable/outlying area of a Town or a group of very small Villages or Hamlets (Parish), or alternatively an area known as a Town which itself is not big enough demographically (have enough people living there or registered to vote) to qualify as a Borough or District in government terms.

The responsibilities of Parish & Town Councils typically include:

  • Community Assets (Which includes village halls, town halls, public toilets, other community buildings, playing fields, parks, green spaces etc., which have belonged to the parish/town historically OR have been ‘adopted’ as a result of development)
  • Litter Bins (Paying for their purchase and installation, choosing the site etc.)
  • Dog Bins (Paying for their purchase and installation, choosing the site etc.)
  • Benches (Paying for their purchase and installation, choosing the site etc.)
  • Bus Shelters (Paying for their purchase and installation, choosing the site etc.)
  • Cleaning and maintaining Community Assets
  • Setting the Parish or Town ‘Precept’ – the amount every household contributes to the running of the Council, which is paid as part of their ‘Council Tax’
  • Grants
  • Consideration of planning applications as an official ‘respondent’
  • Representing the community where appropriate
  • Supporting other community stakeholders and local organisations (where appropriate)
  • Other responsibilities which are specific to the council

It doesn’t look or sound like a lot of responsibility. But for those who really care about the community in which they live and the shared experience they have with others who live and work there too, becoming a member of a local parish or town council can be very rewarding as it is possible to experience the impact of the work and decisions made first-hand.

Parish & town councils will always have at least one officer known as a clerk, who is responsible for administration and communication. The clerk is the person you would normally contact to make enquiries about the work of the council.

Information regarding the area which the parish or town council covers (its electoral constituency), its parish wards, the number of councillors elected for each, the electoral cycle (When the council will next be elected) should be available from the council itself via its website, or alternatively by contacting the clerk.

Otherwise, the Democratic Services Department of the corresponding District Level Authority should be able to help, or you can find information from the Local Government Boundary Commission HERE.

17. Borough, City & District Councils (District Level Authorities)

Borough or District Councils provide the administrative hub of local government.

They oversee and manage a wide range of public services that voters experience on a regular or day-to-day basis and hold key responsibilities for our local environment.

Councillors are elected to Borough or District Council Seats as Representatives of ‘Wards’. Wards typically cover the same area as a multiple of Parish Council Wards (where they exist).

District Level Authorities typically provide Electoral Services for ALL public elections, irrespective of the Tier of Government, through their Democratic Services Departments.

It will be your District Level Authority that you will need to contact regarding the local elections process and requirements to become a candidate in an election in the location over which the authority presides.

The responsibilities of District Level Authorities normally include:

  • Planning
  • Building Control
  • Licensing (Sale of Alcohol, Taxi & Private Hire, Scrap Metal Collection, Gambling, Sex Shops, Street Trading)
  • Housing
  • Environmental Health
  • Refuse & Recycling collections
  • Maintaining Parks & Green Spaces
  • Street Cleansing
  • Setting the Council’s Annual Budget or ‘Precept’ – the amount every household contributes to the running of the Council, which is paid as part of their ‘Council Tax’
  • Electoral Services (non-political)
  • Flood Prevention & Emergency Planning
  • The collection and redistribution of Council Tax
  • Community facilities (Sports halls, swimming pools, public toilets, car parks)

District Level Authorities are perceived by many in politics to be where responsibility really begins.

Elections are rarely uncontested for District Level Authorities and most councils at this level are under the control of a political group or made up of elected members who have been elected as representatives of well-known political parties.

Once elected, Members usually have the opportunity to join various committees and contribute in different roles with varying levels of responsibility, depending on the structure of the council.

Some of these committees, such as those with Licensing or Planning responsibility, are considered apolitical and quasi-judicial in nature.

18. County Councils

County Councils make up the highest tier of local government and provide a range of public services that are typically more strategically focused, as opposed to the more ‘day-to-day’ nature of the work of District Level Authorities.

Their area of control usually corresponds with the geographical boundaries of Counties.

Councillors are elected to County Council Seats as Representatives of ‘Divisions’.

Divisions typically cover the same area as several District Level Authority Wards, which themselves typically cover a multiple of Parish Wards. (where they exist)

The responsibilities of County Councils typically include:

  • Education (The Local Education Authority)
  • Adult Education
  • School Buildings & Infrastructure
  • Highways (Minor roads and the major roads not under the control of the Highways Agency)
  • Footpaths and Public Rights of Way
  • Waste Disposal Strategy (Rubbish disposal sites, waste incinerators etc.)
  • Social Services
  • Public Transport
  • Education Transport
  • Transport Planning
  • Strategic Planning
  • Emergency Planning
  • Setting the Council’s Annual Budget or ‘Precept’ – the amount every household contributes to the running of the Council, which is paid as part of their ‘Council Tax’

County Council Elections are rarely uncontested, and most County Councils are under the control of a Political Group or made up of Members who have been elected as representatives of well-known political parties.

Once elected, members usually have the opportunity to join various committees and contribute in different roles with varying levels of responsibility, depending on the structure of the council.

19. Unitary Authorities

In some areas, the roles and responsibilities of Parish & Town and/or Borough & District and County Councils have been amalgamated and made the responsibility of one local authority for that area.

The areas Unitary Authorities cover typically correspond with a Borough/District Boundary or a County Boundary but could mirror the area covered by a multiple of former Borough/District or County Councils.

Competition for a seat on a Unitary Authority is likely to be much greater than fighting for a seat on a Borough/District Council or a County Council Division – especially if ‘unitary status’ has recently been obtained and the way that councilors are elected to the Authority has been changed.

20. Multiple Seat Wards & Divisions

Surprising as it may sound, it is sometimes the case that more than one, and perhaps as many as 6 or even more councilors will represent the same electoral area for the same authority in a multiple-seat Ward or Division.

Having a multiple number of seats for the very same election can make life interesting for the people who count the votes after Election Day.

Having multiple-seat Wards and Divisions is also one of the ways that serious attempts are made to ensure that there is a balanced number of residents being represented by Councillors within different Local Authorities.

You will normally find multiple seat areas are where there are a lot more people living in a geographically small area, which itself cannot be divided into smaller areas for the purpose of administering an election.

If you are considering running within a multiple-seat Ward or Division, don’t be put off by the idea that there is more than one seat and that you are going to run alone.

There are no rules saying that any political party or group has to have a candidate for every seat.

It might actually be of benefit to you, as voters may feel they get the opportunity to support the party or candidate to whom they feel their political allegiances lie but can also support a local independent candidate at the same time.

Think of it like this, if you have enough people do that with one political party as others do with another, you might get twice the number of votes or either candidate!

REMEMBER: If you are running alone in an Election like this in a multiple seat Ward or Division and are out canvassing, it is always a good idea to make people aware that they have the opportunity to vote more than once at the same time, and that they can vote for you AND a party candidate too.

21. By Elections and The Electoral Cycle

A normal election or civic cycle for a local authority is a term of 4 years, which will only normally be changed or delayed in a time of emergency.

At the end of each cycle or term, often all, but sometimes a proportion of a council’s total number of seats will be automatically vacated and put back up for election.  

Where Local Authorities run more than one Electoral cycle, each respective term will last for 4 years.

This means that the overall balance of power could effectively be changed each and every time that one of the cycles ends and the Seats ending their electoral cycle are put back up for a Vote.

As a councillor elected at the beginning of an election cycle, your maximum term before having to seek re-election or step down would normally be 4 years.

When an Elected Member or councillor decides to step down, leave or resign from their position or seat part way through the cycle, or is unable to continue for some other reason, a By Election will be called just for that specific seat.

By Elections can happen at any time throughout the election cycle.

The process is very much the same as a full Council or Local Election in terms of the number of days between the Election being called and the Election itself, and when Nominations have to be submitted, and all other administrative requirements have to be fulfilled.

However, a By Election can and often is only run for a single Ward or Division, or for one of the seats within it if it has multiple seats.

A By Election will be run to coincide with other Elections if one is scheduled for a similar time, and the local Monitoring Officer does have some discretion over the dates of By Elections. Whereas scheduled Local Elections are normally held on the first Thursday in the corresponding May.

With this level of flexibility, it might be the case that you will know a By Election is coming for a certain Ward or Division several months before. Alternatively, you could have very little notice at all.

Notices of By Elections are posted in the same way as normal Local Authority Elections, so you will leave yourself very little time to develop a campaign if you wait for the news to reach you in this way.

Local Media and the Council Minutes will be the most reliable sources of news for you to become aware of when a By Election is due.

But hearing by word of mouth from people involved with the council itself will always help you a lot more when information like this first becomes available.

22. Data Protection

From the moment you begin campaigning, whether you have been recognised as an Official Candidate for an Election or before this has happened, it is likely that people will share information about themselves which you MUST always consider to have been shared confidentially and in trust.

Whether there are laws or regulations that cover your conduct as a councillor once you have been Elected, or before, when getting yourself elected is just your aim, you MUST embrace the principles of Data Protection with everything that you do.

This means that any personal information you are given or obtain has been shared for your use alone, unless there is a very good reason to share what you know with an appropriate person or authority.

The only exception would be when there is a need for immediate intervention, because a person is clearly at risk from harm.

Otherwise, you should always ask the permission of the person, family, a parent or guardian BEFORE communicating information you have been given in trust to anyone else.

If for any reason you do need to share information with an appropriate authority you should be confident in the legitimacy of that person’s post or responsibility and keep records – preferably e-mail copies, of everything you share and discuss with them, including when the contact was made.

ALL personal information you have regarding ANYONE – even their names and contact details must be held securely and not be accessible to anyone other than yourself.

Password and preferably encrypted protection of such documents as a minimum is a must.

Occasionally, you will become aware of a story or a valuable insight into a broader issue for the community, which could be illustrated by information that one resident or their family can give. If you feel this to be the case, you MUST ask the permission of the person and/or family before using their names and any information about them in any material you publish, communication you have with the media, or any reference you make to them in public.

You should also never publish photographs of people in which ANY of them can be identified – no matter how difficult it may seem, without asking their permission first.

In the case of children and young people under the age of 18, or adults who may be considered vulnerable, you MUST obtain the permission of their parent or guardian before taking and/or publishing their picture.

NEVER assume consent to take pictures, just because someone attends a meeting or an event which has been organised by you. 

If you are in any doubt about permission DO NOT PUBLISH!


If you have no legitimate reason to keep personal information you should delete or destroy it immediately.

Data Protection is one of those things which it is not only useful to read up about, but to also keep up to date with too.

As such, I cannot recommend highly enough that you research and keep up to date with ALL data protection rules, as these will certainly help you once you are elected and be a good thing to know about in the meantime too. (Take a look at the Information Commissioners Office Website and Google Data Protection and GDPR / General Data Protection Regulations)

Part 3 – Developing your Campaign

23. Identify the Local issues

You are likely to already have a grasp on at least some of the issues facing the community where you are seeking election.  

However, as a good councillor, making it your business to be aware of everything going on in your area at community level will be essential to help you be the representative that you need to be.

Issues often overlap, and if you don’t ensure that you are equipped with an objective view, the issues that you are passionate about will suffer from an unintended form of isolation, because you have no knowledge of how gaining success with one issue will impact upon others.

Information about what’s going on, what’s upsetting people, and what you can potentially do to help the people you are aiming to represent is available from many different sources.

My best advice is that you introduce yourself to all of them, build links and relationships with and within all, and never close yourself off to any source of information.

Just bear in mind that every organisation or business has an agenda of its own and it is healthy to have this at the back of your mind when you are considering their news and any messages that it conveys.

Council Meetings, Minutes & News

Whatever council you are aiming to run for, it is really important to be aware of what ALL the local authorities are doing in the area where you will work.

You can and should attend meetings of other councils covering the area where you are seeking election as often as possible, whether they are above or below the council you have targeted within the Tiers of Government.

Even if you go straight for a county level seat, the information from a parish council meeting can be invaluable because Parish and Town Councils are the most accessible form of Government and therefore the most likely to be accessed by the voters who are important to you. 

Equally, if you are going to be a great parish representative, it really helps to know what your district and county level authorities are doing too!  

If you can’t attend, it’s not the end of the world. Minutes, Reports and Agendas are available on the websites for District and County level authorities as a matter of course, and most Parish & Town Councils are now in the position to do the same.

Make sure you follow all the councils representing the area you will be working in on social media, and check that you follow each department that is communicating its own news too – e.g. Education at a County Council. Planning, Licensing, Refuse collections at a District level Authority.

Local Media  

It’s really important to have and maintain a realistic view of all media, and particularly your local newspapers, online news and radio stations. 

They are all highly discerning about what they consider to be news, and their view of what makes good news is likely to be very different to your own – particularly if you are looking ahead to how issues can and might grow as time passes.

What the news channels bring light to as current affairs in political terms is often the tip of an iceberg that grew in darkness from the bottom up.

Listening to, reading and following all of your local media on social media is a very good idea, because it will help you keep track of the developing bigger picture in the wider area around you, and see how events elsewhere may contribute to shaping strategic level policy nearer to home.

BBC Local Radio is currently one of the best sources for the news that you will need to be aware of most. If you cannot listen regularly, follow their social media accounts and keep an eye on the BBC Local News web pages too.

REMEMBER TO THINK CRITICALLY. The ‘news’ content provided by the media is often much more opinion than news.

Facts, figures and even stories themselves are frequently presented to encourage a particular reaction or certain point of view and in this sense, local media is often no different to the national channels.

Social Media

Probably the easiest way to focus on as many news sources as possible, social media is a great way to find out what all your stakeholders are doing, planning and thinking about the issues which they are specifically facing.

Follow ALL the key organisations in your area. 

For example:

• Councils

• Council Departments

• The Police

• The Fire Service

• The Ambulance Service

• The Environment Agency

• The Highways Agency

• Local Travel Companies

• Prominent local businesses – especially those with a high profile in the local community

• Charities such as Food Banks, Rotary, Lions, RSPCA

• The Hospitals serving your area

• Schools

• Local Interest Groups – particularly those focused on local issues

• The local branches of the Political Parties

• Councilors representing the same area from the other tiers of government

• Your local MP

Whilst tempting to do so, there will be little benefit to following other candidates or their political parties. Run your own race and concentrate on running it as best you can, using all of the available time and energy that you have!

Schools

With at least one school, if not several in almost every Ward or Division, keeping an eye on news from all of them in the area you are targeting will be very useful.

Schools often have communities of their own which can be very vibrant and naturally focus on educational issues.

Education based issues will be a key focus for county council candidates. However, other community focused matters do come into focus such as road and community safety, and the use of community buildings or recreation resources, which might be important if a school has limited space of its own.

Most schools have a social media presence, and it will be in your interest to follow them, whilst also keeping an eye on their websites.

Once you are elected, it will be to your benefit to introduce yourself to local head teachers and possibly the boards of governors too, so that you can open up a clear channel of communication and help them with any issues that relate to your areas of responsibility as their local councillor.

Local Charities, Voluntary Organisations & Interest Groups

You may be surprised by just how many local charities, voluntary organisations and interest groups there are around you, particularly in cities, towns and built-up areas.

Some will already be known to you for the work they are doing in the community, or the campaigning that they are doing.

Others will be working away in the background but will be mentioned in the minutes and agendas of council meetings, on notice boards and in a broad web search of charities, voluntary organisations and interest groups in your area.

When you find them, check out their websites. If the work they are doing is community focused, follow them on social media and look for opportunities to attend events that they might be holding, which you will be able and welcome to attend.

Surprising as it may sound, just attending events and taking the time to say hello to people and introduce yourself is a very effective way to get yourself known and pick up useful information on current and upcoming issues.

You don’t need to speak, grandstand or try to force your way into the limelight. Just being present and showing that what they are doing is important enough for you to share your time with them is usually enough. 

When you have been seen a few times in different places, people will begin to get more interested in who you are, what you are doing and what you have to say.

Social Clubs, Pubs & word of mouth

Just talking to people from the area you are hoping to get elected is always a good way to pick up information on the issues that are on the minds of voters locally.

Canvassing and questionnaires are probably the best way to get direct intelligence from your potential electors. But this will nonetheless be seen as a formal process. 

A more relaxed way to get to know people and find out what they think is to visit local social clubs and pubs, picking up information by word of mouth as you do. 

Once people know who you are and what you are doing, many will take the opportunity to tell you what they think about things when you find them in a social setting. 

Barriers often come down and there is that feeling that you all have something in common and might actually be friends. 

Just having a chat with local people can reveal an awful lot about what’s on the minds of many other people locally and this kind of insight can help you no end. 

You do need to be cautious with this approach, however. 

Please bear in mind that you will also encounter a lot of gossip and one-sided truths. So, if you do hear something that is of interest, use it as a guide to investigate further and check the facts, rather than seeing it as an immediate opportunity to get carried away with a new approach or course of action. 

Drinking with potential voters – even if the circumstances appear friendly and convivial, can also be one of the quickest ways to remove the respect that local people might have for you. 

Always remember to focus on asking questions and listening to what you are being told.

This is not the time to preach any kind of plan or manifesto! 

The Emergency Services 

Always follow the Police, Ambulance and Fire Services in your local area. 

They are all very active on social media and will have informative websites for you to read and follow too. 

The news from the Emergency Services will often be incident led. It may not even appear to be massively relevant on an event-by-event basis. 

However, you will pick up common themes with incidents that they all report and may also pick up useful pointers about strategic issues which could have a broad impact across the responsibilities of different local authorities across the area.      

24. Information sources that you MUST use

The nuts and bolts of any political campaign will be your understanding of what the authority you are campaigning to win a seat with has been doing; has achieved and where it has not been doing as well as it perhaps should.

The key facts that you will require, along with the history of how decisions have been made and who was involved in making those decisions will be available as a public record.

There is an expectation that government at all levels will be transparent with its decision making and policy development. As such, the records of public meetings and those involving committees and sub committees are usually available on the local authority’s website.

This means that you should be able to access the information that you need very easily and usually with just a few clicks.

Suggestions for reading:

  • The Agendas of Meetings
  • The Minutes of Meetings
  • Reports on Public Consultations
  • The Council’s Strategy Documents
  • All other documents which have been publicly released.
  • The attendance records and voting history for any sitting councillor you may be running against as a candidate in an election

Local Authorities may now have many years’ worth of historical documents available online.

As a sensible rule, just read up on documents covering the work of the authority during its past 4-year term. Unless there is a significant issue which you would like to see addressed, which has been ‘active’ for longer and it will help you to obtain research from the start that will provide the full history or chronology of events.

If information you need to access is not available publicly, it may be protected, or otherwise available through a FOI Request, (Freedom of Information) for which an administration fee may be payable. If you wish to access information in this way, you should contact the authority involved directly.

25. Putting out a Questionnaire

If you are new to politics and political campaigning, it is likely that the very best way to open up communication with the people you are going to ask to vote for you is to distribute and then collect a questionnaire.  

Questionnaires are a very effective way of opening up dialogue with people in your area, allowing voters to tell you about what concerns them and how you could represent them better.

They also begin the long-term task of demonstrating that you not only care about the people you represent and what is important to them. But you are also prepared to listen and find out how you can make a difference for them.

The questionnaire process is simple. But it must be seen through and completed fully if you are going to gain maximum value from the process.

The questionnaire process:

  1. Design a questionnaire
  2. Test your questionnaire
  3. Print enough copies for the area where you are planning to seek election
  4. Deliver your questionnaire
  5. Knock on every door to collect your questionnaire
  6. Collate your results
  7. Communicate your results

A. Design a Questionnaire

Probably the most important part of the process to get right is designing your questionnaire.  

You may already have a good idea about the issues that the community is experiencing. Whether its speeding traffic, over development, antisocial behaviour, regularity of bin collections or any one of a number of many other issues – some which will almost certainly be very specific to the area.

Even if you are certain that you know what the issues are, it is always a good idea to ask people for their opinion – whilst also being certain that you are not attempting to influence them with your own.

What is very important, is that you should not attempt to mislead people in the area you will be seeking election, by drawing attention to issues which will fall outside the scope and responsibility of the council you hope to represent and/or that would be your responsibility as an elected councilor – if you are successful

This is why it is essential that you understand what the authority you are campaigning to represent is responsible for, as well as what it is not.

Yes, you might get elected by promising to deliver results that would never be within your control or sphere of influence.

People are not stupid, and they will learn not to trust you in a heartbeat – the moment they understand that you have deliberately misled them.

Tips for your questionnaire:

  • REMEMBER – this exercise is about learning how other people feel about issues affecting their lives. It is not an opportunity to preach or grandstand your own views. Doing so will just annoy people and switch them off to what you can do. 
  • Think of questions which are closed – i.e. they can be answered with a simple yes and no. 
  • Questions should be about local issues, not ideas. 
  • Use a simple word-processing programme like Microsoft Word, and a type face no smaller than 12pt. 
  • Make sure it is easy to read and remember that it is likely that at least some of the people who will read your questionnaire will have difficulty reading. So, keep plenty of space between questions. 
  • DO NOT write anything that is defamatory about anyone – even if you believe the information to be true. 
  • DO NOT ask for personal information of any kind. 
  • If you do ask for people to provide any information about themselves, you MUST ask them to confirm that they are happy for you to hold their data. Add a check box to be sure. 
  • Do not try to lead people with your questions – if you want an honest response. 
  • Avoid attempting to influence people in the way that you write your questions. A simple test is to look at your question and check if you are using a word or words like because, or have edited what you have said to remove them. 
  • ALWAYS provide an opportunity for people to tell you about issues you have not raised with your questions.
  • ALWAYS tell people who you are and what you are doing.
  • Provide an e-mail address at the very least at all times and ensure that all contact details required during a formal election campaign period are correctly available on your questionnaire. 
  • Invite people to contact you to ask you questions and tell you more.
  • If you would be uncomfortable asking any of your questions face-to-face, DON’T ASK THEM – as they are likely to be received in the same way. 
  • Make clear when you will be calling around to collect completed questionnaires.
  • Collect your questionnaires personally. 

B. Test your Questionnaire

Even good politicians can get things wrong. 

What we write and how it sounds as our internal voice may not be how it comes across to others, so it’s always better to check.

Before putting ANY literature through doors, ALWAYS get a few different people to read through and feedback on what you have done.

If the people you ask to review your work are open and honest, you may feel prickly towards what they have to say. But take it on board – and always act upon genuine advice from people who do not have something to gain by influencing you to make changes or go a different way.

C. Print enough copies for the area where you are planning to seek election

It’s really important that you visit every house in the area where you are seeking election.   

You may not want to do so, for reasons as simple as you know a councillor lives in the house next door and you feel it’s almost certain that the people who live there will not vote for you.

The funny thing about politics is that it doesn’t work like that. The person who lives next door to a councillor could end up being your greatest supporter – and as one vote could be all you need to secure a win, you should never let any kind of illogical fear rule out visiting just one house!

The Democratic Services Department at the local District Level Authority should be able to provide details of the numbers of properties in the Ward or Division you are going to target.

However, there may be restrictions upon how much information they will give you outside of a formal Campaign period, and even then, you may have to provide certain commitments to how you will keep any data secure and what purposes you will use it for.

Get in touch with the relevant Democratic Services Department to find out how you can get a copy of the Electoral Roll.

D. Deliver your Questionnaire

Delivering a leaflet is one of the quickest ways to get to know your patch and the people within it.

It gets you seen by people who wouldn’t otherwise recognise you, and putting a name to a face will be one of your greatest allies in securing votes from local people to fight for local issues.  

If you have decided to run in an election that is coming up quickly, you may need to get some help.

Just be sure that whoever is delivering leaflets for you is someone you trust to represent you wherever they may go.

E. Knock on every door to collect your Questionnaire

Developing a relationship with voters is essential in local politics. 

When there isn’t a national election taking place that coincides with the date of the local election and people are not so tribal with their votes, the people who know and trust you could really make all the difference and, in some cases, give you a significant win.

When you speak to people and ask their opinion, they will feel that they are important.

This can apply to people who might even vote for one of the main political parties at other times.

People not only like to know they can access the politicians who represent them. But that their public representatives are ready and waiting to listen to them too.

When you call at a door, it is really important to be polite. Introduce yourself and who you are and tell the people you are calling on that you recently delivered a questionnaire.

Some people will have thrown them away. Others will simply be too busy with life to want to talk. Some will be rude (Remember it’s not personal – most people have a very low opinion of politicians these days). But many will be only too pleased to talk.

Once you have spoken to a few different people on the doorstep, you will get an idea of what really works. 

When you are collecting a questionnaire, just keep the focus on the information you are being given and leave without discussing what you plan to do and leave it until another time.

F. Collate your results

When you have collected ALL of your questionnaires – that means all of those you have had returned completed AFTER visiting every relevant address, you need to collate your results.  

The best way to do this is on a spreadsheet with a programme like Microsoft Excel.

A good idea is to set up a box for yes and a box for no against each question. Then put a 1 in the next space in the column or row against the yes or the no for each question for every form. 

You will then be in a position to use the spreadsheet formulas to count up the numbers.

Using a spreadsheet is a very safe and simple way to manage your results.

You can easily check that you haven’t missed anybody or have any misleading information as the number of no’s added to the number of yes’s for any one question should always add up to the number of questionnaires.

As you work through the questionnaires, you will begin to see patterns emerging. Some might not be what you were expecting – and it’s here that you will define yourself against many others, by doing the right thing.

Never try to manipulate data to suit your own needs.

Whether ignoring the results of a question that doesn’t appear to help you or trying to read the information in a way that helps an argument, but which is misrepresentative or simply untrue, you will do yourself no favours and immediately fail the people you want to represent.

Tip:

Always be open. If real data tells you the majority of people want things to go a certain way – as their representative, that’s what you must go with.

G. Communicate your results

If you are in the build up to an election (The period immediately before the election), a good questionnaire and the results from it will serve you very well as the basis of your Election Manifesto.   

Ideally, the best time to put a questionnaire out for this purpose, will be a few weeks before the Election is formally called – in perhaps February or early March – if your election is part of the normal cycle, and isn’t a by-election.

ALWAYS give yourself enough time to complete the process!

If you do this, you can use the data you have harvested to support your campaign, knowing that your words will resonate with the majority of people AND have the added bonus that they will know you have been listening to them too.

At other times, the best way to communicate what you have found will be through a newsletter, by social media or through a blog – which in my experience, local people will soon begin to read when you are talking about the real issues which are important to them.

26. Canvassing before or during an Election Campaign

Probably one of the things that anyone new to politics will fear most of all is canvassing – or going from door to door, speaking to residents and finding out what they think.

Believe it or not, once you have started to gain some experience, canvassing can be a lot of fun.

Canvassing gives you the genuine opportunity to speak one-to-one with the people you are asking to vote for you, and also to find out why other people might be seeing you in a different way and possibly misunderstanding you and what you have to say.

As a rule, you should always canvass voters personally.

If that’s not possible, those canvassing on your behalf should be reliable members of any supporting team that you have.

Either way, you or your team should knock on every door in the Ward or Division where you hope to get elected during the Formal Election Campaign – at least once. 

If possible, you should visit doorsteps more.

When I was first elected, my running mate and I had knocked on every door twice and in some cases three or four times right up to 9pm on the day of the election itself.

You don’t have to wait until it’s actually election time before you canvass. 

If you want to be taken seriously by voters, you would do well to visit everyone, every few months as an absolute minimum, before you are elected, and once you are elected too.

Suggestions for Canvassing during an election campaign:

  • Make a plan for covering certain areas and give yourself enough time to cover a set part of it every evening or Saturday during the election campaign.
  • Knock on every door and wait long enough for someone to answer.
  • When you do get an answer, always try to smile and be polite.
  • Introduce yourself and tell them what you are doing briefly. (You should devise and remember a sentence that says something like ‘Hello, I’m Adam Tugwell and I’m running for Tewkesbury Borough Council as an Independent Candidate in the Elections on 4th May, when I very much hope to be elected to represent you’.
  • Ask them if they are planning to vote and who they are thinking about supporting. (Do bear in mind that they do not have to tell you this, just because you have asked!)
  • At this point, you should know if pursuing a conversation where you can discuss your manifesto is a good idea. Basically, if they tell you they are voting for another candidate in a very clear way, wish them a nice day and be on your way!
  • If they are open to talking, don’t immediately see a green light to grandstand your ideas.
  • Ask them how they feel about the area and what they would like to see being done.
  • DON’T criticise or talk negatively about the other candidates – no matter how you feel about them. You are running your own race!
  • DON’T make promises you cannot keep.
  • DO run through your commitments. But keep them brief and to perhaps no more than 3 to 5 ‘bullet points’.
  • Be prepared to talk through any or all of your commitments.
  • NEVER lie if you feel cornered by a question or comment in any way. Be honest and say you will research a topic if you have found yourself challenged by what someone has said – it’s a great way to open up communication if you offer to go back or contact them by e-mail or by phone – and they will feel really valued if you do.
  • Make sure that they have a copy of your literature if you have already delivered some, and your contact details, for if they wish to get in touch.
  • When you have left the property, make a note about how many votes you believe you can expect from that household.
  • If possible, use a copy of the Electoral Roll to do this.
  • The Electoral Roll will provide names of the people in each house, but it is safest not to use the names to address people when they answer the door, just in case it isn’t them! Names appear on the Electoral Roll which may not be the names people use in their day-to-day lives. You will avoid feeling embarrassed, red-faced or silly, if you happen to stumble upon someone like this by greeting everyone in the same way.

REMEMBER: You must not refer to yourself as being a ‘candidate’ for any election in any way, written, spoken or otherwise, unless and until you have been formally recognised as being a candidate for that specific Election by the Democratic Services Department at the Council managing the Election you plan to run in. 

Suggestions for Canvassing at other times:

  • Make a plan for covering a certain area, giving yourself enough time to complete it on a Saturday morning.
  • A week or perhaps two weeks before, visit each of the houses and deliver a small leaflet outlining the issues you are working on and making clear that you would like to know what residents think about these, or anything else which might be of concern to them.
  • On the leaflet, tell them when you will be returning, and ask them to display the leaflet where it can be seen on the day you are going to return. That way you will only knock on doors where people want to talk – which won’t by any means be all. But you will also save yourself a lot of time too. (People will remember that you have been to their house and have given them the opportunity to speak to you, even if they don’t take up the offer)
  • When you call at a house, like when you are canvassing at election time above, be polite, smile and introduce yourself, making reference to your note. (Which will hopefully be easy for you to point at)
  • Ask them what they would like to talk about, let them speak and make sure you listen!
  • Be open about your thoughts about what you can do.
  • Don’t make promises you cannot keep.
  • Always be prepared to signpost someone who can help them if you genuinely know that you cannot.

Once you have learned and established a canvassing routine and the best way to interact with people on the doorstep, the experience will be incredibly useful.

Something to bear in mind about canvassing:

One thing you should never do is get involved in an argument on somebody’s doorstep – especially over your policies.

It is important to be aware that you don’t always know who you are talking to on a doorstep, and if they support another candidate, they may consider it a good investment in supporting the other candidate by wasting your time.

The logic being that you will have less time to spend with people who might support you, if you are on their doorstep fruitlessly trying to convince them to change their mind!

27. Leaflets & Campaign Literature

Canvassingquestionnaires and social media are highly effective ways to get yourself known in your community and to maintain a presence with the people you will be asking to vote for you.

However, people are not always at home when you call, and during the election campaign in particular, you need to be sure that your story has reached as many potential voters as possible – even if for some reason it is not possible for you to meet.

Leaflets are a great way to achieve this and support your efforts both before the election campaign and during it too.

You will need to take a different approach before and during the formal election campaign itself.

During the election campaign, what you spend is very important and this is why you must plan what material or literature you are going to produce, along with every detail of who will produce it and what it will cost you too.

The upside of producing your own literature is that it will make your campaign feel much more authentic and real to you. So, enjoy writing, designing and producing it!

Producing leaflets and campaign literature – The Key Points:

  1. Election Address
  2. Standard photo-copied or home-printed leaflets
  3. Calling cards
  4. Get out the Vote Cards
  5. Design
  6. Printing
  7. Things to bear in mind

A. Election Address:

For your election campaign, you really should produce and deliver a higher quality and preferably colour leaflet which has been printed professionally.

A good size for this purpose is an A5, four-page booklet, which if you were producing yourself would be rather like folding a page of A4 and using it like a book.

Always use a type size no less than 12pt that is easy to read such as Arial or Times New Roman. (Check with a few different people to understand what works best)

Producing an Election Address is the ideal opportunity to tell people a little bit about yourself and your background. Be sure to do so in a way which will explain why you are running and asking for the support of local voters in a way which will make sense to the reader. 

Your Election Address is also the best way to ‘go public’ with your Election Pledges or ‘Manifesto’.

Once published, you can also publish your Pledges on your blog and social media accounts, where you will have room to provide more information that will help readers. 

A good time to deliver your Election Address will be about a week after the Official Candidates List has been confirmed by the Democratic Services Department. 

This way, when people begin to compare the election literature from all the candidates who have delivered to their address, they will be equipped with the best information possible. 

B. Standard photo-copied or home printed leaflets: 

With no election coming up in the near future, a two-sided black and white leaflet in a newsletter form is a great way to keep in touch. 

Ideally your leaflets should be sized A4. But A5 would also be fine. 

As with an Election Address, always use a type size no less than 12pt that is easy to read such as Arial or Times New Roman. 

Producing this type of leaflet outside of an election period is an ideal way to provide a newsletter that will keep everyone up to date with what you have done, what you are doing and what you are planning to do. 

During an election period, this is an ideal quick-to-produce format that you can use to pick up and highlight new or recurring issues which have come to your attention whilst out canvassing. 

During the election campaign, this type of leaflet would ideally go out to voters in the last week to ten days before the election. 

C. Calling cards: 

Not everyone will be at home when you call. 

Sometimes you will not find a way to return when you might like to. So, leaving a calling card is a great way to let people know that you have visited. 

Whilst they are referred to as ‘cards’, an A4 sheet cut into four parts with the same information and design on each part is a great way to produce something simple which will do the job very well and is very cost effective to produce on your PC. 

Using the same principles with size and font for your typeface as Leaflets and an Election Address, your message need only be very short. 

Let your potential voters know that you called and were sorry to have missed them but will be happy to answer any questions if they would like to get in touch.

Just remember to have all your contact details on the calling card too! 

D. Get out the Vote cards:

If you have any money left in your Election Expenses Budget, a great way to support your final push for support on Election Day is to deliver a ‘get out the vote’ card.

Much the same size and design as your calling cards, a ‘Get out the Vote’ card needs to be very simple and written as a very polite and gentle reminder that it is literally Election Day ‘today’, and that the Voter taking the time go to the Polling Station and supporting you will be greatly appreciated.

If possible, your ‘Get out the Vote’ cards should be delivered to everyone who does not have a Postal Vote.

The best time to deliver Get out the Vote cards is first thing in the morning on Election Day. ideally before everyone has left for work or the school run etc.

E. Design: 

If you have no experience of using design software, designing a leaflet will probably sound like a very challenging task. 

The good news is that most computers that have Microsoft Office Software loaded on them will have a programme called Microsoft Publisher. 

MS Publisher is easy to use and ideal for producing high quality and easy to read leaflets which will get your message across.

If you are unsure how to use MS Publisher to complete a specific task, just Google it, remembering to start your question with ‘How do you get MS Publisher to…..’

F. Printing:

If you are getting leaflets printed professionally, you MUST ask if the printer is happy to produce political flyers and/or leaflets. 

This is particularly important for an Election Address or any material you have printed by them for use during the formal campaign, as you will have to include their details.

All of your leaflets will need a blank margin around the edges. Printers call this the ‘bleed’, and if you are setting up a design which is going to a professional printer, it will be a good idea to ask them what bleed will be required BEFORE you begin your design. 

You should be able to find a low-cost printing company on the Internet. Just search for low-cost printing or something similar and see what pops up. 

Most printing companies of this kind will do a quick turnaround and should be able to get your finished leaflets back to you within a week. 

Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to get them planned, checked and printed in good time and you would be well advised not to leave creating an Election Address until the election has been called! 

When you are printing leaflets at home, it will be a good idea to set up a test page with a picture, diagram or type across it. You can then check what margins you will need to leave available as a bleed at the top, bottom, left and right of the page. 

 SUGGESTIONS: 

  • Plan your leaflet, Election Address, calling card as far in advance as possible. 
  • Write your material first, whether it’s news, election pledges or notifying people of an event that you have planned. 
  • The only leaflet you really should get produced by a professional printer is your Election Address. The others will be much quicker to produce on a printer at home or at a reasonably priced photocopy store. 
  • Use a design programme like MS Publisher which you are likely to have on your PC 
  • Set up your leaflet, either testing the print area on your home printer or checking on the margin or bleed area you will need with the printing company first. 
  • Use a Font which is easy to read, such as Arial, Aptos, Times New Roman, Verdana or Gill Sans. 
  • Use a font size of 12pt or greater for any part of the main body of text – That’s the part you want people to read. 
  • Leave plenty of space around your articles, pictures etc. 
  • Check on the information you MUST include for material you publish and distribute during the election period itself. If you print the material yourself and have no agent, it will only be your details required. But if a printer and agent are involved, you MUST recognise them with appropriate wording too. 
  • Either way, ALWAYS include your contact details so that people can get in touch. 
  • Check your draft design with a few people before you get it printed. Pay special attention to how easy it is to read and whether the first impression is either busy or that there might be too much space. 
  • Check the spelling and grammar and get someone else you trust to check it too. Innocent mistakes like these are very easy to miss but can be very costly further on! 
  • Add pictures where you can. Have a portrait picture of yourself which sits alongside your name (And SMILE!)
  • Have your Election Address ready in time to distribute at the beginning of the election campaign – that’s once the Official Candidates List has been confirmed. 
  • Print at least one leaflet later in the election campaign, say in the last week to ten days, which covers up to date news and issues which you have identified as you have been campaigning. 
  • When Canvassing always carry a calling card so you can let people know you have been to visit when you call at their home or business and they are out. 
  • REMEMBER that anything and everything you produce to be used during the Election Campaign MUST be accounted for financially. Your Election Address will almost certainly be the most costly expense you will have, and you should budget for this FIRST before you think about other leaflets or anything else you might like to spend money on. 
  • YOU MUST NEVER EXCEED YOUR ELECTION EXPENSES BUDGET!!! 

G. Things to bear in mind:

REMEMBER: 

  • You shouldn’t publish opinions, gossip or anything personal in nature about anyone – even if they are another candidate. 
  • It’s ok to mention people in a factual way i.e. about what they have or haven’t done – as long as you can produce evidence to support any facts that you mention. 
  • ‘Play the ball, not the man’
  • Hearsay or word of mouth is NOT factual evidence! 
  • Never lie or create stories. 
  • Never make false promises or suggest you will be able to influence matters that you will not. 
  • Be sure that the information you are discussing is relevant to the work you will have the ability to do and the authority you are working to be elected to. 
  • If you are going to refer to someone else’s work, reference the work openly and the source it came from. 
  • Always ask permission to reproduce work and/or pictures which have/has a copyright and acknowledge that it does. 
  • Where possible, ask the permission of the copyright holder first and remember that even as an independent representative, some people will not be happy to be linked directly or otherwise with a political campaign.     

28. Contact information you should always publish

It’s very easy to overlook the role of your contact information when you begin working with your wider community and the general public. 

It is an essential part of good communication that you keep your potential electors aware of what you are doing and why. 

It’s also vital that people you want to vote for you have the opportunity to contact and interact with you effectively. 

Get this right, and the circle of good communication between you as a public representative, and people as the members of the public you will represent, will be complete. 

Becoming a politician isn’t about you, it is about the role that you will fulfill. 

From this point of view, it is sensible to treat your campaigning and election activity, and then what you will ultimately do as a councillor as being like a job. 

You wouldn’t use your personal contact details to advertise the company you work for, and your political work should be no different. 

There is no need for you to put your home address on the material you publish at any time outside of a formal election campaign period. However, you do need to provide people with a telephone number and an e-mail address to make the interactive process work. 

Rather than use your own phone and the e-mail address that you use for things like your banking and online shopping, it is a very sensible idea to get yourself a pay as you go phone, and a free e-mail account with one of the well-known platform providers. 

 A separate phone number 

You may be thinking ‘I already have a phone… what’s wrong with using that?!’ 

Well, in some respects absolutely nothing. But if you are out having a drink or a meal with friends, taking your children to school or on holiday with your family, you might not want to take a call from an angry resident who has just had his flowerbeds trashed by a car cutting across a verge or corner. 

Keeping communication streams separate is just a sensible step that will help you to be professional with all the community work that you do. 

Most of the main mobile phone networks and the well-known supermarkets sell basic mobile phone packages with plenty of data and airtime to get started for around £20 or even less.

This is a very good investment and a cost-effective way to add a simple layer of personal protection to what you are doing in public. 

 A separate e-mail address 

Just like having a separate phone number, having a different e-mail address for your campaigning and election activity really is a must. 

It’s very simple to get another e-mail address and you can set up an additional account for free with providers such as Google and Outlook, and can either use your name or as with social media, include a reference to your area or something like that in your new address. 

By having a new e-mail address just for your campaigning, you can choose when you pick up the messages which come in as a result of your political work and keep your community work separate from everything else that you do. 

The most important thing – for practical reasons – is that a separate e-mail account will make keeping your records much easier. 

It doesn’t matter what kind of communication it is, and whether you sent or received it. Keeping copies of everything is essential to what you do. 

You don’t know when you might need to return to conversations you had or information you were given in the present moment at a future time, and when I say future, I literally mean something you do now could only become relevant in a few years’ time. 

To put it in perspective, when people get upset about something, they can quickly develop a long memory. Emotional upset and anger can lead anyone to remember events very differently to how they actually were. It may not be deliberate or intentional on the part of someone who might have a grievance with you. But all the same, you need to protect yourself against all eventualities. 

Use your separate e-mail account to make sure you keep clear and documented evidence of everything which was written, sent and received, and can access at any time.

Records are most definitely one of a politician’s best friends!      

29. Using the Media in Local Elections & Campaigns

At a time when there are so many TV and Radio stations to choose from that we can easily lose count, it is very easy to assume that you have got to be prominent in the media if you are going to be a success in politics.  

Many existing politicians already mistake media relevance as a key priority.

They focus their best efforts on policy announcements, events and making associations with others that will be considered ‘newsworthy’.

They consider getting their picture, a story about them or even an interview with them in the news as being more important than achieving real results for the people who elected them.

In many ways it is because so much media chasing goes on in politics that so little good work actually gets done.

So, when we consider that the news is probably more than 95% opinion, it is easy to see how coveting media attention can become a trap of a very special and troubling kind.

Locally, the rise of the Internet and social media has been a game changer in just about every respect, and it is sensible to see the change for what it really is.

The regional press has been decimated virtually overnight. Not because of news moving online. But because classified advertising and the massive profits that it once generated have.

Local, evening or regional news was for a long time subsidised by this advertising. But as news at a local level really doesn’t ‘sell’, this benefit has now gone and so has the opportunity to get the same consistency of journalism at a local level.

This isn’t a ‘forget local media’ speech. It’s a ‘local media has its place’ approach, with the suggestion that you focus on doing what you have committed yourself to do – putting your community first before going up blind alleys, chasing the beginning of a media rainbow.

If you are doing your job in the best way that you can, the media will find their way to you without you ever having to chase them*.

SUGGESTIONS:

  • Focus your primary effort on connecting with the people you are going to ask to elect you. Do this through canvassingquestionnaires and attending local public meetings where you can and should take the opportunity to speak and/or ask questions.
  • Utilise your social media accounts at every turn. Blog about local issues, making sure you use and include words which are like labels for your area, such as street names, estate names, bus route names and numbers, the local council’s name etc. Make it a conversation and talk about things that matter to local people. Things that are real.
  • Write, print and deliver a regular newsletter and put it through every door in the Ward or Division where you hope to get elected. It is easy to think that everyone has easy access to the Internet, Twitter and Facebook, but they don’t. Put your news in forms which are accessible to everyone, and you will pick up support from people who may not even read it that way!
  • Comment on articles which are relevant to your campaign, which are published by the local papers online. Use your name and contact details, and talk positively about how things can be done differently, rather than focusing on why what you are reading may seem so wrong. Always link your comments to your Facebook and Twitter accounts so that your followers can see that you are active and also read what you have to say about other local issues as they arise.
  • Facts are your friend. When you do have a story which isn’t just exciting for you but has a genuine feel that it is going to be important to more people, along with some interesting and quantifiable facts to support it, drop the news desk at your local not-for-profit and smaller community focused Radio stations a line. (BBC Local Radio is as ambitious as you need to be. They will pick up far more local news of the kind which matters in a local election than the commercial stations, who appear to behave like they are national stations with a local presence. If your story really ‘has legs’, a bigger news channel will soon pick it up from there)

REMEMBER: News is a consequence of what you do, not the reason for doing it. Focus on the important things and the unimportant things will take care of themselves.

* In 2007, I was a newly elected Councillor at Tewkesbury Borough, when Gloucestershire experienced an unprecedented flooding event one July Afternoon. In itself, the speed and nature of the flood which followed was something extraordinary. But those very same floods inundated the Mythe Water Treatment Works on the banks of the River Severn at Tewkesbury and polluted the supply of drinking water to massive parts of Gloucestershire. When supplies ran out that Sunday, I took to my Ward delivering bottled water to residents, then spending over two weeks coordinating and delivering supplies across the area. That same Monday, I was surprised to have a call from Radio 5 Live asking me if I could spare a few minutes to be interviewed live on air…

30. Public Speaking

One of the key aspects of becoming a good campaigner, councillor and politician is giving a voice to others who don’t have one – whatever the reason may be. 

In its most literal interpretation, this means that you must be prepared to speak in public, or to groups of many people, and work to become an effective communicator when you do.

Before you are elected, public speaking opportunities may be limited to asking questions at meetings, giving an overview of yourself and why you are standing, or perhaps taking part in a husting, if one has been organised in the area where you are seeking election.

The same principles apply to public speaking, no matter the circumstances – and this includes interviews.

So, if you consider your approach and prepare yourself now, you will be ready when you know an opportunity to speak may be coming up, or when you find yourself asked to speak without any time to prepare.

Ideally, your aim should always be to speak to other people the same way.

So, whether you are talking to ten, a hundred, a thousand or many more people through a television camera, the very best you can be will be when you speak to them all as if they are alone and you are talking to every person one-to-one.

I did say ideally. But reality is rarely ideal and when it comes to public speaking and interviews, just about everyone you can imagine suffers with nerves before they begin to talk. 

If they don’t, it probably means that they don’t care about what they are about to say.

If you follow the principles of How to get Elected, you will always have the understanding and knowledge to answer questions appropriately off-the-cuff, even when you find them challenging.

In terms of writing a script, the only time you should really do this is when you are literally giving a speech or providing a formal response or question in an environment where getting the form of words across accurately is the primary aim.

For example, when I was a Borough Councillor, writing a script to follow was what I would do if I was addressing the Planning Committee about a contentious issue, or talking to a large group of people about a subject where it was essential to cover all the details and not get any facts wrong.

When you know you are going to be in a situation where you might have the opportunity to speak or ask a question about a certain topic, you should always prepare by reading up and researching the topic in detail first.

Identify some key facts and numbers from a source or sources you can legitimately refer to. 

Either try to remember them or write yourself a small prompt note that is easy to see or you can keep on the top of your notes or in your hand. (Remember to ALWAYS keep notes and information you are carrying away from other people’s view!)

If you find yourself caught out with a question you cannot answer, NEVER be tempted to lie. 

Be honest and tell people that you don’t know the answer. But will make it your priority to find out. (You can always use it as an excuse to follow up if it’s appropriate to do so).

REMEMBER: When you are in a room speaking or debating with other people, it is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that others are getting their messages across more effectively and clearly. Or that they don’t even have to try.

It’s NOT real – this is just the way that listening to other people speaking about the same subject can affect you emotionally, when you are putting effort and meaning into what you are doing. 

The best way to deal with this kind of experience is to simply focus on what you are going to say yourself and make sure you say it. Even if it sounds like someone else has said it before. 

NEVER be put off by the behaviour of other speakers who use ridiculing others as a way to try and enhance their own performance. 

These are usually the worst offenders for having little to say of any value to anyone but themselves.

This is a very important thing to bear in mind that will help you keep perspective.   

31. Using social media to get Elected

Good communication with the people you are going to ask to vote for you is essential. 

The good news is that social media makes this task a whole lot easier than it was just a few years ago.

Whereas you might have had to be delivering newsletters through people’s doors regularly at that stage, you can do so much more with social media than you could then.

Before I say any more about the positives, we have to recognise the negative impressions that we have of social media and why.

The chances are that you might not want to use social media at all, because you have heard of things like Twitter trolls, fake news, being ‘cancelled’ and all sorts of other problems that come with using services like Facebook and Twitter. 

The news makes using these free services sound very risky if not bad, and there is always a risk that you will have a bad experience in some way.

The upside outweighs the downside however. And if you stick to a few clear rules about what you post or publish yourself, and the material you republish or link as something you like or repost – which can easily be taken as a recommendation by otherseven if you didn’t mean it to be, then you can be reasonably safe, most of the time.

We have all heard the jokes and horror stories about people publishing posts about their underwear, what they ate for breakfast or when they went to the toilet.

Yes, some people want to share their entire lives with the online world. But there are no rules saying that you have to do that.

To be a good political communicator, all you need to do is publish material, which is going to appeal to your voters, keep them interested and better still, make them want to get involved.

Some basic rules for social media:

  • Have a separate account or accounts for your political work and campaigning. Voters will recognise you as being your role in the community and will not find value in hearing about your day-to-day activities as a normal person!
  • Never publish material that you cannot be sure to be accurate or true – unless you make clear that is your position. If you there is any possibility that you could be linked with material which is potentially untrue or misleading by publishing a link – DON’T! 
  • Never attack anyone personally in any way. Politics is actually about the work of politicians and the results of what they do – NOT about the people who do it, who are just as human as you (even when they don’t act like it!). Always remember the mantra ‘play the ball, not the man’ and you will be fine. 
  • Never take comments made by anyone personally. Once you start publishing as campaigner, activist or candidate, there will be people out there who just want to disagree with you simply because of what you do. Take it as a compliment and bear in mind that they wouldn’t be attacking you if they didn’t feel the work you are doing is a risk to what they themselves do! 
  • When you do feel you are justified in criticising something, focus on what is wrong and explain why it is wrong and how the situation could be improved. 
  • Use facts to back your arguments whenever you can. 
  • Focus your material on action. 
  • Do not make promises you cannot keep. 
  • Be aspirational but keep it real – Talk about your vision for something better but acknowledge the obstacles at the same time. 
  • Always be positive. 
  • Avoid gossip and hearsay. 
  • Always report threatening behaviour to an appropriate authority – as if you follow the rules above, you will not have anything you need to apologise for. 

REMEMBER: As soon as you publish something online or to the Internet, it is likely to remain ‘out there’ in some way for good.

Even if you delete something, it is possible that someone, somewhere will have kept a copy.

There are accounts which specialise in publishing deleted Tweets and social media entries.

It will be in your best interests to avoid publishing something which has the potential to embarrass you later, rather than being embarrassed by something before you accept that this statement is true. 

 Social media options: 

There are a range of social media options for you to use.

I am going to focus on the ones that are more mainstream. That’s the ones which are more likely to reach the people who are likely to vote for you or support you in some other way. 

My best advice and suggestion would be to use all of them.

That way, you will reach a wider audience and find that they complement each other. 

They are: 

Using Facebook to get Elected

Facebook is a key tool in your election and campaign armory. It is a way to make direct links with voters and then build and develop a good relationship with them where you can keep them in touch with what you are doing and gain support by word-of-mouth as you keep moving on.  

As you are looking to work in and for the benefit of your community, you can easily set up a Facebook Page, which can be dedicated to what you are doing.

To do this, you will need a normal Facebook account. But you can and ideally should keep the two separate.

Once you are set up, Facebook will allow you to have an easy to remember address for your page like mine for this Book which is @HowToGetElected. 

This will be really useful to have on all of the literature you print and put through people’s doors.

Once you are set up, you can talk about everything you are doing. Add pictures and treat your Facebook Page like your own online news portal.

People like to read about their local area, and it will not take you long to work out what kind of stories will resonate with people, and how you need to present them in order to get through.

Publishing at least daily is a very good idea, because it keeps what you are doing looking fresh and like something that people now need.

Like most things, using Facebook is about practice. As long as you stick to the rules of using social media, you are unlikely to go wrong.

Using Twitter to get Elected

Twitter is a multipurpose election and campaigning tool, which has a broader focus than Facebook – but is just as good in getting your news out to the people who count.  

The key to twitter is being able to get your news out in as short a space as possible, either as a sentence or as a link to another one of your social media accounts, where you have a lot more information ready for your readers to visit and find out.

Always remember to keep the rules for social media in mind.

To set up a Twitter account, just visit Twitter (X) and follow the instructions.

Your Twitter address or ‘Username’ should be something that is easy to remember.

Ideally your Username will be your own name. But as more and more people join Twitter, it is possible that someone else, perhaps from the other side of the World will already have that name and be using it on Twitter too!

Your Username will be limited to a fixed number of digits, so you may need to be creative.

If your own name isn’t available in full, perhaps it could be something like @David_Village.

You will have choices – and it’s worth taking your time to decide.

You may be required to confirm your account with an e-mail confirmation or by providing your phone number. But this information will normally remain private and just between Twitter and you.

To begin with on the profile area of your Twitter Account, add a picture of yourself along with a brief description of what you are there to do. 

An address for your blog is a great idea, as you will quickly pick up interest in your published and pre-prepared material too.

On the Twitter account for this site – which you can find @How2GetElected, you will see that there is a logo and a background. 

You can do something like this too but remember that this is all about representing other people and as such, the focus in this sense should be about you. 

Have a quick look at my own Twitter account @AdamTugwell to see what I have done there.   

Subscribing:

Twitter or ‘X’ does give you the option to subscribe and get a blue tick, with the added ability to write much longer tweets or posts.

There really is no need to pay for these services and it will be one less thing to remember for your election expenses if you do not.

The key thing is to make sure that you write every tweet or post as a conversation piece – even though it is very short and use words like place names to help others who are searching for news in your area.

People will soon start following you and look for your posts if you keep them useful and informative.

32. Using Blogs to get Elected

Hands up, blogs are a really good tool for getting your message ‘out there’.

What is more, you can easily post links straight to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Accounts, and if you set up and use one of the main platforms such as WordPress or Blogger, these free and easy to use tools will provide easy to link options as part of the publishing process.  

Writing a blog can be the foundation of your campaign to get elected and be a brilliant reference point for all that you do.

To get the very best from your blog, it is essential that you write frequently, write like you are having a conversation, and keep writing about the material which is important to all that you do.

You have the flexibility to add pictures and links, references to other sites and even downloads such as questionnaires or your campaign addresses.

You will not go far wrong if you stick to the rules of using social media too.

Whilst there are other platforms available, I would advise only using WordPress or Blogger, simply because they are free, and have been developed to make life very easy for people who want to do what you are planning to do.

Your blog address is important and should be based on your name or the area where you will be working. 

You can pay for your own domain address if you would like to, if it’s available.

For example, for the Blog I still publish, I started with www.adamtugwell.wordpress.com, but upgraded this one by purchasing the domain name www.adamtugwell.blog. However, the Blog I have online which carries a lot of the things I published when I was a Councillor between 2007 and 2015 can be found at www.ashchurchwithwaltoncardiff.wordpress.com . 

Please bear in mind that if you buy a domain during and only for use during the formal election campaign, you are likely to have to add this to your election expenses!

I suggest you have a good look at WordPress and Blogger and see which you feel comfortable with most.

WordPress

WordPress is accessed directly, and you can explore the options for setting up an account at www.wordpress.com

There are many free templates available, as well as the more sophisticated versions that you can buy.

The free ones are perfectly fine, and after a little editing, will look very personal to you.

To see my own WordPress-based Blog, please visit www.adamtugwell.blog

Blogger

Blogger is much like WordPress, except that it is based on having an account with Google first – which you may already have. 

Like WordPress, the site is basically free to use. There are many templates to choose from and you can create a really good online presence which is personal to you.

33. Using LinkedIn to get Elected

Of the online social media tools, I have highlighted on How to get Elected, LinkedIn is probably going to be least effective in connecting with voters. 

That’s not to say LinkedIn doesn’t have its uses. But as what is probably best described as Facebook for professionals, it is much more effective as a networking tool and as a way to get yourself literally linked to a wider audience and like-minded people doing what you are doing, but outside the geographical area where you are working.

It is still worth having a LinkedIn account, even if you do not want to pursue links with other people planning to do what you are doing, as there are likely to be at least a few residents or business owners operating in the area you wish to target who only use this type of social media.

Setting up an Account is easy if you follow the link www.linkedin.com , and once you have set up a profile, all you need do is post your blog, Facebook and Twitter posts to your LinkedIn account.

You will soon find people wanting to ‘Link’, and it’s always worth having a look at their profile to see who they are and what they do before you accept.

Find me at www.linkedin.com/in/adamtugwell

33. Using video to get Elected

Depending upon how confident you feel about using film, an increasingly effective way to reach the people you are asking to vote for you will be by publishing videos using YouTube and TikTok – especially if you are running a campaign over a larger area where it will be very difficult for you to visit every voter.

Contrary to what a lot of the posts will tell you if you research making videos for these platforms, you do not need to invest lots of money in expensive cameras to film yourself speaking for what will ideally be no more than a minute or two at a time – to create what is called a ‘short’.

Shorts are all you need to produce to connect with voters and can be filmed by using the video function on a smartphone with the screen-side camera facing you.

If you follow the basic rules for social media; treat it like you are having a conversation with one person, and make sure you use content that is relevant to the area and the people you are reaching out to, you may be surprised by the response.

Both YouTube and TikTok provide smartphone apps, although it may be best to set up your accounts and profiles on a desktop first.

Please note that using video or any digital platform as the preferred option in a local election campaign is not a good idea, especially when seeking election to the most local Tiers of Government such as Parish & Town or Borough & District Councils, as a lot of the people you need to reach – and more importantly CAN reach by knocking on their front door – will not be using these services. Video for the more local elections will just be added value – IF you have the time!

Part 4 – The Election

34. The Electoral Commission

In a democratic system, it is important that the rules governing elections are kept as far away from political influence as possible. 

Sometimes, this isn’t possible as decisions are too big to not be made by the sitting government.

But as far as the management of elections and the money involved in financing political campaigns is concerned, the independent body that oversees and regulates all of this is called the Electoral Commission.

Your local Democratic Services Department manages the elections under its control according to the rules that have been set by the Electoral Commission.

I strongly recommend that you visit the Electoral Commission Website and download the relevant candidate guides and read them too, as they will be a great help in providing you with a clear view of the rules which as a candidate you will be expected to adhere to.

Whilst you are campaigning and during an election itself, your point of contact on the official side of everything will be your local Democratic Services Department. However, it is very useful to understand the rules that they are working to, just in case they don’t always get everything right.

Please visit http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk

35. Election Expenses

As a candidate, it’s really important that you understand that there are rules governing elections that you MUST follow.   

If you don’t follow the rules, you could find yourself being disqualified as a candidate before you even get started on your formal campaign.

If elected, you could find yourself losing your seat.

Worse still, you could even find yourself being charged with a criminal offence.

Some of the most important rules you need to focus on as early as you can, are those concerning your election expenses.

The basic rules:

All candidates running in the same election or Ward/Division/Constituency are entitled to spend the same amount on their election campaign.

You can spend less than the allocated spend for your election if you wish. But you cannot spend more, as this would give you an unfair advantage in a democratic process.

You (or your election agent) MUST submit a signed declaration of your election expenditure after the election has taken place. The information you provide must be accurate to the best of your knowledge and understanding.

As an independent, whatever you spend on an election campaign must be provided or financed by you or by your supporters.

There is currently no public funding available for election campaigns in the UK of any kind.

If you have no formal organisation supporting you, it is essential that you keep a record of where any money, goods or services ‘in kind’ you have received have come from, along with the financial value of what you have received to support your campaign.

How much you can spend on your election campaign:

The key information you will need about how much you can spend on your election campaign should be contained within the candidate pack you will receive from the Democratic Services Department. However, the Democratic Services Department will answer questions for you concerning election finances when information is available. 

If you are not provided with the figure for your specific maximum election spend by the Democratic Services Department, you will need two figures to calculate what you can spend in total on your election campaign. 

The figures needed to calculate your election spend:

  • The total number of voters in the Ward or Division where you are going to be a candidate. [Electorate]
  • The allowance or allocation per voter for the Ward or Division where you are going to be a candidate. [Allocation]

The total number of voters will be available from the Electoral Roll and can be checked with the Democratic Services Department. 

The Allocation figure – per voter, should be in your candidate pack.

The calculation for your maximum election spend can be made as follows:

Electorate  x  Allocation  =  Maximum Election Spend

For example, in a Ward with an Electorate or total of 2149 people registered to vote, where the spend or Allocation per voter is 39p (£0.39), the Maximum Election Spend would be £838.11 (Eight Hundred and Thirty-Eight Pounds and Eleven Pence)

The calculation would be as follows:

2149 x 0.39 = 838.11

The Allocation per voter will probably sound small when you first see it and will almost certainly be in a multiple of Pence. But when you calculate your budget in this way, it will begin to make a lot more sense.  

What you can spend your budget on:

What you spend your election budget on is where you need to be really careful.

Anything you spend on your campaign – either directly OR indirectly, is likely to be considered as an election expense.

This means that if you have 5 volunteers helping you during the campaign and after canvassing one day you all go to the pub and you buy them lunch, the value of the bill you pay for the food and drink you all consume might be considered as an election expense.

What you should spend your budget on will be things like:

• Printing

• Paper

• Printer Cartridges

• Design & Artistic Work (If you cannot do it yourself or find a volunteer to assist)

• Phone calls

• Rosettes

• Stickers

• Loud hailer or megaphone hire

You will need to be frugal and buy only what you need.

Anything purchased specifically for the election must be accounted for – even if you do not use it or need it. 

Make sure you buy the minimum number of extra items possible to allow for mistakes, damage and wastage and no more.  

You do not have to account for the time of volunteers, no matter what they do for you, as long as they have not been paid by you, or by someone else on behalf of you – even if that payment was offered by a third party as a gift.

Ideally, your expenditure should be for goods and services ONLY. Otherwise, things will get messy and probably expensive very quickly. Your budget won’t go that far!

REMEMBER:

You only have to stick to the rules on Election Expenses during the formal Election Period.

Whatever work you have done and whatever you have spent and used BEFORE the Election is formally called will not count as part of your Election Expenses.

This is why giving yourself as much time as possible to campaign and develop your presence in the community BEFORE an election is potentially so beneficial. 

 You can begin your campaign at any time! 

Other: 

If you are unsure of anything at any stage, ALWAYS give the Democratic Services Department a call and preferably obtain the response you need by e-mail.     

36. Proposers, Seconders & Signatories to support your Nomination

To formally become a candidate in a Local Election, once the election has been called, you will need to submit the signatures of a Proposer and a Seconder (for All Elections) on your Nomination Form, which will normally be provided as part of the Candidate Pack.

For elections to District Level Authorities and above, you will also be required to submit the signatures of a further eight people (Signatories) who support your Nomination as a Candidate.

All of these signatures MUST come from residents who live within the Ward or Division in which you are seeking election, who in turn MUST themselves be recorded and eligible to vote on the Electoral Roll for that same area.

It is a very good idea to work out who you are going to ask to be your Proposer, your Seconder and your other Signatories as early as you possibly can.

In all cases, you must make your Proposers, Seconders and Signatories aware that their name will be noted as a public record, and that they be published as part of the Formal Notice of Candidates, which will be circulated locally within the Ward or Division once the Nomination window has closed and all Candidates for the Election in that area have been recognised.

If your Proposer or Seconder are unhappy with being publicly recognised for their support of your candidacy, you should not use their signatures.

In no circumstances should you use any signature without them being aware of what it has been used for.

REMEMBER:

It’s really easy to make a mistake on Nomination Papers. Not in the sense of what information you give generally, but by using a Proposer, Seconder or Signatory who isn’t eligible to support you.

If this happens and you submit your Nomination Papers, the Democratic Services Department will reject your Nomination and you will have to start all over again – and when I say start all over again, that means going back to all of your Signatories and getting them to sign again, because you cannot make changes to your Nomination Form!

The best ways to make sure you remove as much risk of a problem as possible are as follows:

  • Check with your Proposer, Seconder and Signatories that they are ALL happy to support you, and have their name recognised in the public domain.
  • Check that your Proposer, Seconder and Signatories are ALL eligible voters and that present on the Electoral Roll for the Ward or Division where you will be seeking election.
  • If possible, have two different sets of Signatories. Yes, that’s 2x Proposers, 2x Seconders, 16x normal Signatories and complete 2 separate Nomination Forms. (Check with your Democratic Services Department if they will allow you to make copies. Otherwise, make sure you get yourself a duplicate set of Candidate Forms)
  • Obtain ALL of your signatures as early as possible during the Formal Campaign.
  • Submit your completed Candidate Forms to your Democratic Services Department as early as possible – just in case you need to correct a mistake! (You will normally be given a schedule of dates with the Candidate Pack and from this will be able to find out when the Democratic Services Department will be making appointments to receive Candidate submissions. Get an appointment as early as possible!)

SUGGESTIONS:

  • DO NOT simply accept a Proposer’s, Seconder’s or Signatories word that they are on the Electoral Roll without checking that they are. (Some people are unaware that they are not Registered. Others never got around to Register. A few may have even lost their Registration without being aware. It doesn’t matter why they aren’t there; you need signatures from people who are OR YOUR CANDIDACY WILL NOT BE VALID!!!)

37. Your Manifesto & Election Pledges

Getting elected is rarely about just one issue. Different people have different priorities and in terms of the people we elect to represent us locally, our choices will be formulated no differently.

Realistically, this means that even if there is one local issue that you feel really passionate about, you will need to broaden your understanding of and response to other issues too. 

You need to be able to communicate what you have to offer in a way that will appeal to all of your potential voters. Not just a few.

Questionnairescanvassing and identifying the issues is a process which takes time, but is well worth it. 

It means that when the time for your election campaign arrives, you will be equipped and have a good understanding of 3 to 5 real issues facing people locally – perhaps more. Issues that you can use to develop a Manifesto upon which you will build your Campaign. Issues upon which you can base your Pledges – that’s your commitment to voters regarding what you will aim to do.

Your Election Pledges need to be realistic, but aspirational. Solid, but with an open appreciation of what the political environment may allow you to achieve or realistically do. Simple, but with an understanding of the complexity of what it takes to get things done in government.

It is important that you never lie. That you never create issues just to get attention. Or make promises that you know you can never keep.

Always be sure that your Election Pledges reflect what you can realistically influence and not responsibilities of another authority – i.e. relating to something that in the role you would be elected to, you could never actually do.

Use language that shows enthusiasm for what you are doing, as genuine passion always has an advantage in gaining support and convincing people that you can win.

However, you should never mislead people by talking in a way which you know deep down is not you or shows you to be something that you know you are not.

REMEMBER:

You can fight for anything. But there is a difference between saying you will fight for something and saying you will change something. 

Be honest about your plans and what you know you can actually do.

People will then be far more supportive of you.

Some ideas for Pledges:

Unless you are campaigning with a running mate in a multiple seat Ward or Division, you should never have the same Election Pledges as any other Candidate. Even then, you might only share a few. 

From this point of view, it is essential that you identify your own issues as the basis for your Election Pledges and Manifesto. 

The issues which will appeal to most people can usually be narrowed down to a few. 

It will be useful for you to research and understand how they relate to the local people who you are going to ask to vote for you and tailor them to your area. 

These may include: 

• Anti-social behaviour 

• Building on the Greenbelt 

• Buses and Public Transport 

• Bus Shelters 

• Council Tax 

• Community Resources & Public Buildings (Museums, Recreation Centres etc.) 

• Community Transport 

• Dog Bins 

• Environment 

• Flooding & Flood Protection 

• Green Spaces 

• Libraries 

• Litter 

• Local Grants 

• Parking 

• Planning 

• Policing 

• Potholes 

• Refuse Collections 

• Road Safety 

• Social care 

• Schools 

• Speeding 

• Street Cleansing 

• Young People 

REMEMBER: Depending on the level and type of authority you are seeking election to, you will be restricted to what you can actually influence or do. Do not make promises you know you can never keep!

38. Your Competition

Unless you are fortunate enough to find yourself in an uncontested election, you will have competition from other candidates during the Election Campaign itself, and possibly before it too.

It’s very easy to lose focus on what you are doing yourself and be unsettled by what other candidates might be doing, particularly if they publish a message which sounds very strong, or they are featured by the local media in some way when you have not.

This experience is quite normal for anyone getting into politics for the first time, and one that even a lot of experienced politicians have too!

What you should bear in mind is that when you are promoting a message and ‘putting yourself out there’ in public, it is perfectly normal to become sensitive to anything that might bring into question what you are doing. 

The good news is that this is normally an emotional response rather than a logical one.

In fact, your competition will very probably feel in some way insecure when they become aware of anything you do! 

These kinds of response are normal.

The very important thing that you need to remember is that every moment you spend worrying about your competition or what they are doing is a moment that you could have spent positively promoting yourself or the work that you have, could and will do.

As far as your competition is concerned, keep perspective on everything you hear. It is in their interests to make you feel uncomfortable and all you need to be focused on is everything that you do.

Run your own race!

39. Election Agents

Once you have your Candidate Pack and the Formal Election Campaign is underway, you will hear a lot about Election Agents.


Don’t worry. It sounds like a very important role. But in a council election, you are unlikely to ever need one as an independent candidate.

In fact, it is not uncommon for Election Agents to delay things for candidates who are running on behalf of a Political Party, who are unlikely to have a choice whether they use one or not.

You could say that an Election Agent is rather like a candidate manager who is recognised formally by the Electoral Process.

An Election Agent can do many things on your behalf, including submitting your Candidate Forms and your Election Return, after the Results are known.

They can also assume the role of key point of contact with the Democratic Services Department and be the first port of call if there is a legal issue during the campaign.

As a lone, independent or non-aligned candidate, there will be very little benefit to you having an Election Agent.

In many ways it will be much better for you to assume the responsibilities of being your own Agent, unless you are able to rely on the support of an Agent who has experience of the Electoral System and running in elections previously.

The Political Parties usually have professional Election Agents who will work from a local or regional office, where in some cases several Election Agents will be based.

Whilst they can take away a lot of the administrative requirements of the Election Process, they are also likely to be responsible for and carrying out the same role for all the candidates running for that Party in that same Election.

As such, times and deadlines can be stretched by the efforts of candidates which might not be as sharp as your own, as a Party Election Agent will group all of your submissions together, in order to save on their time.

40. The opening of Postal Votes

Postal Votes have to be in before Election Day, and a special session will be called for the Opening of Postal Votes for Each Ward and Division.

Your local Democratic Services Department will be able to tell you when the Postal Votes will be opened for your area.

You will be allowed to attend, perhaps with one other person. But you will normally be expected to confirm who will be attending prior to the session itself.

Attendance is not required, and your time is likely to be better used working on your Election Campaign, talking to potential voters and knocking on doors.

The Agents for the Political Parties usually attend the Opening of Postal Votes on behalf of candidates, just to check that procedures are followed and everything appears normal.

The process is usually governed very tightly in order to prevent observers from gaining an idea of how the Postal Votes have been allocated.

What you should remember is that with Postal Votes being cast earlier in the Election, the Result can look very different when the Postal Votes are opened, to that which is confirmed at the Count itself.

41. Election Day

Election Day itself is likely to be the busiest day of your election campaign.

Why? – Because you do need to remind people to vote!!!

If you have enough money left within your Election Expenses Budget, the first thing you can do – preferably before people have left for work, is deliver an additional ‘get out the vote’ leaflet or note, just to remind people that its Election Day and you are hoping for their support.

During the day itself, you should visit all the Polling Stations that are serving the Ward or Division where you are seeking election.

The staff running the Polling Stations have often committed themselves to the full fifteen-hour day and perhaps more, so politely introducing yourself and perhaps thanking them too will be a great way to show your support and appreciation.

If you have been told by older or infirm Voters within the Ward or Division that they are going to Vote for you, there is nothing wrong with offering them a lift and helping them to the door of the Polling Station and back.

This is something you need to be minded of whilst you are canvassing for planning ahead.

If you have enough support, you can appoint ‘tellers’ to ask and monitor how many of the people who said they would Vote for you have actually attended, as they leave the Polling Station. (You/They can cross off the names of Voters supporting you against the notes you have made on a copy of the Electoral Roll)

This is a long and boring task and requires people who have a lot of patience, as Voters are under no obligation to tell anyone how they voted, and tellers will as such often find themselves rebuffed.

The benefit of appointing tellers is that as the evening of Election Day arrives, you can target your missing voters and literally ‘knock them up’ to remind them to get out and vote. 

Believe me, it certainly works, and I have witnessed candidates knocking on doors as late as 9pm to gather perhaps no more than 15 votes in that last stage of the day, then going on to secure their seat by only 10!

When the Polling Stations have closed, there should be enough time to get freshened up and have a quick bite to eat before the Count will be ready to begin, if the Count is taking place immediately after the Polls have closed. 

My best advice is that you use this time well. Because an overnight Count can make your Election Day a very long one indeed!

42. The Count

When you’ve got to the very end of the Election Campaign and Election Day itself, the only thing left when the Polling Stations close at 10pm is the Count itself.

What usually happens next is usually a mad dash between the Polling Stations and the venue that has been selected to hold the Count.

Local Authority Election Counts can be delayed if the Election Day itself is shared with a National Election or Referendum, or if the local authority managing the elections has chosen to do so. If this is the case, the Count is most likely to take place during business hours on the Friday after the Election. 

The time of the Count itself is always at the discretion of the Returning Officer who will be in charge at the Count itself.

The Count will begin as soon as possible at the allotted time but can be delayed if Ballot Boxes have been delayed or if a complaint has been made regarding the conduct of the Election.

As a candidate, you will automatically be invited to the Count and asked to identify anyone you wish to take with you, as access is normally by invitation only. 

It is normal to take your spouse or partner along with your agent and/or some close family members or people who have worked on your campaign.

The number of those able to attend will be limited. So don’t be disappointed if you are only able to take one or two key people with you.

There are no rules that say candidates must attend the Count. So, if you feel you would rather not go, nobody will chase you.

Once the Count begins, not all Wards and Divisions will be counted at the same time and you may have to wait for your own Count to begin – so take refreshments or have money available to buy some, as these will normally be provided. (Check with your Democratic Services Department if you are unsure)

When your Count is underway, you and your representatives will be allowed to watch the counting take place.

It is a really good idea to take this opportunity to watch as you will soon begin to get an idea of how the election has gone for you.

When the Count has been completed, the Returning Officer will speak to the Candidates quietly first, to confirm the results.

If the Count is very close, you can request a recount. 

Recounts are worth requesting if there are literally only a few votes between winning a seat and not being elected.

A small margin of error is always possible, and I have seen an independent win a seat against a Party Candidate on a recount, when the initial count had suggested a result that went the other way!

When the results are either clear, or have been accepted by all the Candidates, the Returning Officer will then formally announce the Result of the Election to the Hall.

The good thing about being told quietly first is that if the result has been a disappointment, you will have a few moments to gather yourself before everyone else is told.

Regrettably, Counts can feel pretty raucous at times, especially if the members of political party are in a competitive mood and forget what public elections are actually about. 

The thing to remember is that it is all noise and even Candidates who are seeking election for the 3rd or perhaps 4th time will be feeling very nervous up and until the Results are finally in and confirmed.

Part 5 – Being a good representative

43. Ethics & Principles for Politics

Regrettably, we live at a time when many people think that all politicians lie and that they don’t have any principles.  

Some of today’s politicians have adopted the principle that if they tell people things are different, they simply will be different. 

They won’t. 

As you are here reading How to get Elected, I am hopeful that you are one of a growing number of public minded individuals who want to put aside self-interest, and work towards the goal of creating something better for all. Whether that should be working alone or working with other like-minded people – no matter what background they might come from.

Having rules that you stick to – a personal code if you like, is essential to have in your toolkit, if you are determined to succeed as a local campaigner and good politician, working towards the goal of delivering something better for all.

Ultimately, we all have the ability to make choices and decisions which rise above any form of bias and focus on the best results for all – even when those around us argue that we are being impractical or suggest that we simply don’t understand how everything works.

Doing what is right can be a very lonely place. But you can always sleep at night, if you always stick to what you know to be right, remain open to changing your mind when you realise you are wrong, and treat others with respect and courtesy at all times – even when their behaviour has upset you in some way, you will never go far wrong.

Following next are the few basic principles that all politicians could benefit from adopting, using and ‘living’ in politics.

If we all did so, this Country would soon become a very different place!

People before Politics.

Every decision that politicians make should be focused on the benefit to the majority of people; not the priorities of the few or of the politicians themselves.

Practicality before Perfection.

We all like the idea of living in a perfect world, but perfection can only ever be an aim in an imperfect world and politicians must make decisions based upon their practical impact; not just on what they would like to see.

Policies made in isolation lead to isolationist Policies.

Just as one policy may be used as an excuse not for enacting another, new policies should not be created without consideration of their real impact upon or collectively with others. 

Politicians now need to review the whole system and not use the size of this task as an excuse for not doing so.

Politics is better when it isn’t Personal.

Politics should never be about personalities and when it is, it is a sure sign that those talking are thinking primarily about themselves.

Fear is no excuse in itself.

Any policy made only with emotion and feeling in mind does not consider the wider picture and the full implications. 

Too many decisions have historically been made by politicians because of a climate of fear. 

Over-reaction and under-reaction can be destructive in equal measure.

However emotive a subject can be, emotions are personal and do not reflect consideration for what is best for the majority in its strictest and most comprehensive sense.

One size never fits all.

We are all different and policies must recognise and embrace those differences in all ways, but without recourse to any form of discrimination whether that be positive or negative.

Decisions affecting us all similarly should be made by central government, whilst decisions based upon locality should rest in the locality with local people and their public representatives.

Central government has as much responsibility to reflect, consider and act upon the decisions made by local representatives as it does have the right to ask others to respect the decisions which are made universally for us all.

Lifestyle choices should be for those living that life.

The preferences and actions of individuals should never be questioned or put in doubt so long as they do not compromise the physical safety, security, lifestyle and freedom of choice of others.

A crisis of conscience for one, is no excuse to obstruct the lifestyle choices of another.

Government should never support it as such.

44. Make critical thinking your second nature

Sadly, critical thinking – or the skill of breaking down information and identifying the relevant points and facts within a message, is not something that is often taught in a way which really helps people to become discerning in respect of what they read, hear or see.

We’ve all heard of ‘fake news’.

So much of the information we receive is now being questioned that we can easily fall into the trap of discounting or ignoring sources which we do not already know or use – just because they are unfamiliar, whilst we can also place too much reliance upon the sources that we have always used.

A significant level of the content of all news we access is simply opinion. Whilst an ‘angle’ makes us feel happy when we are reading a source with which we unthinkingly identify with (The paper we have always read, or a political blog which echo’s the particular brand of politics we follow etc.), it is easy, even for the most intelligent of us to overlook key facts, events and possibilities, when the noise of the writer or speakers opinion has drowned out the points which are not a key part of what they want us to hear.

Giving a genuine voice and true leadership to voters requires politicians and community representatives to have an open mind; to be able to analyse information and pick out the relevant details or salient points – often in real time, which could be a conversation or a debate, and then effectively translate it in terms of its impact(s) and consequence(s).

In the local and national news

The good thing about critical thinking is it is a skill which can be learned and developed.

Focusing on points of information about actions taken and events that have already happened, rather than what a commentator thinks about it OR what they are speculating will happen as a result of an action or event, is a very good place to begin.

Equally, information about planned or scheduled events is helpful to know.

Whereas what a commentator tells us they think is likely to happen during that event helps nobody.

If you only follow news from one or perhaps two different sources each day, it would be sensible to start following other sources too, and definitely ones which you might immediately feel uncomfortable about planning to read or follow.

If you follow the headlines from all the main newspapers and magazines on your Facebook feed, or on Twitter for instance (No you don’t need to subscribe to them all), you will soon start to become attuned to the real content of the news and start disregarding the noise that you have no need to follow.

Word of mouth, gossip and the things that ‘people you know’ tell you

As a potential candidate, thinking about running in a local council election, it’s easy to ignore the national news and to think the rules for the local information that ‘finds its way to you’ are different.

It isn’t.

They aren’t.

If anything, you would be wise adopt an even more robust approach to dealing with the information which finds its way to you by ‘word of mouth’ and gossip – which in this sense means anything that ANYBODY in your community tells you, that you would not otherwise have been aware of.

Inhabitants of the political world, whether they are politicians, activists, officers or community workers, can be some of the worst gossips you could imagine.

It is easy to become snared in the elephant trap of assumed truth, trusting a source which has told you something that they heard from someone else, who heard it from someone else, who themselves heard it from someone else who was actually there when something happened…

Things to consider when you receive information:

  • TRUST NOTHING YOU CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE!!!
  • Run your own race. DO NOT unwittingly become the voice or mouthpiece for someone else’s campaign – whatever it might be, as their words can easily invalidate your own.
  • Always listen carefully to everyone, whether you consider them to be friends or foes. Filter out their opinion from what they say or write and translate the validity of the messages that they are really providing.
  • Do not repeat, resend or retain gossip or speculation in any form UNLESS you need to do so for purposes such as making a legitimate complaint about someone else’s conduct or behaviour to an appropriate authority.
  • If the news you are given could be useful, check out the facts and confirm whether the information is true.
  • ALWAYS validate information you are going to base or build an argument upon.
  • If you have ‘validated’ information, keep a record of the source and if possible, a link to any articles, documents or copies of the information that you have found.
  • Quote these sources when you speak or write. But only repeat or reproduce the information exactly as it was published by the original source. NEVER CHANGE ANYTHING YOU USE FROM ANOTHER SOURCE – NO MATTER HOW TEMPTING OR EASY IT MAY SEEM
  • Follow as many different news sources as possible on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Watch the news and make notes of what the news actually is.
  • Watch current affairs programmes and focus on the facts which guests use to build their arguments vs the opinion they wrap around them.

45. Know your stuff

We have sadly become all too familiar with politicians talking around questions when being interviewed, rather than giving a direct answer or any meaningful facts.

Worse still, it is becoming increasingly popular to ‘double down’, backing up or repeating such responses and the opinions which surround them, simply because some people think by doing so will make any difficult questions go away.

They don’t. And being seen to be deliberately economic with the truth, or ‘spinning’ news in a way which suits politicians or their party’s needs has played a very big part in the developing mistrust of those in public life.

Whenever you speak, write or even publicly discuss issues – whether difficult to address or not, it is vital to have researched, understood and retained as many of the key facts that you can, and to have developed a viewpoint or interpretation which fits with the information you have received.

Facts and the genuine knowledge that you have are the anchors which give you credibility in the public eye.

Writing & producing literature

When writing about topics, you will normally have the luxury of time to validate information and facts before you send or publish whatever you have produced.

It is a very good habit to use that information and ensure that you have included as much factual data as you can to support your argument or conclusions.

Speaking, debate & Interviews

The upside of public speaking, debate and scheduled interviews is that you will normally be aware of what you will be asked to talk about, or what specific points or issues you may wish to raise.

As with writing or preparing documents that you will later publish, you should research your subject well, prepare key facts to support what you will say and be comfortable that you can communicate your interpretation without losing your way or talking your way around the houses.

The downside of public speaking, debate and interviews of any kind is that it is likely that you will be asked questions to which you have not prepared a response.

If you keep on top of your subject and think about the implications of all new facts as you do so, your preparedness will allow you to provide responses that demonstrate how well researched you are.

Sometimes, you will be asked a question of some kind for which it was in no way possible to prepare. When you do, don’t bluff, blag or be tempted to lie or shift the focus on to something or someone else.

The best thing you can do is come clean; be honest and tell the interviewer or person questioning you that you don’t have that information to hand; that you were unaware of the events/actions that they have raised, or that you are not in a position to comment at that stage.

Even a Prime Minister, with all the support that they have, can and will be caught out by questions that they were not expecting.

It is human to not have the answers to everything and the people who might vote for you will think of you as being much stronger for being consistently honest, rather than if you lie in an attempt to cover up feeling momentarily weak or vulnerable.

SUGGESTIONS:

  • Be as prepared as possible.
  • Research your subjects as widely as you can.
  • Use credible sources for information.
  • When you write, use facts and validated information as anchors to build your arguments and conclusions upon.
  • Use links to your sources as much as possible.
  • When you are going to be interviewed or speak publicly and know what you might be talking about, research the subject and have your facts and interpretation ready.
  • If you are asked a question in which the questioner provides news or information you were previously unaware of, do not respond to the information it as if it were a credible fact. Be clear that you are unaware and would need to check or review that information before commenting further.
  • If you don’t know the answer to a question, come clean and be honest. Say you don’t know and never be tempted to lie – no matter how easy it might feel to do so.
  • If you feel put on the spot, don’t point the finger, start blaming others or make it personal about someone else in an attempt to get yourself out of bother.

46. Make yourself available

If you are taking your responsibility to the community seriously, you will need to accept that people will contact you at times which suit them, rather than times that ideally suit you.

People see councillors, public representatives and politicians differently to themselves. 

As such, they have very different expectations, and it is important that you always keep this in mind.

Using e-mail as a standard communication medium can be a great help. But there are still many people who prefer to speak in person or by phone, and they will expect you to make yourself available at a time that will work for them.

The idea of making yourself available is more frightening than the reality will be. 

The times when you will have to go out on dark nights, early on Sunday mornings or at times you might think your community work could get in the way of other things in your life will probably be few and far between. But when they come, it will be essential that you allow as little as possible to get in the way.

The upside is that if you don’t put unnecessary walls in the way of providing access to people who want to take you up on the offer of help, people will rarely be ungrateful for the work that you do, even if it is not necessarily apparent.

If you do receive messages or requests for visits that you cannot immediately respond to properly or are for some reason unable to accommodate, you should always respond and briefly explain the delay and what you plan to do.

47. Always respond to legitimate Communication

From the moment you begin campaigning, it is likely that people will contact you by phone, text, e-mail or social media.

When you receive genuine enquiries – no matter who they are from, you should ALWAYS respond.

If you cannot answer a question or provide the information that the person is seeking immediately, respond and let them know what you intend to do.

DON’T promise to respond by a certain date or time, if speaking or obtaining information from other people is involved.

DON’T commit to delivering an outcome or to doing anything where you have no control over the results.

If you have said you will get back in touch with someone, make sure that you do.

If you cannot help someone, be honest and tell them why. If possible, signpost or introduce them to someone who can.

People will be very understanding when you communicate openly and are honest with them. However, they will soon lose patience and may even be happy to tell others how they feel they have been wronged if you don’t.

If any direct messages you receive are rude, threatening or clearly political in nature, there is no need to respond, and you may be best advised not to do so. 

If you feel threatened, you should report this to an appropriate authority.

Responding to proper questions or comments on social media can be difficult when there is an audience involved. If you receive an open message which other people can see but involves providing a response which would be inappropriate for others to read – for instance if it involves contact details, names of others or private information, you should respond only by asking the person contacting you to get in touch in a direct or private way.

You can then deal with the matter with due regard to privacy etc.

Unless you are very confident using social media, it is advisable not to get into any form of debate with anyone on any social media platform.

There are many users of these platforms who deliberately attempt to ‘bait’ other users and draw them into making comments which could be embarrassing or used to paint others in a negative light.

Avoid them and what they are doing whenever and wherever possible!   

48. Never make it personal

To get a real idea of what it is actually like to be a local councillor and politician, it is important to talk about how you can very quickly make life unnecessarily difficult for others and make yourself very unpopular too.

Believe it or not, making things personal as a campaigner, activist or politician whilst working in the community and in public, is probably one of the worst things anyone can ever do.

If you genuinely want to take responsibility on behalf of others, you will need to understand and also accept that people who disagree with you will often see you personally as the problem, rather than paying any regard to the quality of your arguments or the facts that you use to make your case.

Think about how you might feel if someone else has a platform to speak on that you do not. They might be saying things that you don’t agree with, or perhaps even know to be completely wrong. 

It can make you feel angry. You might feel desperate to speak. Worse still, you might even feel that because they seem to be the one that people are listening to, that what you have to say yourself will actually be what everyone else sees as being wrong.

When that kind of feeling or emotion takes over – and I can assure you that it does for even the most confident public speakers and debaters you could think of, it is essential to keep your cool. 

You should never resort to becoming angry and making what could be a knee-jerk response to what you are experiencing as feeling a type of pain. 

Reacting like this will almost certainly look and feel like you are making your response about them – and by them, I mean about them personally

Being a good and effective politician is about allowing the strength and legitimacy of your arguments to win the day. Even when it might appear you haven’t actually won.

It might also help to understand that in most cases, those very same people who are upsetting you with what looks like ice-cold surety and confidence will be feeling exactly the same way as you do too!

Now that’s the easy bit. YES – THE EASY BIT!

Regrettably, that’s the proactive bit. It’s the approach you need to learn and practice all of the time.  

Unfortunately, the political environment often requires you to be responsive as well as proactive. 

Responding to politicians who make it personal

Many existing politicians do nothing other than make their arguments personal and about the person they are thinking or talking about.

When you are their target, never making it personal can be the last thing that you want to do.

However, this is the time when seeing such behaviour for what it is can really help you most of all.

Poor politicians make it personal when they aren’t in control of their arguments.

They deflect questions when they don’t know what they are doing.

When they have no idea how to solve a problem, how something works or they don’t have any idea what they should actually do, poor politicians use name calling and abuse as what they believe to be a way to make everyone think that they are actually at the top of their game.

When you are on the receiving end of rudeness and even angry or threatening behaviour, it becomes very difficult to respond in a positive, calm and generous way.

But with practice and patience, you will soon learn that arguments using you as the target, rather than what you do are never actually about you.

They are about how somebody else is feeling about what they are doing, and you will soon learn to respond in a very professional and understanding way.

Sadly, politicians who have built their success by being good at attacking others personally will rarely learn to do politics in any other way.

That’s why it is so important that politicians and community representatives who can take and exercise their responsibility in a better way, can work through these challenges and see them for what they are.

They will then be taken seriously and be respected for what they are trying to do for all.

49. Always check the cap is screwed tight on the tomato ketchup

You are probably wondering what on earth ‘always check the cap is screwed tight on the tomato ketchup’ could possibly be about. We are discussing How to get Elected after all!  

This page is about always paying attention to detail and remembering who we are.  A suggestion that you should never let your guard down in company wherever you might be.

Some cautionary advice is that you should always be minded that you never have genuine friends in politics, and you must therefore keep yourself very safe unless and until you are absolutely sure.

The reason for the title is it is perhaps the best way to illustrate the ubiquitous presence of otherwise meaningless opportunities for you to trip yourself up on a campaign, as a councillor or in politics if you lose focus and take your eyes off the ball.

Being a good campaigner, councillor and politician is about always being conscious of everything we do and the consequences thereafter. Not just in the big things, but in the small things too. Because in the reality which is politics, it can often be the detail which counts.

A Cautionary Campaign Tale…

In the Election Campaign leading to my first District Level Seat with Tewkesbury Borough Council, I was fortunate to be working with volunteers and other candidates running for the same Authority.

We were working together on the principle that many hands made light work (Which in politics is not necessarily the case as the more voters the actual candidate meets the better) and would spend evenings and Saturdays taking it in turns to cover significant parts of our respective target Wards.

After what felt like a successful Saturday morning covering a lot of the area, which was soon to become my Ward, we all headed off for lunch at the local Hungry Horse pub.

When the meal arrived, I immediately headed for the condiments table and returned with a glass bottle of Tommy K. 

As I neared the table, I began to shake the bottle, firing the cap and much of the contents across a wall and over one of the other candidates who had travelled some 10 miles or more to help.

I had been relaxed, excited about the feedback from our mornings work and was not thinking about where I was or who I was with.

I had let my guard down. 

I didn’t really know the people I was with and had lost sight of almost everything. Just because in that specific moment, we had all had commonality from our morning’s experience sharing just one thing.

How many other instances can you imagine where it would be easy for you to do exactly the same?

Part 6 – Other things to consider

50. News & Information Sources worth following

It is essential that you keep abreast of all the news which is relevant to your campaign and the authority you are hoping to join as a member.

This means it is not only wise to follow the news and publications from that authority itself, but to also follow the news and developments relating to ALL of the Tiers of Government and/or their representatives in the area which you will share if you are successfully elected.

For all of the local Tiers of Government (Parish/Town, Borough/District, County, MP, MEP)

  • Follow their Twitter Account
  • Follow their Facebook Page(s)
  • Follow/Read the council website
  • Follow/Read the MP/MEP’s website/blogs
  • Read any newsletters or community magazines that they produce

Other local sources

  • Follow/Read the websites of all the local branches of political parties
  • Follow local schools, community groups and membership organisations on Twitter and Facebook
  • Follow/Read the local newspaper(s) online, on Twitter and Facebook

National

  • Follow all of the national newspapers on Facebook and Twitter (see below)
  • Follow all of the political journals and commentary sites on Facebook and Twitter (see below)
  • Sign up to all ‘daily updates by e-mail’ opportunities
  • Sign up to updates from Parliament and the Office for National Statistics

Podcasts

Another source of good information is the growing list of podcasts and videos that are now available on many different platforms.

Like newspapers and the mainstream media, it is necessary to be aware that even the most entertaining and credible speakers on podcasts and videos can have their own agendas and may be watchable enough that the facts they share are easily overwhelmed by opinion.

My advice would be:

  1. Watch or listen to as many different podcasts or videos talking about the same issues as possible
  2. Always use critical thinking
  3. Pay close attention to who they are advertising and any companies or commercial interests that are supporting them
  4. Investigate anything that doesn’t make sense or that you find intriguing
  5. Be aware that sharing your ‘viewing or listening list’ with others may result in them making assumptions about your politics and beliefs – whether you cover all the bases or not.

Links

Below are some links to other Websites and Blogs which you might find useful. 

If you have a website or Blog which you feel may be useful to other readers of How to get Elected, please get in touch and let me know.

About becoming a Councillor:

www.gov.uk/government/get-involved/take-part/become-a-councillor

www.beacouncillor.co.uk

Data Protection:

www.ico.org.uk/

Find a Council:

When you become a Councillor:

51. Joining a Political Party

If you have found ‘How to get Elected’ whilst thinking about joining a political party to become a candidate in an election, you may still find some significant benefit from everything that this book can provide.

There are good and even great politicians within all of the political parties. However, there aren’t enough of them to make the difference that the electorate needs.

‘How to get Elected’ has been published to provide an alternative route to what the political parties currently offer.

Whilst the political parties pretty much have a monopoly on elections at Parliamentary level, independent candidates, or candidates affiliated with small or local political parties often have just as much opportunity as the main political parties to get elected locally, too.

The upside of joining a well-known political party is that you can lean on the experience of others whenever you need it. You may have access to and the support of volunteers and activists who will physically help to campaign on your behalf. You will also, almost certainly have an Election Agent provided by the local party who will keep you in line with Electoral Law requirements and have the costs of printing and potentially even the design of your campaign literature – which may be negligible – covered too.

The downside is that you will normally have to go through a selection process like applying for a job. Others – often sitting councillors or party officials will decide for you whether you are fit to be a party candidate and if you are, where you will be able to run. (This may not be where you live if the party already has incumbent councillors representing the seat who do not intend to ‘stand down’ at the next local election).

When you are campaigning as a party candidate, you will usually be expected to openly show support for other party candidates. This might mean campaigning in other areas or promoting affiliations that could be (seen as) negative towards your own campaign.

Once you have won a seat as a party candidate, the seat is never really considered to be truly representative for its specific electorate, or even to be your own by the party – even though you are the named candidate and occupant of the role.

The first call on your loyalty will always be to the Party.

If you would like to learn more about membership of the well-known existing political parties, please follow the links below:

The Conservative Party

The Green Party

The Labour Party

The Liberal Democrats

The Party of Wales (Plaid Cymru)

Reform UK

The Scottish National Party (SNP)

52. Getting Elected as an MP

In theory, it is possible for anyone to get elected as an MP, as long as they are eligible to become a candidate.

The reality is that our current political system doesn’t support candidates who are independent from the well-known political parties and without running for one of them (Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, Reform or SNP) you are unlikely to pick up sufficient votes to even have your deposit returned. (Whilst no financial commitment is required to become a candidate for a Council Election, this is not the case if you wish to run for Parliament).

There are exceptions. For example, former BBC Reporter Martin Bell successfully won the Tatton Seat from the incumbent Tory MP Neil Hamilton in 1997, after both the Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties withdrew their candidates.

However, getting elected to Parliament as an independent is now incredibly rare, in no small part because of the very tribal way that people generally vote in national or General Elections.

Regrettably, it is because of the control that political parties have over the national elections, that so much power currently rests in the hands of a handful of people.

This is one of the key causes for so many of us feeling so disenfranchised by a political system which basically focuses not on the will of the electorate, but on the ideas and will of the few.

It would be wrong to discourage anyone from running as an independent candidate in a Parliamentary Election. But right now, the chances of even one being elected are very slim.

It is important to be aware that without a significant local issue that can really rally everyone to a single cause, you may well enjoy the experience of running, taking part in hustings and even having a little media attention too. But the upshot is that it could be extremely emotionally draining, and you will never match the resources and supporting infrastructure which the political parties have available to them for Elections of this scale and of this kind.

If you really want to make a difference as an Independent, getting elected to local government really is the best place to start, to learn and to really begin to make a difference!

Part 7 – Looking forwards to the future rather than backwards to the past

We do need new people to come forward; to bring change and to introduce a new dimension in politics; to create a new paradigm that genuinely serves the best interests of us all. 

But those who want change also have to see the situation for what it is, and ‘play the game’ that it has all become. 

As a population, we most certainly do deserve something better, and it is possible to have it too. 

We just have to be realistic about the route that we will have to travel to get there and what the true cost and implications of that journey might be. 

But if you are thinking about starting a party or standing in an election and you think that your own ideas are the best, or that your own interpretation of someone else’s political philosophy is the only way we will win; the fact is that we are already one person nearer to everyone losing a whole lot more. 

Can you be the independent or ‘open’ mind that will help the UK to decide? 

53. Starting something ‘new’ together

Even the most passionate and tribal political party supporters will struggle to avoid acknowledging the general disillusionment and feeling that many people now experience with British politics.

The fact is that all of the mainstream political parties – even Reform UK, will continue the same way that they currently doing so at their own – and our peril.

For many of us, seeing yourself as being cut off and without even the remotest hope of being able to influence anything in Government is not a pleasant experience. Least of all, when we see decisions being made which we can in no way relate to, or changes taking place in our own communities or neighbourhoods that simply have no reflection on what we or anybody else that we know seems to think or feel.

A lot of people toy with the idea of putting up or shutting up where today’s political mess is concerned.

It is also a pretty safe bet that whilst they may not openly talk about it, many of the people that you know will have experienced one of those moments where they just ‘know’ that things could somehow be a lot better and that the way things are today simply aren’t right.

Some already have the platform to speak loudly about the injustices of a political system that serves its own interests before anyone else. 

Yet many more normal people outside the world of politics and celebrity are frustrated by the seemingly endless status quo, where nothing ever changes for the better and politicians happily tell us that everything is improving when quite frankly, just about everyone but they seem to know that it really isn’t.

It comes as little surprise then, that in elections, a growing number of people are voting for political parties and independent candidates outside of the ‘traditional’ remits of the Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat Parties, and that there is in fact a growing number of political parties being established right across the UK.

Very few politicians are prepared to openly acknowledge the lack of balance and consideration for the consequences of ill-considered policy making throughout Government.

Those who genuinely do almost certainly share the desire of all people outside of politics to see something different to what everyone else today seems forced to experience.

However, those that do understand both the situation and the way that British politics works will also probably question just how much benefit the creation of a plethora of new movements will bring to us all. When what the UK needs is change of a very radical and meaningful kind. Change that we all need to experience right now.

The realities of starting a new political party

To get some real perspective on the impact a new political party is likely to have, the history of Reform UK provides a very clear guideline.

Originating as the Anti-Federalist League in the early 90’s, it took the movement over 20 years to get its first MP genuinely elected to Parliament under the UKIP banner and then, only through the focus of the electoral magnifying lens which is a Parliamentary By-Election.

With its basis as a three-stage single-issue party (AFL, UKIP and then The Brexit Party), before suggesting that Reform UK is itself a new broad-based party, it is arguably only what would be at very best a rare and perhaps unique combination of a cause célèbre – which gave UKIP a nationwide profile – and now the current political climate that leaves the electorate looking for change, which has placed the Reform Party in a position of being ‘mainstream electable’.

Had The European Union not been the UK’s political bogeyman for such a long time, the anti-EU movement itself would have almost certainly been absorbed by one or perhaps all of the main parties long ago, if indeed the creation of a new political stream beyond that of the others had been necessary in the first place.

This fact probably demonstrates the greatest threat to any new party, as finding traction with any issue that is palatable in mainstream thinking is unlikely to take place much before one or more of the other political parties adopts a position on the same footing.

We only need to observe the way that Labour and the Conservatives in particular are struggling to regain or rather recapture the initiative from Reform over issues such as illegal immigration to understand what happens when an issue finds its way from the outside into what political commentators might call the centre ground.

However, in this instance, we are again seeing party political machines manoeuvering themselves with the objective of securing future power, rather than engaging in any kind of meaningful change that demonstrates an understanding of the real issues which sit behind the public discontent.

As I write and edit the revised edition of How to get Elected in early 2025, it would certainly appear to be the case that if the current parliament in the Uk should go to full term, it is increasingly unlikely that substantial forms of both the Conservative and Reform UK parties will be left, and that the two will have amalgamated and become known as one or the other, or in some completely different way.

It is almost impossible to entertain the idea that anything ‘new’ will genuinely succeed in being the change, for as long as so many quietly remain comfortable with the status quo, even though the realities of managed decline are beginning to bite hard for some.

The Political Party Paradox:

We want change. We all know this. We also know that the establishment isn’t working for us. But it’s called the establishment for a very good reason.

When you consider the history and conditions which have supported the longevity and then the rise of Reform UK, you soon begin to realise that the biggest problem facing any new party will be its ability and likelihood of it becoming big enough to reach and engage enough people to gain the national level of recognition and momentum which could see it effect the kind of change that we all now actually need, when all of the political parties in the frame actually share so much in common.

Nobody should be under any illusion that as an electoral force the best AFL, UKIP or The Brexit Party could ever have hoped to achieve would be to win the support of the biggest parliamentary party for perhaps one or two key policies, and then sell itself in compromise against everything else, just to have its moment of power. 

Whilst the dynamic certainly appears to have changed and Reform are at least neck and neck if not ahead of Labour and the Conservatives in the Polls as I write, even an early General Election called in the Autumn of 2025 or sometime in 2026 or 2027 would be long enough for everything to have changed and for the real similarities that are driving all the ‘different’ political parties that we currently know to have been ‘found out’.

In reality, the de facto choice of established political parties will continue to morph or adapt their policies to be seen to answer the ‘Reform question’ and in doing so, work to assure themselves either a working parliamentary majority or to become the influence behind it once again at the earliest available opportunity.

You may think that the die is already cast. But we are already experiencing the fallout from the political stalemate that has ensued from a situation where all the Westminster political parties are culturally the same, and have become a ‘Uniparty’, even if their philosophical viewpoints don’t quite appear to match.

The hard fact is that we are facing a situation where we need a majority of MP’s to work together to address all the issues and to change all the policies which will impact upon those issues, whilst ensuring that the impacts of those changes do not then themselves cause other problems that people looking for balance and fairness in their lives simply do not need.

The situation creates a dilemma and significant paradox.

We are all either consciously or subconsciously aware that we do need political parties in the sense that they exist today – or an acceptance and appreciation of common ground between a majority of politicians, in order to effect the change for the better that we need within a genuine democracy.

However, we are all just as equally aware that it is being of the establishment that provides the platform or powerbase to enact change; ground which is currently infested with a self-serving political culture and political party system that quickly excludes voices for change and sings the song of populist thought whilst giving it nothing more than hollow meaning.

So how can we really win?

The circumstances surrounding traditional politics in the UK dictates that it functions through a culture of compromise.

Furthermore, the contemporary political party machinery puts submissive compromise at the core of its recruitment and management processes.

However, if compromise is necessary in any way at all, the policies which result will not have genuinely been created with consideration of the best interests or of the consequences for all truly in mind.

In order for us all to win, it necessarily requires that there is a genuine change in mindset, whether that be for the incumbent political parties, including Reform – which would arguably be a much more productive situation for everyone; or that change itself manifests within the many new and existing groups and independent or ‘open’ minded people out here in our communities who so desperately want to see that change, that they are ready to stand for political office.

Moving forward

You may have heard the saying ‘you can’t beat the system’, and if you have come up against the way that government and all things Legal work, you will probably be able to see the truth in this statement – even when you know that the system is itself flawed and fundamentally wrong.

For those who have been burned by the frustrations and the ‘banging your head against a brick wall’ that comes with it, there is no pleasure in seeing new and enthusiastic people entering politics who either quickly become disillusioned with the realities of the system. Or who simply buy-in to a culture where all those that follow people who lead only for themselves then come to live and believe the idea that ‘that’s just the way it is’.

It may seem that way to those who are prepared to accept the status quo as it is and not take any risks.

But that simply isn’t the truth, and all it would take is for enough of the people already within the system to say ‘no more’ for a real difference to begin unfolding.

Change the system from within (But don’t buy in to the propaganda…)

The easiest way that we could create change would be for that change to come from within the system itself.

That would mean influencing politicians at all levels by becoming the voices that they have no choice but to listen to, i.e. part of the parties themselves.

The problem with this approach is that it has been tried all too many times.

Some very good and well-intended people have failed or ultimately have become part of the very problem that all of us ‘out here’ are currently experiencing. 

As they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely…

Today we are experiencing the outcome of decades of the development of a political party system that favours the ascendency of a whole generation of politicians who treat political office as little more than a job and career. Rather than being responsible to the electorate in the ways that most of us outside of the ‘bubble’ know that they should actually be.

Many Westminster party politicians get selected and promoted thereafter by saying and doing the right things for the right people, and a good number of sitting MPs today will have made it to Parliament by going along a career pathway which equips them to progress within the system extremely well but gives them little working knowledge of what the real world is like outside.

How can they make genuinely good decisions affecting the lives of others when they have no real life experience themselves?

The very sad and highly regrettable reality is that getting enough of our sitting MPs to change and give the British people the real voice that they should have through a majority is very unlikely.

The political culture of today says ‘don’t rock the boat or you will get thrown out’ and very few politicians are brave enough to take on a system which takes control freakery into a whole new realm.

Change the system from without (But don’t look at your fight as being one that you can win alone…)

This is where the creation of a new movement or party becomes the attractive option. 

But with the realities of establishing just one party that could make a difference covered above, there has to be an acceptance that creating a whole plethora of organisations will in time prove to be no more effective than getting a similar number of independent MPs elected to Parliament.

On their own, small, localised and local community-based-issue parties will very occasionally gain enough momentum to get an MP Elected. 

But as just one of 650, you can soon see how little chance there would be of making any measurable kind of difference for us all.

Working together is, however, a very different situation and if it were to be the case that genuine commonality could be found between all of the disparate groups that are currently ‘out here’ already, or which may be launched at some point in the future, the potential would then exist for something very special to happen.

Knowledge of the internet and social media makes the task sound very easy. But without a formula that lights that spark between a whole range of people who have had the independence of mind and motivation to get something ‘of their own’ started, the prospects for success are pretty slim.

After all, some may simply be falling into the trap of thinking that politics is all about one idea ‘winning’ against the ideas of someone else and it is likely to be the case that for many, that very idea is based upon an issue which is personal to them and perhaps just a few people that they know.

The truth of the matter is that if every politician made every decision and promoted every cause on the basis of what will serve the best interests of all, whilst also considering and making allowances for the impact of those decisions on everyone else as they do so, we would no longer require left-wing or socialist politics, parties of the centre ground, or indeed the politics of the right.

Tribal politics makes debate a competition, rather than a process of exploring the methods and plans that will genuinely solve the problems that we all face.

The cold hard reality is that however fair, just or right the ideas might be which underpin the motives of a new party; without losing the idealism, the philosophy and the ‘my idea is better than yours’ mentality, any new movement is unlikely to prove itself to be any better than the Conservatives, Green, Liberal Democrats, Labour or Reform UK Parties, given time.

Thinking a different way:

As a culture, we have been conditioned to look at everything we experience in terms of how it either relates to or affects us personally.

This has taken place at a subconscious or even subliminal level and anyone who really wants to effect change by creating a new political movement, must themselves become mindful of the processes which sit behind this for themselves, and then begin encouraging others to also be mindful of the impact that everyone and everything has on us, the people in our lives and the world we live in.

This is no mean feat and has to be achieved without getting sucked into any of the idealist elephant traps which litter this road, such as green energy, which while being very laudable, has significant practical implications for a society of 60 Million+ people and a situation which simply doesn’t advocate the immediate binning of all other forms of energy or raising taxes on other things to subsidise it.

More and more people are waking up to the lack of balance and fairness in their own lives and those of others.

But just as in the case of the Hundredth Monkey or what we colloquially call ‘memes’ that virally attract attention in what seems like the blink of an eye, the kind of awakening and preparedness that we are discussing here will have to reach a point of critical mass or the seminal moment when a positive direction of travel that cannot be influenced by any of the powers that are aligned against it is achieved.

Regrettably we have to accept that this may not be a realistic prospect on an organic basis alone.

Wait for the wheels to fall off from the inevitable meltdown (That has probably already started…)

Bleak as it may sound and as unfavourable as it may be, change itself may well have to be precipitated by a meltdown or history-changing event which opens the general population to thinking in a very different way. One that also leaves politicians who are not prepared to put the genuine need of the electorate first, with no power to prevent the ascent of those who are.

Today, there are a considerable number of issues that at one degree or another could easily prove to be the catalyst or forerunner of an event, or series of events which create the seedbed for this situation.

54. More Reading

The greatest barrier to change is being comfortable with the mess that we are now in.

Yes, it sounds like a very contradictory thing to say. But if you can view the world as consisting of two groups of people:

  1. The people who are benefiting from the way everything works today, and
  2. The people who are losing out and are in pain from the way that everything works today

And then hear and understand that the number of people who believe they are in group a, still far outweighs those who know they are in group b,

You will then be able to see that we are all the victims of a collective situational bias and that there are currently not enough people to achieve the critical mass that will be necessary for change.

If you would like to consider and explore the different options for change, depending upon the circumstances, and also open up to a broader view of what is happening and what may lie ahead, I would invite you to read the other books and papers that I have written which are all available to buy and download from Amazon as books for Kindle, but may also be available as PDF downloads which will be FREE to read:

All of the following titles are available to purchase as complete eBooks for Kindle from Amazon using the links provided.

Where indicated, titles may also be available to download FREE as PDF Copies from my Blogsite in different forms, using the links provided.

If you would like to discuss any of the works listed, please get in touch.

Levelling Level (30 Mar 2022)

Amazon

From Here to There Through Now (3 Oct 2022)

Amazon

The Way of Awakened Politics for Good Government (3 Dec 2022)

Amazon

A Community Route (28 Mar 2023)

Amazon

Actions Speak Louder than Digital Words (8 Jun 2023)

Amazon

PDF Download

One Rule Changes Everything (23 Dec 2023)

Amazon

PDF Download

Food From Farms Guaranteed (3G) (15 Feb 2024)

Amazon

PDF Download

Days of Ends and New Beginnings (7 Apr 2024)

Amazon

The Basic Living Standard (14 Apr 2024)

Amazon

The Grassroots Manifesto (18 Apr 2023)

Amazon

Officially None of the Above (18 May 2023)

Amazon

Our Local Future (18 Aug 2024)

Amazon

PDF Download

Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future (14 Nov 2024)

Amazon

PDF Download

Your Beliefs Today create Everyone’s Experiences Tomorrow (11 Jan 2025)

Amazon

How to get Elected – New Edition (26 Feb 2025)

Amazon

Legal

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The opinions contained herein and online are not representative of the views or beliefs of any other person or party with whom the Author is or has been associated with, formally or otherwise.

The purchase, downloading and use of this Book and the material contained within and published within it or online does not constitute a direction or instruction of any kind and forms no guarantee as to the success or outcome of an ‘election campaign’, whether informal or formal in nature, to any formal body, government organisation or authority.

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Corrections & Omissions

The basis of the information, guidance and suggestions provided within this work is experiential and not intended to be treated as anything other than opinion.  

Where factual information, links and attachments are included, it/they have been provided in good faith.

As such, where factual information is incorrect, needs updating or is incomplete, the Author is happy to make corrections and complete entries as necessary.

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A Community Route | Full Text

How we work together to fix the societal issues that are hurting everyone

Introduction

About this Book: About A Community Route

Whatever brought you here, A Community Route is for you.

The purpose of this book is to provide a reference tool with guidance and suggestions for individuals, groups and communities who recognise the need for change in the way that politics, government and decision-making works in the UK and around the World.

However, A Community Route is also here for those of us who already accept that a fundamental transformation of the way the World works is underway.

A Community Route is here to bring focus to the common ground that lies between the great many different ideas and interpretations of societal and economic change that is both unavoidable and necessary.

A Community Route is about what WE, all of us, together, must do now. As we journey and travel through this period of turmoil and change.

Then, what we do to establish a completely new way of living and being for everyone, as part of a new and very different type of system that lies beyond.

A Community Route is driven by the need to move beyond assessments, conclusions, proposals, plans and solutions that are just another set of subjective ideas that only have value through the lens of experience shared by only the few – whoever the few might actually be.

The objective of A Community Route is to begin providing the objective framework, understanding and awareness necessary to open the door to a future that will be defined from the grassroots-up, knowing that the reach and relevance to all of us of everything that is necessary in our real lives can only be achieved from solutions created by looking through a lens, shared by all.

All the problems we have and all the views we have about them matter the same, whoever we are

Everyone’s view of what is happening in the UK and across the World today is important. Even if the view that any one of us has, isn’t a view that recognises the need for change that exists.

Each of us and those we identify and stand with today might consider the solutions to all of the problems we have being related to a priority or a pressing issue such as one or more of the following:

  • AI
  • Brexit
  • The Cost-of-Living Crisis
  • Democracy (or a lack of it)
  • Digital Tyranny & Control
  • The Elites (WEF, WHO etc.)
  • The Financial System (Who controls money and how)
  • Food Security (Grow your own, localised production)
  • Freedom of Speech
  • Globalisation (Or Deglobalisation)
  • Healthy Living (Basic Foods)
  • The loss of Values
  • Media Manipulation
  • Money (or a lack of it)
  • Net Zero (Green & Climate Policy, LTNs, ULEZs and 15 Minute Cities)
  • Political Parties
  • Technology
  • US Hegemony
  • The War in Ukraine
  • Wokeism, Political Correctness and Minority Rights

Or it might be something entirely different, which will come from a VERY long list.

The immediate problem that we face is almost everyone, like you and like me, believes that the solution(s) we ourselves see as being the way to address the problems we all face will be exactly the same as everyone else who is ‘awake’ does. And that everyone else will – once those other people wake up, see the problems and the solutions that we need, in exactly the same way.

So, someone else – in fact many someone elses, are also out there, expecting you to forget what you are passionate about, just as you may be expecting them to do so right now.

They see the solution to everyone’s problems as being their own solution. They are expecting you, me and everyone else who doesn’t agree to change our minds and fall-in behind whatever it is that they see.

The Mountain of perception that we have to climb and conquer before we will succeed

It is essential that every one of us understand and accept that in isolation, tackling any one or just a certain number or even a fraction of the problems that need to be addressed will not be enough.

Cherry picking the issues that we ourselves believe to be the most important will not be sufficient to facilitate or even open the door slightly’ to the comprehensive and meaningful change that we must now have. IF we are to achieve the goal of creating a future for everyone that is balanced, fair and just for all.

One view or just a handful of views will not engage all of the people and the whole communities that they are part of in the way that we all need them to become engaged. IF we are to have a fighting chance of achieving the kind of change that we all so desperately need throughout the UK and across the World.

Whatever your specific view and the view that you share with others who share that specific view might be, that view will not be devalued or cancelled out by recognising, understanding and accommodating the different views of others. Quite the opposite in fact.

It is by recognising and then implementing the rules, systems and procedures that will work for us all to facilitate fairness, balance, justice and freedom for everyone, all within a clear governance framework – but by not allowing anything more – that we can create a future that will allow and encourages each of us to be happy, healthy, human in all relationships, and at peace with who we genuinely are.

It is only by launching, developing and evolving a framework of rules that allow real democracy to grow, flourish and thrive – and to then protect those principles in every genuine way that we can, so that we will be able to live the kind of life that we want to do so.

We must be able to exist freely and unhindered, without our own freedom hindering others, and within a societal model that correctly puts each of us and our humanity first.

Why do we need A Community Route

You are here because at the very least, you know deep down or unconsciously that things in our lives are changing and that no matter how ‘normal’ everything around you now appears to be, there is nothing ‘normal’ about any of it.

You know that things have been feeling less and less ‘normal’ for a very long period of time.

The chances are that you are both a rational and sensible person and that whether it’s politically correct to say so or not, you possess what we used to feel free to call common sense.

However, it is just as likely that you cannot consciously see anything changing or deviating that much away from what you think of as being ‘normal’. That anything that seems out of sorts, will somehow be resolved. That everything will return to being how it always has been – just like it was before.

The hard reality that we all face is nothing will ever be the same as it has been.

Furthermore, we must also understand that the kind of change that is now underway, is happening, bit by bit, and in steps or in stages that in themselves will appear to arrive very quickly. But are nonetheless taking place one at a time.

The truth that we face is that when the moment comes that the majority of us awaken to the reality that substantial change has already taken place across society, we will already be facing a situation where we no longer have the luxury of time to rationalise why everything has happened as it has.

We will not be able to press pause on events so that we can consider what steps we then need to take. IF, that is, we want our future to be one that is genuinely free, where we all have freedom of choice, and where health and happiness are the new ‘normal’ for everyone.

Balance, fairness and justice, with humanity in our relationships is voluntary. It must therefore be a reasoned choice.

And that means people must be ready to lead the way and be the voice of reason that many other people will need in the immediacy of the moment when the direction of the world switches and through chaos, we all find ourselves facing a very different way.

A Community Route is here to help you and help your community once everyone is awake. But it is also here to help you and those within your community who are already awakened or are awakening to what is happening around us now.

A Community Route is about respecting and protecting what we have in common, so that everyone has the same freedom to choose

Finding our way to a future where everything is balanced, fair and just for all, may in the first instance sound as if it’s all about making lots of different rules or laws.

What we must accept and understand is that this is exactly how the World around us acts right now.

We have government at all levels pursuing more and more rules, to support and enhance the rules that they already didn’t need to set for us before.

We have an entire system of government and a public sector that is obsessed with creating laws for laws sake, taking responsibility for more and more areas of life that they have no right to, just so public servants can justify who they believe themselves to be.

Anarchy and the non-existence of any rules or laws are the opposite extreme.

Whilst there will always be those who will argue that being able to do whatever they like without fear of punishment would be a much fairer world to live in, the reality is that for everyone to be genuinely happy, healthy, safe and to feel secure continually and all of the time, there will always be a need for a system of governance or rules set by the community, for the members of that community, to ensure that everything that affects other members of that community is always balanced, just and fair.

Real freedom at a personal or individual level, is the freedom to be, to do, to think as we wish – without any of that freedom encroaching or interfering with the same right to freedom for every other person.

That freedom covers many different things and is a world in itself.

But the world of freedom that is personal to us all is dependent upon factors that will always sit outside of ourselves and outside of our control, when it comes to our interaction with everyone and everything else.

It is to ensure that these outside influences always remain fair, balanced and just in their influence upon us, that a framework of rules, based on principles and values for a people first and values-based life must be created and then protected to ensure that it always exists.

Frameworks work. Micromanagement just puts creates a bigger mess

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 to 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). All on the basis that they believe their ideas are best for everyone.

Regrettably, although many of the speakers and well-known influencers who recognise the need for change have their own ideas and solutions, and often appear to provide alternatives, these ideas are also made in isolation.

As such, the results from electing an alternative set of politicians might appear different.

But 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.

The end result would at best be exactly the same as what 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 must 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’ overseen by the Community must always be universal in nature. So that they treat each and every person exactly the same.

Frameworks for Freedoms will ensure that no person is given either an advantage or disadvantage, if they should find themselves with nothing in terms of material wealth, or if holding no material wealth should indeed be their voluntary choice.

In its simplest and most easily describable form, an example of a framework rule would be similar to what we today understand as the minimum wage. A universal framework 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 and therefore the prejudices that today’s social conditioning has done so.

So, no matter how we might have been previously conditioned or required to identify someone – whatever the reasons might be, those reasons that we use to attribute social value to those human beings in some way in the past, 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 allow everyone to thrive and achieve happy, healthy, safe and secure lives – if they so choose.

The real power and responsibility of community centred governance is to provide these Frameworks and to protect them. Nothing more.

Why frameworks can be relied upon, but rules, regulations and laws cannot.

Every Community must be able to make rules that are considerate of the different dynamics that relate to it.

These rules must always sit outside and beyond making specific requirements that suggest how every individual will enjoy their own freedom and the related right to exist in tangible forms.

These Community rules might relate to very practical measures such as the infrastructure that exists, the types of foods that can be grown or produced in the area, or other ways in which the Community’s economy or local marketplace works.

Each Person must always be treated and respected as the individual they are and given every opportunity to express their freedom to choose how to live, without unnecessary rules, regulations and laws that seek to control – that would only exist for the benefit of those who write or set them.

Genuine frameworks are principles that do not need to be changed.

Whereas rules, regulations and laws tend to be dynamic and must be updated to reflect changes and times.

Rules, regulations and laws are always open to interpretation and to abuse.

If we want our future 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.

It is not the detail that counts.

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 as we go through transition and change and then play our part in establishing a new System that is waiting for us beyond.

We may not be able to see how a very different way of living and relating to others would work from where we stand looking at the future right now, as the culture we are experiencing today has taken over everything.

Considering anything contrary to what we consider to be ‘normal’ today can easily leave us feeling overwhelmed.

The relationship that we all have with money is the most important part of the process of change and will be resisted in ways that nothing else will.

This is why changing our approach to money and finance is so important. Every problem we have today relates to our relationship with money and this can only be fixed with a complete switch in focus to putting people first, before anything and everything else.

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, subsidy or government handouts of any kind, when receiving the minimum, most basic or living wage for working the equivalent of a full working week.

If you remain tied in your beliefs to today’s 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 would be required to consider this obligation in each and every action or transaction that they make or undertake, you will soon begin to see how this is a central framework rule that has the power to influence and impact upon them all.

Each Person must have the ability to be able to sustain their lives fully on the lowest full-time wage without handouts from the community, without relying on charity and without having to rely upon debt.

In a future people-first economy, everything will point in that direction and contribute to making it work.

The 11 Principal Frameworks of A Community Route

We must accept that for many, a world that focuses on living life differently, simply doesn’t make any sense.

However, just because someone cannot see it, 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 should always be as light-touch and government as small as possible.

In so far as it is possible, people must always be allowed to set their own life rules.

However, a successful future 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:

  1. Economic Localism
  2. Freedom does not hinder and is not hindered in any way.
  3. People First
  4. No Hierarchies. Top-Down is at its end
  5. Local People MUST make Local Decisions Locally & influence from The Grassroots-Up
  6. Local Businesses buy, sell and promote Local Goods first
  7. Every link of the supply chain must add value.
  8. Money or currencies have a fixed value and are only used as a medium of exchange
  9. Technology: A tool to improve life, not end it
  10. The Internet is a tool for life, not an alternative to it
  11. In a People First system, the people will always be the first to speak.

In the pages that follow, we will go through each of these Principal Frameworks, 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 upon processes and the input of people that we will never meet or see, mean that we have lost sight of responsibility, whilst we have also surrendered our control.

To live well, to live freely, to live healthily and to live happily, the focus of life, living and of everything that feeds into life and supports it must be as local as possible.

Everything must be transparent and be completely under our own control.

Every commercial activity that exists relates to a business, service or process that serves the interests of people in some way.

When commercial activities of any kind are placed in the service of specific interests and interests that are either deliberately hidden or kept out of sight, whatever they do will never be in the interests of us all. The balance between us and the sense of justice and fairness is quickly lost.

The priority for all communities must be to meet everyone’s basic needs so that everyone has the food, the clothing, the transport, the technology, the education, the work and the means to be self-sustaining without the need for help or support, in return for the work they do or the contribution to the community that they make.

This means that the growing of food, production of goods, manufacturing, supply of services and all the supply chains that support normal life and that exist to meet everyone’s basic needs, must be returned to their most locality focused and people-centric forms.

2. Freedom does not hinder and is not hindered in any way

We think that we are free today, and that any fight that might lie ahead is to maintain that freedom.

This is not correct.

The fight ahead is the fight for freedom itself. That’s why we need community focused leadership.

The alternative is to accept further forms of control and tyranny from an establishment or system that still insists that everything it does and will do will be done with our best interests at heart, whilst it seeks to profit from and exploit us all at every turn. All the time, reducing every one of the freedoms that we have today, whilst also seeking to continually reduce and remove our own individual forms of control.

Some might relate this statement to issues like the arrival of new generations of AI and the growing digital tyranny that we are being increasingly controlled and oppressed by. But nothing is so simple as that.

The reality is that we have forgotten what freedom really is.

By being so beholden to and manipulated by the consumer mantra ‘you can have whatever you want, it will always be available, it will always be affordable, and we’ll always give you money to pay for it – as long as you behave’, we have collectively become shackled by always wanting more.

We have forgotten what it is to live life in a way that centres only upon what we actually need.

Today, we are slaves to a values set based upon wealth, money, power and influence being the only things that are important.

We have become so addicted to this way of being and thinking, that we cannot even see how badly we are being hurt by what we already have. Yet we remain desperate for the same self-interests that brought us here to reach out and offer us even more.

True freedom does not hinder us or restrict us in any way.

True freedom only ends when our actions and behaviour become a genuine hindrance to others.

Freedom will always be freedom. Freedom is not something that depends on what people with power and influence dictate.

We must create and maintain a culture, understanding and framework that allows each and every one of us the freedom to be ourselves and who we believe ourselves to be. But at the same time does not restrict or hinder this same freedom in others so that it can contradict its own legitimacy, or force change upon the freedom of anyone to be.

3. People First

We are led to believe and to accept that The System that we have today is run on behalf of the people, by the people and for the people.

It is not.

Most people understand that the system is run in the best interests of those who either run it, or those that they look up to or receive favour from in some way.

But that is not the whole truth.

Everything that we know and understand today revolves around and is focused upon a values set based upon money, wealth, influence and power, along with the processes and actions that help everyone – no matter who they are – to gain and accumulate more of it.

We put money and the value we place in it before people and everything else.

The rise of the internet, the smart tech revolution and now the evolution of AI have made the downward spiral that has existed for over 50 years even worse by creating more and more devices and processes that dehumanize relationships.

Today’s internet creates the impression for anyone or any organisation with a platform that the people they interact with online aren’t actually real.

As far as real life is concerned, people in the digital world simply do not even exist. Yet in return we listen to and respect them as if they are.

This way of living is already unsustainable. But it is set to get even worse as we embrace the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), without any ethical framework or rules being set up that recognises the negative impacts and outcomes from profit-driven and control-driven misuse.

We must flip or completely turn this situation on its head and create a universal environment that puts people at the forefront of everything and every relationship instead of money.

Using benchmark frameworks that ensure fairness, balance and justice for all such as The Basic Living Standard, which will guarantee the ability of all people to support themselves without going into debt or without having to call on charity or government support, we will have the ability to provide a self-sustaining standard for a happy, healthy, safe and secure life for everyone.

With frameworks that are focused on People, we can also create a light-touch system of governance that uses transparency as an open tool for the system of the future to police itself too.

Today, humanity as a value set has been lost.

We can and will regain our true and most beneficial value set by focusing on the benefits of 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 – where the failure itself can take centuries to reach those at the top – is because hierarchies instantly make decision makers out-of-touch with those they rule.

The System that is failing and collapsing around us today is a classic example of a hierarchy. It is a textbook example of a system that operates from the top-down.

Today’s system is so complex, that the tiers or levels of the hierarchy are not only top-down. The way that we have evolved culturally has meant that we have also extended these tiers or levels from side to side.

This means that the responsibility for decisions that affect our daily lives are not only made by people and organisations or bodies that we will never have contact with.

It also means that their role, responsibilities and influence are also heavily – and all too conveniently obscured from our view.

Leadership has become synonymous with hierarchy. Yet the interchangeability of the two words or terms must no longer be considered as meaning the same thing.

We most certainly need leaders to shine and take responsibility for leading us.

But leadership does not come by right. It does not appear through career progression. It certainly doesn’t come through position or assumed power – even though the elites want us to believe this – try as they might.

Poor leaders who have no appreciation of the mechanics of leadership, nor any understanding of what leadership genuinely is, usually surround themselves with leaders who are even weaker, who then do exactly the same thing when it becomes their turn to lead.

Likewise, the accumulation of wealth or apparent success with a certain kind of business is no guarantee of anyone’s ability, the ethics or the morality that will drive them if they find themselves in a position where deference and the way that society works would enable them to take a lead.

Today, we have reached a position where everything we know in terms of governance and the way that the rules governing the way society, business and culture function has such people at the top and intrinsically involved.

We must end these hierarchies. We must end everything that functions in the sense of decisions being made by any form of power and influence that is remote and that we can identify in any way as being top-down.

5. Local People MUST make Local Decisions Locally & Influence from The Grassroots-Up

When we have a problem, we look to the people closest to us or those who are around us and in our lives for help. We quite literally reach out to our local support networks.

So why do we always reach outside of our local support networks for everything else and believe that the people, the businesses, the politicians and whatever else we interact with will value us at a personal level and with our best interests at heart, just the same?

Whilst there must always be an objectively created framework of rules that establish and maintain equality in all things that will be equal and that there is equality for all, the creation of such rules and regulations must be undertaken by people who understand what life is really like for all.

If decision makers do not interact with the people, the area, the community for which any set of rules are made, they cannot make those decisions in the most informed manner.

True equality of opportunity must exist for society to be balanced, fair and just.

But equality of opportunity and one-size-fits all are never the same thing. That is, unless you are the one with all the power and you sit in isolation at the very top.

In our world of the future, it will be Local people – that’s the people we talk to and see regularly or could call on easily and without difficulty – who will always be making the decisions on public policy and governance that will have any effect upon us and the people we care about.

There are very few decisions made by any of the existing levels of government today that cannot be returned, along with the power that enables them, to the most local or community level.

Instead, rules are today being made that have a real impact upon the quality of life that we all experience, by people who will never visit or understand our areas and communities, and who we will never have reason to know.

Lawmaking powers must be returned to the level nearest to the people possible to do so. In the majority of cases, this will always be within a local or community framework.

Cost or political expedience is in itself no excuse for rules to be passed to anyone or to any organisation outside of our local frameworks. The reality is that excuses like these are quite literally all they are – excuses that sound beneficial to everyone.

The truth is that they are all about taking power away from us so that someone else can better serve their own self-interest, by taking and misusing our control.

Local people will always be best equipped to make local decisions. There is no need for anyone else, any group or political party to be involved.

We can only return power to the people by rejecting the phoney democracy that it will take us working together as a whole community to replace.

6. Local Businesses buy, sell and promote local goods first

We shouldn’t trust what we cannot physically experience, even if it physically exists somewhere else.

Just as it will be in the interests of our health to avoid foods that don’t resemble their basic, raw form – unless the processing used is simple, such as was traditionally undertaken by hand (e.g. Bread, Butter, Cheese), we will learn to avoid and distrust the processes of growing, manufacturing and production that are not accessible or cannot be accessed, viewed and assessed by people who are known to us and that we can trust.

People with money, influence and power today have abused the trust that so many of us have placed in them by exploiting the rationale that out of sight is out of mind.

They do this because they remain confident that if we cannot see it, we do not care about it, we are not interested in it, and that we will take the provenance and care for our best interests that go into it for granted.

Corruption is not only a term that relates to financial payments, favours and backhanders that skew decisions today that should always be impartial and fair.

Processes of all kinds have become corrupted by the self-interest and profiteering that drives them.

There is no reason why the basic goods, foods and services that we all need for life cannot be grown, produced, manufactured and supplied locally – IF we are putting people and a values-based way of living first, using methods that will quickly resolve some of the biggest issues that society currently has.

Yes, there may always be a need to trade local goods that exist in excess, for those that cannot be locally produced. Or to create a regulated currency for the purpose of being a medium of exchange that can do the same.

But if we work locally, with local people, in the interests of the locality and the local community, a balance for this will always exist.

It is only when greed and the self-interest of the few enter the equation that a process begins where balance, fairness and justice is lost. Selfishness is where it all begins to go wrong.

Local Businesses must always prioritise local suppliers for their services, raw materials and goods.

Quality and experience are always the key, and by chasing profit or by attempting to avoid rules that achieve the same, transparency, provenance, authenticity and everything good will always be lost.

7. Every link of the supply chain must add value

Whilst it is the money system and the way that money creation and circulation are managed that are the fundamental problem with the way that the worldwide economy works today, this mismanagement itself has encouraged a cultural mindset that focuses on saving costs and making more profit. Not as a consequence of what the business does; not because there is some kind of rule requiring them to do so; not because circumstances demand it of them. But because they can.

We have reached a stage where businesses that we could argue have a legitimate involvement in supply chains that provide a service or supplies to the people, such as supermarkets, already use every excuse that sounds plausible to convince retail customers that prices need to keep rising.

Meanwhile, supermarkets push producers and growers at the other end of the supply chain to sell at prices where they can barely continue to exist (and increasingly don’t).

However, the problem today reaches way beyond businesses such as those we would recognise as having a legitimate role in production and supply to play.

There are also many other companies, ‘agents’, speculators, and other ‘interests’, who buy and sell raw materials, components, ingredients, fuels, minerals and even currencies, who do nothing to add value to the product or whatever it is they are buying and selling.

But in whatever way they become involved, they nonetheless add and take a fee for themselves.

That excess profit, made without adding value to the supply chain – when adding value could be refining, making an engine out of components, or even selling to the customer at the end of the ‘chain’, raises the costs of all of these goods and even services unnecessarily.

In every circumstance within a supply chain where anyone takes a margin without adding any value to the process, it makes the end product or service more expensive for everyone to buy and makes it more difficult to live.

There must always be a reward for input, whether that be growing, mining, processing, refining, delivering or selling.

But nobody and no business will be able to take a reward, just because they can afford to insert themselves into any part of any supply chain that exists or may be under discussion ahead of time – pushing up prices as they do so, and then selling on at a profit which pushed those prices up further.

Regrettably, the historic greed of growers, producers and all the different companies that in some cases also carry out unnecessary cost-raising activities or roles, has surrendered the ability of whole industries to take back control of their own marketplace because they are today tied into commercial relationships they feel unable to leave behind – even though they are being progressively broken by them.

Supply chains must be as short as it is possible. No unnecessary business, agent or entity of any kind can be allowed to be involved in the growing, production, manufacturing, storing, transport or selling of foods, goods and services that are essential to life – of any kind.

Of those businesses or entities that have involvement at any stage of any supply chain, they MUST add value to the chain with whatever it is they do.

No other interests other than those that are adding value to the chain must ever be allowed to be involved.

Speculation or ‘futures’ must be prohibited for any raw materials, foods or goods that are part of any supply chain that provides essential goods, services or supplies that are essential to basic life.

Speculation and ‘futures’ selling or handling is nothing more than gambling and no one has the right to gamble with anyone else’s life.

8. Money or currencies MUST have a fixed value and only be used as a medium of exchange

Money isn’t real. Yet we have been conditioned to believe that it is.

Money is a unit or medium of exchange.

Yet we have been conditioned to believe that money is a thing. That money holds value of its own, and that the value that money holds is variable in its own right – well beyond the basic principles necessary for currency exchange.

Money has become the benchmark that dictates the value of life and the value of every individual’s existence.

For as long as this money-based order, reality or culture that we have today continues to exist, the values that underpin humanity and human existence will matter less and less.

Money and currencies of any kind are useful to us, as long as they are only used as the medium of exchange that they are. Rather than being believed to be or considered to be an accumulation of material wealth in itself – as it is today.

For as long as we continue to allow the value of anything and everything to be determined by the value of money, which itself can then vary from day to day, the power of any individual, business or community to regulate, manage and sustain healthy lives will be compromised.

Until 1971, when neoliberalism fully took over, the value of the money that existed was always pinned or anchored to the value of gold.

‘The Gold Standard’ was far from being a perfect system or system that was balanced, fair and just in itself – as any good study of economic history will demonstrate. But what its existence did demonstrate was the benefit of having the value of money restricted, which meant that there was considerably less opportunity for the system to be ‘played’ – as it has been, to our considerable cost, ever since.

A fair, balanced and just economic system that puts people first must rest its economic base upon the people that exist within that system, along with the fundamental value we can associate with what those people then put in or take out of it.

That value may indeed be translated into money or a form of currency or digital currency of some kind.

But there is no requirement or need for that value to ever be variable in a system that puts people first and does not accept that non-essential or basic goods that it cannot itself produce must be secured, no matter the price.

The value of human existence and the value of the work or effort that any individual puts into the system must be the benchmark which everything to do with monetary exchange and value must be pinned.

For life to be valued and for that value of life to be maintained as it will always be, money or currencies of any kind must always be a unit of exchange that holds no value of its own that can be bought, sold or exchanged.

9. Technology: A tool to improve life, not end it

It would be foolish to not recognise the value of the advances in technology that humanity has experienced throughout the industrial age.

Those technological advances have increased exponentially as we have picked up speed through the digital age, with advances that we have experienced in just the past few years alone, already providing us with the opportunity to look at life in a very different way.

Technology has always had the power to do much good. To improve life in many ways and to remove all kinds of risks from the workplace for everyone who may be involved.

However, technology and its development has also been increasingly abused.

Technological advances are used by industries to increase profits and are today increasingly seen as a way to reduce the numbers of people employed to work. All without any due regard for the impact on individuals, communities, entire countries and the industries that are involved.

It is true that no business or organisation exists purely to employ people.

Employment and the need to employ people to carry out any function that the development of a business or organisation and the products or services that it delivers, has and always will be a happy consequence of organic growth from the provision of goods and services of a quality that are essential to life and which people and communities genuinely need.

Profit should always be a happy consequence of good delivery and management. Never the primary aim.

The power of good in technology rests in its ability to be used to improve and enhance working practices and quality of life.

Not to make work or employment unnecessary for anyone, or to be used as a functional device to control or restrict people or humanity in any way.

There are and always will be negative consequences when technology of any kind is used and harnessed for purposes other than to improve life or working conditions.

Those who lose out will always lose out badly.

Whilst those who believe they are using technology to benefit themselves or their business will only every experience a pyrrhic win.

In a people centric or people-first economy and World, technology must always be used to improve the experience of everyone. Not as a tool that can only ever benefit the few.

10. The Internet is a tool for life, not an alternative to it

Many neither realise nor appreciate that the arrival of the internet and the functionality that it has offered us, has never been governed or regulated by governments and those that govern on our behalf in ways that benefit us.

The internet and the online world that is developing with it is and always has been a two-edged sword. It has brought as many downsides or dark aspects with it as the positive or good aspects that it has given us – and potentially a lot more.

Many of the social problems that we experience today can be attributed to behaviour that was deemed acceptable online before it then found its way into the real world or the mainstream.

From early on, people and businesses using the internet – whatever the purpose may have been – didn’t recognise the same social etiquette, politeness, manners, morals, standards or behaviour that we considered to be the cultural norm in ‘real life’ outside. Principally, because there was never any real system of Governance in place and so none of those same rules appeared to exist.

The rate of behavioral change in social conditioning from locality to online has been confined to within what might only be one generation.

Young people today take all of their social cues and conditioning from the world online. Rather than from the young people, adults and community figures around them.

The effect has been massively profound.

Today, upcoming generations and those above them who follow common narratives take these social cues into ‘real life’ without realising the parallel universe or pretend world that the internet or online world offers, is dictating or rather destroying rules and the remaining values for life.

This reconditioning is helping to dehumanise every aspect of life that we experience, as it progresses.

Like all technology, the value of the internet and all things online cannot be understated. Just as long as it is used and operated within a framework, with rules and restrictions that are always based upon and maintained for the common good.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and all online technology will prove to be bad for humanity if it is programmed, created and driven by motives and designs that are in the interests of the few, rather than being in the best interests of all mankind.

The internet is a tool. It must be respected as such.

The online or digital world must always reflect or mirror the rules and practices that we use in real life. Rather than having the ability to completely reset life and every agenda, as it and all the technology that feeds into it, does today.

11. In a People First system, the people will always be the first to speak

We have been told over and over again that we live and enjoy freedom that can only come from being in a democracy.

The political system and the system of governance or administration that we have today could certainly operate in a very democratic way. But only when the incumbents within that system or the politicians and officers respect democracy and democratic practices themselves.

Whatever system of government or administration we may have, there will always be a dependence upon those who have been entrusted with the responsibilities of public representation having the integrity to respect and work diligently with that trust.

Today, politicians simply do not do this. Not least of all because once elected, politicians of the existing political parties are inevitably expected by their party to vote and support policies as they have been told.

But also, because very few politicians today are able to discern the difference between what is right for them and what is right for us all.

Many of us regrettably still think that change can be achieved just by voting for a different party, or by changing the way that votes are counted. So that smaller parties will get elected as they pick up alternative and second preference votes.

What those who believe this fail to see is that the way that we elect politicians doesn’t matter one bit, if the politicians don’t care for or consider the people they have been elected to represent.

It would be foolish to believe that any of us can trust that every politician we elect can be relied upon 100% of the time to make decisions on our behalf that are always 100% right.

But there is a colossal difference between where we are today, and where we will be when we have created a very different democratic framework that requires all public representatives to establish and qualify themselves at community level. Then live the principle that true democracy will always operate from the Grassroots Up.

Yes, we must have politicians and public representatives to represent us and make decisions on our behalf.

But the perversity of a system where just a few thousand people from a group that has very specific interests and motivations can select the next Prime Minister of the UK, should never have existed.

The people who represent us all must be selected and appointed by us all, first.

It may neither be possible nor appropriate for us to appoint a Prime Minister in the same way that the United States does.

Through the process of change 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, should always be selected from those who have been successful and demonstrated their suitability as a public representative, to the people they represent, from this pool.

Hidden Truths and Looming Elephants

Things to consider:

Nobody who genuinely understands or has any idea what experiences we will now be required to go through will make light of anything that might or could happen to any one of us next.

They will certainly not suggest that theres is anything easy about what lies ahead.

To maximise and make the very best of the opportunity that lies in front of you and indeed all of us right now, there are a few things to bear in mind that might be of some help.

They are a reminder that as soon as you are aware and committed to doing what you can to help everyone else through this process – including those who currently reject this direction and may be the last to awaken – that WE must all have the integrity to be our best, whatever the situation. Especially when it appears that change has stopped or may even seem to be going the wrong way.

There will be many more, and the way they are written may not make immediate sense to everyone.

However, they are written and offered with yours and everyone’s best interests at heart.

They follow as the remaining pages of this book.

They are:

  1. You will be the next great leader, before anyone else
  2. Nobody is wrong. We are all the sum of our experiences at any moment in time
  3. Don’t attempt to lead others if the only ideas you can lead with are your own
  4. If you believe that to win you must discredit the speaker, you are neither confident nor competent with your own case or cause
  5. Don’t look forward using the building blocks of everything you know and understand now
  6. Use the people you can interact with, without barriers, as your reference points. Always trust what you can see and access in real life before you even put your faith in anything else.
  7. Know yourself. Accept and be honest about your own limitations
  8. The most effective revolution is the one you take part in without even realising you were part of it
  9. If you have to rely on fear to win, your victory will never be safe
  10. We get to change the rules when we win. Don’t step onto the field of play until you understand what they are today
  11. It’s a conversation. Not a sale
  12. Ask questions and learn to ask the same questions in many different ways
  13. The outcome will always be related to the effort made
  14. This change may well be a spiritual awakening. But the physical or 3D world has to play its part too
  15. It could take 20 years for change to happen overnight
  16. Run away from anyone who says they have all the answers
  17. If you are focusing on punishment and blame, you are missing the point
  18. “You don’t speak for us”, is a warning for all of us too
  19. Having a platform is no qualification for leadership and leading other people is nobody’s right
  20. Always do the right thing for everyone, not only for yourself or what you believe

1. You will be the next great leader, before anyone else

Everyone has to change their mind about what happens next.

Even if you believe you are already fully ‘in the room’, the chances are there are things that you will need to change your mind about, or at the very least open your mind up to.

Changing your mind, when you believe that what you already know is right is very hard and should not be underestimated on anyone’s part.

Seeing the different way and then having the courage to take the leap of faith necessary to embrace it is also what it takes each of us to lead – even if we are only leading ourselves.

Through the process of all of us embracing that step, we will all be contributing to the overall process of change and the step that we take is where the leadership really begins.

2. Nobody is wrong. We are all the sum of our experiences at any moment in time

Sadly, today’s cultural conditioning tells us that the accepted narrative is always right, and that when you know you are right, anyone who doesn’t agree with you or the narrative must therefore be wrong.

However, we must accept that all of us are the sum of our experiences.

Whatever we personally believe to be right – based upon what we have learned or experienced up to that specific moment in time – may well be right in our own minds.

Yet the experience of the same subject or circumstances for anyone or everyone else may be very different, just because of whatever they experienced that led them to that conclusion first.

We can all be right based on what we already know. But at the same time, we can also be wrong in respect of what is right for us all.

Never judge anyone – no matter how you might feel.

3. Don’t attempt to lead others if the only ideas you can lead with are your own

If you are convinced that you are right or that the solutions you have are the right ones, you may also believe that you are the only person who has the ability to see things the way that you do.

If you believe this to be the case or you believe that you are the first person to see things the way that you do, you may believe that you should be the one who takes the lead.

We are now heading into a future where everyone will work for everyone else, together.

So, even if the ideas that you have end up being some or even all of the ideas that everyone should agree with, everyone else must discuss and agree that they are the most appropriate ideas, first.

Leaders are not always the people who have the ideas.

Leaders are the people who know how to get things done by getting the right people with the right ideas together and then getting all the answers, solutions and outcomes that everyone needs.

4. If you believe that to win you must discredit the speaker, you are neither confident nor competent with your own case or cause

If you are confident in what you know, you will never have cause to resort to shutting any opponent or anyone down who has an alternative view.

It doesn’t matter if they shout loudly or appear to be stealing the show.

A sound and confident argument made politely and reinforced in the same way will always ultimately win, whilst anger and hatred exhibited or projected onto others never will.

Those who resort to ridicule, digging up stories and dirt that has no relevance to the discussion, or to discrediting your argument in any other way, simply cannot rely on their own position or the arguments about the subject that they are able to make.

Take comfort in that fact.

5. Don’t look forward using the building blocks of everything you know and understand now

The change that is required of us all is about the process of creating a new future.

If we use what we know now as the reference point to create our future, all we will continue to do is keep looking back.

We will still be living in the past.

The past is only a reference point that we must use to inform us of what we no longer want.

We must create and mold the future using only the things that work for us all.

6. Use the people you can interact with, without barriers, as your reference points. Always trust what you can see and access in real life before you even put your faith in anything else

Community and localism in its truest sense are the key to the future.

It is the people that we interact with in real life and that we have open access to communicate with who will always provide the answers, sounding boards and feedback that will help us achieve all that we need to succeed at to deliver what comes next.

Other sources will always sound deceptively real or credible because we are not exposed to them in a way that allows us to know the truth of who they really are.

Trust only that or those who are accessible to you, and are either already in, prepared to be, or are open to being involved in your life.

7. Know yourself. Accept and be honest about your own limitations

If we really want to help to shape and create a future that works well for everyone, it is essential that we know, understand and are comfortable with who we are first.

Self-awareness is never an easy path to follow because those who have been teaching us up to now know the power of understanding others can only be learned in this way.

Mindfulness is only a step in the direction of all there is to know about ourselves.

By teaching yourself not only to become aware of how you feel, but also why you do things, and what led you to behave in that way, you will soon start to understand where your real strengths and weaknesses lie.

When you know your own limitations and have the peace of mind to own them too, you will not get in the way of others who can deliver the things for everyone else that you cannot.

Neither will you stand back and allow others to fail, when you know that you have competence that might smooth the pathway of success.

8. The most effective revolution is the one you take part in without even realising you were part of it

Few have the ability to negotiate terms when they are surrounded by chaos.

Those throughout history who may have appeared to do so will have either had more than a generous helping of luck, or destiny played its part on their side.

No matter what you might believe or deem to be fair or just, given all that you have experienced up until now, civil disorder and unrest may feel right. But it is very unlikely to lead to a situation where everyone whose support you need will believe and trust that you have right on your side.

Whilst nothing less than a revolution is everything that we now need, there is no need for any of us to behave like revolutionaries to achieve the right outcome.

The majority will always accept the result of a revolution for the long term, when they don’t realise that they were taking part in a revolution, all along.

A word of caution: Peaceful protest is always best, because it doesn’t harm those who need help. Whereas a complete loss of control means that control is lost of everything for everyone for at least a short period of time.

If that happens, there is never any guarantee behind who will be next to take up power.

Whilst history books most often tell us otherwise, the result of the Russian Revolution of 1917 was never certain. It relied on what we might call a lot of luck for the Communists – which was from then onwards for Russia, many other surrounding Countries and millions of people – arguably what turned out to be a VERY unlucky thing.

9. If you have to rely on fear to win, your victory will never be safe

Fear has been used as a weapon by the ruling classes and an establishment that the arrival of a new System for the future will soon allow us to replace.

Think about how the misuse of fear in the form of media messages, propaganda and rules that have been imposed upon you have made you feel.

You will never succeed in delivering any kind of meaningful change if the only way it can be achieved is by taking actions and using messages that achieve the very same.

The future must only be built upon trust, no matter how easy the misuse of information, messages, rules or actions might feel.

If the new System and future is achieved with anything less than people feeling they had freedom to choose and that they gave their voluntary consent, the certainly of a happy, healthy, safe and secure future within a fair, balanced and just system that works for everyone will be lost.

10. We get to change the rules when we win. Don’t step onto the field of play until you understand what they are today

Chaos and civil disorder could well lead to an outcome that is far worse than what we are experiencing already.

It could easily deliver a way of living that it is safe to say none of us could ever want.

The safest and most effective way to bring about and embrace effective change will be to play with and respect the rules of the game we are already playing, and that we will be playing, at that precise moment in time.

Whilst a collapse of civilised society or order would necessitate playing that game in a very different way, we must respect the way that democratic change can be delivered today.

We must be fully committed to working with The System that we have until the very moment that it has become clear that the aim of change cannot be delivered by continuing to do so.

It may feel like it, but we are a long way from reaching that point, yet.

People will not vote for anyone, just because they decide to craft a message and turn up.

People want representation from bottom to top that they can trust.

People will only trust all of us together as a viable political alternative when they know that they are important, and they feel that they are valued and involved.

Engage the people. Take over the Councils democratically. Then take over Parliament democratically.

Then and only then seek to change the rules to prioritise locality and community – Once you have legitimately taken power away from those who still believe it is their destiny to possess and to always be at the top – and will always do what they can to preserve it.

11. It’s a conversation. Not a sale

People don’t buy anything if they believe that they cannot afford the cost.

A key part of spreading the word and changing minds before necessity starts to do the work for us is to remember and always bear in mind that the world that we are leaving is one where everything is about money and values are based on what money is involved.

Those who are still ‘invested’ or ‘bought in’ to the dying system, will quite literally see the change in the way of living that we must all embrace as one that will lead to loss. It will therefore be perceived as a change that they simply cannot afford.

People who have a different view that is embedded and aligned with who they are, will always respect a reasoned conversation rather than a sales pitch – especially if the first words you utter, would otherwise become the excuse to make you wrong and shut you down.

Talk to people as fellow humans and as the adults that they are, sharing the same, but different experience.

Use common ground to demonstrate credibility and the experience that gives value to who you are.

A win might not always be evident at the time. But if you have listened as well as spoken, and avoided doing anything that makes that other person wrong, your reason and truth will travel and have good effect.

12.Ask questions and learn to ask the same questions in many different ways

Those who are resistant to change or have closed off minds find it easy to say no.

Ridiculing them or getting angry with them will not change their minds.

In fact, it is likely to only entrench their resistance and make the situation a whole lot worse.

The process of change that is necessary is reliant upon how everyone thinks.

People will only think differently if they are confronted with information that invites them to do so.

Asking questions rather than making statements will always be the safest place to begin.

13.The outcome will always be related to the effort made

It would be wonderful if the whole process of change were to become unnecessary, because in one simple moment, everyone was able, ready and willing to change how they think.

The reality we face is that the change that is required of us all isn’t an easy one, and the greatest effort will be required of all those who have awakened to the true reality of all that we face first.

The result that we expect and are seeking is far from guaranteed, and if we don’t make the effort to embrace the requirements of the role that each and every one of us can play, there is no certainty or guarantee that we will ultimately succeed.

14.This change may well be a spiritual awakening. But the physical or 3D world has to play its part too

Many helpful spiritual speakers have been framing the changes that are underway as a ‘great awakening’.

This may indeed be so. But not everyone will experience this time of transformation in a spiritual, religious, enlightening or mindful way.

Of those who do so, many will awaken spiritually because of the experiences that they have.

The change we experience will ultimately be all about the way that the majority think.

Most of the people in the World look outside of themselves for all reference points. So, the world outside of them will have to change before they are ready to embrace the change that will be necessary for everyone inside.

15.It could take 20 years for change to happen overnight

Please be patient.

It doesn’t matter whether you saw this all coming, whether you’ve just woken up, or whether you will be joining the change at some later stage.

The process of change or transformation will not happen overnight.

The system and the circumstances that we are now in are so complicated, change will happen in what we may experience as significant events, but what will in practice is likely only to be happening bit by bit.

16.Run away from anyone who says they have all the answers

The answers, solutions, direction and the frameworks to get us through change to the future are for everyone to agree upon and to decide.

If you should experience any person, group or political party telling you that they have the answers, the knowledge, the experience or anything else necessary – without accepting the need for input, discussion and reference from anyone else, simply walk away.

They are doing the same things that got us to where we are now and all you will get by trusting them is a lot more of the same.

17.If you are focusing on punishment and blame, you are missing the point

There are many people talking about tribunals for ‘Covid Crimes’ and punishments being dished out for taking self-serving decisions that are hurting everyone else such as business leaders, politicians, bankers, members of the WEF and members of the so-called elites.

Yes, these people may have done plenty of things that we can now see and understand as being very wrong.

But by focusing on what has already happened, rather than what happens next, you will be focusing on things that you cannot change.

Meanwhile, you will be wasting the opportunity to change the things that you can.

One of the secrets to getting everything right is not to let anger, emotion and frustration spoil a productive day.

Removing the people who are responsible for all of our problems from positions of power and influence and ensuring that our future can no longer be written by anyone who behaves in any way like them, should be the immediate priority for us all.

Ensuring that these people never again have the opportunity to enrich or benefit themselves at the expense of others will certainly be punishment enough.

18. “You don’t speak for us”, is a warning for all of us too

It is very easy to get caught up in the praise and acknowledgement we have or that we receive from those who agree with or who appreciate our message.

However, there are a lot of people in the world, and a lot of minds to be changed, no matter how many of them may or may not be needed for ideas of change to reach any kind of critical mass.

The phenomenon of those in the public eye who insist that they speak for everyone, when it is clear that they don’t, is very real.

Don’t fall into the trap of believing that positive praise from very few is representative of how the majority already does or will ultimately feel.

Work hard and do the right thing at every opportunity, until the job is over and the results can be seen.

19. Having a platform is no qualification for leadership. Leading other people is nobody’s right

As we awaken or peel more and more layers away from the deception we have experienced, it is natural to reach out or go in search of any credible and alternative voice.

The problem is that in a world that today values information and sources that are not local to us, rather than the ones which are and that we should trust, it has become easy to believe that voices with messages we relate to can be trusted in proportion to how many people follow them, share their posts or how many like they have.

Partial truths that overlook or hide the uncomfortable ones are always going to be popular, will be valued and will be liked.

But partial truths are not the full story, and if you want change to be real and to succeed, it naturally follows that there is a need to become aware of, to accept, understand and become comfortable with the truths that you are currently not.

Beware of false prophets. Meaningful change will not come as part of an easy ride.

20.Always do the right thing for everyone, not only for yourself or what you believe

One of the most destructive ways that power and influence corrupts those who find themselves elevated into positions of responsibility for others, is that they very quickly forget that there is a very big difference between what is right for them and what is right for everyone else.

The two are treated as being synonymous from the level of parish, district and county councillors up to the office of Prime Minister itself. And the effect of anyone who makes decisions on our behalf losing sight of the difference, can easily have catastrophic consequences for us all.

More information, suggestions and advice

The only fixed suggestion made within A Community Route is that of the First Framework for Freedom.

Over the two years preceding the publication of this second edition of A Community Route, I have published a series of books that may also offer you guidance or help. These are listed in the ‘Books by this Author section’ that follows at the end of the book.

The books available work through the process of how we got to where we are, what we are now facing and provide ideas and suggestions for how we begin working together for the future.

There is lots of material that I have written over the past decade, including the period surrounding Brexit and the Covid Pandemic itself, available and published in the forms of my Blog which you will find at the following link: www.adamtugwell.blog

Thank you for reading. I am always very happy to discuss and learn with others and will be very happy to hear from you with questions, comments or any other kind of feedback. I will always do my best to respond to genuine contact – as quickly as I can.

If you would like to get in touch, please do so by email at acommunityroute@gmail.com

You will find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook – all @adamtugwell

Back Page

You think for yourself, you have bags of common sense and as far as solving the problems that the UK and possibly the World faces, you also have a view.

One that might include or be focused upon problems caused by:

  • AI
  • Brexit
  • The Cost-of-Living Crisis
  • Democracy (or a lack of it)
  • Digital Tyranny & Control
  • The Elites (WEF, WHO etc.)
  • The Financial System (Who controls money and how)
  • Food Security (Grow your own, localised production)
  • Freedom of Speech
  • Globalisation (Or Deglobalisation)
  • Healthy Living (Basic Foods)
  • The loss of Values
  • Media Manipulation
  • Money (or a lack of it)
  • Net Zero (Green & Climate Policy, LTNs, ULEZs and 15 Minute Cities)
  • Political Parties
  • Technology
  • US Hegemony
  • The War in Ukraine
  • Wokeism, Political Correctness and Minority Rights

Alternatively, your view could be based on something entirely different. But one way or another, it is certain to come from a VERY long list.

We are experiencing a time when the World is increasingly in turmoil. Suggestions of completely impractical public policies such as Net Zero, using insects for food and closing down farms gives us just a small hint of what today’s World elites plan for us and aim to coerce us to do.

The reality we face is that the strength and ability required to change the direction that we emerge from after the collapse of The System that we are experiencing today needs everyone across our communities to unite and work together.

The problem we face is that despite many different voices and groups now championing change and transformation to embrace a balanced, fair and just future, the unity goes only so far as words and lip service at best.

Those who should be working together have never been further apart.

A Community Route proposes the basis of a new system and ways of thinking to unite and bring people, communities and groups together, so that we can succeed in setting our own agenda and begin creating the governance and systems that will ensure we all have a happy, healthy, safe and secure life, within a new values-based System that lies ahead.

Adam’s Amazon Page is HERE