Watching the continuing bewilderment, frustration, fear and anger from so many across the UK farming community is not easy.
But the real difficulty for someone like me isn’t the wholly avoidable tragedies that are part of the much bigger engineered tragedy that is unfolding.
It is the reality that we cannot do a thing about what is happening, and why it is happening, until many more of us, and not least of all people from within farming and its related industries, begin to accept that what we are seeing, experiencing and increasingly becoming victims to, bears no relationship with our reasoned expectations of government and governance. But is instead being driven by a different set of truths that are very difficult to accept.
Whilst many within the farming industry may feel that you can only understand and relate to the turmoil that this one change in public policy has caused, if you are a farmer and have obvious skin in the game yourself, the action taken by the government and its failure to respond to months of concern, in any way which makes sense, is far from being isolated. Not least of all because the Tax that could be raised by the policy is in public spending terms trivial and was never what the change was really about.
Indeed, what appears to just be a nasty attack on ‘rich farmers’, was, is and will continue to be all about food and the independence that locally controlled food production gives us. It’s this that should be concerning us all more than anything.
It is vitally important for anyone who wants to address the real issues that UK food production faces to stop and look beyond the question of Farmers IHT itself.
To begin understanding how the bigger and deliberately complicated picture works, we all need to see how the IHT policy didn’t arrive in isolation. But was in fact just the next step in a long and calculated chain of policy changes and their implementation, which have been reforming, remodelling and slowly strangling, if not killing off all parts of UK food production for a period that now exceeds 50 years.
We should be under no illusion that the Farm Inheritance Tax Policy is part of a much bigger strategy and plan. One that places the end of independent farming and food production of all kinds across the UK at its very heart.
So those who wish to have control over everything – including people and how we are allowed to live and behave – want to secure complete control of the food chain. Simply because of the absolute control that it will shortly allow them to impose, if the status quo continues, unopposed.
The last thing an establishment already struggling to hide its totalitarian and authoritarian plans for the future wants, is for anyone or any business to exist that can provide any person or any community with the independence that could very quickly derail and wreck everything they aim to do.
Whilst this malfeasant but cleverly legitimised strategy is being slowly but very surely implemented across every area of life today to restrict freedoms, including just about every rule that’s meant to create safety and switch to digital and online alternatives to ‘real life’ that there is, there are none that have quite the same level of potential impact on all of us as food and the supply of it.
Many of those farming smaller, ‘family sized farms’ or rather farm businesses that lie outside of corporate control, understandably perceive a specialised business landscape that cannot exist without subsidies, commercial contracts and the revival of the golden egg – which is a fair income from whatever they produce.
However, contrary to the accepted narrative that tells us ‘This is just how things work’ or this is where ‘progress’ has taken food production in the 21st century, the truth that we all have to wrestle with a very serious paradox indeed, namely:
The only business sector that can genuinely provide UK Food Security, and with it the freshest, most nutritious, healthiest, most cost-effective food supply, that every person’s body across the UK needs at least twice daily is unable to provide the producers with a viable, unsupported or independent income.
Truly, the idea that growing the food that we genuinely need is not possible, can only begin to make sense when we accept that the whole problem has been created for farmers (and consumers), so that specific interests can be advantaged above others and that this was the deliberate choice of whoever has and is now controlling the levers of government.
Far from being the anachronism that many of today’s two-faced politicians would like voters to believe, small independent family farms are the future of food as a part of a great future for us and for our communities.
The relatively easy to solve problem for farmers and consumers that really is a very big concern of the establishment, is the threat that we will rediscover the legitimacy of food independence, whilst realising that we don’t need centralised power structures and business models to thrive and have much better life experiences on our own.
It’s this that the establishment really doesn’t like and is quietly terrified of.
All the rules that have slowly choked small farmers out of business, following policy change after policy change, heralded by Trojan horses like the Common Agricultural Policy, and bureaucratic initiatives that have cascaded down into practical business operations in ways that have made support industries like abattoirs unviable, through health, environmental and quality rules, have all been created with long term outcomes in mind.
Policy after policy has been created, changed and implemented that have at best been intended to redirect and at worst destroy businesses that could have and still could adapt to the needs that people genuinely have for food. Needs that could otherwise already be being fully met by functioning and supported UK food producers, rather than what is left of UK food producing industries being the victims of engineered circumstances that tell everyone they are unnecessary and are therefore done.
Whilst even now, many reading this essay may well scoff at what I am sharing, I’m afraid that the evidence of all this is now beginning to shout very loudly as it emerges into public view at breakneck speed.
To be fair, it certainly defies the logic and expectations of so many of us, who have always believed that we could trust public representatives to actually do what’s best for us.
Dealing with this problem should be as simple as getting politicians to change their minds. Perhaps do a U-turn. Or even waiting until the next government comes in behind just the latest in a long line who everyone believes to be solely responsible for wrecking everything today.
But it’s not as simple as that in any kind of way.
Government and politics no longer work anything like we expect them to. Or in any way as they should.
With many of the politicians we can publicly identify being incapable of leading as they should and they themselves being wholly reliant upon the advice and direction of many other people and influencers who are both considered to be ‘experts’ (in what?!) and who we are unlikely to ever know of, we have to begin to understand that what and why the politicians we have are doing what they are doing may actually be for reasons that may be very different to what we expect.
Even then, if we knew what the politicians honestly believe, the genuine purpose or truth behind what they are being advised or directed to do may not even then be something that they themselves would easily believe.
Regrettably and rather worryingly, the establishment and any political party, group or movement that is aligned with the establishment, rather than the people and what remain of al independent businesses themselves, will not change the direction of travel of any of this, until they either succeed or their plans are stopped.
This means that to reshape and redirect UK food production, farmers, growers and fishers must themselves voluntarily step away from the reliance and expectation historically placed upon the establishment as well as those who wish to become part of it.
Food producers must take all steps necessary to develop a new, direct relationship with the public and therefore go it alone.
Regrettably, the alternative is to keep shouting whilst continuing to accept the status quo, whilst in effect sitting back and watching as UK food production and everything that still remains able to provide us with genuine freedom is destroyed, right up to the point that traditional, ‘natural’ farming and food growing practices no longer exist, and people will never be able to function independently and away from the control of the establishment ever again.
Reform’s performance in the Local and Helsby and Runcorn by Elections really does look good.
Anyone looking on can immediately see why so many of the political pundits and members of the opinionati are now backing Reform for a similarly groundbreaking General Election result in 2029.
The uncomfortable truth that many supporters will fail to recognise is the only reason that Reform could achieve a seismic turnaround of the kind that would instantaneously drop Nigel Farage into No.10, would be that when compared to all the others, Reform could still be the only real unknown quantity, and therefore different enough to hoover up the majority of a very fatigued Electorates votes.
Unfortunately for the Electorate, without a significant change in their direction, voting Reform into power at the next General Election would once again be voting without due regard for the Law of Unintended Consequences. Just as it was last July when those who did vote put Labour into Government.
Nonetheless, it could and may well happen.
The real depth and direction of Reform are being hidden by Britain’s Political Perfect Storm
It won’t matter what problems the new Reform Administrations in Local Government create, being directed from Reform HQ, as if everything must now be run and controlled from the very top.
The unavoidable disintegration of the UK public sector that is already well underway will almost certainly hide whatever Reform Councils do from public scrutiny and view.
Because Labour, the Tories and Lib Dem Councils are going to struggle in this climate either not to go bankrupt or find other ways to avoid royally stuffing things up.
Reform aren’t reforming anything other than the public discourse over the issues that the majority of people can see and associate with the effects of the problems that are effecting society.
No matter how far detached those perspectives might be focused from the real cause.
Farage’s approach might at best be viewed as becoming increasingly aligned with the establishment and the global thinking that sits behind so many of the problems and the direction of travel that even this Labour government has.
The irony of this should not be lost, that whilst the parts of the political right that are falling in behind Reform either believe Brexit didn’t happen or that under a Reform government Brexiteers will get to finish the job, the reality is that everything that drove the EU project that Farage’s UKIP and Brexit Party so vocally championed against, also had globalism and the centralised global political model at its heart.
Once it becomes clear that a UK version of the Trumpian DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) has no basis within the realities that underpin how our current dysfunctional public sector works, there may well be a moment when those Reformers with elected roles, who are taking their responsibilities to local electors seriously, will realise that there are many things that can still be done. Whilst there are many others that simply cannot.
At some point, the rather large penny must drop, that there is a very careful and considered game to be played that without otherwise torching the entire system and structure of government delivery and bringing it all to a halt, will require the buy-in of key Government officers, nonetheless.
To those watching closely, Farage has already shown his hand.
Whilst it might not be prudent to visit the bookies and begin trying to get odds just yet, as far as the next General Election goes, whenever that actually will be, the perfect storm that has engulfed British politics may well deliver a Reform win.
But it will be the U.K. and our people, rather than whatever is left of the political opposition, that will lose in that Election if Reform have ‘won’ under their current modus operandi and plans.
A Zero-Sum Game?
A rather interesting perspective of the seemingly unassailable position that Reform now has, is that as far as the future goes for the Tories, they currently face a zero-sum game. One that applies whether they capitulate to Reform or carry on as they have done before. As they clearly are continuing to do so, now.
Yes, there remains truth in the suggestion that Reform might never govern without the cooperation or collaboration of today’s Tories in some way.
However, Farage is unlikely to ever accept anything less than remaining in control. And as head of any collaboration and apparent PM in waiting, the real difficulties will begin for us all just as soon as the leadership has a lucid post-victory moment. Probably not unlike like Starmer et al did on the 5th of July last year, when those who had arrived in No.10 realised that unless they were big enough to risk precipitating an immediate collapse of the entire system, pretty much everything would still need to go on as before, and that even though they were in government, they themselves would be required simply to do as they are told.
Picture it now; a coalition that includes what is left of the Conservative Party, all subservient to a government of the kind that will almost certainly be filled with very angry activists. Ideologues who will have been promised much from outside of power, who took it all at face value; all without any of the understanding of how government really works. People who will quickly be looking for someone else to blame.
Now may be the Tories only available Watershed Moment
To say that the choice the Tories have sits between change immediately or die, might sound extreme. But it is a genuine reflection on where the future of this once revered political machine now lies.
The way the Tories would now out reform Reform, would be to reject and distance themselves from the establishment, globalist and accepted positions on just about everything. And not just say, but put everything about the UK and our people, first.
The choice to change cannot mean anything other than putting people and our communities back at the very heart of everything they do.
The Conservatives must return to the basic principles of conservatism and remember what it is to lead and deliver for others, selflessly, and with the key motivation to conserve.
The caveat would be that the Conservatives will also be required to restore and return a model of U.K. governance and related infrastructure to us that can recapture the sense of cultural belonging and shared feeling that our system is fair, balanced and just.
The point being missed across all of British politics today, is that by engaging the public correctly and re enfranchising people and communities appropriately and restoring real trust, people would quickly focus on a very different model of political engagement.
They would not need the myths, false promises and clever narratives to explain away the pain that disenfranchisement has caused for so many before.
Can the Tories actually change, rather than just talk it up?
Whilst being able to stand up and say ‘We have for too long got this all wrong’ is a very important part of getting any credibility back, it will be the actions of Today’s Conservative Party that count.
The rump of what’s left of the Conservative Party must stop pretending that with the level of uncertainty in the world as we have now, they actually have 4 years to try out and give wasted chances to new leaders who still believe that all the Tories need do to remain relevant, is wait until the political merry-go-round does its thing and it’s ‘their turn’ to return to power, once again.
No politician who is a genuine public servant has time to waste. And as it would be correct to say to any would-be political leaders who are ready and willing to do the right thing by the people who put them there, the time to change and begin working as they always should have, is now.
This booklet runs through the key changes to the way society functions that would make everything work much better for everyone and create a happy, healthy, safe and secure environment for us all.
Our Local Future is here because I’m fed up of listening to everyone who knows this or knows that, wasting valuable time arguing that only they know the next steps we should take.
People who should really know better are focused only on the journey and who controls it. Instead of considering the destination and what the outcomes will be that solve all our problems and create a world and culture where Balance, Fairness and Justice can be experienced by all.
Meanwhile, the constant debates over who or what is to blame; whether problems like climate change and the need for Foodbanks are real; or who is right vs who is wrong are just making everything that’s already wrong exponentially worse.
More often than not, these ‘blockers’ who let their egos get in the way, are the very same people who hear a new idea or proposal and immediately say ‘It won’t work’. Usually, because they only want change for everyone else, IF they can be certain that they will gain in some way, or at the very least don’t believe that they could lose.
Change is no longer a choice. It’s happening around all of us right now. And the difficulties we face are going to get worse before there’s any chance that things will get better.
The unspoken truth or secret ingredient that we all have to accept is that by embracing change that will help to make sure everyone has the best experience of life that they can, we will all end up with a system of governance and way of life that works in every good way that we could possibly wish for ourselves too.
We accept that Today’s World is dysfunctional and broken. But we refuse to discuss, consider or collaborate on solutions and new direction other than what we already identify with or believe we somehow own.
So how about looking at a snapshot of what a world that genuinely works for everyone might look like. With the Moneyocracy that we are all addicted to gone and an entire system built around Authentic Governance fully functioning and operating in its place?
The problems that the World is experiencing today need no further introduction.
The chances are that if you are here, you are already experiencing the problems that People power and influence are creating for you directly. Or you can see and feel how they are affecting others without the ability to change things in some way.
Our Local Future jumps ahead and takes the reader to the key structures, learning and understanding of a society of Tomorrow that has left everything that is wrong with Today’s way of living behind.
Our Local Future demonstrates what overarching Public Policy could resemble, IF We can ever come to accept that Life will be better for Everyone, once we can step aside from everything that we believe to be benefitting us today, but is in fact doing nothing but harming us, whilst offering no benefit to Humanity or The World at all.
From the Old World, which you may recognise as your today, we learned that The Elites were happy to destroy humanity.
The lives and the wellbeing of other humans were overlooked, so that the ‘few’ could maintain their position and an obsession with what they believed to be an indefinite flow of increasing profit and material gain. All considered obtainable without cost of any kind to themselves.
Money, material wealth and the influence and power that came with it were considered of more value than anything with true or real value, such as People, Community and The Environment.
Events and circumstances were created by The Elites and those controlling governments to enable profiteering, wealth creation and increased control over everything.
This wasn’t a conspiracy. It was the natural pathway of greed, an obsession with material wealth and the ignorance it fosters.
The circumstances that were deliberately engineered included wars, an environmental crisis and many other information-led events.
These events were justified by manufactured excuses and developed as narratives and a reliance upon the role of mass media to build stories that were accepted by the masses.
Yet these narratives were at best no more than partial truths with the wider and objective truths deliberately left absent, so that the real truth was almost always obscured or hidden from the view of the majority.
Whilst presented as being in the best interests of humanity with many goals, aims and agendas that sounded very plausible, many of these narratives and created stories promoted progress as the only option.
The narratives overlooked the certain reality the answers to mankind’s problems had already been demonstrated, tested and proven, and existed within historical working knowledge and understanding of the way that humanity works and nature functions wherever we might be around the World.
A healthy and motivated respect for People, Community and The Environment is notfinancially profitable for those who place material wealth, power, influence and everything that goes with it before anything else.
This basic but unassailable truth forms the basis of the blight that had for too long troubled and caused disharmony and unfairness for all humankind.
If you really want to get into the realms of understanding the flaw that has created so many of the problems that we have, why it has become near impossible to fix them, and why too many of us seem to let the problems of others pass us by – even though we would hope for better from others if we were to experience the same; It is because we always want more.
More money, more wealth, more power, more influence, more acknowledgement, more of the things we like, more popularity, more time to do what we want, more people to agree with us, more love, more sex, more deference.
It doesn’t matter what it is outside of us. We all want more of it.
Even when we’ve got more of it than we could ever need or even hope to use.
We have learned from the Old World that by living lives prioritising what we want as if it’s what we need, simply because what we want appears affordable in monetary terms, we condemn many others to being unable to afford what they need, with the outcomes that many experience want, in whatever form it may come.
Whilst the process, impact and consequences were hidden from view for so many, Wealth Inequality and what was known as The Wealth Divide was created from little more than the selfishness and greed of the few, which was supported and encouraged by all those who aspired to be like them.
We recognise that ignorance, blindness and the absence of awareness of the impact of our actions upon others does not and will not excuse those actions.
We therefore place our Self Awareness, Self Awareness of the Person and therefore Awareness of Others as key to maintaining a fully egalitarian model of society within our Principles of People, Community and The Environment.
Within the Old-World System and Money Based Order, the needs of Businesses and Shareholders were considered more important than any kind of human, community based or environmentally focused need.
Business, commercial activity and profit were therefore prioritised before anything else.
Driven by the accumulation of wealth, profiteering and the greed of The Few and those who aspired to be like them, words like ‘growth’ and terms like ‘GDP’ were presented as key measures for solving social problems and reducing reliance on government support such as welfare and benefits.
This manufactured narrative supported the concept or economic ideology of Neoliberalism which was embraced by the West around 1971.
Neoliberalism in led to Globalisation and the cultural acceptance that business and finance was and always would be more important than most people.
We have rejected this approach to business, economics and finance as a model for a fully functioning society.
The relationships between people of all kinds now thrive on the foundation of Putting People First before all things as part of the Three Principles of People, Community and The Environment.
NO business has needs which supersede the needs of The Community.
Any type of business or organisation that is essential to the safety and security of all Members of The Community is run and maintained as a Social Business with The Community as the only Shareholder.
The Old World taught us that Progress and Progressivism are one dimensional.
Whilst guarded by those who championed it, the failure to accept that progress can as easily mean appearing to take a backwards step or that progress can be as multidirectional as moving in the directions of three hundred and sixty degrees, obsessive leadership and activists failed to appreciate the damage they inflicted across every part of life.
Their error was to depend upon the misplaced belief that discarding history and experience by constantly pushing forward and calling it progress, often meant going backwards in the sense of how outcomes and experiences for others are formed.
We do not see failure in anything.
We acknowledge and appreciate the benefit of experience.
We know that returning to what has been shown to work – no matter how simple, is much better than believing that change and progress can only be achieved by rejecting the old and by embracing further specialization and the new.
We celebrate the tried and tested, and do not pursue change, just so that the process of change can provide evidence of action or ‘progress’.
One of the hardest and most difficult lessons to accept from The Old World was why the way money worked, the financial system and all of the devices, rules, laws and processes that had been created, changed and developed to allow it to function in the way that it did.
We learned that the Money and Financial system (known as FIAT) was the keystone or foundation of what to those who controlled it was nothing more than a game.
Games have no real consequences for those who understand that they are just a game.
What made the Money and Financial system that The Old-World Elites and the Few had championed so dangerous and so very damaging for the majority of people, wasn’t that those in charge knew it was all a game.
The real problem for Humanity and the World itself was that like most computer games that you will know of, this Monetary and Financial system also had a cheat code built into it.
When this cheat code was used, in the form of creating money out of thin air – as it was increasingly as time went on, the cost of that cheating – as in any simulated game – was massive and disproportionately damaging for all the people who still believed that this heavily manipulated system was real.
At the end of the Old World, those in control and benefitting from the system could buy whatever they wanted, whilst the buying power of the money those who were poorer possessed evaporated and those in control and ‘gaming the system’ just printed more and more.
We do not accept that money or any form of currency has anything other than a practical function.
We prohibit any form of communication, action or activity that has the potential to create, maintain or promote the idea or belief that money is anything or can be anything other than a system of exchange, a tool of exchange or a temporary method of transferring or exchanging value between transactions.
The Old World was obsessed with identifying what was ‘normal’.
It was increasingly believed that control of any narrative of what was ‘accepted’ as ‘normal’ could then be used as a weapon to make others ‘wrong’.
Normality or what is normal isn’t the ‘accepted same’ that many within and abusing others using the Old-World system thought.
Normal or ‘Normality’ is the experience of being within the state of Personal Sovereignty for the Person or Being, accepting that peace and happiness is something that is only within the power and gift of that Person, alone.
Every so-called democracy within the Old World failed because of the overuse and reliance upon hierarchies.
Hierarchies created the distance that came to exist between those who governed and the governed.
We learned that the distance created by hierarchies and the absence of contact between public representatives and the people they represent served only to create insulation from reality and real life for leaders.
We also learned that as this distance and insulation increased, there was also a collective failure to realise and understand that such distance creates dysfunctionality across any form of legislation or within any of the systems or services that serve the Public. As they were led by leaders who had effectively disenfranchised themselves from a population that increasingly felt left behind and ignored.
We learned that the point of power within a system of Authentic Governance is the People themselves.
We created and maintain a system of Authentic Governance that reflects this understanding.
Authentic Governance prevents the systematic abuse which was so prevalent within the Old-World systems of government.
The Majority rule by ruling together as a majority, within a system run by and for The Community, in the most localised and democratic form.
The Old World taught us that no matter the level or reach of the power and influence that its system conferred, even the smallest taste of it would be intoxicating enough to make those with responsibility for others lose any sense of genuine humanity.
Self-interest and the related diminishing awareness of others corrupted them to believe that what was in their best interests and what would be in the best interests of others were one and the same or exactly the same thing.
It didn’t matter whether it was related to politics and politicians, business, finance or any of the supranational organisations and bodies that appeared in from the Second World War era and into the early part of the 21st century too.
‘Leaders’ lost sight of what having responsibility and influence over the lives of others really meant.
Those governing and with influence over those who governed lost sight of their responsibility to the public and the vulnerable, and what it necessarily demanded of them.
They behaved as if the decisions they made could be made and actioned without fear of consequences – even when it became clearer and clearer that the ills facing all societies were the long-term consequences of every self-serving decision that they had ever made.
We have created a system of Authentic Governance that removes the ability of any Person to put their own interests or those of a particular group first, before those of The Community itself. Thereby keeping the entire system Authentic and true to everyone, whether they have power, position or influence of any kind, at any level or not.
The one true religion of the West and therefore by default, the entire Old World was Money and the accumulation of wealth, power and influence that were inextricably linked to it.
Many still disagree with the suggestion that every part of life was coin operated.
But it doesn’t take many moments of objective thought to understand and appreciate that money was the driver of everything; that money was the basis of our entire value system, and that as such, we have all been citizens or constituent parts of a Moneyocracy.
Arguably the greatest and most destructive force for any society is the misplaced and deliberately engineered belief that money creation, profit and economic growth are the key measures upon which success and happiness of the population can be measured.
What we now recognise as The Old World and its ‘System’ revolved using flawed, self-serving economic ideas such as MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) and Neoliberalism as their core for over 50 years.
More wants more isn’t just a saying. More of everything became the aim behind every driver in life and spread like a disease amongst us all.
The adoption of the FIAT money system and devices such as GDP as a measuring tool, all within the period around 1971 heralded the acceleration of every problem that a money based order or ‘moneyocracy’ creates at the social level.
Over time, the entire world was reset to function on the basis that money was the only priority and therefore the only basis of real value – often without people realising or being aware that was how every part of life had become governed.
This anomaly was only possible because of the beliefs that were created about money and the value system that surrounded it, at the inevitable cost of true and meaningful values which have People, Community and Environment at their core.
Every ongoing and apparently unsolvable problem within society in the Old World was created by the obsession and addictions surrounding money and wealth accumulation, with the flow of every part of business, legislation and thought process eventually bending to this pathway and the one directional flow of money towards those who already have much.
The workings of the Old-World system were reversed with governance switched from Top-Down to Grassroots-up.
The direction of all business has been switched from wealth creation to the prioritisation of People, Community and The Environment.
This switch was necessary as the pathways of Money and People, Community and The Environment are mutually exclusive systems or ways of living, with only the System adopted in Our Local Future able to provide Balance, Fairness and Justice for everyone.
In the Old World, AI was at first introduced over a period of years up to 2023 in forms based primarily on the use of Algorithms that left users without any awareness of their presence, other than the speed of responses within e-business and search engine use.
With openly direct and interactive forms of AI being introduced to public use from 2023, the true depth and direction of commercial use became transparent. As did the misuse of related narratives to spread fear amongst those using digital technology.
The failure of the governing classes to regulate the use and application of AI came at cost to Society which reached well beyond the financial.
The key drivers of AI misuse were as follows:
AI was rolled out to support the survival and aims of The Old World moneyocracy.
AI was used primarily as a profit generation tool
AI was secondarily used as a social control tool
The primary method of progressive social control in the Old World was the deprogramming of wider humanity using internet and AI based technology.
The processes used, both intended and symptomatic, removed or blocked usual cognitive processes and the ability of humans to learn, analyse and conclude independently in the course of a generation.
This attack on executive function and therefore Personal Sovereignty began with the arrival of smartphones and tablets and not in early 2023 as the narrative was widely accepted to make everyone believe.
Unregulated AI is recognised as being anti-human, anti-equality, anti-environment and anti-freedom. It is therefore considered a threat to People, Community and The Environment.
We recognise that the benefits of AI are only available to mankind under strictly controlled conditions, supported by Key Skills for Life training that is provided on an ongoing basis.
We reject any form of public policy based on fear or design which is focused on wealth accumulation for any specific person or group.
The implementation and maintenance of Sustainable Living Practices has addressed all ‘green’ issues that were being misused and politically manipulated in The Old World.
The elites and governing classes of the Old World engineered the centralisation and gradual destruction of genuine local food production, local food chains and the infrastructure to support it.
Globalisation went one-way in every direction, using devices such as The European Union and The Common Agricultural Policy, whilst leaving a hollowed-out core across society where happy and healthy live built around People, Community and The Environment had been.
Productionism was considered to be good. Because the narratives told Farmers and Food Producers so.
Yet it supported the massive rise of consumerism which opened the door to all the myths and narratives then created to suggest that globalism was good for everyone. Sadly, the only part of the Globalisation story that was required to make sense was the suggestion of the lowering of retail cost.
Unfortunately for those of us directly effected, lower prices made little sense when businesses, jobs and communities were lost and people began being unable to afford what consumerism offered them to buy. But the real-life cost was something that the majority of us would never normally be encouraged to see.
Productionism, in all forms of food production, focused on the use of chemicals and processes that over time destroyed functional capacity and soil health of significant areas of land.
As genuine land and soil productivity levels lowered, this allowed the elites the opportunity to create new narratives suggesting that traditional forms of agriculture were out of date and no longer required.
Worse, the ‘accepted view’ gave the impression that the production of naturally grown foods, grown and produced by independent farmers, small businesses and community enterprises could no longer be relied upon to meet the public need.
The prioritisation of greed, profiteering and control was the true driver of every narrative that was created to undermine healthy and sustainable food production and harvesting.
The greatest travesty of the whole story of centralisation, globalisation and productionism in the food chain was that every step of this ‘progress’ made the foods that people ate less and less healthy, and less beneficial in every way conceivable to society as a result.
We recognise that our Food Security is built upon the workings of an entire food chain which functions as an ecosystem within itself.
Our Food Chain is predominantly localised with the majority of Basic and Essential Foods available from local supply chains year-round.
Our Local Future and New System functions with a people-centric approach to all areas of life, including Our Values, Lifestyle, Business & Economy and Governance.
Our Three Key Principles are:
People
Community
The Environment
The Person and their Personal Sovereignty and how we value each other Person and their Personal Sovereignty is at the heart of everything.
We recognise that it is only through the systems and workings of a people-centric Community, operating as a fully functioning ecosystem with its relationship with The Environment considered to be a critical part, that a truly Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure platform for life can exist.
A System that provides and maintains a framework of Authentic Governance that is Balanced, Fair and Just for All.
Locality and a fully Localised or Locally-centric Systems are recognised as A Public Good.
Local supply chains promote and allow transparency.
Transparency is the only effective way to encourage and solidify trust and accountability.
Trust and accountability are essential in building a system of Authentic Governance which focuses on People, Community and The Environment.
The circular functions of a fully Localised System operate and are maintained reliably based on the Principles of People, Community and The Environment in all things to deliver what is in the best interests of all.
The Public Good is the Standard or Benchmark set for our system of Authentic Governance.
We have different Public Goods that cover parts of life where access and availability to Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services must be assured.
Each Public Good contributes to the existence of a Framework upon which our System of Authentic Governance is able to function at its best.
Every Public Good recognises the role and contribution of any person, business, organisation and their respective action, agendas, activities, use of resources, ownership and use of property for their positive impact and consequence in benefitting The Community.
A Public Good functions to maintain the existing level of achievement of Our Three Principles of People, Community and The Environment or to develop or enhance them further.
A Public Good may not be changed, misrepresented, ignored or bypassed for any reason.
A Public Good has superseded all regulations, laws and practices of The Old World which relate to or have any relevance to it.
A Public Good is a practice required by The Community.
These are The Public Goods of Our Local Future:
All forms of Agriculture, Fisheries and Home Growing which are exercised to provide for the priorities of People, Community and The Environment are considered A Public Good.
The Authentic Governance System (TAGS) is A Public Good.
Basic Essentials for Life are A Public Good
The Basic Living Standard is A Public Good.
Essential or Basic Foods are critical for a Healthy, Happy, Safe and Secure life and are considered to be A Public Good.
Housing and the provision of housing for all is A Public Good.
Key Skills for Life are A Public Good.
The Local Food Chain is A Public Good
Locality is A Public Good
The provision of any service provided using Natural Resources is considered to be A Public Good
The provision of News and Community Information is A Public Good.
Social Learning is A Public Good.
Sustainable Living is A Public Good.
Transport for the purpose of meeting need and therefore necessity is considered to be A Public Good.
The Community expects that every Member of The Community will live the best life that they can, based upon the experience, enjoyment and benefits of Personal Sovereignty.
The conditions which enable Personal Sovereignty require that each Person experience a happy, healthy, safe and secure life, within a Balanced, Fair and Just System.
We recognise that it would be incorrect for the Community to hold such expectations of any Member of The Community, without The Community itself taking every step necessary to ensure that every person is fully equipped to exercise the full freedom of Personal Sovereignty.
The Community is therefore obliged to ensure that the Governance, Frameworks and Systems that make the existence of Personal Sovereignty possible are continuously maintained, in order that the very same opportunities and therefore the very same expectation can be directed at everyone alive today as well as those who will follow us in the generations yet to come.
People, Community and The Environment are Our ThreePrinciples, which are Our Priorities.
Together, as a Community we promote, encourage, maintain and ensure Personal Sovereignty for all People.
We prioritise what we need. Not what we want.
We recognise Money and Currency as a tool and nothing more.
To achieve Our Priorities, we have, maintain and seek to improve a System of Authentic Governance that is built and functions around a Local, Circular Economy, which involves Everyone.
Making decisions on behalf of, for the benefit of and in the best interests of the majority are not easy for anyone.
Many of the decisions and choices made by politicians and those with responsibility and influence in the Old World fell into a trap of their own making, which was to believe that they could dictate a whole series of decisions relating to public policy.
A decision made today would be taken on the basis of anticipating the outcome and consequences of its impact, when nobody has either the control over the circumstances of following decisions in the future, nor how the free will of others and the unfolding of events would take place, that are outside of Everyone’s control.
Making Policy this way is akin to lying and is certainly dishonest in every way. And the situation and consequences for us all were often made much worse by the lies, cover-ups and narratives that were then created to cover up the outcomes of poor decision making when it inevitably all went wrong.
We make fully informed decisions in the moment. In the here and now. Based upon everything we can be sure of at that moment in time and what the impacts and consequences will be for People, Community and The Environment, in addition to any existing Policies that the decision will affect.
This is a key tenet of Authentic Governance.
This is encouraged throughout society as a healthy and productive way to approach our lives and one that promotes and furthers our Personal Sovereignty.
Genuine, unrestricted Freedom is attained through Personal Sovereignty.
Each Person is Free to Think.
Each Person is free to act and behave as they wish. Unless their actions or behaviour compromise or have the ability to compromise the Personal Sovereignty of any other Person or Group of People.
Any action or behaviour which advantages one person or a group of people through the creation of disadvantage to another Person or group is considered to be morally and ethically incorrect.
The creation, existence, maintenance or modification of any law, legal device or regulation which may be used to suggest or disadvantage any Person or group is also considered to be morally and ethically incorrect.
What is right and correct for all People, following the Principles of People, Community and The Environment, irrespective of anything which may differentiate them from others, is the foundation upon which Our Local Future operates and is maintained.
Personal Sovereignty underpins the true meaning and benefit of The Community and Members of The Community coming together in recognition of Our Common Cause and The Public Good.
The Freedom to be, to exist, to choose and to act may not be compromised by any person or organisation. Unless the action of The Person or Individual has or is likely to compromise that same right to Freedom of any other person or organisation.
The point of value for every person is their soul, mind or spirit. The core essence of the Being which cannot be seen nor discerned in any way that differentiates one person or being from another.
The point of value is universal and considered equal for every Person or Being. Regardless of any discernable or perceivable difference.
Thought is the basic and essential function of the undifferentiated Person or Being.
Thought represents the one true Freedom.
No person may be punished for their thinking, nor the reflection of that thinking when shared openly in public forum and without intent to harm or compromise the Freedom to be, to exist, to choose and to act of any other Person or group.
The state of Personal Sovereignty may only be supported by parents during infancy, childhood and youth. Or when a person is incapacitated for any reason. Or during a period of incarceration, when it is accepted that the Right to Freedom beyond thought has been compromised by those actions which have compromised the rights of others and The Community.
The purpose of all work, employment, business, industry and The Community itself is to support, sustain, improve and maintain happy, healthy lives for Everyone as we all contribute to prioritising People, Community and The Environment.
Work and employment are only considered to be a part of a happy, healthy, safe and secure life for all Members of The Community.
Work and employment are NOT the purpose of Life.
Work and employment are a key part of supporting Life.
The Community recognises and celebrates the role, contribution and importance of all working roles and types of employment.
The only kind of deference given to a Person within the context of any trade or profession is that as recognised by the remuneration structures set within.
The contribution of the individual is recognised in relation to the impact of that contribution and its related benefit to The Community and no more.
We accept and live on the basis that we can only trust those who we know, see, meet and are freely able to interact with in daily life.
Whilst we recognise the value of digital devices as tools to enhance and support life, we reject their use as platforms of influence.
The Community recognises that Locality and Local Living offer the best environment for healthy, reliable and trustworthy interaction and as sources of information,
Our Society functions successfully by recognising that being able to trust those who have the power of influence over others is key to everything across The Community.
We therefore reject any form of ‘remote’ guidance and have developed a System of Authentic Governance which ensures that every decision that made by others than can influence our lives and the Basic and Essential requirements to live in a Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure Way are taken by People we can access and know that we can trust.
As a culture, we do not encourage the transfer of wealth between families, unless the transfer of a business or property will be of benefit to The Public Good.
Our System of Authentic Governance, prioritising People, Community and The Environment provides the surety that Members of The Community can sustain themselves independently in every way.
The greatest inheritance is the provision of learning, the sharing of experience and the freedom that any person or being can attain from their ability to think freely and be fully aware of and open to their Personal Sovereignty.
The climate has changed, is changing and will continue to change, no matter whether humans impact the process or not.
We understand and accept that the greatest threat to The Planet and therefore to People, Community and The Environment was moneyocracy and humankind’s material wealth-based obsession with the unnecessary use of non-replaceable natural resources to meet created want, rather than simply meeting genuine needs.
Every Member of The Community practices Sustainable Living.
Sustainable Living is A Public Good.
Every system that we use, create or maintain exists to support and further the best interests of humanity, through the Principles of People, Community and The Environment.
Sustainable Living requires that we use natural resources sparingly, and only in circumstances where alternative sources or resources of energy or raw materials cannot be obtained.
Every form of private business, social business and activity that can be completed by Members of The Community is carried out locally within The Parish area.
We only grow, use and share what we need.
We do not encourage luxury consumerism or living.
Practices such as Planned Obsolescence are prohibited.
The unnecessary use of resources to enable, facilitate and promote working practices such as the transfer of employment, manufacturing processes or growing food, where such practices are carried out as a choice only for the benefit of private interest is prohibited.
We encourage manufacturing using naturally sustainable resources.
We Recycle, Reuse, Repair as a cultural norm and consider it to be A Key Skill for Life.
We Prioritise Basic Essentials across all Goods and Services.
Our Principles of People, Community and The Environment; Our culture built around Authentic Governance and the System that supports have all been developed to provide and promote a genuinely People centric way of life.
Whilst the way life works in Our Local Future keeps environmentally negative influences to the minimum for all Members of The Community, there will always be those who feel unable to participate in life and living in ways that might be called ‘normal’, or within the framework of expectation that we have.
The community recognises the value of each person or being at the undifferentiated level, which surpasses and extends beyond the material.
We do not aim nor try to ‘fix’ any person who cannot take part in societal structures in a normal way, unless their actions are either a direct threat to or have already harmed Members of The Community.
Homelessness is NOT a crime and is not treated as such.
We accept that homelessness can be the direct consequence of a life choice, as well as being perhaps the most challenging outcome that can arise for anyone experiencing difficulties in life that most would hope to avoid.
Our only requirement of anyone who is homeless at any time, is that they respect and do not bring harm to the Personal Sovereignty of others and act with respect, care and consideration towards Community Infrastructure and the services provided to them through Community Provision.
Businesses are encouraged to provide opportunities for people seeking a new start who do not wish to be defined by previous occupations, the qualifications that that they already hold or because they have exercised The Right to be Forgotten.
Each Community provides Homelessness services either directly or collaboratively with adjacent Parishes and often provide ‘Homeless Pods’.
The key approach of Communities to Homelessness is to assume nothing. Expect nothing beyond a respect for People, Community and The Environment, and to see any form of voluntary participation in what The Community can offer as a bonus.
What many have long failed to appreciate is that religions and belief systems have always been used and abused by the world’s elites and their equivalents as a tool of social control.
Religions and manipulative belief systems use fear of the things we do not know or understand to adjust, modify and subjugate our behaviour. All the time using the unwritten understanding that those at the top of any specific hierarchy are ‘special’ or that they have a ‘special relationship’ with whatever lies beyond life, and that they and only they have access to the real truth of whatever is or might be going on.
As the world has changed and the control of the information that informs people in a way that allows Everyone to think for themselves, religions and belief systems that do not encourage freedom of thought have either collapsed or have had to resort to ever desperate forms of spreading fear and the need for societal control in order to survive and to be seen to thrive.
Money or the Moneyocracy of the Old World was a religion or belief system just the same.
A rich mixture of learning for the masses, the failure of their own bogus systems, and the damage many of these systems of control were doing to humanity, the environment and the world, brought into question their existence and ability to continue in power in every form.
As the systems within these systems lost their control or relevance, ever more desperate measures were employed to attempt to control people, primarily through their behaviour, ultimately with the aim of destroying the freedom of thought.
Freedom of thought has always been the greatest risk to those who can only lead and succeed when they believe they are in control.
The One True Freedom of this world and the experience we know as life, is Freedom of Thought.
Freedom of thought is the ability for all of us to make the decisions, choose the choices and take the actions that will ultimately make sense of why each and every one of us is here and experiencing the lives that we have on the planet.
The elites and governing classes of the Old World failed to respect this and created the circumstances where increasing numbers of people around the planet simply had no way of being able to learn the rich tapestry of lessons that any and every life has the power to teach everyone, in relative to that life and its circumstances forms.
It is accepted that each person or being has their own direct, exclusive relationship with God, a Higher Being, Source or Spirit.
Any deviation from this relationship is a matter of choice for that Person or being that
NO other Person, Group or Member of The Community holds the right to question or influence, beyond the acceptable framework of parental care.
There is no Community or State Religion.
We maintain, champion and defend a secular Community culture.
Our Community culture can be defined as being aligned with Christian Values.
No Religion or Religious Practice may disrupt, influence or dictate matters within the Public Realm.
We do not accept that any Religion that uses fear, control of any kind, or that seeks to subjugate any person or being to achieve its aims is ‘peaceful’.
Personal Sovereignty is considered supreme to all systems of belief and nothing can supersede this.
Any form of submissive behaviour of any person to any Religion or Religious Practice is an infringement of Personal Sovereignty. Unless the individual’s participation is a clear and definable voluntary choice.
No form of permanent contract or arrangement exists where any Religion or Religious Practice may maintain or retain any form of hold upon any person involuntarily and ends immediately.
No Religion-based law, regulation or obligation may supersede the Community Governance Framework
Spiritual and Religious direction is a Personal Choice for every Member of The Community and is respected as a matter of Personal Sovereignty.
We encourage everyone to explore their own pathway or journey to belief through understanding and achieving Self-Awareness which is A Key Skill for Life and is supported by Critical Thinking, also taught as A Key Skill for Life.
We accept value in all pathways in the sense that a Personal Belief System and the place of Personal Sovereignty within our System of Authentic Governance are not mutually exclusive and compliment each other when respected as such.
As religion and belief systems have been misused as a tool of control throughout their existence, any ‘spiritual pathway’, or belief system that encourages independence of thought and understanding has often been actively blocked, through removal from records, scripture and doctrines, with punishment for continued participation ranging from ridicule to the most severe we can imagine.
Spiritual sciences or practices have often been misinterpreted as being purely tools of divination, prophecy or ‘fortune telling’, and this interpretation has not been helped by many proponents and speakers having chosen to prey on the vulnerable by abusing their understanding and knowledge, or the ‘skills’ they may have used.
It is by exploring belief that we improve our understanding of others and develop the dynamics of relationships which are most beneficial to us and to The Community as a whole.
We accept the use of narratives and storytelling only as metaphor or in the allegorical sense where they can be used to encourage and promote understanding.
We do not use narratives to create, manipulate, misdirect or replace understanding.
Each Member of The Community who has open access to news and the supply of information at any level is considered able to conclude and determine for themselves and able to discern appropriately.
We do not hide the truth with alternative truths at any time.
Essential or Basic Foods are Critical for a healthy and happy life and are considered to be A Public Good.
Accessible
Affordable
Nutritious
Grown and produced locally
Grown, processed, transported and supplied as locally as possible
Grown and produced using natural processes
Grown and produced using sustainable, traditional, regenerative, rotational and mixed farming methods without insecticides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers
Are subject to nothing more than ‘traditional’ or ‘by hand’ processing measures
Do not contain additives, manufactured preservatives, flavourings or enhancements of any kind
The most discernable characteristic of Essential or Basic Foods is that they typically resemble their original (harvested) form on the plate, or that form in which they exist after ‘traditional’ or ‘by hand’ processing.
ALL homes are required to have adequate food preparation, storage and cooking facilities.
The safe handling, preparation and cooking of Essential and Basic Foods is a Key Skill for Life and is taught as such.
It is considered to be the responsibility of the whole Community to ensure that every Member of The Community has ready and ongoing access to adequate supplies of Basic and Essential foods available to meet their needs.
Luxury Foods include all foods which cannot be catagorised as being Basic or Essential.
Luxury Foods include processed foods, ultra processed foods (UPFs), synthesized foods and any foods which are not visibly identifiable with their origin or original form.
Luxury Foods cannot be considered as Basic or Essential on the basis of labelling, on description or advertising of any kind.
Luxury Foods are A Lifestyle Choice.
No Basic or Essential Foods nor ingredients made thereof, may be used for the production of Luxury Foods unless there is a surplus after all local provision and trade with other Parishes has been met.
The supply of Basic, Essential Foods is as important as the air that we breath and the water that we drink.
The unspoken truth that whoever controls the supply of food has the power to control everything that a society does was massively abused by the elites of The Old World.
A Local, Fully Transparent and Circular Food Chain ensures that control of Basic and Essential Foods is kept and maintained within the hands of people who we know, who can be trusted, and is treated as The Public Good that it is.
Within a system of Localised Economies and Authentic Governance, the Food Chain is at the heart of The Community.
Food is as essential as the air that we breathe and the water that we drink. Yet meeting this Essential Basic need for life is the only one that we all need to apply effort and planning to each and every day.
We cannot afford to trust or trade away that trust in any way. Because our ability to live, to be free and to have happy, healthy and productive lives depends on the quality of the food that we each put in our mouths.
All food is produced as locally as possible, with the shortest journey times and with the minimum amount of processing or preparation from harvest to the front doors of our homes.
Where possible, farmers and food producers sell to other Members of The Community direct, through their own shops or delivery rounds.
Groups of farmers and food producers often work together within local cooperatives, run as social businesses, which themselves provide shops and deliveries, whilst helping to make Basic and Essential Foods accessible without unnecessary additional cost.
Home growing is also an important part of the Local Food Chain and Members of The Community are able to make surplus food available to others through the Local Marketplace Exchange.
The priority use of technology in Food Production is Food Safety and Good Working Practices.
Keeping the Food Chain Local allows Members of The Community to be more involved in farming and food production and we do not encourage the use of large-scale machinery where this is not beneficial to the ecosystem which is The Universal Parish.
Transparency and therefore trust is an essential part of Local Food Production.
Everyone is encouraged to participate in Home Growing as a minimum and Food Production is considered to be a Key Skill for Life.
ALL food growers, producers, processors and suppliers are required to provide Essential and Basic Foods within their business model.
Food supply prioritises Essential and Basic Foods to The Community at all times.
‘Specialist’ Luxury Food suppliers do not exist.
Food Production is undertaken ‘commercially’ by Agricultural and Fisheries Businesses (Farms and Fishers) within the Parish area, and domestically or privately using the process of ‘home growing’ within each household.
All forms of Agriculture, Fisheries and Home Growing which are exercised to provide for the priorities of People, Community and The Environment are considered A Public Good.
Food Production is itself taught as A Key Skill for Life.
Food Advertising is only permitted to raise awareness of Businesses, Social Businesses and Community Providers that sell or provide Basic and Essential foods either in pre-cooked or ready to eat forms.
Basic and Essential Foods are A Public Good.
We do not accept profit-making for some as a valid excuse for compromising the health, nutrition and wellbeing of all.
Luxury and non-Essential Food Advertising is therefore prohibited.
We consider it responsible and a part of life to Recycle, Reuse, Repair.
We reject ‘throwaway’ culture as unnecessarily expensive and unsustainable and encourage maximum use of all clothing and related items.
Every Community has access to at least one Clothing Library, usually run as a Social Business, that offers access to clothing for special occasions, events and changes in circumstances that might require access to otherwise unaffordable items.
Clothing Repairis also considered to be a Key Skill for Life and is taught as such.
No person may hold, possess or own and form of property or wealth that will not be used for the purposes of meeting their own basic or essential needs, unless to provide for the operation of a business which contributes to meeting the Basic and Essential needs of The Community.
The Basic and Essential needs of any Person include the provision of Basic Essentials to family and dependents.
Smoking or vaping in any public place is prohibited.
Smoking or vaping in any place, location or position where any person can be involuntarily affected by smoke, vapour or fumes of any kind is also prohibited.
Smoking or vaping is not prohibited but is considered to be an antisocial activity.
Social Care are the functions of support provided by The Community, through Community Provision for the Person, where that Person’s ability to exercise their Personal Sovereignty fully has been compromised for any reason.
We consider social care to be a natural support process primarily provided by people and their families with secondary support provided within the umbrella of Community Provision.
Charity is Not only a financial transaction or donation.
We consider all charity work conducted to provide support to People, Community and The Environment to be Community Provision.
In Our Local Future, Charities of the kind widely known in the Old World only exist where a cause exists which does not contribute to The Public Good.
These charities run solely from donations and on volunteer time from outside Community Contributions and do not attract financial support from The Community.
Every Member of The Community contributes 10% or the equivalent of their working week to Community Contributions. (This is usually half a day a week)
Members of The Community may make additional contributions of time or money beyond this voluntarily.
Any not-for-profit organisation that sells goods or services of any kind is classified and operated as a Social Business.
It is accepted that The Community has both the obligation and responsibility to equip each and every member of the Community with the Key Skills for Life and Social Skills necessary for them to function independently and with independent thought to a level or standard where and appreciation of ethical and moral boundaries will be prioritised where either an impact or consequences may exist for others from any action they might take.
The aim is to provide the tools. But not the programme, nor the ‘software’.
We recognise that the most important lesson for all people is to learn about and to develop themselves in the most effective and appropriate ways possible.
Self-Awareness is the most important tool for every person to be equipped with, so that they are fully enabled to exercise their own Personal Sovereignty.
Being able to exercise Personal Sovereignty fully is recognised as the most beneficial education goal for the benefit of the community in all things.
We therefore prioritise the ongoing development of Key Skills for Life and Social Skills above all forms of academic and experiential or vocational training, which directly benefit as the result of this approach.
We recognise that everyone has different learning styles and that for children and young people, these can be broadly described as taught or academic, and practical or experiential.
Education is split between three Priority areas within Our Local Future.
The Community benefits by focusing academic learning at all levels on children and young people who are academically inclined and are able to fully apply themselves to this style of learning.
All levels of academic education are funded by The Community and no educational establishment may accept payments or sponsorship of any kind from commercial business or governments outside of our National Boundaries.
We do not expect everyone to participate in a full programme of academic learning, simply so that their progress can be measured.
The Community benefits from applying a broad based, practical and experiential approach to learning for children and young people who are practically orientated or unable to apply themselves within a style of learning that is predominantly abstract.
We have full 7-year apprenticeship programmes for experiential learners that begin at the age of 14 years.
Social Learning provides Members of The Community with all of the Key Skills for Life required to support their journey towards and to maintain Personal Sovereignty.
Social Learning is built around a guideline framework without a fixed detailed syllabus.
We actively encourage grandparents to create added value during periods caring for grandchildren when they can share their knowledge and experience directly.
Social Learning is otherwise provided by Members of The Community through Community Contributions.
Members of The Community who have experience of the areas of life that can be shared for the benefit of others and The Public Good are able to commit their Community Contribution time to teaching, coaching and mentoring Social Learning and may voluntarily give additional time.
Our system of Governance is based and built upon the basic principle that every decision made by The Community will always be the right one for every Member of The Community, based upon what is known to decision makers at the moment that decision is taken.
We run, operate and facilitate a democratic system based on the accepted principle that the most reliable and robust form of democracy is the most local and most accessible to the Members of The Community.
We operate a fully transparent system of democracy and governance.
Decision makers must not only be accessible to every Member of the Community; they must also be known to them too.
Members of The Community are actively involved in the selection and management of Politicians, who we recognise as Community Representatives.
The Authentic Governance System (TAGS) is A Public Good.
Each member of The Community is actively involved in the selection of candidates for election as Community Representatives to The Community Meeting.
With Political Parties and any agenda-led groups prohibited from involvement in Community Governance, each Community selects an election list which will be at least 120% of the number of Community Representative Seats at The Community Meeting.
The Community Meeting selects representatives for the District and Regional Meetings which then select representatives from their number for the National Meeting.
All Local decisions are made at Community Meeting Level, with District, Regional and National level decisions being differed where collective agreement has been reached that it is appropriate for them to be so.
The People we know, The Community in which we live and work and The Environment in which we live our lives are the core of our existence and are therefore all we can trust and rely upon.
The structural unit or universal ecosystem model in which our society operates is known as The Universal Parish or Uniparish.
The Universal Parish is named after what were previously known in the Old World as Parishes in the UK.
The former UK Parish represented the lowest or most localised tier of (Local) Government as part of the formally Top-Down, Hierarchical System of Government
Our society functions with The Universal Parish, Parish or Uniparish serving as the central or key structure of society, business, community and governance
Within our System of Authentic Governance, all structures of Governance, Community Provision (Public Services), business or other are considered subservient to The Community itself.
This is why only Social Business models may exist ‘across borders’ so that no interest other than that of The Community and collaboration between Communities may be prioritised.
The Universal Parish is as self-contained as it can be.
‘Business’ interaction between areas is limited to meeting Basic and Essential needs that cannot be met within the Uniparish itself.
We reject hierarchy as the basis of societal structure, whether in terms of civic governance or any other organisational method.
We believe that leadership can neither be guaranteed nor relied upon from any formal role or position, whether publicly or privately appointed.
We value experience and the accumulation of knowledge above job titles or platforms of any kind.
We have a level, egalitarian approach to the way all societal frameworks operate and encourage the use of natural leadership where respect for the ability of those able to lead as part of the community, rather than having any need to be recognisably elevated above other members of it is neither necessary nor required.
Whilst basic hierarchies are necessary in some circumstances, these are accepted as being rare and as such very much the exception rather than the rule.
Everything within our societal structure is decentralized.
Our System is built around Locality.
Locality is key to good lives, happy and healthy living and a system for life that works to prioritise People, Community and The Environment in every way that works in a fair, balanced and just way for all.
We all have a shared interest in the future of Humanity, the World and The Environment that provides for us all today, and which if cared for and respected, will be able to continue providing for Our Local Future and Everyone’s Tomorrow.
Collaboration and working together to deliver outcomes that serve the purposes of every Community from the Parish upwards does not require the surrender of political or decision-making power.
World affairs are a matter for all Members of The Community and are discussed as part of Community Meeting business.
We reject all objectives which serve to centralise power and control, or which are created to enable the accumulation of wealth or circumstances that will be more favourable to some communities or nation states over others.
What was previously known as The Public Sector is now known as Community Provision.
Community Provision exists to create and maintain the environment and services necessary to support a culture built around People, Community and The Environment by providing services which are our collective responsibility and meeting need beyond the resources and responsibility of our own basic and essential needs and supporting us with those at times in life where we may not be able to meet them on our own.
The number of Members of The Community employed in either full or part time positions within our system of Community Provision is maintained at a minimal level and restricted to the key roles that are deemed essential for purposes of continuity.
The majority of roles and working capacity are met through Community Contributions.
Community Provision reaches across the administrative and technical functions of Local Government, Health and Social Care provisions and what were also previously known as NGOs and Charities.
As Members of The Community, we all accept that we share responsibility for the upkeep, maintenance and furtherance of Community infrastructure, services and everything that we have access to or the services that we can use in the Public Realm during our lives.
It is therefore a requirement that every Member of the Community contributes actively to the upkeep, running and development of the infrastructure and services that together, we provide as A Community.
All working people are required to contribute the equivalent of 10% (TEN percent) of their working week or the equivalent thereof either directly to the provision of Local Public Services or Charity Provision.
This requirement of participation in the delivery of Public Services or Community Provision is known as Community Contributions.
Community Contributions provide the greater part of the public sector workforce and civic administration.
Community Contributions offer everyone the opportunity to experience roles that may help with career choices at any time of life, and everyone can request the opportunity to work within specific roles so that this experience can be gained.
Community Contributions roles are otherwise allocated on the basis of the skills and experience that each member of the community possesses so that the contribution made will be of the most benefit possible to the whole community.
Primary responsibility for ALL Public Policy is that of each Community Meeting or Uniparish Council.
Laws, Regulations, the Legislative Frameworks they sit within and every key decision that makes Our System of Authentic Governance work is generated at Community Level.
Decisions on Public Policy are therefore developed at Community Level and made at the Grassroots, with their impact and dissemination operating Grassroots-up, rather than Top-Down as previously in the Old World.
This System of Authentic Governance ensures that decisions are made and can only be made by Public Representatives and Decision Makers who fully understand the implications, impact and therefore the potential consequences of everything they do when representing other Members of The Community.
We do not impose any form of taxation upon productivity, effort or success which has contributed to The Public Good.
Taxation is placed upon luxury goods & services, property, standing wealth, unearned wealth accumulation, rental earnings and the benefit to the person, business or organisation from access to Community Assets, Infrastructure and Resources.
We implement a Flat Tax system.
The rate of Flat Tax is 10% (Ten Percent):
The Flat Tax is calculated from the value of existing assets and added to the value of luxury goods and services at point of sale.
The Community Meeting places a charge levy against the benefit from access to Community Assets, Infrastructure and Resources.
No form of Tax Reduction is allowed to be used as an incentive for any purpose
Work is a necessary part of a good, Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure life and a good life cannot exist without part of it being work.
The function of AI and Technology is to improve life; NOT replace it
The speed with which AI devices and technology operate led to the widely mis held belief in the Old World that AI had become fully sentient.
This false sentience was deliberately used as a tool of fear and manipulation, obscuring the truth that the capability of AI is based purely on its ability to process and draw upon massive volumes of information which are nothing more than records of the past.
All technology using AI, connection of any kind to the Internet, to the Cloud or to a third-party device, computer or remote source of any kind must have a dead man switch that can be operated locally and without remote intervention.
Where such systems provide services supporting the provision of Basic Essentials for People, The Community or The Environment, a fully functional parallel system that can operate without AI, without connection of any kind to the Internet, to the Cloud or to a third-party device, computer or remote source of any kind must be ready to seamlessly take over – ‘at the flick of a switch’, at all times.
Cost is not a valuable consideration and systems that do not rely upon digital technology must always be prioritised where the provision of Basic Essentials for Members of The Community are concerned.
The rejection of digital technology and preference for using human orientated systems and processes instead of installing or running both, is the only acceptable form of cost saving in business activities relating to the provision of Basic Essential Foods, Goods and Services.
The Right to be Forgotten is the opportunity that each Person has to ‘walk away’ from their existing life and have all records cleared, to be given a new name and identity, and to effectively have a ‘new start’.
To exercise The Right to be Forgotten means leaving everything behind and ‘start again’ in a new place, with no ties nor contact with anyone or anything from the person’s ‘past life’.
TheRight to be Forgotten is a significant step as it is viewed by The Community as an irreversible restart which is equivalent to the administration and processes that otherwise follow death, including the permanent surrender of all wealth and property, including academic qualifications.
Every Person has The Right to be Forgotten once during their Lifetime.
The total of active money whether physical coinage or in digital forms cannot be varied or influenced by any person or organisation other than The Community itself, either through The Community Meeting or through the Local Market Exchange.
The total value of active money and currency in circulation is directly proportional to the number of persons within The Community at any one time.
The total value of active money and currency in circulation is attributed directly to the ability of every person to contribute to the Local Circular Economic Model which exists within the Universal Parish system at any one time.
Different values are attributed to Members of The Community, as Levels of Economic Contribution.
They are as follows:
Children (Non-working age)
Young People in training
Adults
Adults (Non-working)
The value attributed to the presence of Members of The Community varies only:
Upon Entry or Exit from The Community (Birth, Death, moving in, moving out)
When the Level of Economic Contribution for a Member of The Community Changes
In Our Local Future we operate a predominantly Local Circular Economic Model.
The key elements of Our Local Circular Economic Model are:
Creating and maintaining a richly rewarding life experience for all Members of The Community by making everything important to a Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure Life available within the Local Area.
Maintaining a culture where Members of The Community understand and appreciate the value of everyone’s role
The System of Authentic Governance
Focusing on Transparency and Trust
Keeping control and decision making is in the hands of Public Representatives who we can all access and Trust.
Keeping access to the Basic Essential Goods and Services open and secure for all Members of The Community
Sourcing raw materials within the Parish area or as nearby as possible
Using the minimum amount of Transport as possible
Using the smallest number of input points within every part of the Supply Chain
Using Technology ONLY where it can improve working conditions and output
NOT using Technology to replace jobs or complete any task that a Member of The Community can carry out
Focusing on jobs and occupations as a tool for life; not as a reason for it
We accept that the true purpose of money and currency is a Medium of Exchange.
Within our System, it is also normal for Goods and Services to be directly traded for other Goods and Services in circumstances using Bartering, where the use of money or currency as a unit of exchange is not necessary, or would encourage the addition of unnecessary costs.
The concept of Fair Trade is quite literally that we all trade as fairly and considerately with each other as we can, ever mindful that our shared Priorities are People, Community and The Environment.
Each District or Parish area has its own Local Market Exchange.
Local Market Exchanges are functioning Marketplaces based at a location which is central to the District or Parish Area.
A Local Market Exchange provides a Marketplace Trading Floor which is available both on and offline.
Within a Local Market Exchange, the core aspects of trading are always conducted in person and no forms of trading software or AI are authorised for use.
Local Market Exchanges operate and act as a conversion system and trade money for goods/services, goods/services to goods/services and goods/services to money.
A system of minimum value is set and revised by The Community Meeting for all Basic and Essential Goods and Services.
Any form of trade intended to raise or lower the value of anything deemed Basic and Essential to Members of The Community or The Community itself are prohibited.
Anything that can be traded can be handled by a Local Exchange.
It is a requirement that All Basic and Essential Goods that are not retailed by local small businesses and services that have been Licensed by The Community Meeting are traded through the Local Market Exchange.
We practice Locality Economics within The Universal Parish Principle.
Each Parish or Area operates and functions as its own Local Circular Economy
The Universal Parish aims to produce and supply all Foods, Goods and Services which are Essential for all members of the Community to live independent and self sustainable lives.
Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services that cannot be provided within the community are imported from other Communities where those Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services are in excess, primarily in Exchange or in Trade for any excesses of our own.
Money or any form of financial transaction is only used within this system of intra-community exchange where Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services cannot be exchanged directly between Communities.
All communities are expected to run and maintain a neutral balance sheet.
Life IS Our Economic Model.
Economics and ‘The Economy’ are functions or side-effects of a way of living or ‘system’ that prioritises People, Community and The Environment.
The unwritten, deliberately engineered cultural priority of the Old World was for some to be able to earn whatever they wanted at cost to the meeting the basic needs of others.
The disparity caused by disproportionately excessive wealth for some could only be maintained by increasing the level of cost to all others.
The whole process, underpinned by greed, only worsened over time, with the gap widening between the haves and the have nots.
Disproportionate wealth and earnings lead to the accumulation of Goods and the control of Services that under the control of those who want them but do not need them, leads to the inevitable situation where want either swallows up that which is needed or makes it inaccessible to those who need it.
The legitimisation of greed which drives and furthers the balance previously known as Wealth Inequality is now considered morally and ethically incorrect.
It is considered essential to The Community that Every person has the resources necessary to live Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure lives by independent or self-sufficient means.
In Our Local Future, the ability of each Member of The Community to meet their own needs IS Everyone’s priority.
We created, adopted and maintain The Basic Living Standard to ensure that the Local Circular Economy and Universal Parish Model facilitates balance, fairness and justice to ALL Members of the Community, enabling them to enjoy Personal Sovereignty as part of Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure Lives.
The Old-World failure of The Minimum Wage, The Living Wage and well-meaning concepts such at the Universal Basic Income required a radically different approach to address the existence of Poverty, which the capitalist, money-based order or moneyocracy of the Old World created and maintained.
Poverty is not real to those who don’t experience it.
Legislation to address poverty related issues had existed in England (The United Kingdom) since Tudor times and the rule of Henry VIII in the form of The Henrician Poor Laws.
With a very notable drive in the movement towards tacking poverty in the 19th Century, what seemed to be the silent acceptance of the eternal question ‘How do we tackle Poverty once and for all?’ never went away.
This was at no time more apparent than in the post-Covid period (2020-24) when both Conservative and Labour Governments in the UK failed to recognise the difference that existed between ‘technical’ acceptance that Poverty exists and the ‘experiential’ knowledge that Poverty is very real.
A cultural acceptance or shibboleth existed that ‘For some to be wealthy, it necessarily followed that many others would be required to be poor’.
Yet the reality was that those either controlling, driving or supporting this cultural anomaly were accumulating wealth to levels of disproportionate excess that could never be spent or used in a way that was based only upon personal need.
Furthermore, the process of investing to gain further did little more than accelerate the process of Wealth Inequality that they would then not accept as being real, for reasons that they had themselves created and used their position to legitimise.
Poverty has a 360-degree network of consequences. Not just for those suffering it. But also for the whole of The Community as a whole.
Whilst the processes and even the legislation that enabled and continued to facilitate the Poverty problem into the mainstream were legitimised and framed in law, not one act at any time in the pathway of history that led to Our Local Future was in any way morally or ethically correct.
Man cannot have two masters. Just as an archer cannot pull two bows or a jockey cannot ride two horses and it became inevitable that the entire system would have to be reversed, redirected, reformed and reestablished in order that the moral and ethical requirement that each member of The Community can live Independently and in a self-sustaining way be recognised as a natural right. One that any civilised society must not only recognise as being A Public Good, but also work continuously to maintain.
The Benchmark that every part of our Local Economic Model centres upon is the requirement that every Member of The Community be able to earn enough for a week’s work that will enable them to cover all costs necessary to live a financially independent and self-sufficient life that meets all Basic and Essential needs without the requirement for benefits, charity or debt.
In Our Local Future, all Businesses and Organisations exist to support, enhance and maintain life for People, Community and The Environment.
All Businesses and Organisations are required to prioritise The Basic Living Standard and the provision of Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services that each and every person is entitled to access within the Universal Parish Model.
All Persons are entitled to receive a wage for a week’s work that enables them to secure the Basic Essentials that will enable them to live independently without the need for to receive welfare or benefits, charity or to have recourse to debt.
Basic Essentials for Life are A Public Good and include:
Basic and Essential Foods (Which typically resemble their original form on the plate)
Basic and Essential Clothing
Basic and Essential Hygiene Products
Basic and Essential Housing
Basic and Essential Utility Supply
Access to Basic and Essential Transport
Access to Basic and Essential Communication
Universal access to Basic and Essential Healthcare and out of work support are also considered to be A Public Good.
Businesses may operate a branch system across a Region or District, where it is beneficial for the community for them to do so.
No business may operate, license or subcontract their business activities beyond any one Region.
Businesses may work or partner within cooperatives across Regions for the purposes of providing a universal supply of Basic and Essential goods and services to all Regions, Districts and Parishes.
All Businesses must hold a valid License to Operate, issued by The Community Meeting of the Parish where the Business Premises are located.
It is a requirement that ALL Internet Business is conducted in the same manner as any business which is offline.
All forms of Social Media are considered to be an online Business and are required to operate as such.
Privately owned Businesses may only offer goods and services directly to domestic or retail customers.
Business to Business (B2B) activities must be provided by Social Businesses.
The size of any Privately owned Business does not exceed that of what was formally known as an SME in The Old World (Small to Medium Sized Enterprise).
Business models that provide business to business services (B2B) are Social Businesses and operate as cooperatives with the Parish or Parishes of any District being collective ‘shareholders’ in ownership and therefore decision-making responsibility.
Companies may be Limited by Shares, but Shares may not be owned by any person who does not hold a direct working interest in that Company.
No company or organisation that provides any essential goods or services may be owned by any person or interest of any kind non-resident or with interests outside of the Region where that business is based.
The Shares of any Limited Company do not yield dividends and Company earnings beyond the apportionment of The Basic Living Standard Wage, costs and reinvestment are attributed proportionally to staff fairly, where such margins exist at the end of the Calendar Year.
The person or being may only prioritise themselves in thought as they exercise their right to Personal Sovereignty.
Whilst it is expected that the Self-Employed will earn an appropriate premium for the effort or commitment made and any level of risk taken, the aim of all Businesses is the furtherance of The Public Good.
No form of business may exist purely for the purpose of financial wealth creation or profit-making.
As such, no business may exist that does not grow, manufacture or supply Basic or Essential Goods or Services.
Profit is considered to be a happy consequence of having satisfied customers and a job well done.
All outward action and interaction is conducted with The Public Good and the Principles of People, Community and The Environment.
Social Businesses are non-profit making organisations which are run as efficiently as possible for The Public Good.
Social Businesses are typically present where Basic and Essential Goods and Services cannot or are not provided by Private Businesses.
Social Businesses are required to provide all Business to Business (B2B) Services and these may not be provided by Commercial or Privately Owned Businesses of any kind.
All Natural Resources remain under the stewardship of the community at all times.
All Natural Resources are a Community Asset.
No Natural Resource which meets the Basic or Essential needs of Members of the Community may be owned by private or commercial interests.
No Natural Resource which meets the Basic or Essential needs of Members of the Community may be sold, let or leased for rent.
Natural Resources that meet Basic and Essential needs must be delivered at cost.
The provision of any service providing Natural Resources to meet Basic and Essential needs is considered to be A Public Good.
Services providing Natural Resources to meet Basic and Essential needs are required to be Social Businesses and may not be provided by any privately owned company or organisation at ANY TIME.
The provision of News and Community Information is A Public Good.
News and Community Information is a Social Business.
Every Parish provides its own Local Media Platform which prioritises Local News from within the Parish area, before that of the District or at National level.
Local Media Platforms are run by key employed staff alongside others making their Community Contribution.
ALL Members of The Community are encouraged to contribute via one or each of the media methods used each year and the success of Local Media Platforms is built around Citizen Journalism.
Advertising on Local Media Platforms is universal and may not be targeted at any sub-group of the users or any specific users of that platform.
Any media business that is privately owned is required to make its interests and focus fully transparent to users and operate in the same way as all other commercial or privately owned businesses.
It is recognised that online interaction and activity in the Old World led to behaviour modification that then began to affect the offline world.
Online Communication, online relationships and online behavior are required to reflect ‘real world’ interaction, social etiquette and cultural frameworks.
Good Online Communication is considered to be A Key Skill for Life.
No digital system may exist that provides a function or service that cannot be replaced or carried out by a Person, with or without non digital tools or assistive management systems.
It is a requirement that all AI systems can be overridden through human intervention, locally, at any time.
The use of Smart Phones, Tablets and hand-held technology devices is regulated and may only be used for educational purposes for Members of The Community under the age of 21 years.
The use of AI is universally prohibited for any form of training, education or other online learning.
Digital watermarks must be present and identifiable for all AI use in digital creation of any and all kinds.
AI management systems for machine technology may only be used under human supervision.
AI may only be used as a tool to enhance or improve human working practices.
AI may not be used to replace any human working role.
Technical mechanisation of any kind may only be used where sufficient manpower is not available.
AI may not be used to make any judgement or decision that has the potential to affect the quality of life of any person, group or other.
Transport for the purpose of meeting Basic and Essential need and therefore necessity is considered to be A Public Good.
Our primary method of personal transport is walking, secondarily supported by the use of bicycles, battery powered cycles, mobility carts (where appropriate) and public transport.
We do not encourage the use of any form of transport that is not intended or designed only to meet Basic and Essential needs in a practical, comfortable and safe manner.
Working and workplace interaction are considered to be a positive and encouraging environment for social skills and the awareness of others.
Most businesses are located locally to homes as part of the Universal Parish System, and it is considered normal to attend the workplace when it is in the best interest of The Community and The Public Good for any business to have their staff present on site.
For those Working from Home where facilities exist for workers to be present on site, no form of expenses is payable from the employer.
As most businesses are local and therefore accessible on foot, by bike or with a short journey by public transport, it is not considered normal for anyone to commute to their workplace using a car or vehicle of any kind.
No person travels to a workplace outside of their Parish area unless they are specially trained or experienced in that role and have not had adequate time to move home.
Where any person is required to fulfill a role ‘outside of area’ on behalf of their employer, all travel time is considered as working time and all accruable expenses are reimbursed by the employer.
No employer may provide any form of pay structure that includes any accruable expenses.
10 Steps to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE and make every Vote count too
There’s nobody better qualified to decide what’s best for a community than the members of that Community, itself
The chances are that before you’ve even read this book, you will hear other People criticising or attempting to devalue everything that this book, Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is about.
They are likely to suggest that only experienced Politicians, Political Parties or People who have been qualified in some other way, are suited to running in Elections and to being in Politics.
The inference or suggestion is that none of us or anyone our communities could select to represent us would have any idea what to do.
The words they use might sound very different to even these.
But any message intended to disqualify you and your community from selecting the People who make decisions on your behalf, will turn out to have exactly the same meaning:
THEY ARE TELLING YOU THAT THE PEOPLE IN YOUR COMMUNITY AREN’T CAPABLE OF BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THEMSLEVES OR FOR MAKING THEIR OWN CHOICES – AND THAT INCLUDES YOU!
No matter what anyone says to you or to anyone else about Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, there is nothing they can say that’s negative about the Community making and being responsible for its own choices that can mean anything different or be interpreted in any different way.
Whichever way you look at it, you are being told you aren’t qualified. You are being told you aren’t good enough. You are being told you haven’t got the right skills.
There is no question. These People who know better, are absolutely wrong.
Anyone who says or suggests that someone else knows better when it comes to selecting the People who make decisions which affect us all, is on an agenda of their own. An agenda that has neither the best interests of the whole Community, nor what’s good for you, at its heart.
The decisions that affect us all and the public policies they deliver will always be flawed for as long as anyone involved in making those decisions obtained the responsibility to do so because of some motive that wasn’t focused upon the Community and service to others.
It was about whatever they are part of. Ultimately, it’s all about them.
Today’s Politicians don’t represent the People. They represent themselves, their parties and whoever they aspire to be
Until now, NONE OF THE ABOVE has been a way to protest against and to refuse to Vote for those Politicians who are always someone else’s choice.
More often than not, NONE OF THE ABOVE has been a way to raise a laugh or to make a joke too.
The problem for us all, is there is nothing good, nor funny about a political system that benefits nobody other than the People who directly benefit from the way that it works.
The disease within the Political System has reached the point where no Politician or Political Party makes decisions or pursues any Public Policy that is good for anyone else.
NONE OF THE ABOVE doesn’t need to be just a process or a figure of speech, anymore.
We need to be positive. We need to be proactive. We need to grab the opportunity that is waiting for us to turn this all around, whilst hiding in plain sight.
It’s time for us all to come together as one. To go way beyond being just a protest Vote or a refusal to accept the options we are given in Elections – as if that and only that, is all that We deserve.
We can only achieve this by selecting and providing candidate options in ALL Elections that are OURS.
This is what Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is here to help you and your community to do.
Before we get started, there’s one rule you need to understand, accept and live by when it comes to everything that is Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and getting the very best out of this Book:
There’s nobody better qualified to decide what’s best for a community than the members of that Communityitself.
Welcome to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE
NONE OF THE ABOVE will already have meaning to you.
You may also know or recognise it as being ‘Not in my name’, or ‘you don’t speak for us’.
To keep things simple, for now, we will just think of it as NONE OF THE ABOVE.
NONE OF THE ABOVE is the choice made when any Person has the opportunity to Vote in an Election but decides that they won’t.
Because none of the candidates or the Political Parties stand for represent what that Voter feels they and their community need from the Public Representatives they have the choice to elect.
People who are living NONE OF THE ABOVE, might not even bother to involve themselves in Elections.
Then there are those who may have gone to the Polling Station on Election Day, signed in and shown their ID and even have been handed their ballot paper.
They then decide that they cannot or will not Vote for any of the candidates or the Political Parties represented on a list that runs from the top to the bottom of the paper.
Some of those will even draw a line through the ballot paper or the boxes and even write NONE OF THE ABOVE at the bottom of the ballot paper itself.
Then, when the Counting of Votes takes place afterwards, this ballot paper and any others like it will be classified as ‘spoiled’ and no Vote will count.
Whatever the reason you may not have Voted, spoiled a ballot paper, or now found yourself looking for an alternative to Candidates and Political Parties that never seem to deliver on anything they have promised you they will do, this Book is here to help.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is a How to and Information Guide that has been written and published to help and advise People just like you.
NONE OF THE ABOVE is the place where many of us already are
Take heart. You are not alone.
A growing number of People already recognise what the words NONE OF THE ABOVE mean to them.
Whilst the interpretation will differ between us, the reasons for being unhappy and searching for an unidentified alternative to all the so-called ‘choice’ of Political Candidates that we already have, will almost certainly be something that we share.
You may already know that the answers to all of our questions and the solutions we all need are not going to come from any of the Political Parties that we know. They will also not come from any of the new Political Parties or activist groups that already exist and are hungry to be in power, just like the Political Parties that everyone recognises.
Alternatively, you may be at the point of giving a party you have previously supported a ‘last chance’.
Whether committed to change or praying over a forlorn hope, we all know that change has to come from a different place to have meaning and for it to actually be different.
Otherwise, we will continue to ride the merry-go-round of the same Political Parties, knowing that with them, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
You now know you are not alone. But are you really ready to embrace change?
If what you have read is already making some sense or has perhaps just struck an unknown chord, I would urge you to keep going and read through THE ENTIRE BOOK.
Without doing so, you will not be equipped to consider the full picture or achieve the understanding of what Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE has the power to do for us all, as a tool that will work for your community.
Most importantly, you will miss what turning NONE OF THE ABOVE into a Vote-winning option has the power to do for YOU and for your future too.
The formula for a winning outcome from Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE
There are no shortcuts, IF you want your life and the lives of others to improve.
Please read this book through and then decide which parts of it make sense, or more importantly, which parts apply specifically to you and what you feel able to do.
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF when you read and think about the content you are reading.
If you know what you are reading is true for you, DON’T go backwards. DON’T STOP. DON’T put this book back on your Bookshelf.
If you do nothing, you are standing still.
In a world of constant change, standing still is going backwards.
Doing nothing and going backwards are just the same.
Even if you never do any more than Vote in every future Election, please use this book as the guideline to search out and identify those who will work hard and work honestly for your community and for YOU.
WARNING: Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is not for you, IF
You are committed to following whatever anyone else tells you to think.
You believe that the only problem is there isn’t a Political Party in power that represents you.
You believe that somebody else will solve all the problems that we have.
You believe that power, position, influence, qualifications and wealth define leadership.
You look down on any other social group, no matter what the difference between you might actually be.
You are not prepared to take part in something that helps others as well as yourself.
You cannot accept that change for everyone begins with you making the most important change first.
NONE OF THE ABOVE is for you, IF:
You are looking for answers and solutions to the problems we ALL have.
You know that those answers and solutions to our problems will not come from the so-called leaders that we have or are today being offered.
You can focus on what we share in common with each other, rather than what divides us and is very quickly tearing us all apart.
You accept that if we keep doing the same things as they have always been done, things will inevitably stay the same.
You accept that IF change that is good for us all is going to happen, we all have a role to play in being that change.
You accept that REAL CHANGE BEGINS WITH YOU!
To be able to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE, your participation is ESSENTIAL
What you may have realised as you read the bullet points above, is the essential ingredient of us all being able to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE is YOU!
One of the biggest problems that we face together is the apathy that years of political inaction, broken promises, the spread of manufactured fear and the use of outright lies from Politicians and the Establishment have created.
People genuinely believe that there is no alternative to the mess that we have now.
People feel that there can be no change, because it’s the same People who will always be in control.
People believe that the best we can hope for will come by voting for the alternative that the Establishment gives us. That the alternative candidates and parties we are given, will somehow get something right or allow at least some change to happen that could at the very least prove to be some help.
Sadly, it’s all smoke and mirrors.
This story of ‘who and what will win the next Election’ that we are all experiencing in the news and media, is no better than a confidence trick – even when People from outside of the Establishment appear to be involved.
NOT because there is some kind of conspiracy.
But because everyone who is in power or believes they deserve to be in power today, thinks in exactly the same way.
What could Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE really be? What can Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE become?
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE has the ability to be and to deliver the answers and the solutions that we are all looking for. Because the PROCESS, METHOD and AIM it offers will return your power and begin helping us ALL to take control back from the Establishment, from the moment that you accept it will work.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is the process of embracing the UKs broken political system and bypassing all the parts of it that are sick.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is a clear pathway to ensure all that’s wrong with British Politics can no longer affect, influence or even brainwash those People who volunteer with good intentions, to become Public Representatives, ensuring that all the diseased thinking can be sidestepped until it has all been replaced.
Once the majority of us have accepted Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and what it represents as the only honest and fully democratic way for communities to be represented properly in any Election, the battles and the war for Freedom from useless and self-serving governance that many don’t even know we are fighting, will then have been won.
Warning: for change to happen you must think and act differently. Leaving change to everyone else is thinking the same way as you have been all along.
You must be the change is itself one of the most important messages within Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and every book that relates to it.
Regrettably, we have become accustomed to the idea that somebody somewhere else will always sort out the problems that affect everybody else.
Strangely enough, we then don’t understand why help doesn’t come for us when the problem is now ours and we are the ones experiencing the pain.
It’s time to join the dots up.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE will only work if you and People like you dare to change the way that you think.
Then, we must ALL act to create the change, removing the power from other People’s hands, taking back control of OUR OWN POWER.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the way things work now is the only way. Ask yourself the question, ‘Who is the only beneficiary from you or anyone else believing and thinking like that?’
THE CURRENT SYSTEM IS BROKEN. IT DOESN’T WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY. IT DOESN’T WORK FOR YOU.
IF WE WAIT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO BROKE THE SYSTEM TO FIX IT, THE FIX THAT COMES WONT BE MADE WITH YOUR COMMUNITY OR YOU IN MIND.
ONLY YOU CAN FIX THE WAY POLITICS WORKS FOR YOU.
TOGETHER, WE CAN ONLY TRUST POLITICS IF IT IS RUN BY PEOPLE WE TRUST.
THE ONLY PEOPLE WE CAN TRUST IN POLITICS FOR OUR FUTURE WILL BE PEOPLE FROM OUTSIDE OF THE SYSTEM LIKE ME AND LIKE YOU
The negative stuff (That we cannot avoid)
Regrettably, presenting an alternative to what we have already got in Politics wouldn’t be complete with at least touching on the reasons why the Politicians that we have and The System that brings them to the ballot paper isn’t working for any of us.
Strange as it may seem, because of how bad things have become in Politics, telling the truth or being realistic about what is happening will always be treated as or considered to be negative by some.
Objectively and in reality, being negative and being realistic are two very different things.
Whilst it makes it sound like we are engaged in a war (which some People genuinely now believe that we are), we really do need to know and understand our enemy, before we can create or implement the methods and practices that mean we will ultimately win.
However, the reality is that in the majority of cases, the Politicians and People who have created the problems we have and who will continue to create them, IF we do not replace them with People who have the integrity and purpose to represent us, are not bad or evil People.
They are simply lacking awareness. They are selfish. They are without moral principles. They have a very restricted or self-serving view of what humanity is and the difference between wrong and right.
If many of them were able to see life in a different way, they could, in time, become just like any friends we have.
There is nothing wrong with them, except for how they behave and what they fundamentally believe.
Who are ALL OF THE ABOVE?
You may not realise or even understand it. But because Politics or rather our Politics is about what we believe at an individual or personal level, it also means that we identify ‘our Politics’ as being part of or who we really are.
Regrettably, this means that most of us find ourselves getting emotionally tied into the way we think politically. Especially if we have historically identified with a Political Party, group or ‘tribe’.
Even now, if you have been tribal in your approach to Politics in the past – and it won’t matter if you’ve Voted Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem, Green, UKIP or any of the names we associate with the broken Politics of today and the past – the chances are that deep down, you still feel some affiliation with that Political Party and hope that they will soon ‘come right’.
It’s time to accept that they won’t.
And it’s not like any of them haven’t had chance after chance to be the change, time and time before either.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE can only work if we consciously disassociate ourselves and keep disassociating ourselves with the Politics of the past (today) and our past political thinking – whether it’s in respect of our own outlook, or those we have previously thought of as being ‘the enemy’, who you are probably by now beginning to understand have much more in common with us than anything meaningful that any of us should be allowing to drive us all apart.
When the People who lead us are out for themselves, how can we expect anyone else to behave differently?
We cannot continue to make allowances for and place our trust in People who have asked for our support and taken it. But then misused the power that we have entrusted them with, and behaved as if what they want and what’s good for all of us are one and the same thing.
Equally, we cannot afford to waste years on new, up and coming Politicians, Influencers, Activists and Political Parties who tell us they are different. But by the very act of telling us what we should think, are demonstrating that if we treated them as a real alternative, that when elected and in power, they would then behave in exactly the same ways as the Politicians we already have.
There are good People within all Political Parties and plenty of them are genuinely well meaning. But few of them really understand the responsibilities and the power that they have been given, and what being a good Public Representatives means.
Without the knowledge and leadership skills that public office should always require of those holding such responsibility, it means that the People we have running the Public Sector and the whole country right now and for the foreseeable future – without change, are the last People that any of us should knowingly elect to Public Office and put in charge of whatever happens next.
At best, we live in a mediocracy where everyone we elect is out for themselves.
With the challenges that we now face. mediocre leadership is simply not good enough for our communities or for ourselves.
The ‘Establishment’ Political Parties and Tribes
We are all being failed by the Public Representatives we have elected as representatives of Political Parties.
It is inevitable that ‘Party Politicians’ will always be expected to put the interests of their Political Party and the Establishment they are part of first, before doing anything that would be good for anyone else.
Any Public Policy that works out well for any of us today, is just a happy coincidence.
There is very little good that comes from Public Policy for People that was directly intended or put into being through a fully considered process and genuine choice.
The Establishment Political Parties and Tribes include:
The Conservative Party (Also known as The Tories or Tory Party)
The Liberal Democrats (Also known as The Lib Dems)
The Labour Party
The Scottish National Party (Also known as the SNP)
The Green Party
Plaid Cymru (Also Known as The Welsh National Party)
The Outsiders or The Political Parties and Tribes from ‘Outside’
Many are already placing their hopes in new and less established Political Parties, activist groups and movements as being the way of change.
These political vehicles may appear to be different, speak with different words and with different voices.
But the thinking that drives them and the way that the Establishment or mainstream Political Parties think about Public Representation is regrettably one and the same.
The Outsider Political Parties and Tribes include:
The SDP
Reclaim
Reform UK
UKIP
ADF
Not Lib/Lab/Con
Vote Freedom
AND many others.
All of them are regrettably missing the point that the Outsiders’ strength lies in focusing on what we all have in common. Not by championing their own ideas, or anything else that just creates more of a divide.
Remember: Nobody serves everyone’s purpose when they are only serving ideas that are their own, and if they wanted to put you and your community first, they would be doing so already.
Why ALL OF THE ABOVE will NEVER work for your community and certainly won’t work for you
Have you ever had a politician who represents an existing Political Party come up to you, and without telling you what they already stand for, take the time to ask and make the effort necessary to actually listen only to what you think?
The greatest flaw that all Political Parties and Political Groups that already exist today share, is that any good they could be doing is quickly erased by the fact they are all pulling in their own specific directions.
None of them stop to think about what it would mean to be unified. To be working together. To have the ability to speak and to represent us universally with one and just one voice.
Established Political Parties and Speakers ALWAYS have an Agenda
Established Political Parties follow ideologies or philosophies that are idealistic, or formed around the thinking of the People who lead them.
By their very nature, Political Parties do not take account of the needs of everyone.
Political Parties will always be aligned with or have biases towards a specific group. Usually, one or more that serves its own purposes, or is aligned or identified with its own key demographic groups.
The way that Politicians would usually account for the way that Political Parties and groups work is to say that they are focusing on the important issues of the day.
There is always an inherent undertone that silently speaks ‘we represent the true majority’. The statement is presented without any evidence. But it is treated by many as credible, just because of the platform that the media or social media platforms have given them.
The problem is, existing Politicians and Political Parties aren’t credible. None of them can be relied upon. Because once anyone is motivated only by ‘what is important to them’, they can soon be led and influenced by anything else that is presented in such a way that is equally important to them.
Whilst this thinking is already the cause of great public harm, the reality is that it is human nature.
It’s what very stupid People do when they find themselves with power and responsibility that they are not equipped to handle appropriately.
It’s time for you to be the change, so that your community can do so too
The future of Politics is about everything working well for everyone. Everyone must therefore be involved in choosing that future.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE recognises and responds to the flaws that exist within the accepted idea that the only way the existing political system in the UK can function is by having it controlled and populated by Political Parties and Politicians who tell us they are there to work for us all, but only have their own interests in mind.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE proposes a genuine alternative pathway to electing the Politicians we are given, as being the way to ensure that the Public Representatives we elect are genuine, and always put the interests of the Public and the Communities they represent first.
Your Role in Our Future – You want to be an active part of the change
You’ve read this far. You are interested in taking part. You just want to feel convinced.
At this point, you will probably fall into one of two groups:
You will either be thinking ‘I’d like to take part and do something’.
Or you will be thinking ‘I’ll wait and make a choice when it’s the next time to Vote’.
If you are already thinking that you will take part and make a contribution because the content of what this book suggests makes sense to you, please remember that the real change we are about to begin working towards doesn’t look like anything you are used to. Nor does it resemble anything that you have already seen or already know.
If you are ready, please keep reading the TEN STEPS to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE that follow in Part 1, next.
Your Role in Our Future – You just want to be able to Vote
If you are still thinking that the only time that any of this will matter is when it comes to the next Election and the time that you are next required to go out and Vote, I’m afraid it’s time to face a certain truth:
Waiting for change will always mean that change will not be something you take part in. Change will certainly come, but it will be something that happens to you.
Even if you are one of the many who will only see your real contribution being that moment when you pick up the pencil and ballot paper and draw a cross in a box to make your Vote, change requires that you do not remain passive between now and when the next Election comes.
Please do read through all of Part 1 and the TEN STEPS, so that you understand and can identify what the process of change will look like when it reaches your community.
Please then continue and read Part 2 which has been written for those of us who still see their contribution to the future as being no more than a Vote.
Follow the Plan. Learn from the Plan. Improve on the Plan. Share the Plan.
Before we get into the real opportunity that is awaiting you and your community, and the details and STEPS of what you can do to play your part, it is worth mentioning that the alternative pathway offered by Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is one that you are being invited to follow and to learn from.
But not only that. I am also making a very explicit invitation with an expectation that you can find ways to improve upon Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and that you will then share what you can then offer with all the other Communities like yours, too.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have been able to bring together the experiences and insights that I have had, to help others – IF they want that help.
You are about to open the door to being able to share your own experiences too.
Thank you and good luck.
Part 1: For the Change Makers – Whoever you are
This section outlines a PROCESS of STEPS that many of us within all of our local communities MUST take, if we want the existing ‘democratic’ and ‘electoral’ systems to work for all of us.
Doing nothing other than making a choice from the Candidates we are given by somebody, somewhere else will only ever continue to be an endorsement for ALL OF THE ABOVE.
Nothing will change.
The motives of the existing Political Parties and the behaviour of ALL the Politicians already within The System – as well as that of those who aspire to be there – are the reason that British Politics is completely dysfunctional and broken.
In the longer term, the electoral system and system of democracy that we have must be completely reformed so that public representation is in touch with everyone and is always provided by the most appropriate and best-suited People that we could ever have.
However, for Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE to succeed as quickly as possible, we have no choice but to focus on what we have the power to do NOW, so that we can begin the process of changing everything as quickly as we can.
How we will be able to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE in the existing system
The good news for everyone is that change of the kind we need, is possible to begin working on now.
NOT through creating civil unrest or by forcing some kind of revolution, as some People genuinely believe – where the outcome is never guaranteed because it’s out of our control.
But by stepping outside of the system that the Establishment expects us never to question. By looking at the whole ‘electoral wood’ differently. Then using the map of the trees that the Establishment has given us, whilst navigating our own path through with new way of thinking that will enable us to take back our power and then put all the self-serving plans and strategies that have enslaved our democracy, into the bin.
Yes. WE CAN make the current system work for us.
The difference between what we have and what we could have, is that WE MUST select, appoint and then Vote for OUR OWN CANDIDATES to run in each and every Election.
We MUST reject anyone or any candidate that is offered to us by anyone other than our own communities and accept that is OUR DEMOCRATIC RIGHT AND CHOICE.
Forget the Date of the next Election. Work to Vote NONE OF THE ABOVE begins right now
When I say, ‘We need to change the way We think’, it is important to understand that this ‘change in thinking’ is about the entire way we look at things, or even the lens we use to look at it. It is not as simple as moderating or adjusting our view of just one thing.
A good and very relevant example of this is the way that the majority of us think about Elections and how Elections actually work.
Most of us have not been actively involved in Politics or Political Campaigning. So, we immediately fall into the trap of thinking and believing that the only time that Political Campaigning matters, is the same time that everyone else who is out there trying to get themselves elected, is around about our local areas and knocking on our doors.
What many of us then fail to realise is that ALL OF THE ABOVE will have their eyes and thoughts on the next Election, right from the very moment that the results of the last one have been confirmed.
In fact, so obsessed with getting elected or reelected have ALL OF THE ABOVE become, that their obsession with influencing the People they believe most likely to Vote for them in the future, is one of their priority considerations in just about everything that they do.
Put yourself in other People’s shoes
I have had the experience of campaigning for both myself and for other candidates in a number of different Elections.
One of the most important things that I learned was that not enough People will take outsiders or challengers and what they have to say seriously, IF it’s only after the Election has been called that the door knocking begins and the new messages and concern show up.
Matters that concern the Community are ongoing. They are real and they are relevant each and every day. Just like the issues that have an effect or an impact upon you.
It is the same for everyone. So, if you turn up at other times too – as anyone who genuinely cares about their community is supposed to, People at their doorsteps will see a lot more value in the new experience for them that you offer, when you ask them to share their concerns.
Patience is necessary, as well as being a virtue
Some People – and a growing number of them too, will engage with what you are doing from the very moment that you first knock on their door. But for others, the process will take time.
The self-interest and cynical behavior that has ruled and broken Politics right across this country, for so long, has done a hell of a lot of harm.
From this point alone, it should be obvious that building up a relationship and developing trust with someone and something new, is bound to take time.
So, it doesn’t matter whether the next Election is a Local Election or a General Election. Nor does it matter if it is going to be held in 4 months or 4 years’ time. The right time to begin the process of engaging with Local People is RIGHT NOW!
Forget whatever the Councillors, Mayors, MPs and Political Parties are doing
Another idea that we must get over is the one that tells us it’s only the Politicians who are already elected that have any power, when it comes to influencing anything that’s going on.
They don’t. And it’s self-sabotaging to think this way. Because in the same breath, it’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming that nobody will pay attention to anyone else.
That’s bad enough. But the real risk to changing everything for the better is the next idea to arrive.
The one that suggests we have to listen to and respect what anyone who has been elected or has a position of authority has to say.
WE DON’T.
Respect & Trust MUST be earned AND be credible too
Sadly, the way the Electoral System works today doesn’t mean that we can rest assured that candidates are skilled, experienced, in touch with our reality, or in any way capable of speaking for us or making any decisions on behalf of us all.
Not only this. The reality is that even the ‘majority Votes’ that ‘winning’ candidates attract for Council and even Parliamentary Seats are themselves representative of just a small fraction of just the People in our communities who are eligible to Vote.
This means that the genuine majority of the People who you are about to communicate with, already feel that they are not represented by the politician(s) your community has already got.
Speak and make promises in the same way that the Establishment and the Outsider Parties already do, at these doorsteps, and the People you are reaching out to will see right through you, almost as quickly as you can blink.
Speak honestly and openly, and share your care and compassion for change, for People and for the Community – from your heart, and the People you speak to will take you seriously, right from the start.
It’s what we all have in common that is key
We have much more in common with others than anything that divides us.
Yet we allow those differences and the beliefs that we have about each other to take over and rule our lives as if the commonality that we share doesn’t even exist.
Politics is so divisive because it is reflective of who each and every one of us believes that we are and what we stand for, deep down inside of ourselves.
With the problems across the UK and the World that generation after generation of poor Politicians have created, it’s no longer possible or responsible of us to leave the Politics for the Politicians.
And it won’t be, until such time as we once again have a political system in place that we can rely upon and trust.
The culture of Politics that is dividing us all is representative or a reflection of the broken system and the disease of self-interest and the thirst for self-advancement, influence and power that has stepped into democracy’s place.
It simply doesn’t matter if you have seen yourself as being left-wing, socialist, right-wing, capitalist, conservative, eco-friendly or as wearing any similar kind of label up until right now.
The tribal badges that a self-interested political system has conditioned us to wear, have also been the banners that we have allowed to trip us up by defining how we feel about and how we perceive many others too.
For what it’s worth, those others have gone through exactly the same process on their part, too.
Politics today is not based upon, driven or motivated by anything good for us and for our communities, as it always should be.
Left, right or from somewhere in between. This broken Political System focuses on keeping power away from the People and absent from within the communities where it should be.
It continually funnels and focuses OUR POWER on People, both seen and unseen, who make the real decisions that we have no influence over, right at the top.
Our power will be immediately returned to us by recognising the parts of life that are common to everyone, and by focusing our collaborative efforts to bring equitable access and provision of the things and experiences in life that we genuinely share.
If you haven’t realised already real community is not just an idea. It is a way of being.
For instance, we don’t need a socialist or a capitalist to introduce their political ideologies into the processes which deliver our food – BUT THEY DO!
And it’s the same with everything else that these People touch!
The only motivation that genuine representatives of the People need in order to get everything they do right, is to maintain their focus upon what’s in the best interests of EVERYONE, when it comes to Public Policy that has any impact upon the essential areas of life that we have in common and share.
The things which are essential to provide and maintain happy, healthy, safe and secure lives for everyone, within a system that is truly balanced, fair and just, don’t need any kind of political ideology to deliver them.
We just need to focus on working together and on collaborating in union, so that what we all need, and not what only some of us want, is all that government and our system of governance gives us – and then stops there.
It’s time for our journey to that place to begin. And you have the opportunity to play an important part at the start!
Your role – IF you want it, is to reach out, listen and learn
Yes, it does rather sound like the line from those great Mission Impossible Films “Your Mission, should you accept it…”. The similarity between taking on challenging tasks should also not be lost.
But there is a decision that needs to be made. And the action that follows that decision needs to be taken by many of us, IF we really want to be able to Vote and successfully elect Candidates in every Election who are NONE OF THE ABOVE.
So, your role – IF you want it. Is to reach out, listen and learn from the other Local People from in and around your community. And to then be open to whatever happens or whatever comes next.
The bigger wheels, within wheels, that will soon be at work
Conversation and collaboration with People you don’t normally speak to but see or pass regularly isn’t really all that hard. Because you already have that shared experience in common.
If nothing else, it’s always nice to be able to put a name to a face.
Reaching out and by beginning a conversation which is all weighted towards other People speaking and sharing their thoughts and ideas about what’s happening, and what they believe our structures of government should prioritise and do, will begin the process of opening up a local and Community focused world.
You will not only take the first essential steps of helping to create a new Community-wide and all-inclusive movement that will quickly have the power to influence and change.
You will also immediately begin to learn about life from very different perspectives and see how we all experience the same things very differently.
Yes, there is an agenda that we will all be working to, from the moment you begin.
It’s no secret and we’ve already shared it.
The agenda is to get good and genuine Public Representatives elected and working with many others. So that our Councils, Public Organisations and our Parliament are being run by People who not only understand us and have our best interests at heart. But have the wherewithal necessary to understand all the different parts and functions of the Public Sector, to be able to fit them all together so that everything in the public sphere works for the benefit of us all, as it always should do.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE has an AIM, that will be achieved through a METHOD, which will be the result of you and others like you following a PROCESS from the moment you start.
THE AIM: Community agreement on Candidates who are Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE
The only thing that gives Political Parties an edge or an advantage over anyone else is that they are already organised and have systems and procedures in place.
Yet the disadvantage to us all is that they are selecting and offering us candidates under the pretense that they will represent us, when they will always prioritise the party choice.
The AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is your Community making a decision upon who represents all of you together. Then going on to support your Public Representatives to be elected and to then fill and fulfil every relevant democratically elected role.
Please do not fall into the trap of believing that’s what you and every Voter like you already does, each time that you go into a polling station and Vote.
The candidates that are listed on the ballot paper in elections now, were not selected by your community.
They were selected by someone else, using criteria that benefits a very specific group of People and whatever they stand for or believe in.
Therefore, ALL OF THE ABOVE don’t represent the views of the Community, they represent the views of someone else.
REMEMBER: The only way that communities will be represented by the People who are best qualified to represent that Community, is for the Community to select and appoint those candidates themselves.
THE METHOD: Community Meetings and interaction where we select Candidates to represent us all
To bring all of the People that make up your community together, means bringing all of them together – ideally at the same time within a Community Meeting.
As pretty much all of the existing Political Parties and Politicians already know, the circumstances when a whole Community will come together in one place at the same time to listen or to even discuss issues that affect them are very rare indeed.
Yet the reason for this apathy, disconnectedness or disenfranchisement, isn’t one that’s hard to address or get over.
It just takes a lot of effort and genuine commitment to the Community – and that’s why the existing Political Parties don’t do this – because respect for what the People really think and what’s important to them isn’t something that any of the existing Political Parties either believe in or currently even try to do.
The METHOD is holding Community Meetings where everyone from within your community has the opportunity to interact and play a part in the process of selecting the Candidates who will become Councillors, Mayors, MPs – and ANY kind of public representative that public Elections within the current system dictate that there will be.
There is significant added value and additional benefits that will come from bringing your community together without the agendas or motives of any organisation that already exists
Yes, we quite clearly have Communities that already exist in geographical terms. They are where we all already live.
We also have groups of People who share certain or specific things in common. Like their religion, their working background, or perhaps a sport that they have played or follow as a spectator or on TV.
But it has become increasingly rare for any of us to really feel any kind of affinity with the People with whom the only thing we clearly share is our locality, in the sense that living together and sharing life together is an essential part of making the things that surround our everyday lives much better than what they already are.
It is the humanity that comes from engaging in direct relationships within our local areas and local communities that have the ability to really help us to find genuine happiness, as well as giving us the ability to discover and appreciate who we genuinely are.
There are no substitutes for the benefits that being part of a vibrant, caring and above all human Community will have for you and for everyone.
Above all, the benefits from coming together to ensure that the decisions that will affect us and that will have an effect upon everyone, are made by the right People, who we have selected, qualified and appointed, alongside everyone else who will be affected by whatever they will then do, will be incalculable for us all.
THE PROCESS: Engaging with your Community in a series of TEN STEPS
So, you’ve read this far. We are now at the most important part of the journey to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
That is, IF you are ready and committed to taking the steps necessary to play your part in creating change, whilst welcoming everyone who is open to it to share the ride.
There are TEN practical STEPS to creating the momentum and energy that will engage your community.
We are going to use the METHOD of bringing everyone in your community together, so that your community can achieve the AIM of selecting your own candidates for EVERY Election in the future.
CAUTION: It is important, as you proceed from here onwards, that you focus on what we have discussed in this book, and upon continuing with the PROCESS of TEN STEPS We are about to go through.
THE TEN STEPS
STEP 1: Give your Community Meeting a recognisable identity.
STEP 2: Get a free email box set up.
STEP 3: Set up your Community Meeting Social media accounts.
STEP 4: Get posting and post as often as you can.
STEP 5: Get at least 12 People you know from your community signed up.
STEP 6: Knock on doors and talk to real People as often as you can.
STEP 7: Collaborate wherever possible, accept help and support from whoever you can, always be prepared to work with others BUT ALWAYS QUALIFY THAT SUPPORT.
STEP 8: Arrange your first Community Meeting.
STEP 9: At your Community Meeting, let the People use their voice.
STEP 10: Hold meetings to identify your community representatives and agree what happens next.
We will now move on to cover each of these TEN STEPS of the PROCESS, providing the METHOD that will allow us to achieve our AIM.
Some things to bear in mind first:
You may be alone right at the start.
But others in your community may also start as you are about to do so.
The opportunity to join with them and others who want to actively contribute to the creation of these new structures for our communities will come along very quickly, IF you remain focused from the start.
So, don’t worry or give unnecessary thought to how you collaborate with the wider Community over a larger area – for instance, if it should be a General Election that is next called.
If everyone who begins as you are about to, is committed to the PROCESS and doing it right, the linkups, system of union between communities and working together at a broader level, will soon fall into place too.
STEP 1: Give your Community Meeting a recognisable identity:
Your immediate thought may well be ‘That doesn’t sound very hard!’
Yet giving your new Community Meeting a name that will have as much meaning with just a handful of local People involved, as it will when everyone has just Voted your first Community Representative into an Elected Office is very important indeed.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is about what you all have or what you share in common.
So, the obvious thing to everyone when you first start, will be using or rather incorporating any local place or area name that local People will recognise and identify with the area of the Community in which you all live.
The chances are that in most places, some existing organisation or savvy web user will have grabbed the precise name of your community area. (e.g., @London is already in use!)
If the actual name of your area is available for any social media username or domain name, it’s worth avoiding anyway – in that form.
Once things get moving and others can see there is interest building in what you are doing, using just the place name could be considered by some to be a declaration that you already speak for the Community.
My suggestion is that you use your community area or place name and then add either ‘CM’ or ‘NOTA’ after or before or use a word that describes what Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is all about, such as ‘Together’ or ‘United’.
For example, the area I grew up in is called Churchdown in Gloucestershire, UK. So, the name I would then use would ideally be ‘Churchdown NOTA’ or ‘Churchdown Together’.
Continuity and recognisability are important across the different platforms that you are about to use. Everyone uses social media and the internet differently. But they all need to be able to identify with something that reaches across all of them the same.
Before committing to the name you will use, PLEASE work through STEPS 2 & 3, and check that the same Usernames are available for you to use first.
This is a particularly good thing to do early on. Because it could be one of the easiest ways to work out if someone else is already working with Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, in your community too.
Things to be aware of:
You will probably use your local area name, with ‘Community Meeting’ following it as our e-mail username in STEP 2. But @communitymeeting would already be too long to become a username on one or more of the social media platforms that you are about to use.
Groups that represent different parts of your local community or interests that are shared between a number of local People may already be using words like ‘together’ as a prefix or a suffix within their proper name or a social media username.
A quick visit to any linked social media or web pages should quickly make clear who any group using one of these names is, and whether you are both working to create a Community Meeting of the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE kind.
What you are about to do, is not about you. It’s all about your community. So, don’t use your name as the name for what will become your Community Meeting.
You may technically ‘own’ or ‘control’ everything you create or do whilst you are working alone. But the end result will only ever belong to the Community.
If you feel uncomfortable with this, please give further consideration to the reasons you feel that way before you decide if you want to proceed.
Even if the name of the area or place you live in sounds like it must be unique, there is a good chance that the name will exist somewhere else in the UK or beyond.
If you should find that the name you would like to use already is being used elsewhere, don’t worry. Just add an abbreviation such as SW if you are in the South West, or perhaps something like the first two or three letters of your postcode area – which in the case of Churchdown would be GL or GL3.
STEP 2: Get a free email box set up
If you are going through the TEN STEPS in order, you will already be aware that STEPS 1, 2, and 3 fit very closely together.
It may seem that setting up a FREE email box and address for your Community Meeting would be better as STEP 3.
But if you are doing everything as suggested, you will soon understand that you will need your e-mail address to get your social media platforms set up with your Username and/or to validate your set up too.
There are a number of FREE email options available to you and it may be the case that you already have a FREE box that has come with your Phone set up, or perhaps you have one with Bing, Google or a company like Yahoo.
Most of them will allow you to set up a second box reasonably easy if you do. All you need to do for instructions, is follow the help options or do a search on any related search engine facility.
My own preference would be to use Google or Google mail. The functionality is excellent, and the security seems to be great. This is not a recommendation. But the reality is that this whole PROCESS is about making your journey to the doorstep as easy as possible, and it will only get longer if we overcomplicate things.
When you are setting your account up, please use the name of your Community Meeting as the username.
Then, when you are setting up the details that will appear when you send any emails, I would suggest using your Community Meeting Username, the same.
Things to be aware of:
If you are nervous about mail being read or hacked, don’t be.
If you are following the TEN STEPS and you are doing so for the right reasons – which are what’s best for your communityand putting Local People first, you are unlikely to ever do anything that anyone could accuse you of being wrong.
Transparency is actually key to everything you are going to do.
There are no secrets being shared here in this book or as any part of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, that I am unhappy for any existing Politician or Political Party to see.
If existing Politicians and Political Parties were ready to embrace these ideas and live by them, there would be no reason for anyone else to make the effort and try – BECAUSE IT WOULD ALREADY BE BEING DONE!
If you decide to set up a signature template, DO NOT add your private telephone number unless you are happy to receive unsolicited calls on it.
There is no need to provide a telephone number. With so many other ways that you can (and will) be able to offer People so that you can be contacted directly, there’s really no need to do so, unless you are happy to do so, or you are able to use a dedicated phone.
STEP 3: Set up your Community Meeting social media accounts
There are a range of different social media accounts and platforms that are available, and the list is growing.
To keep things as practical and as simple as possible, my suggestion is that in the first instance you concentrate on setting up FOUR different social media accounts.
These are:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
WordPress
You can easily add others social media platforms such as Tik Tok, Blogger, Rumble, YouTube, Telegram etc. if you have good reason to believe there is enough demand.
But right now, this is all about making the best use of the time that you have available and the PROCESS of getting the AIM of OfficiallyNONE OF THE ABOVE known by as many People across your local Community area as possible.
Usernames
If you haven’t already done so, please CHECK that the Username you have for your Community Meeting is available for ALL of the social media platforms that you intend to use BEFORE you start signing up to any of them.
This way, you can secure usernames that will be the same across ALL of your social media platforms.
Remember CONTINUITY and RECOGNISABILITY are KEY!
Twitter
It is very useful to have a presence on Twitter. Chances are that there will be a smaller number of members of your local Community who will use and interact with your posts on Twitter. But it’s also likely that this is where you will generate more interest from outside – which is important for networking and getting help from others too.
The trick is to keep your messages factual and short, or just add a short description and use Twitter just for posting your Facebook, Instagram and WordPress links.
Facebook
You may already have a Facebook account of your own and you can use that as the doorway to create a Facebook Page.
Facebook is where you are most likely to pick up support from members of your local Community very quickly.
My advice would be that you treat your Community Meeting page on Facebook a bit like a central hub, which links to everything else.
Facebook is good for editorial, pictures and for posting links and I would suggest that you take the plunge and use them all, as often as you can.
Please make sure that anything you post anywhere else is linked to your Community Meeting Facebook Page too.
The functionality of Facebook Pages is fantastic. So, if you just follow the guided tour after your Page is initially set up, you will immediately get a taste of what a great Community connection tool it really can be.
Instagram
Instagram is a much more visual tool that a lot of People really like, simply because the content or the stories revolve around pictures and visualisation helps how people think.
If you can record what you are doing with pictures and add a few words to tell the story as you do so, you will be amazed at the support that you will soon find.
Instagram is owned by the same company that owns Facebook and you can set up your Community Meeting Instagram account so that it immediately posts to Facebook too. However, please be aware that it does not work that way, the other way around!
WordPress
If you are unsure how to put posts together that will interest and engage other members of your community when you begin, perhaps writing and publishing a journal of what you are doing and what you have experienced will be a very good way to start.
Blogs of the kind you need to write don’t need to be long. They just need to be factual and relevant in every way that you can make them.
WordPress will also allow you to repost material or blogs from other WordPress sites if you want to.
WordPress is the blogging platform that I currently use to support everything I write, and it’s where any resources I will be making available to share with you will be found.
Setting up
All of these social media platforms take just a few minutes to set up.
Some suggestions:
Use a picture or pictures of a location or landmark that everyone in your community will know and relate to – One that isn’t a private residence, a business or includes People or private property that can be identified within it.
Use a free app such as Meme Maker to add your Community Meeting name and do any basic editing you may need, to the picture or pictures before you use them.
Write a short bio and use it for all four of them. For example, ‘Bringing Churchdown together so that public decisions are made for us all, the same’
Where you can, immediately set up posting links between your different social media platforms, so that when you post to one, you immediately post to all (For instance, if you write a blog in WordPress, the set up will allow you to automatically post to Facebook, and Instagram does the same thing too).
STEP 4: Get posting and post as often as you can:
As soon as your Community Meeting social media platforms are up and running, you should begin posting and sharing everything that you can or have the time to, online.
People from across your community will be interested in what you are doing from the moment that you begin work.
However, the key to success is what you then do to keep those same People engaged and interested, and then thinking about what more they could and then want to do, to help you.
What kind of things you should post:
People you don’t know will respond very well when they feel like you are talking to them, rather than at them.
A really helpful way to approach writing anything to post on social media and online, is to treat it like you are having a normal chat or conversation with someone that you already know – just without anything that would be too familiar or personal. (For instance, leave out bad language, irony, sarcasm or anything that people who aren’t used to the way you speak might not ‘get’ or understand)
You don’t need to write loads to engage People either. Short and punchy lines or just a couple of paragraphs are more than enough, IF there is a message worth sharing included.
Use your Community Meeting social media platforms to post:
News:When you’ve launched, when you have set up something like a fundraiser for People to use, when you’ve made contact with another Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE group, when a member of the community volunteers and is taking on a specific responsibility or role AND when Community Meetings have been arranged.
Questions:You should ask People what they think about things you are doing and speak as if you are already addressing the whole community – no matter how many People are already involved. Remember that the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE pathway to creating functioning Community Meetings is all about engaging and listening to everyone who wants to speak and participate across the local Community – so give them that chance from day 1!
Updates:Tell everyone what you and those working with you have achieved. For instance, if you have made a commitment to visit a certain number of houses to talk to local People by a certain date, tell everyone how you are getting on. Or share other updates about how other Community Meetings are getting on.
The kind of things you shouldn’t post:
Remember that your Community Meeting and everything you create, set up and achieve belongs to the Community from the moment you begin.
It’s therefore very important not to blur the lines and make anything you post about you, what you are doing when you are not working on Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, or anything personal to you, such as talking about the things that you like.
DON’T use your Community Meeting social media platforms to post:
Anything Personal: DON’T use the platforms you have set up for your Community Meeting to post ANYTHING that is about you or anyone else personally.
Anything about Public Policy or Politics: The whole point of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is the creation of the circumstances where we are able to Vote for People to represent us all as Public Representatives who have been chosen by the Community and whose integrity in fulfilling their responsibilities is something we can trust. Policy itself is the next issue, once we have Politicians running government that we can trust. So, if the focus shifts away from listening and the commitment to the order that these steps have to come, your only success by making policy statement or making an endorsement of a policy of any kind, will only be to divide People at precisely the wrong time.
Rules for using social media as a successful Community building tool:
Here are some general rules that will help you to build a good reputation for your Community Meeting, to stay happy and to build good relationships across your social media platforms, with anyone worth building them with online:
ALWAYS approach social media like it’s a one-to-one conversation with someone you already know.
Don’t do or say anything to anyone online, that you wouldn’t be happy to do or say directly to their face, in real life.
NEVER MAKE IT PERSONAL. Even the People on the internet who are rude are reflecting only how they feel about their own life and the world. ITS NEVER ABOUT YOU – but it soon will be, IF you are the one to initiate any kind of abuse or attack!
If you are unsure of whether you should post whatever you’ve written, DON’T POST IT!
Don’t present opinions and views as fact to anyone. It’s possible to get into legal trouble if you do, and you never know who will see what you have written or published, and People will be very quick to call you out!
Don’t lie or make things up – especially if you have received a comment or read something that makes you uncomfortable.
Don’t post when you are feeling emotional or are under the influence of drink or drugs.
Always answer polite and constructive questions. There will be more People who will be genuinely interested in what you are saying or doing than there will be those who only have bad things to say about anything or anyone.
NEVER make promises that you have no way of knowing that you can keep.
If you are asked a question and don’t know the answer, be honest. Don’t even attempt to blag your way out. Find a way to engage directly if you can and let them know that you will find the answer and get back to them.
Ignore anyone who only has negative things to say.
DO NOT use the number of likes, shares, followers or any other kind of statistic that’s openly available as a way to tell you how successful your efforts have been. Alone, they NEVER accurately correlate with what People are really thinking. The reality is that if you only ever succeed in openly engaging one person, that one person could be connected and then tell your story to the whole world!
Don’t share links to anyone or anything that you don’t trust or are not fully aware of and know to be relevant and helpful to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
REMEMBER: Unless you have done something you shouldn’t have, People only attack and criticise the work and efforts of others online, when they have nothing useful or of benefit to anyone else to say. Keep doing the right thing by everyone, and you will soon be shocked by who this cap actually fits!
Don’t publish any picture of anyone who can be identified from that picture, unless you have their permission to do so. You should get that permission in writing wherever you can.
Don’t publish information that will identify People directly, unless it relates to material that already exists in the public realm – In which case, publish the link, so readers can see what you are referencing or referring to.
Don’t publish anything on your Community Meeting platforms that promote the views of any organisation or any individual in any way, other than your Community Meeting, itself.
Things to be aware of:
Remember that you need to keep the AIM, METHOD and PROCESS of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE in your mind at all times.
ALWAYS CHECK THAT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE POSTED THEN POSTS AS IT SHOULD, WHERE ITS SUPPOSED TO, AND THAT ITS POSTED ON TIME!
STEP 5: Get at least 12 People you know from your community signed up
Although the PROCESS is all about getting People from within your local Community to Meet up and work together, the PROCESS is also built upon the foundation of getting your message to begin working on its own, without you having to do all the work.
One of the easiest ways to get your Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE messages to start engaging other members of your local Community and to begin working for you remotely too, is to focus your first efforts on getting local People following, liking and sharing all of the social media platforms you have set up.
Clearly, the more follows, likes and shares you have, the bigger the number of People who will see your posts will be – even if they don’t like, share or follow themselves.
Because of the way that social media and search engines work, there always seem to be a number of follows, of likes and shares that need to be hit or achieved before pages reach a magic moment or what some would call a critical mass, when new or additional followers and likes just seem to start arriving and adding up, all by themselves.
From what I know and understand at the time of writing, you will help yourself greatly if you can immediately share your Facebook page with at least 12 People from your local Community who are friends with you on Facebook, who then follow or like your Community Meeting Facebook Page, and then like and share posts with all the People they know, as you publish them.
It’s not critical for you to do this, at this point. But it will certainly help and add to your confidence, if you can secure this support in what you would be able to call a ‘quick win’.
STEP 6: Knock on doors and talk to real People as often as you can
Knocking on doors and talking to real People, face to face, may prove to be the biggest, but also the most rewarding challenge that you will face, as part of the PROCESS to create the METHOD of delivering the AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
Before you let yourself worry about something silly, such as asking yourself ‘what are these People going to think’, please bear in mind that everyone, including you, likes to be asked what they think or how they feel about the things that are important to them.
Not only do People like to be asked for their views and opinion. There’s no better place to give your views and opinion, than at the doorstep of your own home.
When to call or knock on doors
The best times to knock on doors and find People in and most likely to be available and happy to speak to you will be between 6 and 8pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during a normal working week, and on Saturday mornings between the hours of 9am and 12pm.
You should always avoid houses where it’s clear that parties or other meetups of some kind are underway.
Don’t go out knocking on doors when you know that big sporting events or other things are on TV that a lot of People are likely to want to watch.
What you should always say
At some point during any conversation – preferably as a start, you must always explain who you are, what you are doing and why you are doing it.
You aren’t knocking on the door to preach a message. You are there to listen and learn.
So, keep your explanation as brief as possible. But make it long enough so that your reason for being there makes sense in a way that anyone will be happy with and able to understand.
For example, you could say something like:
“Good evening, my name is Adam and I live in the next road to yours. I’m growing concerned about the decisions being made on our behalf by Politicians within our Local Councils and the Government and am in the process of reaching out to other local People to share our experiences and see if we feel the same. I was wondering if you have any concerns about any of these things you would be happy to share yourself and then see if theres anything we can do together and with others from the area to try and address the problems we have in common?”
The Dos
DO:
Introduce yourself in terms that make sense of who you are – For example, “I’m Adam and I live in the road next to yours, I often see you when I’m at the bus stop…” etc.
Ask People to share their views and what concerns them.
Say that you are concerned about what’s happening with government and public services because of the People who are elected to run them and that you want to learn and understand how other People in your Community feel, and what the issues are that are important to them. But again, don’t start talking about what YOU want to happen or see.
Make clear that you are not working for, on behalf of, and are not affiliated with any existing Political Party or movement.
Share with the People you speak to that what we have in common and what we share together is more important than any ideas that divide us or that have been tearing us all apart
Bring focus to the way that the political system works, being the problem that needs to be fixed BEFORE we can then focus on getting the policies right.
End by sharing with them that you are looking to arrange a new type of Community Meeting to bring People from across the Community together, so that we can all share our ideas and experiences and then agree what we can do next.
Suggest there will be opportunities for anyone and everyone within the Community to help and take part and do more if they want to. But the most important thing is participation and sharing the message so that everyone can be involved and take part if they want to.
Ask if they would follow and share your social media addresses.
Take their email address if they are happy to stay in touch with you directly.
The DONTs
DON’T:
Don’t treat someone else’s doorstep as your own personal soapbox or use the opportunity to grandstand or ‘big up’ the part you are playing in any way.
Don’t abuse the gift of time that anyone is prepared to give you.
Don’t share your own views and experiences UNLESS you are asked to and only then, keep it factual and don’t include your views or what you think should be done.
Don’t criticise ANY of the Political Parties, organisations, any public figure or anyone who you believe to be setting a bad example or to have done anything ‘wrong’. You are running your own race and when it comes down to the example of what not to do in Politics, they have already won…
Don’t make anything up, lie or stretch the truth about any topic you discuss.
Don’t make promises you cannot keep.
Don’t waste their time or yours. If it is clear that the Person or People you are talking to, are already committed to supporting an existing Political Party or movement of some kind. You will not change the mind of anyone who isn’t already open to the idea of change.
Information you should always provide
If you knock on someone’s door, it’s just polite and courteous to give them your name.
If it is clear that the person or People you have called on are interested in what you are doing, don’t end the conversation or leave until they know about your Community Meeting social media accounts, and they have the addresses so that they can follow, share and like.
Do not be afraid to provide any of the details you have prepared whilst you have been working to hold a Community Meeting. If you are following this Guide and the TEN STEPS, you will have no reason to hide anything that you have published.
The reality is that once momentum starts building behind what you and what others like you are doing, there will be People involved or supporting existing Politicians and Political Parties who will see Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and the idea of a new form of Community Meetings as a threat.
Let them.
The future of your community is for the members of your community to decide.
Not them.
Things to be aware of:
The most important thing to be mindful here, is that you do not have the right to be heard on someone else’s doorstep.
If it should become apparent that your call and presence at someone’s door is not in any way welcome at any point, turn around and leave immediately.
Always do so politely, and especially so, if you are already talking to someone when you become aware of this.
Never worry about how many houses you call at in one session. If you were out knocking on doors for just 4 hours and spend 15 minutes at each door you call at listening to what People who matter like you on their doorsteps have to say, you will have connected with more People in that one session than any of the existing Political Parties will have done so by taking the same time to deliver one of their glossy leaflets through the letterbox of every house on a giant housing estate.
STEP 7: Collaborate wherever possible. Accept help and support from whoever you can. Always be prepared to work with others. BUT ALWAYS QUALIFY YOUR SUPPORT
You may begin working on the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE PROCESS alone. But you should do so knowing that for your own and everyone else’s efforts to be successful, it will soon be necessary to pool efforts with others who are thinking the same way as you.
Help will come in many different forms and from many different directions, IF you get to work and just let your faith in the PROCESS take care of the rest.
If an Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE Community Meeting has already been established locally
If you should find that somebody else has already began working in your local area to build a Community Meeting using the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE PROCESS, this is great news for your area.
Anyone who is genuinely committed to developing a community response to the problems we face will be happy to collaborate with others who are clearly setting off from the same starting point and viewing the process of changing the way that we do Politics in the UK in the same way.
Even if somebody has already begun work to develop a Community Meeting locally, there is no reason why you cannot get started on your own, IF you genuinely believe that it will help the local Community for you to focus on an even smaller area to begin with.
However, there is also a lot of truth in the suggestion that ‘many hands make light work’.
If you get in touch with whoever is also working locally and tell them that you intend to follow the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE PROCESS too and that you are open to collaborating, the chances are that an honest and open conversation will soon let you know how you can combine efforts and reach more People in less time, by pooling your efforts on the same campaign.
Offers of help when you knock on doors
It may not happen straight away. But once you get used to knocking on People’s doors, introducing yourself and why you are there, and then listening to what the People have to say, your confidence and passion for what you are doing will begin to shine through in a way that just your words alone will not.
You shouldn’t be surprised if People you talk to at their doorsteps are then immediately receptive to the idea of getting involved and helping you in some way – or in some cases, actually asking you there and then what they can do.
Whatever you do next, if someone is interested in helping or has made a firm offer of help, you should:
Exchange contact details and make sure that they have the details and usernames of all the platforms you are using.
Ask them what they would like to do to help.
Ask them if there is anything they are NOT happy to do.
Discuss the possibility of meeting up again quickly, so that you can arrange the next steps.
Provide them with the links to find Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE on Amazon and Online and suggest that they read the whole Book all the way through.
PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER that volunteers are NOT employees.
Like you, People who are genuinely prepared to come and work with you and collaborate with us all to build Community Meetings will make effort and give their time for nothing. BECAUSE IT IS IMPORTANT TO THEM.
That means that whatever they do, really does need to be something that they are happy to do. So, it is essential that you don’t push anyone to do anything they are uncomfortable with doing, ESPECIALLY if it’s something that you are not keen on doing yourself.
If someone wants to help but just wants to write blogs for you or deliver leaflets once the first Community Meeting is arranged, let them do whatever they want to and be appreciative of even the smallest thing they have done to help.
Check the priorities and background of any volunteers who ‘come out of the blue’
As Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE begins to build interest from local People within your Community, it will also gain interest from People, Politicians and Political Parties who are invested in The System we already have, and with a commitment to resisting any kind of meaningful change.
It’s quite possible that you will be offered help from People like this which isn’t really help at all. And if you are not aware of who or why someone has approached you out of the blue, there is a chance that they want to get involved with what you are doing using an offer of help, but with every intention of hindering or even stopping you from achieving all that you have set out to do.
As a matter of course, you should always do a thorough social media and internet search of anyone who offers help or wants to collaborate with you in any way.
Whilst the reality of what it takes to deliver Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE will always uncover those who are not committed to Community Meetings and what they will deliver, you cannot leave checking out who is volunteering to your first impressions.
The chances are that your focus could easily be on more important things than what they are doing, once you have put trust in them to do whatever they say. Sadly, the time it could take to see them for who they really are could be longer than it takes for real damage to have been done.
British Politics is broken because it works this very way, today.
Offers of Help you should always avoid:
People who have active or recent links to existing Political Parties.
People who are already Politicians or who work or are linked to Local Authorities.
People who don’t have any kind of record available when you search them out.
People with details and profiles online that appear to be unestablished or very new.
Anyone whose ‘story’ doesn’t match what they or anyone who has introduced them to you has told you.
Refusing the wrong kind of help:
It is quite possible that you will receive offers of help from People with a background like that we have just discussed, or that you have become aware that they are unlikely to be genuine in some other way.
Whether an offer of help is genuine or not, if you find that you need to decline or reject that offer for any reason at all, you should always do so properly, and be polite when you do so.
People who want to involve themselves in anything for the wrong reasons often have very fragile egos. They will become angry and problematic if they are given just the slightest excuse to do so.
Avoid giving them that excuse.
Things to be aware of:
Collaboration is essential between People and groups, when what is good for us all and for the whole Community is at stake.
Until now, different People and groups who have focused on political ideas and activism of one kind or another have happily allowed their own ideas to get in the way of the things in life that are most important to us all.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE requires that we think about what’s really important to everyone in a very different way.
You will enjoy the whole PROCESS if you are open to working with and collaborating with others. You will soon be making many new friends of People you already know, along the way!
STEP 8: Arrange your first Community Meeting
Once you have started to build up a list of local People you have had direct contact with who are interested in supporting what you are doing and in taking part, the next step is to arrange your first Community Meeting.
Holding Community Meetings is the METHOD to achieving Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
For the first meeting, aiming to have as few as between 30 and 50 local People in attendance is likely to be all you need.
This means you won’t have to wait too long before you can be confident of numbers, and it is likely that there will already be a pub with a function room or a community building of some kind that can be booked either free of charge or for a very modest fee.
The chances are that you will already have somewhere appropriate in mind.
Booking a room
Most Meeting Rooms that can be booked by members of the Public will have information about booking them online.
Look up the details and check the availability. But only proceed if you are happy with the terms of hire and that you already have the funds available to cover any Room Hire Costs.
Please avoid any venue that requires a Room Hire Fee, if you cannot cover the cost, if someone has not already volunteered to pay or donated the fee, or you haven’t already received enough in any Crowdfunder you may have set up.
A pub will be just as good as a dedicated Meeting Venue, and with the difficult times that we are all experiencing right now, you may find that your local Pub Landlord will be very receptive to the idea of having a group of local People come in!
Wherever you decide to hold your first Community Meeting – don’t go ahead unless and until you know that the venue management is happy first!
When to hold your first Community Meeting
It is essential to make it as easy as possible for as many members of your local Community to attend EVERY Community Meeting that you hold.
In time, it could easily become clear that enough People are available to attend meetings at a different time. But in the first instance, you are most likely to have the biggest attendance possible if you arrange your first Community Meetings on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening, with a focus on the main business being conducted between 7 and 9pm.
Please avoid any dates when you know that there is any kind of event, like a local school parents evening or a big sports event on TV that will draw People’s attention elsewhere.
In time, it won’t matter. But to begin with, this will be the most effective way to get the maximum number of local People involved.
Make sure you let EVERYONE know
Whether they attend any of your Community Meetings or not, it is important that you let everyone in your community area know and provide notice of when and where the first one will be held.
You don’t need to drop leaflets or contact everyone directly when every Community Meeting that follows is held – as a notice by email or across all of your social media platforms for these will do.
However, for any subsequent Meeting arranged when any important decisions will be agreed – and in particular, when a Vote upon candidates to represent the Community in Elections is going to be held, you MUST make sure that everyone has been told.
It doesn’t matter if some People choose not to attend, or for some reason are unable to do so.
But it is essential that when something important is happening, EVERYONE in the Community has been informed or what is happening and has been offered the opportunity to be involved.
You only need to have put a leaflet through every door. But you must be sure that this has happened, so that no matter whether you have had direct contact with every household in your community area or not, EVERYONE has at least been made aware.
If you cannot achieve this for any reason, you should not go ahead with any meeting where any important decisions are made.
Otherwise, it is always possible that someone can say that they haven’t been informed about what your Community Meeting is doing, and that could cast doubt upon the legitimacy of the whole process.
The legitimacy of your Community Meeting can only be guaranteed if it is clear that everyone has a choice to get involved.
That said, don’t worry if you experience an existing Politician or someone like them or linked to them making accusations that they weren’t told what was going on.
As long as you know and can confirm that everyone has been contacted, they won’t have a leg for their argument or accusations to stand on.
Something important for you to bear in mind:
When you book a Meeting Room or Venue, it’s really important that you check that the owners or managers are happy for you to hold a Community Meeting.
There is nothing wrong with what you or any of us are doing.
However, many different Community buildings will be under the control of People like existing local Councillors, and People just like them, who are heavily invested in the current System and the way that it all works.
Many of them will not want to be seen to be supportive of what you are going to do.
They will make any excuse to stand in your way or object to your use of what is a community owned asset that was actually intended for just the kind of purpose you intend to use it for.
If you come across People who behave like this and misuse their position and the responsibility they have been entrusted with, you are just experiencing the kind of behaviour that Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is working to remove from everyone’s way.
In the meantime, don’t sweat it or worry about it if small-minded and selfish people try to get in the way. There are plenty of other options and plenty of other ways to succeed.
Things to be aware of:
You do not need to have everyone signed up or committed to attending when you have your first Community Meeting. But you do need to have at least taken every step possible to ensure that they are aware.
Holding your first Community Meeting and then reporting back to other members of the Community about it will almost certainly prove to be a very useful way to help get even more People involved in the future.
So, it could be a good idea to be working on STEP 8 as soon as you start – as long as you are confident doing all the things you need to, and in keeping the momentum up too.
STEP 9: At your Community Meeting, let the People use their voice
Your role is that of being a facilitator for your Community Meeting. Not the voice of your Community Meeting itself.
When you met local People from across your Community in STEP 6, you explained who you were, what you were doing and why you were there, and then you listened as the Person or People told you what they think.
It is important to understand that your role at your first Community Meeting will be very similar again.
The strength in the PROCESS, METHOD and AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is helping everyone in your community to take back their own power.
To do this, we must give everyone back the opportunity to speak, to use their own voice and to be heard.
The agenda for your first Community Meeting
The real agenda of your first Community Meeting is to begin the process of bringing what appears to be a very different group of People together. They can then begin the process of recognising the value of what they all have in common, and what they share, together. All in one room.
There is a good chance that amongst any Community Meeting, and particularly if the meeting is one of the first, there will be a Person or People present who will be happy to sound off very quickly, IF they don’t get the opportunity to take over. Or they believe that there is more value in doing things a different way.
When you begin and you speak for the first time, it is very important that you create and share a few brief ‘house rules’ with everyone.
These could be something like:
That by being here, and by taking part, we ALL agree that:
This Community Meeting is for everyone and as such, everyone will have the opportunity to speak – IF they want to.
We will all commit to listening to what every speaker has to say.
When we want to comment, our comments will be shared in the sense of looking forward and how ideas can be built and improved upon, rather than being negative and critical or focused on the past.
If we don’t understand someone else’s perspective or we believe that in some way it doesn’t make sense, we will respectfully ask them to explain their perspective further and ask them to do so using their experiences – if they are happy to share.
That we all remain polite, respectful of others, and above all else, we won’t speak across others and will wait for our turn.
You will be surprised by just how engaged everyone will quickly become, once they know that not only will they be heard, but everyone will be listening to everyone else with the same open mind too.
So that every member of the Community who is present is treated as fairly as can be, it might also be a good idea to follow a format and talk everyone through what that will happen as each person speaks, before you begin.
This might be something like this:
Everyone will have the opportunity to speak.
We will go around the room in order but will be happy to begin with anyone who is particularly keen to speak first.
When it’s your turn to speak, please share your name and the area of our community where you live.
Please also share with us if you already have a role within our community too.
We would then like to hear your thoughts on any issue which is concerning you, along with any thoughts about how people affected could be helped.
We would also like to hear your thoughts on what your ideal public representative should be experienced in and able to do, before we make a Community Decision upon whether to endorse them, and then support them when an Election is called.
The most important thing to do is to make sure that everyone who wants to speak has had the opportunity to do so – no matter how long it takes.
It’s always worth being patient.
Don’t let anyone talk about forming or agreeing Policy at this stage:
As we discussed in STEP 4 when we talked about posting on social media, this is not the time to do anything other than listen to what everyone has to sayand what experience they want to share. It’s not the right time to get into the details of Public Policy itself.
The overall AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and the Community Meetings that you have brought into being, is for your community to select the very best Public Representatives that it can and then endorse and support them until they have successfully been elected. That is the right time for any discussion about Public Policy to begin.
If any kind of effort to reach agreement on a political position takes place at this stage – even if it’s about who and what, or how something is wrong, you will very quickly find that cracks will appear in the support you have been working so hard to grow.
No matter what the topic might be, even words that suggest People have to get behind an idea that might polarise opinion at this point, will be enough to derail your efforts.
People need to experience that Community Meetings not only have the power to bring members of your local Community together. They MUST also see and then KNOW that collaboration of this kind can yield genuine results too.
This will not be achieved until your Community Meeting has selected, endorsed and supported candidates and they have been elected – When People will see that Politics established on commonality rather than separation and difference, is a real alternative and choice.
Things to be aware of:
Communication is a two-way street.
Being a good communicator is as much about being able to listen and hear everyone when they speak or understand them through whatever it is that they do, as it is to speak, write or publish your words, yourself.
A public meeting is a very different environment to somebody’s own doorstep, where most people will feel safe. Many of the People who felt very comfortable talking to you one-to-one, will become hesitant to speak, when the opportunity comes to speak in front of ‘everyone’.
This is a very human and normal response. So don’t push anyone to speak if they don’t want to.
Also bear in mind that the experience of being in a group can make some People feel boxed in. If they think for any reason that what they have said could be viewed in some way as being wrong, they might easily become defensive too – which in some cases might appear they are becoming angry.
What you should have achieved when your first Community Meeting reaches its end
Your first Community Meeting is only the first. And it could be the first of a great many to come.
Let’s hope so. Because agreeing and then arranging your next Community Meeting will be one of the first and most meaningful ways that you can measure your success and see the result of the effort that you have put in.
By the end of the first Community Meeting, those attending should know and understand:
The primary AIM of Community Meetings is to qualify, select and then support candidates who are members of your local Community to stand in every upcoming Election as the candidate or candidates who have been chosen by the Community, to represent the Community and to speak and Vote on its behalf.
The dates and timelines for the next Parish/Town, Borough/District, County/Unitary Elections covering your area (where they are relevant), and any pointers you might then be able to provide about when the next General Election might be.
The role that each and every member of the local Community is being invited to play in selecting Community Candidates for upcoming Elections.
When the process of selecting Community Candidates for the next Election is likely to begin.
The date of the next Community Meeting.
What everyone who is already contributing to the PROCESS will be doing next.
How everyone can keep up to date, keep in touch and do their bit to build the Community Meeting, so that as many People as possible are ready and able to take part, when you all come together and meet next time.
You should arrange the next Community Meeting as soon as possible and hold meetings as frequently as possible thereafter.
Be prepared to have small interim meetings online, using software like Microsoft Teams or Zoom, if this will be helpful to anyone – and particularly everyone who is making an active contribution and taking part as a volunteer.
Depending upon how well attended your last Community Meeting was and when the next Election will be, you should begin taking steps and discussing the process you will use to select your Candidates as part of a special Community Meeting that you might be ready to hold next time.
Please be aware:
Your Community Candidates cannot begin working on their Election Campaign, or the pre-campaign work that they will need to, UNTIL your Community Meeting has Selected and Endorsed them.
STEP 10: Hold meetings to identify your community representatives and agree what happens next
The AIM of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is to have Candidates on every ballot paper in every Election who have been selected by the Community – so that there is a legitimate and qualified choice.
Selecting your Candidates for Endorsement will be rather like being an employer who is setting up and managing a recruitment process.
The key difference will be that there isn’t one person or two, but potentially an entire Community of local People that will be making the final decision and choice.
Because of the clear need and requirement to respect and protect personal data, some of the process may need to be undertaken by a committee that is appointed by your Community Meeting, which can then make a recommendation or perhaps offer several People who can then speak to the whole Community and answer questions that will help everyone to settle upon the final choice.
The most important part of the Candidate Selection process will be the very first job your Community Meeting will have to complete.
This will be to identify, agree and implement the framework or terms under which your appointed committee will then makes its recommendations or present its final choice.
Some things that you should all discuss and consider:
No person should automatically be precluded from consideration to be endorsed by your Community as a Candidate for reasons other than those which would disqualify any person from becoming a registered candidate in the relevant Election to be held.
However, a successfully Endorsed Candidate should, at least:
Already reside within the Community that they would represent or live very close by.
Offer experience of life which has enabled them to understand the priorities and behaviour of others, from across different social and demographic groups.
Offer sufficient experience of holding responsibility of some kind, within business or some other organisation, where they have demonstrated an appreciation of how organisations and services work.
Be patient and caring for others, with a clear ability to listen, understand and empathise whilst remaining objective where different perspectives and experiences may be involved.
Have confidence and the ability to speak and explain real life concepts to others objectively and to present alternative options in a way that is accessible to all and basically makes sense.
Possess evident self-awareness and the ability to consider the impact of their actions upon others, as well as the likely actions of others upon themselves, all in ‘real time’.
Be aspirational rather than idealistic. And practical but not negative in their demeanor and approach.
Have skills and knowledge that would clearly be beneficial to the Community, when used in a relevant political role.
Be driven by public service, rather than by personal ambition of any kind.
Your Community Meeting should avoid selecting a Candidate, purely because:
They are popular or already have some kind of ‘standing’ in the Community.
You like them.
They sound credible and appear to know ‘all the right things’.
They already have a ‘following’ of some kind.
They seem to have a lot of ideas.
Under no circumstances should your Community Meeting be asked to consider any person for endorsement as a Candidate, if:
They are a current member of any Political Party or activist organisation.
They are a sitting / elected member of any Council, or Parliament or of any other publicly appointed or elected body.
They have been a member of any existing Political Party within the past 5 years.
To be fair, finding People who have the most appropriate kind of experience and approach who actually want to be involved in Politics, given the way that things are and how they have been, won’t be the easiest task. At least right at the very beginning.
However, finding the right People from within your local Community is certainly nowhere near impossible.
The PROCESS will be made much easier by following each of the TEN STEPS to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, as rigorously and as diligently as you can.
The reality is that once People start to become aware that there is a growing, non-political option that’s all about doing what’s right for everyone, many more good People will be interested in coming forward to serve on behalf of our communities than those who are prepared to take the risk that Politics offers them right now.
Choosing your Candidate Selection Committee
Choosing the members of your Community Meeting who will sift through, research and initially interview potential Candidates for Endorsement is just as important a job as selecting the Candidates to stand in Elections themselves.
As with Candidate Selection, the ability to be objective is key.
Selection Committee Members must be able to look at every part of the information they have and go in search of and be able to consider it without letting their own experiences and biases get in the way.
You will need at least three People and preferably five or even seven to take on this role.
Of these, it may become apparent that one member will have more of these attributes and as such may be well placed to take on a chair or facilitator role, where they can point out where certain things may have excessive influence on how Candidates are perceived in some way.
Transparency
Whatever process you decide upon and whether you have a Candidate Selection Committee or not, there is absolutely no reason to hide anything, other than any personal information that it is only right and that it might be necessary to protect.
Please research handling personal data and The Office of The Information Commissioner if unsure.
When your Community Meeting has agreed and set the Terms for Candidate Selection, these should be published in full online, with links highlighted and made available across all of the social media platforms that you are using and making available publicly.
It is essential that the process your Community Meeting uses to select, and Endorse Candidates for Elections is clear, agreeable and fair to everyone – with the balance of fairness always weighted towards the Community as a whole, rather than what will be helpful to any particular Candidate.
PLEASE REMEMBER: Public Representation IS NOT A JOB. IT IS A RESPONSIBILITY.
For this reason alone, it is essential that no part of this whole process is compromised by entertaining even the smallest bias towards what any individual involved within it may want.
Presentation, Questions and Answers
No matter the process your Community Meeting decides upon to get there, the final decision and therefore the Endorsement of a Candidate by the Community, MUST come from an overall Vote of the Community Meeting itself.
Whilst the Candidate Selection Committee may have made a selection, or ideally presented several preferred choices for the Community Meeting to make its choice or choices from, it is essential that all those members of the local Community taking part in the final Vote have had the opportunity to see the ability of the candidate(s) to represent them, demonstrated BEFORE that Vote takes place.
One of the best ways to achieve this, beyond an open Question & Answer session, will be to ask the final candidates to talk through their understanding of a complex area of public policy that the Community Meeting has already identified as being important.
Then ask them to go through, in detail, and explain their understanding of each and every aspect of that issue. How they would go about finding a solution, and what their considerations for reaching a choice of solution would then be.
How many Candidates does your Community Meeting need to Endorse?
This may sound like a silly question to ask at first glance, as many of us are used to the idea that we Vote for one person to represent an area in any Election.
That’s certainly true for Parliamentary Elections when we are voting for an MP to represent us.
However, it’s not always the case for Local Elections when Councillors are being elected.
So, it’s not unusual to be electing 2 different Councillors or perhaps even 3 at the same time – meaning that Voters will need to choose that number of candidates to support when they actually come to Vote.
By rule of thumb, the more local the Council or the smaller the geographical area it covers, the more candidates – and Votes on one ballot, local People could have. The very first time I was elected as a Councillor to a Town Council, my Seat was one of 6!
Therefore, your Community Meeting will need to endorse the same number of Candidates for the number of Seats or Vacancies to be filled, that there are.
This information will be available from your local Democratic Services or Elections department and more information about the different Councils and the Tiers of Government can be found on my FREE to read, web version of How to get Elected.
REMEMBER: The AIM of Community Meetings with Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is to provide all Voters with the exact number of Candidates to fill any elected positions that are vacant within our current System of Government.
The Community Meeting will select those Candidates through the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE process, just like the Political Parties use their own processes to.
The VERY BIG difference is that Candidates endorsed by Community Meetings will be selected to be genuine Public Representatives who work for and on behalf of the Community. Rather than being Candidates who will always be working for someone, somewhere else and out of sight, with an agenda that isn’t in yours or your community’s best interests.
The Vote
When it comes to the final Vote of the Community Meeting and the Candidate Endorsement itself, the Vote to achieve this MUST be conducted in the fairest way that it can be.
On the face of it, it would appear that the easiest way to be assured of legitimacy would be to work with a simple show of hands.
However, when everyone can see what everyone else is doing, it can too easily mean that ‘group think’ or fear of offending or upsetting certain People from within the local Community can get to work. This is something you will always need to be mindful of.
Remember, if the PROCESS and METHOD are compromised at any stage, then the real AIM of all of the work and effort made will not have been achieved. The Community WILL NOT have the chance to be represented properly and legitimately in the way that it should.
Therefore, passing a ballot paper or slip of paper with the name(s) of each candidate listed to each member of the Community who is voting, and asking them to place a tick against the name of one of the proposed candidates listed, will almost certainly be the right way to complete the voting process and to ensure that it has been fairly done.
Supporting The Candidate
Once your Community Meeting has endorsed your Candidate(s), the work doesn’t end there.
The process of supporting your Candidate(s) to connect with everyone across the Community is your next essential step.
You should use all of the social media platforms that you have to make People aware of who your Community Meeting has Endorsed, and therefore who has the Community Meeting’s qualified support.
Preparing for Elections
It is important to remember that Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is neither a Book nor a Guide for Election Candidates, once they have been Endorsed by a Community Meeting will need to do as part of an Election campaign itself.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is about the creation of circumstances where Candidates for Elected Public Offices have been vetted, selected, approved and endorsed by the Community to be on our ballot papers as a ‘recommended for, by and on behalf of this Community’ choice.
In time, being Endorsed by a Community Meeting to run as a Candidate in any Election will be enough, in itself, to attract Votes from a significant number of People. Much in the same way that the majority of political candidates get backed by People right now. Not because of who they are. But because of which Political Party they are running with.
It may be a relatively short time until your Endorsed Candidate(s) attract that kind of support. But that time could well prove be longer than the time between now and the next Election in your area.
Ideally, your Community Meeting will Endorse Candidates to run in the next Election that is scheduled or expected.
Whenever that Election might be, it is essential your Endorsed Candidates begin work on campaigning across the area and connecting with Members of the Community, in very much the same way as you will be doing yourself.
Until such time as a shared name or political vehicle might be needed and agreed upon to bring all Community Meeting endorsed or approved Candidates together, the best way for any Candidate to consider themselves for the purposes of registering with your local Democratic Services or Elections Office, is to run as an ‘Independent’ candidate.
The very first book that I wrote and published, “How to Get Elected” is intended to help Independent Candidates in a way that is almost identical to the support that your Endorsed Candidates are likely to need right now.
You will find the whole book split up into pages and available to read FREE HERE. (The FREE version is much easier to access from a PC, where the page titles are listed in order, on the right-hand side of the screen).
Alternatively, you can buy and download a copy of How to get Elected for Kindle from Amazon HERE.
How to Get Elected is a self-help or ‘How to’ guide that covers all the things a Candidate needs to be aware of or to consider, with a lot of additional thoughts, experience and tips thrown in.
Like Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, the way to get the very best value from the book, How to Get Elected, is to read it all the way through, without missing anything out.
How to Get Elected will fill in all the gaps that need to be crossed by Candidates, before other support and help may become available.
Fundraising
Costs that may occur such as Room Hire, and printing leaflets have been mentioned at a number of different points throughout the TEN STEPS.
Before anything else, you will not need to spend any money or even consider whether you will need to spend money BEFORE you have reached STEP 8 and are in the early stages of arranging your first Community Meeting.
If you have already gained sufficient support for your first Community Meeting, it is likely that you will also have enough support to raise the modest funding necessary to cover any costs of Room Hire and Leaflet Production/Printing too.
Protecting yourself and protecting your donors
The first thing you need to consider if you are going to raise money to pay for any Community Meeting related costs, is that any money you raise – even if it’s just pennies – is NOT yours.
If you’ve told People that any money they donate will be for a specific purpose, or just in general terms to help the creation of your Community Meeting in some way, that is the only purpose that it should ever be used for.
In the stages leading up to your first Community Meeting and possibly beyond, the safest way for you to raise money or receive donations is likely to be through setting up an online crowdfunding campaign using a platform like Go Fund Me or Just Giving. (There are others that you will find by doing an online search of ‘Crowdfunding’ or similar, too)
If you set up an account online, it is likely, depending upon which platform you use, that you will be able to manage your fundraising using an app and you will automatically be able to manage and track money coming in.
Not only that. You will also have the added value that will come from being able to post even more information about your Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE campaign within your local Community – and that can only be a big help!
Managing donations and protecting your Community Meeting
It may not be possible or practical to open up a bank account to manage any funds your Community Meeting campaign receives.
But it will be necessary to keep a written record of what money you withdraw or transfer from any Crowdfunder you’ve set up, and then how every bit of it is spent.
Whatever you spend money on (e.g., Room Hire, Printing costs), you should always ask for and keep a receipt.
Each transaction should be recorded in an Excel spreadsheet or similar – which will also make your input much easier, as the software can be set up to automatically do any sums for you.
It may sound like a lot of effort for very little. But when you are managing other People’s money, it’s the real detail that actually counts.
By keeping a very clear and transparent record of the process of financial management you have used, it will be very simple for you to demonstrate that you’ve done everything properly, IF anyone should ask.
It will also then be much easier and less time-consuming for you to hand over responsibility for financial matters to another person, as more volunteers become involved in building your Community Meeting.
Please Remember:
Donations are always made for what the donor believes they will be used for. Not so that you or anyone else can then use them for something else.
Any money given in the form of a donation belongs to the Community and should be given back to donors immediately, if your campaign stops at any time.
You are raising funds so that the only donation you have to make personally is your effort and time, without there being any financial cost to you.
Part 2: For those who just want to be able to Vote and know that their Vote will have real meaning
First of all, A WARNING:
There’s nothing passive about voting.Unless someone else has stolen your Vote.
Yes, you could be one of many who simply don’t bother to Vote when an Election comes to your local area, right now.
But that’s when you only had the option to Vote for something that’s important to somebody else. With Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and Community Meetings, you will now have the choice and option to Vote for something that will prioritise what is important for you, as well as for us all.
As we discussed earlier, change is always happening.
The choice you have is whether you want to play a part in defining change, or whether you want to sit back and let change happen to you.
You don’t need to be one of the People who will immediately take up an active, facilitator-type role for Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, and undertake the tasks outlines in detail throughout the TEN STEPS in Part 2.
But you won’t be helping anyone who does, and you certainly won’t be helping yourself and the opportunity that we all have for a Political System that genuinely works for us all, IF you don’t at least involve yourself enough to keep up to date with progress, spread the word to others, and attend Community Meetings whenever a choice or important decision that may impact your future, will be made.
If you don’t want to be actively involved, the STEPS you can STILL take that will help your Community Meeting are:
Supporting your Community Meeting on social media.
Supporting your Community Meeting by sharing the word.
Supporting your Community Meeting by sharing your experiences and any relevant information you might find.
Attending your Community Meetings whenever they are called.
Supporting your Community Meeting by taking part in the process of selecting Candidates for Elections and taking part in any Community Meeting Votes.
Supporting your Community Meeting by voting for all Candidates that the Community Meeting has endorsed when an Election takes place.
Supporting your Community Meeting on social media
Whilst there is no genuine substitute for meeting with other members of your local Community face to face, if you don’t have the time or don’t feel able to be involved in absolutely everything that the others involved with your local Community Meeting do, it will be both easy and helpful for you and your Community Meeting, if you support them by following whatever they are doing online.
Not everyone uses social media. But we are now in a time where the majority of People do. Of those that do, only a fraction will openly support or engage with articles, blogs and posts, even though they will have been of interest or made them think in some way.
The simple act of following or liking the social media pages and platforms of your local Community Meeting will be a massive help to build momentum, IF being able to be able to Vote for Candidates who are real and genuinely offer the option of NONE OF THE ABOVE, is all that you really want to achieve.
Because of the way that online technology such as search engines, algorithms and the AI or Artificial Intelligence that already operates many of these ‘platform’ sites on the Internet work, something as simple as a like or follow will immediately tell them that your interest in what your Community Meeting is doing, is real.
As a direct result, they will very quickly begin to ask other People like you, if your Community Meeting is something that would be of interest to them too.
This could make a massive difference for the cost of what could be no more than a couple of clicks.
Remember:
Community Meetings will bring members of the local Community together to select the People that the Community will support to become their Public Representatives.
This is not in itself a political act.
By liking or following your Community Meeting, you are simply sharing with anyone who knows or is interested in you, that you are taking seriously how the decisions affecting everyone locally are made, and that you are concerned enough that you believe it necessary to support the process and method that will deliver genuine change.
Supporting your Community Meeting by sharing the word
Another very easy way to support your Community Meeting is to talk about what local People are doing with Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE to anyone you see or have regular conversation with.
Word of mouth is a very powerful and influential tool. It also demonstrates just how important and helpful genuine and direct interaction with real People can actually be. It focuses on what Community Meetings are genuinely all about.
You don’t have to sell Community Meetings in the sense of eulogising or championing them to other People, unless you actually want to and feel comfortable doing so.
If you are open with people you know, about why Community Meetings are of interest to you and you share the facts about Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, as they genuinely are and what we are aiming to achieve together, the benefits of your local Community Meeting will very quickly sell themselves.
Please Remember:
If it helps to keep the conversation short, just tell People about Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and suggest that they also read the Book.
Otherwise, if you have a little more time and feel able, share the Usernames and links to the social media platforms that you have for your Community Meeting, once its developing and running, you can then leave it to People to take a look and then decide for themselves.
Supporting your Community Meeting by sharing your experiences and any relevant information you might find
Following on social media and spreading the word will be a fantastic help to your Community Meeting.
But you can help even more, IF you use your social media and the remote channels that are available to you, to actually contribute and take part online.
Community Meetings will always be the place for decisions to be made on what the Community wants to do about anything.
But the flow of information between Meetings will help everyone who is actively involved or just following progress from a distance.
If you see subjects or events relating to Community Meetings raised on social media that interest you, please do not be afraid to make comments or add information that might create or promote greater understanding – IF you are happy to share that information in an open forum, online.
People can only learn when they are open to learning. But the most powerful tool for learning is the sharing of others’ experiences. Not because anyone’s experience has more value than anyone else. But because sharing experiences of parts of life that others haven’t had, certainly cuts down on the requirement of time to do so, for yourself.
Interaction and sharing the benefit of your experience to help your Community Meeting and the Candidates that you come together to endorse, is the greatest currency for change that we all have as we focus on real, meaningful change.
By taking part, asking questions, flagging things that you’ve seen or heard, or just making the time to speak to other People about Community Meetings and then turning up at them, you can help the process of change in countless ways.
Remember:
You are never under any obligation to interact with any social media account, just because you follow or have liked it.
You should never post anything online that you would not want to share with People who you see regularly or face-to-face in your real life.
If you disagree with what someone else has said or believe that the information they have shared is incorrect or wrong, the best thing to do is to challenge the information they have shared itself and do so, not by simply saying it’s wrong. But by taking the time to politely and constructively explain why.
Better still, offer the details of the alternative you have based your challenge upon, to what they have suggested too.
But NEVER make your reply angry, or personal about them – and certainly not about you.
Supporting everyone by attending your Community Meetings whenever they are called
Within the TEN STEPS you will have read that it is essential that every member of the local Community is kept informed of anything important that your Community Meeting is planning to do.
On this basis, if a Community Meeting is being arranged to hold a Vote or make a decision, you should at the very least be made aware of the details such as when it will be held and where it will be held – if nothing else.
You don’t have to attend Community Meetings if that is your choice. But if you really want to keep up with what your Community Meeting is doing, and either speak or share your experiences, or just use the opportunity to be an influence in any Vote, it is also essential that you attend.
Remember:
Taking part is everything. By taking part in whatever way you are able to, you are contributing to change. If you don’t take part in any way, you are going to let change happen to you.
Supporting your Community Meeting in the process of selecting Candidates for Elections, and taking part in any Community Meeting Votes
As you will have gathered from reading STEP 10 in Part 1, your Community Meeting will be most effective in the decisions that it makes, by ensuring that the terms for Selecting Candidates and then Endorsing them is done right.
EVERYONE in your Community has something to give in terms of experience or anything else they can share. Everyone’s views are important and attending Community Meetings is the way that you can truly make your Vote count.
Supporting your Community Meeting by voting for all Candidates that the Community Meeting has endorsed when an Election takes place
Your input isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, IF you don’t actually Vote.
The whole reason for Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is the process of depoliticising the British Political system, so that Politics can deliver for us all, in the way that a democracy should really work.
To some – and you may be one of them, taking part in an Election is all that being part of a democracy will take.
But you must also understand and accept that who you Vote for is very important too.
On the day of the Election or Vote itself, your Vote could be one of just a few or maybe just the one itself, that puts a Public Representative into their role who was selected for the right reasons and endorsed as part of a Community Choice.
We no longer have the luxury of leaving our future to someone else. Many of those someone else’s we thought we could trust have already taken the opportunity that our apathy and disengagement has unwittingly given them. They have then done exactly what they’ve wanted, calling it ‘the will of the People’, all because they were supported by the mere fraction of us who Voted them into power in an Election, when that fraction of the community turned up.
You can be involved and support Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE and your Community Meeting in any way that works for you.
But if you really want change to happen that works in the best interests of everyone, please keep up to date.
When the next Election comes, please Vote for the Candidate(s) that local People with the same things in common as you, have committed the time and effort to select on behalf of your community – but most importantly, on behalf of you.
Support that will be on offer
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE has been written in the knowledge that once momentum starts building for Community Meetings, support will come from many directions and will come in many ways.
There is no guide to how long the creation and holding of a Community Meeting will take.
Not just because everyone who picks up this book and begins work will approach the TEN STEPS depending upon the way they have read them. But because each and every Community area is very different, is made up of different People and for many different reasons will respond faster or slower to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, in very different ways.
With this in mind, there is a very good chance that all you will need to get started and make good progress before support comes knocking on your door will be included within this book.
However, if you should find that you have any questions, or have the need to understand any of the ideas, suggestions and thoughts that I have shared with you here, PLEASE get in touch.
It will be great to hear from you and I will happily respond to all polite and constructive requests and help in any way that I can, in the most appropriate way that I feel possible.
Will NONE OF THE ABOVE become a Political Party?
Let’s put first things first.
The whole focus of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is to provide the immediate method and means to address the real challenge we face and must overcome with our broken Political System, as it is today.
With established Political Parties and their own motives and agendas filling up the majority of seats across our whole government system, The System itself is effectively broken.
We must also accept that any new Political Party attempting to do things in what is technically the same way as those that already have seats won’t bring the changes that we need, that work in the best interests of everyone. Because if they were to be elected and gain power, the words and the policies might be different, but their approach, attitude and motivation would end up being bad for all of us in exactly the same ways.
Public Policy is the problem, and that problem is hurting us all.
However, to fix Public Policy problems, we have to focus first on fixing the root cause.
The root cause of all the problems are the People who become our Politicians and a situation that leads to the same self-interested and incompetent type of People being the only choices we have and then repeatedly elect.
The Selection and Endorsement of Candidates and the process that will engage each and every one of us to choose and support them in Elections is what Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is here to provide.
When we have created a new system of Community Meetings where each Community selects and then supports its own Council, Parliamentary and all other kinds of Political Candidates, then and only then can we genuinely begin to address the genuine Public Policy issues that we now face.
Existing Political Parties serve a purpose that is not about the whole Community. Their purpose is all about the pursuit of ideas and interests that are their own.
The only way that the formation of a Political Party would be of benefit to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, would be the structure and support frameworks that it could provide to all Community Meetings and the Candidates that they select, endorse and support.
Because of the inherent danger that anyone in key positions of such a Political Party could fall into the trap of going their own way or going off in a direction that doesn’t benefit the whole Community, the governance of such an organisation would have to be very robust and reliant upon people with a lot of integrity, right from the start.
In time, there may be very practical reasons for joining up a network of Community Meetings in some kind of affiliated or federated way, that might then, through necessity, be required to become formally registered with the Electoral Commission as a Political Party.
That time is not now.
But it would be a very nice problem for People like you and I to have, once Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is working and is doing its job across our communities.
Be Positive, Be Optimistic, but above all, Be Real
Whatever happens, whatever any of you do, there are no guarantees.
People have free will. It will be the choice of everyone whether they want to change and be part of the opportunity to influence change, or if they want to do nothing and let change of a different kind happen to them.
It is also important to understand that it is impossible to consider all of the factors or the impacts of events that have already happened or are yet to happen, and what influence they might have upon the short- and long-term future for us all.
We can only do our best and make the most of the opportunity.
Have faith, keep focused and you may soon understand what belief can really do.
More Reading
All of the following titles are available to purchase as complete eBooks for Kindle from Amazon using the links provided.
Where indicated, titles may also be available to download FREE as PDF Copies from my Blogsite in different forms, using the links provided.
If you would like to discuss any of the works listed, please get in touch.
Not in my name. You don’t speak for us. NONE OF THE ABOVE.
These expressions of frustration, anger, distrust and disenfranchisement from the Political System we have today are shared by a growing number of us.
We feel that because we cannot Vote for good politicians and public representatives, we have had our democratic rights taken away.
The situation goes from bad to worse, each and every day. Everything that Politicians, Government and Public Services seem to touch is failing. And the rules that Politicians are supposed to manage and set, seem to have done nothing but encourage private interests and big business to operate without any real kind of control.
When the People who lead us are out for themselves, how can we expect anyone else to behave differently?
The truth is, that we cannot.
But there is a way we can create alternative options for Candidates on ballot papers for us ALL to Vote for in every Election. That is, IF we accept and are then prepared to make the effort to create and be part of the change that is necessary.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is a ‘How To’ guide, that will open you up to a new way of thinking about the way that Politics in a democracy should work. It provides suggestions, advice and a doorway to easy-to-access tools, using a system of Community Meetings that will help everyone to reject ALL OF THE ABOVE and then have a genuine and meaningful democratic choice.
Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE will present you with a series of TEN STEPS that can be followed, IF you want the choice of Candidates in future Elections who will work for and on behalf of you and your local Community.
PLEASE Follow it. Learn from it. Improve on it. Share it. Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is here for you.
PLEASE NOTE: This book is not about Public Policy or Political ideas. It provides a method of putting good People into Politics, so that we then get Public Policy that corresponds.
Any Political Solution to the crisis we are in must develop and grow from our communities and grassroots; NOT from any existing Party that still wants to rule everyone Top-Down
One of the key problems with UK Politics today is that it operates as almost the mirror image of wider culture, where most people fall into the trap of believing that their own perspective is the right one. But that anyone with an alternative view of any kind – even in just the smallest of ways, is or will be fundamentally wrong about everything else, too.
Yes, you could easily argue that this is how tribes and groups work.
But politics or rather the UK political system is supposed to be about delivering public policy that is created and then implemented in the best interests of ALL British People.
The one thing that we can be sure of is that when it comes to the political classes who have been running Westminster and our local Councils for decades, there is very little about any of it – apart from the Election campaigns, that has anything to do with or what is best for us.
As I have been discussing in some of my recent blogs, time has now run out for the way that government and our economic system runs. Neoliberalism and everything such as MMT, FIAT money, and the increasingly illogically impractical schemes like Net Zero and everything that pushes people and businesses into being reliant on credit are no longer sustainable.
That is why everything is now in the process of crashing around the Labour Government’s head.
Yes, the politicians in power are incompetent.
No, the mess we are in didn’t begin the day after Labour were elected to power and Starmer arrived in No.10.
And No, not Labour, nor the Tories, the Liberal Democrats, Reform or any other group of politicians currently looking ahead to the next General Election are going to offer and deliver to us anything different. Certainly not in any way that the UK actually needs.
For a time, I was open to the idea that Reform could find itself pursuing a different way. One that would offer the cross-tribal consensus and answers that the UK now needs.
Instead, it has become clear that the mechanics of this 4th evolution of the anti-EU movement certainly hasn’t moved on in any kind of people-centric direction.
Instead, Reform is just reforming itself, but in ways that have a very familiar likeness to political parties that have been in power before, who have increasingly aligned themselves and been led by the machinations of the establishment instead.
The mess over Rupert Lowe and the inescapable optics suggesting that at every level of the Reform Party, the whole thing is all about Nigel Farage, really does speak volumes for itself.
That’s before taking the time to read the outpourings of words from former party activists and ‘officers’ who have recently walked away. Just like better known voices associated with Reform such as those of Howard Cox and Ben Habib.
If any of the names instantly trigger feelings that suggest you have taken a side as you read – no matter the reason, it is exactly that kind of emotion that is our collective problem.
Disagreement over the smallest of things shuts so many of us down to the reality that we all have views about different things that we might never agree on. But when it comes down to all the things that are actually important, there is an awful lot of commonalities between all of us to be found.
Difficult to hear though it might be, it is the division that is deliberately sown between us over issues that we do have in common – by them being presented in ways that make them appear and trigger us as if they are something else – that really plays into the hands of the incompetent political classes that we regrettably have.
As things stand, and without a lot of us choosing to approach our relationship with politics very differently, the same people dividing us and guiding us to hate people we should not have any hate for, are set to keep guiding the ship that we are all beginning to sink on. And they will happily continue to do so, until the whole thing actually goes down.
Westminster is just the tip of the ruling iceberg that we can actually see.
Behind central government sits all the things like power, influence and the wealth accumulation that money controls and which is carefully kept outside of open view.
Because the truth is that the only people who benefit from us continuing to elect politicians who are under the spell of the establishment are those politicians and all those who are benefiting from the continuation of the establishment itself.
Whilst there is very good reason to believe that the wheels could fall off this broken bus at any moment in time, for those who have been aware and watching the direction of travel of the UK (and for that matter the whole of the Western world) for a considerable period of time, both the Global Financial Crisis and then the responses to the Covid Pandemic could, and arguably should, have already been the catalysts that introduced a genuinely new way of doing governance to the UK.
That these two massive events didn’t doesn’t indicate that change cannot or will not come.
The fact that we have been led to believe that what the politicians have done in response is in any way normal just tells us even more about how deeply embedded those who genuinely believe or work with this Top-Down, them vs us culture really are, right across the establishment.
We can see just how far they are prepared to take things in their attempts to stop the whole thing from crashing down, even now. Indeed, they are growing so desperate to maintain The System, they are even attacking the people who their ‘tribe’ have always typically helped.
Whilst the talk of absolutes will certainly sound like a contradiction to the words used as I began writing this Blog above, the one dividing line that we really do have no choice but to observe and then decide upon, is which side we sit between the establishment and all it stands for, and on the other side, the people and what putting people, our communities and the environment surrounding the places where we live and work, first.
Whilst even the Tories are successfully making themselves sound very plausible, just 8 months on from losing power, in the context of everything that the Labour Government is doing wrong, none of these political parties – and that almost certainly now includes Reform, show any sign of genuinely offering an alternative to establishment-directed public policy today.
However, it isn’t today and what is now past that we need to worry about. The most important thing is the future, and specifically what happens when we reach the next General Election and what must be ‘our time’.
The UK and we as its people cannot afford another General Election result that delivers power to any group – whether elected directly, or assembled as a result of some kind of post-election ‘deal’, that then goes on to do whatever the hell it likes.
No political party out there today, currently canvassing for votes in this years Local Elections is offering to do anything in any different kind of way.
We know this, because the way that they are running their election campaigns right now; how they are communicating and most importantly, how they are engaging with real people outside the bubbles of their own members and activists, is exactly the same as it has always been before.
To put it bluntly, we can no longer afford to take the risk that comes with accepting a choice of political candidates in any election, that not us, but the political parties themselves actually choose.
Change will not come in the way that we now so desperately need it, if we keep on doing politics at every level in the UK in exactly the same way!
It is our communities and the people who are around us every day who should be selecting the people who will represent us at all levels of government.
Not people we don’t know beyond the pictures, websites, social media and TV screens.
We need public representatives to represent us who have genuine skin in our game. People who are answerable only to us and who are committed to delivering locality-centric democracy, that is the only way that democracy can genuinely thrive, survive and most importantly, work.
Whilst government and the public sector really do now need to undergo massive change, the reality is that our communities could be working together to select and elect non-party candidates in all elections, right now.
We certainly don’t need any kind of change to the electoral system that just favours the election of more incompetent candidates. Ambitious and self-serving politicians whose actions will be made even worse by the guaranteed requirement for compromise on public policy that schemes like Proportional Representation as a replacement for First Past the Post would bring.
Power MUST come back to the people. Not through carefully crafted labels like ‘devolution’ and ‘devolved power’ that is nothing more than Regional Centralisation sold to us with a very misleading name.
The power – OUR POWER is already ours and that power can be made to work for us right now. IF we choose to use it. Look beyond the manufactured differences. And focus on working together, on the important things that we all have in common, and to deliver a new world and way of being that is happy, healthy, safe, secure and governs life with fairness, balance and justice for us all.
Anyone can begin this process of change and the appointment of new candidates to become the public representatives and politicians who will create and deliver our new future, right now. And we need them to, IF we are going to experience beneficial change.
That change will only be certain if we all change the way that we think. What we can be sure of, however, is that a good future for us all doesn’t and will not start where anything ‘new’ for the politicians and voices that we already recognise as public figures begins.
Adam Tugwell 