What I Write About | Dec 2025

What I Really Write About – Beyond What AI Can Tell You

The rapid rise of AI, large language models, and the ever-expanding suite of digital tools has transformed how we create, share, and consume content.

These technologies are mesmerising, offering new possibilities for creativity and connection. Yet, their promise is often accompanied by myths and misconceptions about what AI can do, what it will become, and how it might shape our future.

As a content producer – primarily through books, blogs, and essays, and occasionally through video – I’ve invited AI to review my work and online presence.

What I’ve learned is that whilst these systems can provide interesting overviews, their perspective is inevitably limited. AI tends to focus on the most recent and visible outputs, missing the depth, context, and evolution that underpins a body of work. Its research dazzles with immediacy but rarely encourages deeper reflection or genuine understanding.

For example, when I asked an AI to summarise my advocacy for grassroots-driven change, it captured the headline but missed the substance: the ideas I’ve developed about new constitutions and governance systems for the UK, which are woven throughout my books. This highlights a broader truth – AI can surface patterns, but it cannot fully grasp the intentions, experiences, context and values that drive meaningful change.

My writing is rooted in exploring the challenges facing the UK: how we arrived here, what lies ahead without change, what transformation could look like, and why it must be shaped by people for the people.

Central to this is a critique of our money-centric value system, which influences not just our economy, but our politics, culture, and sense of possibility.

I believe that genuine progress requires reimagining these foundations, embracing accountability, and empowering communities to design their own futures.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with my solutions. My hope is simply that readers recognise the potential for a radically different way of doing things – one that is available to us now, if we are willing to engage, adapt, and take responsibility.

The Books about the system today; change and the system tomorrow (In chronological order, from early 2022)

The Books: Understanding the System Today and Shaping Tomorrow

The following books explore the challenges within our current system of governance, why meaningful change is necessary, and how a better future might be achieved.

Each title addresses different aspects of the journey – from identifying the problems in today’s structures, to proposing practical solutions and envisioning new models for society.

The majority of these works are available to buy and download for Kindle on Amazon, and many can also be read in full online.

Together, they offer a comprehensive look at the issues we face and the possibilities for genuine transformation.

Levelling Level

I had no plan to write a series of books that would collectively capture my interpretation of the different dynamics of everything that’s wrong with our system of governance and how it’s all playing out and impacting people like you and me.

In fact, I began writing Levelling Level in early 2022 – initially building the plan for a book upon the rather dark truth that the political right had been pushing the so-called ‘Levelling Up’ agenda, whilst the left is obsessed with levelling down.

I hoped to make some sense of the roles of the different influences that have created all the problems; what is likely to happen and how we can begin putting things right by “levelling level” so that a new people-centric system could begin.

Writing Levelling Level certainly lit a fuse for me. Aas I wrote, I found myself increasingly focused on the need for the Basic Living Standard, which after a short break away from the computer, I decided I should write about in more detail next.

Read Levelling Level Online HERE

The Basic Living Standard

The concept of the Basic Living Standard first emerged during the writing of Levelling Level, as I confronted the reality that financial independence is increasingly out of reach for many.

The fact that the minimum wage doesn’t provide genuine independence – yet is widely accepted as normal – reveals much about the deeper issues within our economic and monetary system.

Since introducing the Basic Living Standard, I have worked to refine and develop the accessibility and understanding of this concept. My aim has been to move beyond simply identifying the problem, and to offer a practical solution that prioritises the real reasons for working: enabling people to meet essential needs, and empowering businesses to serve people, communities and the environment – as they always should.

At its heart, the Basic Living Standard is about shifting our values from a money-centric system to a people-centric one – a theme that runs throughout my work and is explored further in One Rule Changes Everything. It challenges us to rethink what truly matters in our economy and society.

Key points of the Basic Living Standard:

  • Reframes the purpose of work: ensuring everyone can afford the essentials for a dignified, independent life.
  • Calls out the inadequacy of a minimum wage that doesn’t guarantee financial independence.
  • Advocates for businesses to focus on providing essential goods, services, and opportunities for people and their communities.
  • Emphasises reprioritising our value system, placing people and community above profit and monetary gain.

To make the concept clearer and more actionable, I created “The Basic Living Standard Explained,” which provides a detailed breakdown and practical guidance.

Read The Basic Living Standard Online HERE

Read The Basic Living Standard Explained HERE

From Here to There Through Now

Both Levelling Level and The Basic Living Standard hinge upon the need for system change or a paradigm shift.

I have to admit it would be much better if that kind of societal change were something we were all happy to embrace voluntarily, and do so because we have all realised that a world that works for everyone, rather than one that exploits and manipulates the masses for the benefit of the few, will be a much happier, healthier, and all round better place to be.

Voluntary change of this kind wouldn’t be easy. But being realistic about how bought-in we are to the money-centric way of life, where no reality beyond having enough and then more of the stuff is what we are obsessed with, means that many will only wake up and see the reality we are in for what it is, once we have experienced pain.

Many of us do understand this. These are often the people who in a capitulated fashion respond ‘That’s just the way things are’ or something similar, when you suggest and outline how things could be different. However, they are also comfortable with what they feel are the benefits to rejecting change too.

Unfortunately for all those who are comfortable with a status quo that is so destructive, many also take for granted or indeed feel entitled to continue living and developing themselves and their relationship with the world on the basis we have understood it to work up until now.

But things cannot continue the same way as they have been. Because in real terms, we have been living for decades and longer within a system that has developed around a giant con.

False realities inevitably lead to a wake-up moment

That con relies on unsustainable living in just about every sense the word unsustainable can be used or can mean.

As many are beginning to realise, the world is fast approaching a place called stop. Where we either change everything and return to a world built around values and putting people first. Or we sit, wait and accept the dystopian digital prison that the current Labour government, under the direction of the WEF, is falling over itself to help usher in.

Whatever we choose, and even if we don’t think we are choosing anything (as failing to act is also a choice), there are challenges, disruptions and probably horrors that lie ahead. Horrors that we would be much better able to deal with, if we are at least mindful of them, and at best prepared.

From Here to There Through Now covers this process. What we might expect, what we are likely to experience, and how we can choose to thrive and survive in real, practical terms.

Read From Here to There Through Now Online HERE

The Way of Awakened Politics for Good Government

I make no secret of my wish that we could just make better use of the system of government that we have now. Not because I think that the current system can be fixed, but because it’s broken and failing us in every conceivable sense today—specifically because of the way that generations of politicians and the people who work within and influence government and the public sector think and act, even though they are there to work and deliver on behalf of us all.

The idea of public service and what public services are about shouldn’t be a difficult concept for anyone to get their head around. Not least of all, because the biggest giveaway is in the name itself!

The Way of Awakened Politics for Good Government is the book I wrote that covers this rather thorny topic.

Thorny, because of the reality we face: when we can look at ourselves and understand the way that we ourselves are motivated and what makes us think the way that we do, we can also begin to see how easy it has become for us to repeatedly elect and appoint people into positions of public responsibility who are getting so much wrong, by doing the same things that we would probably do in those circumstances.

It’s not impossible for us to change things with the right people. But finding and electing the right people will not be straightforward with the system that we have, even if we were to fully utilise the approach I have suggested in my book Officially None of the Above which follows below.

Time is not on our side with this system, and it could collapse at any time. But getting politics and public representation right within a new one still requires much of the thinking that The Way of Awakened Politics for Good Government attempts to define.

Read The Way of Awakened Politics for Good Government Online HERE

The Grassroots Manifesto

Few people realise that one of the greatest problems and root causes of many of the other problems that are now reaching into every part of our culture and society have come about as the direct result of centralisation.

Centralisation is another word or term for hierarchy, or a system that operates top-down.

It just doesn’t sound like it.

When everything that has any real meaning in life has been steadily refocused and power and independence in so many things has been moved away from us – whilst we are continually told that it’s better for us, makes life cheaper and better in every possible sense – we have been losing sight and possession of our own value.

This travesty has led to all the societal and economic problems which suddenly seem to have come into sight.

Unfortunately, there are very few politicians who will give power and influence back to local communities once they have taken hold of it. And as history has time and again proven, most of them – once elected – will do whatever it takes to accumulate more.

Devolution is top-down centralisation with a different name

Whilst high level politicians will tell us they are devolving power and giving back, they are often taking what’s left of local power away from people and practicing regional centralisation to place what remains of local power in the hands of people they can control, rather than giving back to representatives who actually have good reason and motives that will give us much better lives.

The system of governance won’t change back from where it is now. Much like the Brexit process that never really happened as the starting point was deliberately seen as being an EU member, rather than as it should have been, which was to start anew or all over again.

The better future for all cannot and will not come from a centralised structure or anything top-down.

Genuine localisation is key

The future and change that delivers it for us must come from the neighbourhoods and communities we live and work in, and the real-life relationships and interactions that we have, in person, with the people we meet face to face each day.

The Grassroots Manifesto is a book version of what the first steps of a governance structure based and built from the grassroots-up will look like.

Read The Grassroots Manifesto Online HERE

A Community Route

Whilst every message the world pumps at us today (whether it’s direct or not) tells us that success and happiness is all about putting what we want and what we think is right first (as long as it correlates with the accepted narrative), the reality is that falling over ourselves to put our own interests first is very destructive. Particularly when most of us are doing the same thing.

Selfishness and self-interest have certainly been exploited to get the world into the mess that it’s in. And we certainly won’t and cannot change things for the better if we either insist on putting our own ideas first – no matter whether they are good for others or not, or by getting behind anyone else who is doing exactly that too.

The future is all about community. And local communities too.

But working together as a community requires a different mindset and way of thinking to what we are used to working with now.

A Community Route is the book I wrote with the intention of capturing the essence of working and collaborating with others, together, over what we share, really means and requires, if we want a world for the future that genuinely works and delivers for us all.

Read A Community Route Online HERE

Officially None of The Above

As I alluded to when I mentioned The Way of Awakened Politics for Good Government above, and also outlined in practice, in my How to Get Elected guide that I will come back to later, there are ways that we could make the existing electoral system work better for us – if we had the luxury of time to do so. (Which regrettably, we no longer do)

Officially None of the Above is a walk-through guide of how we could bypass and ignore the political parties that we have today. Working together as communities to identify, assess, select and appoint our own candidates to stand in all elections. So that we could be sure that the public representatives we elect are always going to put the needs of our people and communities first.

Refusing to vote is still a choice – as many of us have begun to realise at our cost.

However, not having candidates who we have chosen ourselves, rather than leaving that choice to the political parties and the agendas that they have, is a bigger problem. If not a lot worse.

With a collapse of some kind well on the way, the system will have to change, if we want to have power and influence over it ourselves.

In the meantime, Officially None of the Above shows us how we could work together, locally, to make the existing electoral system work democratically for us – as it always should have.

Read Officially None of The Above Online HERE

One Rule Changes Everything

Whilst the Basic Living Standard proposes a formula or focal point for a system of economy and governance that builds on financial independence for every working person, the reason we need a framework for life like this is because of the way that money has become the basis of our entire value set.

This values takeover was deliberate.

The weaknesses that make us all vulnerable to easy living and minimal effort in return for what seem to be great rewards have been exploited. Whilst the dazzling pay-off has meant we have failed repeatedly to question the true cost of what we have given up and what has really been involved.

One Rule Changes Everything is the most simplistic and straightforward formula for changing everything about the world we live in for the better.

It’s just the way we feel about the world today and what we mistakenly believe to be the things that benefit us from it that are hurting us, making the decision and steps necessary seem extremely hard!

Read One Rule Changes Everything Online HERE

Manifesto for a Good Dictator

Having been a frontline politician, elected member of 3 different local authorities and committee chair – including 4 years as a Licensing Authority Chair, I’ve spent a fair bit of time working with policy and policy frameworks. I also have a cross-sector background that has given me a reasonably good insight into how the way things get done works in real life too.

Being able to see why things are as they are and why they don’t work for the people they should – even when they are meant to – can be a bit of a two-edged sword. Especially when trying to explain to others why things don’t work as we have the right to expect them to.

As a councillor, some of the most challenging moments I ever experienced was trying to explain the unexplainable to local people, who had every right to expect things to have gone a very different way to that which they did.

However, doing the best for everyone in the circumstances also provided some good wins for everyone concerned. And I know from that experience that we could achieve much more than we do today – if everyone were open to and minded of doing things the right way.

In December 2019, as we raced towards the General Election that Boris won with the Conservatives, I wrote the Makeshift Manifesto – which I will come back to later.

Whilst the Makeshift Manifesto was a take on what a good government could do right across public policy – which of course Johnson’s Tory government never was – my return to the subject and possible updates made me realise that the problems have now gone too far for everything to be fixed.

Whilst we have heard chat about the need for a dictator – and young people are apparently particularly interested in this approach, the reality we face is that we are already the victims of a bad, tyrannical dictatorship that’s been dressed in a cosplay kit that those controlling everything have branded as democracy.

The idea of a good dictator sounds like an oxymoron to say the least. But it would be possible.

Not only that. A good dictator is also what we probably need. Because it may be the only way that what needs to get done can get done!

Manifesto for a Good Dictator is a policy list of all the things that a Good Dictator would need to do to change everything and oversee the process of bringing democracy back to local communities. Ultimately, placing power back in the hands of people like you and me.

Spoiler: this book was not written about and does not have any politician who is widely or publicly known in the U.K. today in mind!

Read Manifesto for a Good Dictator Online HERE

An Economy for the Common Good

During the summer of 2023, I was thinking more about the practical application of localised governance. How it would work, and what that would mean in terms of delivery of the essential or basic goods and services that we all need in and around our communities to make life work for us all each day.

As a business planner myself, writing out plans and even creating job specs for key employees, with pointers to the responsibilities linked to their roles seems normal. And I quickly found my pace creating what at the time I called the Gloucestershire Community Project.

I called it the Glos Community Project, because I used the areas that I know and understand to create a kind of real-life blueprint of a structure of social enterprise-based franchises or turnkey business outlines, that would provide the essential backdrop of how a new structure and system for society could work.

Importantly, the model included references to a new monetary and barter or exchange marketplace system. Very much linked to The Basic Living Standard that I have mentioned above.

It was the process of writing and realising how critical the role of food and food production should be within our communities, to ensure freedom and independence for everyone, that led to my more recent focus on Food; my time at the RAU where I did a PGCert in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security, and the books I have since written and published such as Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future and Food From Farms Guaranteed.

Your Beliefs Today create Everyone’s Tomorrow

At the beginning of 2025, I was wrestling with a common theme.

We have an endemic problem with situational bias, or people refusing to see possibilities, perspectives or even the potential for outcomes that do not align with what they already accept to be normal within their own range of experiences.

It’s quite alarming how closed people can be to anything different than what they already accept. Especially if there isn’t an obvious progression from wherever their thoughts and experiences are, right now.

Unfortunately for all of us who learn this way and don’t look beyond, real-world problems may mean creating a completely new picture or starting all over again, rather than trying to keep hold of the things you are comfortable with about even a very bad situation or place.

Our beliefs are everything. They are what we are, and they are what makes us what we are.

So, it’s perfectly understandable that we get prickly when anything comes along which might question them.

The problem is – and it is increasingly a real problem – that what we already believe (our truth) and what is the truth, may be very different things.

This disparity is causing us all many problems. Because we refuse to be open to seeing life and learning from life about different ways of doing things and achieving the outcomes that we need.

Your Beliefs Today create Everyone’s Experiences Tomorrow focuses on the different things that people believe about the way everything works. Why they believe them, and why what we consider to be true today will inform not only our approach, responses and view of tomorrow, but what happens when we get there too.

In real terms, Your Beliefs Today create Everyone’s Experiences Tomorrow is an exploration of the real point of our power for any kind of change being right now, and why thinking (and believing) as we do, may be setting us all up for a very big fall.

Read Your Beliefs Today Create Everyone’s Experiences Tomorrow Online HERE

The Choice – A Waking Up Story

One of my most recent Books was written and published this summer and is called The Choice.

The Choice focuses in on what is happening; what we believe is happening; what isn’t really happening and what may or may not be happening out of sight behind the scenes.

The Book asks the fundamental questions ‘What do we believe’ and then ‘What are we going to do about it – if anything at all.

Yes, it sounds like a higgledy-piggledy mess. But that is reflective of what the UK faces; the behaviour of both the establishment and our politicians, and the rather difficult situation we all face where very few of us are in any way ready to accept how restricted our own views and understanding of the bigger picture might soon regrettably turn out to be.

Read The Choice Online HERE

Our Local Future

Our Local Future marked a turning point in my writing, bringing together insights from my previous works to outline a vision for governance and community that truly serves people, the environment, and the common good. This book was conceived as a springboard for discussion – a framework for rethinking how our systems could be rebuilt to deliver fairness, balance, and justice for everyone.

A central theme throughout Our Local Future is the importance of localism. I argue that a future which genuinely works for all must be rooted in local communities, structured to empower people where they live, and resilient against remote or purely online influences that can undermine local agency. This isn’t a rejection of technology or progress, but a call to ensure that technological advances support, rather than erode, the autonomy and wellbeing of local people and organizations.

Reflecting on over three years of writing and research, I see Our Local Future as a pivotal work—one that attempts to weave together diverse perspectives and experiences to envision a better life for all. It stands as a response to the chaos and disharmony that many experience today, and as a foundation for the next stage of my work.

Read Our Local Future Online HERE

Evolving Forward:
As my thinking and research have progressed, it became clear that the vision set out in Our Local Future needed to be developed into a practical, actionable framework. This realisation led to the creation of The Local Economy & Governance System, which builds directly on the principles of localism and community empowerment, offering concrete steps for implementation.

The Local Economy & Governance System: The Evolution of “Our Local Future”

As my writing and research have continued to develop, the ideas first outlined in Our Local Future have evolved into a more detailed and actionable framework: The Local Economy & Governance System. This new work builds directly on the foundation of localism, community empowerment, and the need for governance structures that truly serve people where they live.

Why this evolution?
While Our Local Future provided a vision for rethinking and restructuring governance to work for people, communities, and the environment, it became clear that a practical blueprint was needed – one that could guide real-world implementation. The Local Economy & Governance System is that blueprint. It offers a comprehensive model for how local economies can be structured, how governance can be genuinely democratic and accountable, and how communities can reclaim agency over their future.

What’s inside?

  • A step-by-step outline for building local economic systems that prioritise people over profit.
  • Practical guidance for establishing governance structures rooted in community needs and values.
  • Strategies for ensuring that essential goods, services, and opportunities are delivered locally, sustainably, and equitably.
  • Reflections on the lessons learned from recent years of political and economic upheaval, and how these inform the path forward.

Read The Local Economy & Governance System HERE

Foods We Can Trust

In April 2025, I launched the Foods We Can Trust website as a dedicated platform to explore and address the realities of food production, food security, and the vital role that food must play at the heart of our communities and local economies.

The website brings together practical resources, research, and commentary, all aimed at helping individuals, families, and communities reclaim agency over what they eat and how it’s produced. It’s a space for sharing knowledge, building resilience, and supporting the journey toward food systems that genuinely serve people.

Building on this foundation, December 2025 saw the publication of my book, Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK.

This work brings together some of the key areas I’ve been writing about – food production, food security, and the urgent need to return food to the centre of life and community.

The book challenges the complacency that leaves households and communities vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and rising prices, and offers practical guidance for building local food resilience. It’s both a critique of current policy and a call to action for individuals, growers, and communities to take back control of their food future.

At the core of both the website and the book is the belief that food must be at the heart of any meaningful Local Economy & Governance System.

Food is not just a commodity – it is foundational to community wellbeing, economic independence, and the principles behind The Basic Living Standard.

By prioritising local food production and empowering communities, we can create systems that are more secure, nourishing, and sustainable for all.

Visit the website: foodswecantrust.org

Read more about the book: Understanding Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK

Available on Amazon: Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK

Read Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK online HERE

Some of the other Books that I have written and published

How to Get Elected

The first book I wrote in 2018 was this one, How to Get Elected.

How to Get Elected, or what I sometimes call H2GE, leant heavily on my experience as a local councillor and the many different election campaigns that I ran in, won in, lost in and spent a lot of time supporting and helping with different campaigns focused on somebody else.

As I’d been out of politics for nearly 3 years when I wrote H2GE and had adopted my position of viewing and commenting from the outside looking in, I was under no illusion that what I was sharing is not the kind of how to guide that many of the candidates from established political parties would be interested in. Because How to Get Elected is all about putting people, rather than what the parties want from their candidates, first.

Read How to Get Elected HERE

Beating the Backstop

On the 24th of July 2019, Boris Johnson became Prime Minister of the U.K. and immediately set to work building a rather questionable, ‘oven ready’ narrative of how his vision for Brexit was going to work, and what he was going to push the EU to do.

Like many who saw the opportunity that the Brexit vote really was, I greatly wished that the situation was being handled by adults who recognised that Brexit could and only would work in the way voters expected, if negotiations for the forward relationship between the U.K. and EU had been treated on the basis of a relationship that was completely brand new. Rather than how it was, which was little more than a half-arsed, self-serving attempt by Remainers masquerading as born-again Brexiteers to step outside while keeping hold of all the things they wanted to keep before they went.

It was therefore regrettably inevitable that whatever happened next was going to be more about bluff and bluster on the part of Boris. Rather than being anything that would be genuinely ‘new’, given that the then Conservative Leader hadn’t even decided which side of the European Referendum debate he was on until hours before he declared his intent.

That Boris really was the best alternative to predecessor Theresa May says more about the quality of the politicians and leaders that we have – and I regret that nothing so far appears to have changed.

However, no matter how we might feel about Boris, the other truth that we often miss about this period in British politics, is that as far as the existing ‘exit agreement’ with the EU was concerned, the UK had already been somewhat stitched up by the groundwork already done by Theresa May. A well-known Eu-phile who should never have followed David Cameron into No.10 when it seems to be the very reason that he himself stepped down.

Looking on from my perch in Gloucestershire, I found myself thinking about the best way to make what was on the table work in the most effective way that it could. Given all the different operational, strategic and political issues that were at work.

I may not have agreed any of what the then Government had been given to work with was either correct or necessary, but it was already becoming clear even then that Boris was not going to be able to disown even part of it without a) the will to do so and b) enough Brexit supporting MPs to back him – which at that moment was near impossible anyway, because the only real change in government was that he’d switched places with Theresa May.

I found myself, early that August, sat writing and putting a plan or strategy together about how making the Backstop work in very practical, operational terms could actually be done.

Beating the Backstop is my response and solution to dealing with the ridiculousness of the so-called Backstop and the invisible but nonetheless very real cross-border-trade-barrier that had been dropped down the middle of The Irish Sea.

Bearing the Backstop is the paper I published within a month of Boris’ arrival, which continues to be a popular online read and download. even now.

Read Beating the Backstop Online HERE

The Makeshift Manifesto

Mentioned above, I wrote the Makeshift Manifesto in early December 2019, in the run up to the General Election on the 12th, that Boris Johnson comfortably won. Which the Tories then arguably squandered, by doing everything other than anything good, whilst insisting that Boris’ way of doing government really was the very best thing.

The Makeshift Manifesto is an alternative policy document.

It covers all the key areas of public policy that we would typically recognise today, making many different suggestions about what a good government not only could, but would do, when in power. Rather than following any one of any number of different agendas that have absolutely zero to do with anything about us or the lives and experiences of life that we are having.

One of my most popular downloads as a free-to-read PDF, the two big takeaways with the Makeshift Manifesto were and remain that the suggestions were applicable within the system and structure of government that we have now.

Whilst the Makeshift Manifesto provided a long and detailed list covering many different public policy areas, the document was published and shared, like everything that has followed – as a doorway or brainstorming board not to be cherry picked, but to be contextualized in the form of a comprehensive approach!

Read The Makeshift Manifesto Online HERE

Actions Speak Louder than Digital Words

I wrote Actions Speak Louder than Digital Words between some of the books that are listed above.

However, I have placed it here, as the subject of our relationship with AI isn’t strictly about governance and policy itself. Even if few of us can be in any doubt that one way or another it is set to have an important role.

AI is a difficult topic to discuss today.

Many myths have been created that serve the purposes of those who own, manage and are set to benefit from all forms of AI.

Yet AI and the ‘technical takeover’ can only work in the way that they want them to, if we all buy into and believe the stories that we are being sold.

Actions Speak Louder than Digital Words was my immediate take on the impact of both the older and newer forms of AI.

AI really isn’t going to be the fountain of all knowledge and thought that its being presented with the aim that we will believe it to be.

But it will nonetheless be used as a ‘legitimate’ excuse to end the need for many of our jobs, whilst teaching everyone and especially the younger and upcoming generations that the computer knows the answer to anything and everything, whilst what remains left of our ability to think, function and think critically for ourselves will be deliberately lost.

Perhaps a handbook for those who are awakening to the dangers that the use of tech to replace humans rather than genuinely help them are already proving to be, Actions Speak Louder than Digital Words is a shorter book, and it will make me very happy if you read it, get to the end and feel that it’s all stuff that you didn’t need to be told!

Read Actions Speak Louder than Digital Words Online HERE

Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future

By now, you may have realised that Food, Food Production and UK Food Security are issues that I feel passionate about.

I feel passionate about them because of the role that they should be playing for us all in the much better future that we all really should be working to have.

Following the very challenging times that UK Farmers are facing as I do; watching the rather cruel introduction of the Inheritance Tax last October, that will affect small and Family Farms in particular, left me wondering what the best way would be to share the knowledge and understanding I have. And do so in a way that might help make sense of what is really happening for anyone who has started to see that the reason for all this happening now, is that the theft of control and the removal of independence within the UK Food Chain fits into a much bigger picture and agenda that leaves our Farmers with no further role to play.

Everything in the Food Chain, including the role of Retailers, Processers, Manufacturers, the way foods are being developed, the messaging about cows and methane, seaweed in cow food and the introduction of more and more talk about alternative protein in public policy is shouting very loud messages about the direction of travel for Food Production across the UK, and what the future of our Food Supply will involve and how it will soon be controlled.

Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future focuses on the reality that control of the Food Supply is one of the most effective tools of control over the population itself.

The last thing the establishment and the politicians that it controls want, is for any kind of meaningful independence to exist across the UK Food Chain that would leave any kind of power to anyone else.

Difficult to believe, but a cold hard reality that we all must awaken to, if we want to have any chance of saving UK Agriculture and for People to have any choice over what they can eat in perhaps as soon as just a few years’ time.

Read Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future Online HERE

Is Poverty Invisible to those who don’t Experience it?

The Food Journey I often talk about took me to do a postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security at the Royal Agricultural University in Autumn 2023.

Being back in full-time education brought some unexpected challenges that were very reflective of my experiences of the educational environment when I was a child. Only this time whilst coming at learning from a very different direction and experience-driven perspective.

Contrary to common misperceptions, the topic of Food Security and what Food Security really is, is a very broad topic that covers food poverty and the cost of living too.

Whilst at the RAU, I completed a module that required us to look at such issues and relate them to our own experience.

As I grew up in poverty, wearing all the societal badges that it has been given, and have a pretty good memory of what that was like to experience it in the 70’s and 80’s, I decided to research what it means to be in poverty today, and whether it feels and is treated any differently to how it was back then.

After spending time with a manager at a local foodbank, who answered every question and follow-up question that I gave them openly, I concluded that like so many of the other problems that we have across the UK today, people – and more importantly politicians – need to have experienced the real-life impact of those issues, before they can have even a chance of understanding what it is like to live with them.

My answer to the question, “Is Poverty Invisible to those who don’t Experience it?’ was a very clear yes.

This short e-book version of my original report and submission shares why.

Read Is Poverty Invisible to those who don’t Experience it Online HERE

Specific Interest Blogs

Alongside my books, I maintain an extensive archive of blogs at https://adamtugwell.blog that explore all the subjects covered in my published works—and often in greater detail.

For example, https://adamtugwell.blog/2025/12/18/adams-food-and-farming-portfolio-a-guide-to-books-blogs-and-solutions/ provides a curated list of blog posts and resources. It covers a wide range of topics, including:

  • Food production and supply chains
  • Food security and resilience
  • The challenges facing UK farmers
  • Community food initiatives
  • The role of food in local economies
  • Practical solutions for future systems and governance

These archives offer deeper dives, practical insights, and ongoing commentary on the issues at the heart of my work. Readers are encouraged to browse the full blog for further exploration of these and many other subjects.

Power and Distance: Why UK Politics Fails the Public and How Local Governance Can Restore Trust

As a writer, commentator, and former local councillor, I witness the frustration, anger, and despair felt by individuals and groups – such as our farmers – who struggle with a system where politics and government no longer work for them.

I share some of these feelings myself, not simply because their experiences are clearly unjust. But because of the persistent, unwritten expectation from people who are being hurt by all this, that these problems are only temporary.

Too often the problems are dismissed as misunderstandings or assumed to be issues that will resolve once new politicians are elected. Yet very recent history has shown us that changing politicians changes nothing: the downward trajectory of growing unfairness and imbalance continues, remaining at best unchanged.

It is fair to say there is a widespread disconnect between what the public rightly expects from the system and what we actually receive. This gap exists in part because we have been conditioned to believe that government, politics, and the public sector operate in a very black‑and‑white way – clear, predictable, and straightforward in how they function.

Public Perceptions vs. Reality

Whilst this view should be one that we could all rely upon, the reality is very different.

The complexity and mechanics of policymaking and delivery are extraordinarily difficult to navigate – well beyond what most people imagine. And this is before we even begin to confront the thorny issue of corrupt or self‑serving behaviour, whether by a single individual, multiple actors, or indeed by politicians, executives, managers, and officers across a nebulous hierarchy that stretches through many levels and points of influence.

Most people believe that power in Parliament works like this:

  • An election is called.
  • We vote for the person we think will best represent us in our constituency (though in practice, most people base this choice almost entirely on political party affiliation).
  • That representative then decides how to act when a policy comes up for a decision, guided by what is best for us.
  • If our chosen political party forms the government, the policy is enacted.

And we believe that everything necessary happens as a result of this, because all the public servants working in government departments, quangos, NGOs, and any other service funded – and therefore led – by the government (in other words, paid for by us) simply follow the instructions of politicians. After all, it is the politicians who are the legislators, elected to make those decisions on behalf of us all – isn’t it.

That, in principle, is how public policymaking and implementation across the UK should work. Yet the reality is that it rarely does, largely because:

  • The hierarchical structures and systems reaching across the public sector are simply too vast – too much “big government.”
  • Most importantly, very few politicians or public servants actually see it this way.

Barriers to Effective Policy Implementation

Regrettably, the vast and convoluted structure of the public sector, with its top‑down nature and multiple ‘decision makers,’ often distorts the process.

Commands that reach them are reinterpreted, repackaged, and passed along in ways that suit the direction they wish those instructions to take.

As a result, the action at the point of implementation can look very different from the original decision – not because that decision was unclear, but because countless influences and policies, each carrying their own interpretations, reshape and redirect almost everything along the way.

This happens even before the protectionist prejudices of public servants add further obstacles.

The outcome is that two very different results – the one envisaged and the one delivered – can exist under exactly the same name.

And that, of course, is how it works – assuming that what government says it is doing, and has done, truly matches the actions it takes.

Yet the clever use of words and interpretation often means that, even before a decision leaves Westminster, the outcome we expect and the outcome intended are already heading in completely opposite directions.

If this already sounds complicated and conflicted enough, we must also consider what influences our politicians, and how those influences shape their decisions.

We should ask whether the people we see on TV and hear on the radio – the very individuals we elected – are truly the ones sitting at the top, occupying the seats where the ultimate responsibility rests.

The Mechanics of Power in UK Politics

  • Political parties select candidates to run in elections for Parliament, local councils, and mayoralties (typically only where local decisions reflect the interpretation of national policy once local policy is adopted). More often than not, his is also where elected politicians receive an allowance or salary.
  • Parties choose candidates who will follow instructions from the party – or more specifically, from senior politicians within it – regardless of the constituency they represent after a successful election.
  • The area or location itself doesn’t matter. It’s a numbers game: just as the first‑past‑the‑post system (FPTP) elects the candidate (and therefore the party) with the most votes in a given area, Parliament and councils also make decisions based on majority votes. This is why the party with the most seats after an election forms the government or administration – it is assumed that the result of all votes thereafter will fall in line with them and whatever decisions they make.
  • Locally and nationally, leaders of councils, mayors, and the prime minister become the de facto decision‑makers of their administration, mayoralty, or Parliament, because there is an expectation that members of the party holding power or the majority will always vote the same way and do as instructed.
  • Any party aligned politician who fails to vote as required by the party risks losing favour. Depending on the importance of the vote, they may be excluded from the party (have the whip removed), fail to be reselected as a candidate, or at the very least be sidelined until they are seen to be behaving as expected.
  • Whips act as party enforcers, pressuring and often bullying sitting politicians into remembering who put them in their “job” and what they are really there to do and who they are there to do it for.
  • Leaders and mayors are typically expected to follow whatever the party leadership or prime minister in London demands in relation to national policy, though they retain some flexibility where decisions are entirely local.
  • Prime ministers are seen to hold the ultimate executive authority over what happens in Parliament. This is why they can appear to function like a president—unless they take deliberate steps to remind everyone that we have a parliamentary system, where things do not always work in that way.

That is how most people working in or around politics and the machinery of government interpret the power structure today.

The prevailing assumption is that whatever Parliament, the prime minister, or cabinet ministers say the government is doing – and why – is usually how everything will unfold, once public servants play their part and make it happen as expected.

However, beyond the reality that political parties typically decide who represents us – even though we perceive the list of party candidates on our ballot papers as offering what a genuine choice – there is also an assumption that anyone elected as a politician, and therefore as a public representative, is automatically qualified, experienced, and possesses the knowledge, understanding, and capability required to carry out the responsibilities of the ‘job’ they have been ‘chosen’ to do.

In reality, while some individuals put themselves forward as political candidates with genuine public service in mind – and possess both the background and, most importantly, the integrity required to carry out the role of being a public representative properly – the majority of those who reach political office, appearing on TV and speaking publicly, do not.

The majority of our politicians sought the ‘job’ rather than the responsibility – even though some have never seen it this way. But they were willing to say yes to anything and do whatever was necessary to secure a position of control, allowing them to appear as though they were leading, when all the time, they have been led.

Yes‑men or yes‑women—it makes no difference. Anyone who advances by saying “yes” to those who hold power over their progress, and never pauses to say “no” when decisions affect the lives of the people they are meant to represent, does not truly understand what it takes to lead.

And any politician who claims they merely “played along” until they were in charge, promising they would then do the right thing, cannot credibly be believed.

Leaders who cannot truly lead depend on those around them. The people with ‘supportive’ jobs offering ideas, suggestions, or solutions that give the illusion they can.

When politicians, especially very senior figures or those ‘singled out for great things,’ have to rely upon others to supply the words that are later seen to come from their own mouths, they become highly vulnerable to anyone with influence who can reach them and exert control in a seemingly ‘helpful’ way.

Influence of External Actors

Unfortunately, the system we live within today is money‑centric, and our entire framework of values is shaped in the same way.

It follows, then, that money, big business, and those who control or are sanctioned by them have become the people – or influencers – that politicians increasingly turn to for guidance and solutions.

This reliance grows stronger as they approach power. Because it is the only way that out-of-their-depth politicians can identify solutions that appear to work within the very system they are supposed to control.

Politicians are just as captivated – if not more so – by big names and high‑profile figures in business, finance, and global governance organisations – entities that are closely aligned and working together with them because of what is perceived to be the symbiotic relationship between government and money.

The same relationship plays out between the most senior public servants and the policy teams for all of the organisations that have real influence. Much of their time is spent behind the scenes collaborating with counterparts who represent the real interests that set government direction.

At this stage, it should be clear that the real forces driving and controlling central government – and shaping both what it appears to do and what it actually does from Westminster – are those who advise, ‘support,’ and influence the government and its subservient politicians.

What we see is little more than a carefully staged performance: a well‑developed display of theatrics and political cosplay delivered by the political classes, rolled out in every direction where real power is supposed to reside, designed to make it seem as though that is how the system truly works.

Remember that the imposters are usually the ones who believe they should be there.

They don’t work for us. They work for them.

Some politicians are certainly honest. Yet even among those, many are either naïve or fail to grasp how the bigger picture operates within a system that is fundamentally corrupt.

This silent corruption stems from the way individuals act. Whether in their own interests, in service of their party, or according to personal beliefs.

In more extreme cases however, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest politicians have been compromised by their own actions or bought off with promises of post‑parliamentary jobs, directorships, speaking fees, or an endless array of sweeteners.

These incentives encourage them to vote in ways that align with the company they keep in London, rather than prioritising what truly needs to happen to benefit the local people in the constituencies they are meant to represent – That’s people like you and me.

Regrettably, it is not only politicians who are distorted by the distance created by the current system and structure of government across the UK.

Public servants, working across the many organisations and tiers of government funded by the taxpayer, primarily focus on and prioritise the agendas and practices handed down by their employers. Employers who have long forgotten what it truly means to be public service organisations.

Instead, they have fostered a protectionist culture that encourages risk avoidance and discourages anything that might compromise career paths, gold‑plated pensions, or the safety of sticking rigidly to tick‑box processes.

As a result, public servants often shy away from tailoring their workload to meet the specific needs of the very members of the public they are appointed to serve.

Consequences of Leadership Gaps

The simplest interpretation of the events that have led to this system‑wide malaise might be to conclude that no public servant works for anyone other than themselves.

Yet the reality is more complex: institutional factors have long created an environment in which protectionism thrives. Chief among these is the absence of genuine leadership in Parliament and across key public sector organisations – institutions filled with individuals beholden to agendas other than those of the people they are meant to represent.

As a result, the public sector has effectively been on autopilot for a very long time, propelled by inertia and sustained by the convenient myth that everything continues exactly as it always has.

Limits of Leadership Change in Westminster

Many people hope that another change in government will be enough to resolve the problems now facing the country – issues that just as many seem to accept as having been caused by the current Labour government, and in only the 17 months it has been in power.

Sadly, while it would be great for there to be a quick, overnight solution – or a set of solutions – that could be easily implemented and pushed through under some new scheme such as Reform UK’s proposed ‘DOGE,’ the reality is different.

As you may already have gathered from what you’ve read above, the problems are now beyond systemic.

Believing that simply cutting budgets and arbitrarily slashing costs will be enough for the public sector to regain balance and correct itself is, like so many politicians who fail to see the bigger picture, dangerously naïve.

Beyond the rot we have already discussed, one of the truly colossal problems in fixing public services is the influence that money, markets, and big business already exert.

Added to this are external power-centric players such as the EU and global governance bodies like the WHO, UN, and WEF, whose policies and power have become inextricably intertwined with almost everything the UK public sector currently does.

In reality, if Reform were to begin slicing and dicing across the public sphere without coordinating – and thereby subjugating – its policies to the demands of today’s ‘key’ influencers, the strategy it proposes would quickly resemble a game of Jenga. The players might believe they have steady enough hands to start by removing the foundational layers, but the structure would inevitably become unstable very quickly indeed.

The leaders of Reform may yet prove themselves to be the “Jenga Boys” of public policy, As bringing the whole house of cards down almost as quickly as they take power—if that is what happens at the next General Election, is the outcome their rhetoric currently indicates will be most likely if they lead the next government.

Without exception, all of our politicians are currently tied into the system that is backed and pushed by the establishment.

If all they intend to do is reach for sticking plasters and offer superficial fixes, the result will inevitably be the same, and their suggested approach will merely speed the process of collapse up – if it isn’t already complete by then.

Systemic Breakdown: Causes and Implications

The reason attempts to ‘fix’ the public sector as we know it will not succeed is the inseparable relationship it has with everything else beyond government and controlled by the elites – relationships that revolve around money and a financial system that is fundamentally flawed and now destroying everything.

Put bluntly, everything harming people today is a direct consequence of how the entire money centric system operates, and how it has been operating for a very long time.

Whether the collapse comes from factors seemingly beyond politicians’ control, or directly from actions the next government and its leaders are knowingly prepared and brave enough to take, the reality remains the same: the only way to restore balance, fairness, and justice for everyone across all areas of life is if the current money‑centric system is either deliberately brought down or allowed to collapse on its own.

Then – and only then – will the majority of us be ready to embrace the kinds of changes that must take place across every part of the economy, governance, and daily life, so that, in time, something recognisable as genuine sanity can be restored.

If those in power act only in ways that serve their own local interests, why shouldn’t your power remain local and stay with you?

It would be easy to stop here – having laid out the detail of what is wrong – and leave it at that.

Yet if you are reading this, the chances are you already sense that something much bigger and more profound is wrong, even if it defies logic and is difficult to grasp in terms of what exactly those wrongs are. Or rather what the true causes of the problems have been.

The reality is that there is nothing easy to accept about how government and the public sector operate, especially when measured against what any of us should reasonably expect – and what our lived experience increasingly shows us instead.

Members of the public are not alone in their disbelief. The reality we face is that many of those perpetuating the problems within government, politics, and the public sector are acting as they do simply because they are told that this is how everything gets done.

That excuse only goes so far.

Institutional Failure

For many, the real implications of institutionalised failure to take responsibility for those you serve are far from victimless.

They manifest in scandals such as Rotherham, the Grooming Gangs, and the Post Office cases. Stories brought into the light only because many different people, through their lived experiences which they effectively share, revealed events that can ultimately be understood and summarised as being the same thing.

Individuals are being failed by our system of government every single day. Not only structurally and institutionally, but also by the politicians and public representatives who hold local seats across every tier of government.

Too often, they act in ways that serve themselves, rather than doing what is right for the people they are meant to represent.

The damage of distance

The dangerous myth of the digital age – one we have been encouraged to believe – is that every kind of information and guidance we need for life can be trusted to appear on the nearest screen.

While this may feel intimate in nature, it is in fact a remote interface that creates distance not only between us and the sources we too readily trust but also erodes the value of genuine relationships and social interactions that once filled the space in between.

The irony is that politicians and decision‑makers continue to keep everything local when it comes to their own sources of information and guidance.

While this is no excuse for the consequences of their actions – or for the harm caused by the system they have enabled- it does reveal something important.

When people recognise that power rests with them, they naturally turn to local resources and relationships. Facetoface interaction fosters trust in ways that distant sources never can, making it both sensible and effective to rely on what is close at hand rather than on remote influences.

The difference between us and the politicians – and those truly in power– is that they exploit the distance they have created between themselves and the public for their own benefit, all while constructing a narrative that insists whatever they do, and whatever harm they inflict, there is simply no alternative.

They can only do this because we have forgotten that the power they abuse is, in fact, ours.

If we were to recover, restore, and remember the true nature of our own power, we must return to relying on the people and communities around us – those who we can genuinely trust.

After all, the individuals you can look in the eye and interact with every day rarely have the opportunity to abuse that trust, and the behaviour such relationships foster and require makes exploitation far less possible.

A Vision for Local Governance and Economic Reform

Recognising how things could be different – and what it means to embrace an alternative system with all that comes with it – is an essential starting point for us all.

It will help shape or identify both the choices we will make and the responsibilities we must accept when the most obvious signs of collapse begin to appear.

When that moment comes, we will face a choice: to take a different path that restores power to ourselves, or to become fully enslaved and captive to a system that survives only because the power of each individual has been taken away and concentrated in the hands of one—or a few.

Be assured that once you realise you are there, those in control will have already put in place the safeguards necessary to ensure it can never be any other way again.

By now, everyone has heard of Orwell’s 1984 and the dystopian hell it depicts – a reality awaiting those who embrace and continue on the current path, only to discover, when it is already too late, that they have been stripped of all meaningful value.

The alternative is to reject the money‑centric, top‑down, hierarchical, and patriarchal system, that has long concealed the fact it has not only failed us. But has also enabled little more than sanitised or legalised criminal behaviour against us all.

Instead, we must embrace a system that places the dignity and freedom of every individual – rooted in people, community, and the environment – at the forefront of everything that we do.

The Local Economy & Governance System offers a new and alternative perspective, presenting the frameworks and rules that would shape a localised model of democracy and public policy‑making.

This system places what is right at the heart of every decision.

Decisions made by, or on behalf of, the people in each community, whose fates and destinies are inevitably and permanently intertwined.

Key Takeaways

Before exploring further reading and resources, it’s important to reflect on the central insights that we have shared.

The following key takeaways highlight the underlying causes of public distrust in UK politics, the influence of power structure and external actors, and the urgent need for reforms that refocus towards local governance.

These points offer a foundation for understanding both the challenges and the potential pathways toward restoring trust and accountability in public life.

  • Systemic Disconnect: There is a persistent gap between public expectations and the actual workings of UK politics and government. The complexity and hierarchical nature of the public sector often distort policy implementation, leaving many feeling unrepresented and frustrated.
  • Power Structures: Political parties and senior figures exert significant control over elected representatives, often prioritising party interests and external influences over genuine public service. This results in a system where decisions are shaped by those with power, rather than by the needs of local communities.
  • Influence of Money and External Actors: The increasing reliance on big business, financial interests, and global organisations has further distanced politicians and public servants from the people they are meant to serve. This money-centric system perpetuates unfairness and undermines trust.
  • Leadership Gaps: The absence of genuine leadership and accountability in both Parliament and the public sector has led to institutional inertia and protectionism, with public servants often prioritizing self-interest over public good.
  • Local Governance as a Solution: Restoring trust and balance requires a shift toward local governance, where decisions are made by and for communities. Face-to-face relationships and local accountability are essential for rebuilding trust and ensuring that power serves the public.
  • Call to Action: This work urges readers to recognise their own power, reject the current top-down, money-driven system, and embrace local, community-focused models of democracy and public policy-making.

Further Reading & Resources

To dive deeper into the challenges of governance, economics, and reform — and to explore practical ideas for change — these selected readings from Adam’s Archives provide context, critique, and pathways forward.

1. Foundations & Historical Context

2. Critiques of Politics & Leadership

3. Economic & Governance Challenges

4. Pathways Forward