Petition calling for a debate on the climate emergency

For the first time ever, the majority of the UK public have said the climate crisis will influence how they vote. This is our chance for the UK’s first climate election.

Along with Greenpeace and many other organisations, I am calling on party leaders to hold a national, televised debate on the climate crisis. Will you join us by signing the petition?

This is a chance to put the climate emergency at the top of the debate this election. I just joined this Greenpeace campaign to help make it happen. Can you join me?

Read more and get involved here: https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/climate-election-debate-tye

Take Action: Up To Us: renewing our democracy

I took an action on Action Network called Up To Us: renewing our democracy.

Our democracy is precious. But right now, it’s in a mess. The problems are there for all to see: in the chaos over Brexit, in our inability to respond to the climate crisis and in an economic system that keeps failing. These are all symptoms of the same disorder: the way we make decisions isn’t working. Our democratic system is in urgent need of renewal. Right now: Power is too far away from people. We need the power to make changes in our lives and our communities. But too often we don’t know who can help or who is responsible. Parliament and elections are stuck in the past. The structures and systems are in urgent need of an upgrade. And under the current system too many voters are simply ignored. No one knows what the rules of our democracy are. They should be set down properly, so that everyone can understand and follow them. At times of social and political change, we need our democracy to keep pace. Today, we are all connected to one another, but our democratic system lags far behind the technology and its promise of participation. To solve the challenges we face, we need to transform democracy to make it fit for the 21st Century and to create a political culture that invites people in, rather than puts them off.   Parliament and politicians cannot get this done alone. We have to work together, showing how we can make decisions across divides and find solutions that work for everyone. To do this, we need a special assembly of the people. Learning from examples around the world, we need to bring together a group of citizens, the same way we select juries, and give them the best advice and the space to think through the challenges. Parliament must act on their recommendations. In the UK, this work has already begun: we have a plan for how to do this and a growing alliance of supporters. Join them in this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a democratic settlement that works for us all. It’s up to us.

Can you join me and take action? Click here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/up-to-us-renewing-our-democracy?source=email&

This is what persuaded me to join Compass

I have changed which parts are in bold to highlight in bold the sections that are most important to me and my decision to become a member of Compass.

From: “Neal, Compass” <info@compassonline.org.uk>

Date: 5 September 2019 at 14:00:54 BST

To: Martin Burch

Subject: Protect our democracy? Transform it!

Dear Martin,

We have woken up to the UK’s biggest democratic and political crisis of modern times. Our Government is not serving our Parliament. Our democracy is not serving us, the people.

Yes, of course this has something to do with Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, but they are distractions compared to the undercurrents that have been churning for decades.

It’s our system that breeds politicians like Johnson and their behaviour and it’s our system that allows them to exploit divisive tactics such as proroguing Parliament in the face of a disastrous No-Deal Brexit.

It is also our broken political and democratic system that brought us the irresponsible EU Referendum, fuelled division and polarisation, and then gave us three years of party-political game playing with a resolution no closer than it was on 24 June 2016.

Photo: Garry Knight (Flickr)

The outrage that many are feeling right now is entirely justified. We feel it too. But let’s address the causes and not the symptoms: calling to protect our democracy isn’t enough – we need to transform it.

I WANT TO HELP

The Good Society we want – one where we all live fulfilling and sustainable lives – we will only make it happen through an open, inclusive, and compassionate democracy. That is why Compass’ focus is on changing the rotten foundations of our system, rather than on day-to-day hand fights.

It’s becoming ever clearer how urgent this is. Opinion polls are showing that huge numbers of people now believe that our democratic and political system is broken. Democracy has become a doorstep issue, for the first time ever. In an increasingly fractured society, our desire for better democracy has become a point of unity.

But where is the political response to this? While the Tory Government is outrageously abusing the system, Labour shows few real signs of wanting to transform it. And without deep, democratic reform, the crisis will simply fester, whoever wins any election.

As our politicians are occupied trying to rule a dying system, it’s up to us to start building the political structures and cultures that fit our 21st-century society. We, the people will have to show the way.

Compass is mobilising to help make this happen, now, working together with anyone and everyone who’s up for transforming the UK’s democracy. This initiative will go by the name of We, the People.

We are bringing people and organisations together to realise long overdue reforms, from a written constitution to a proportional voting system for all elections, and from greater devolution to a reformed second chamber.

But importantly, we are looking beyond these necessary fixes, to new participative and deliberative forms of democracy, which have the power to truly transform how we decide and do things in our country and in our daily lives. With Compass’ help, citizens’ assemblies have now firmly got onto the political agenda, and deliberative democracy is set to play a much greater role in our society, not least through a people’s convention to determine the shape of new democratic institutions.

It doesn’t stop at changing our systems, though. It can’t. This is as much about behaviour – our democratic culture. We need a politics that is empathetic, collaborative and inquiring. And through We, the People and over the course of any election campaign we will keep pushing to ensure a new politics comes with new practices, not just with new institutions.

We live in a historic moment. It’s much bigger than Brexit or what party has the upper hand in our ailing democracy. The Brexit chaos and the democratic crisis are symptoms of a failed politics. Nothing will ever get better until we have a democracy fit for the 21st century. Compass will put every ounce of its energy, creativity and influence into building democratic institutions and behaviours that make a Good Society possible.

We need your help to make lasting change happen! Here’s what you can do:

•Join Compass – the political home for people who believe in a Good Society and know we have to change the system to change society.

•Start the conversation on Twitter – how do we fix our broken politics?

•Support our work – help us build a movement for a new democracy.

Your democracy needs you. Thank you for being with us in this effort. There has never been a better time for it.

Our best, as ever,

Neal

This message is from Compass, 81a Endell Street, London, WC2H 9DX.

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The Correspondent – I’ve joined to get better news

News as we know it leaves us cynical, divided, and less informed.

The Correspondent are building a movement for radically different news.

And they can’t do it without people like me and you.

They are currently crowdfunding to start their English-language news site (having started as a Dutch-language site “De Correspondent” in the same way).  I’ve joined and have given some money:

https://thecorrespondent.com

I like the idea of news that doesn’t follow the 24-hour cycle, but is instead about helping us understand our world.  News that doesn’t emphasise division, false “balance”, and fear, but presents the context and biases openly.

#ForTheWeb

Dear friend,

The web has transformed our daily lives—from how we communicate with loved ones to how we work to how we learn. But right now more than half of the world’s population remains offline, and those of us who are online see unsettling stories each day about data breaches, so-called ‘fake news’, and other ways that technology is threatening our freedom and privacy. We need to change this by building a better web—one that works for everyone, everywhere.

I’ve joined a campaign to build a new contract for the web that will call upon governments, companies, civil society organisations and individual citizens to help fix the problem.

Join me today at: https://www.fortheweb.webfoundation.org

No one can guarantee the web’s future alone. It’s up to all of us to add our voices to protect the web’s promise.

Thanks,

Message to my bank

Stop investing unethically, stop lending unsustainably and irresponsibly, separate the retail banking from the investment banking, change the whole culture of lending so it becomes in service of the public good instead of private profit (so that it helps small businesses and supports people who need loans whatever their situation).

Why tactical voting is a terrible idea

In lieu of my own post on the subject, here’s a blog post about tactical voting.

whats all this phd nonsense anyway?

In a departure from my usual focus on my PhD in astrophysics, I wanted to write down my thoughts on tactical voting. Please note that I’m not a political commentator, nor was I ever trained in politics. This is my opinion, based on my new and strong engagement in politics over the last few years. My arguments focus on Green supporters voting tactically for Labour, but could just as easily apply to similar situations across the political spectrum.

Part of my political awakening was my involvement in the fossil fuel divestment movement. Part of my political awakening was my involvement in the fossil fuel divestment movement.

Anyone I’ve ever spoken to about tactical voting agrees that it’s a shame that people feel the need to vote tactically. This, I think, transcribes into a relatively uniform agreement that our current electoral system in the UK is not fit for purpose. A system that sees some parties gain 5 times less seats than they win votes (e.g. Greens)…

View original post 1,705 more words

Consultation survey for “Better Care Together” Health & Social Care for Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland

I recently received an email from Leicester City CCG membership services inviting me to read about “Better Care Together” on http://www.bettercareleicester.nhs.uk/ and respond to the survey.

Looking through the first page of survey questions, I decided not to give answers to the survey questions because they seemed to start from assumptions that I don’t necessarily agree with – so there was no way for me to express my opinion without agreeing to those assumptions.  The assumptions seemed to be that the thrust of “Better Care Together” was what I would want, so the questions were merely asking for an opinion on minor tweaks of direction. They particular assumed that choice in who provides a service is what I want; choice sounds like a great thing, but actually I believe what people want in health & social care is control over the service they receive.  People don’t know how to rank particular specialists or services – they don’t have medical or social care training or knowledge.  We just want a high-quality service near to where we live and work, and to have more control over how this service is delivered in our particular case so it is tailored to our circumstances and isn’t about someone with power or specialist knowledge telling us what we will get.

In some cases, I agree with the thrust of “Better Care Together”, but I don’t want this to be taken for granted when being asked for my opinion.

The other problem I have with the survey is that it doesn’t seem to offer a way for the opinions of respondents to bring about changes in major ways; this ends up feeling like a public relations exercise, rather than genuine consultation.  “Better Care Together” is already written, so our responses wouldn’t change it – they would only adjust its direction.

But also “Better Care Together” is written in generalisations, so it’s hard to imagine how it would affect the health & social care we receive – so it’s hard to see, without reading between the lines, how specific services will change: this leads to the likely outcome of most respondents being positive about it because the generalisations are hard to disagree with, but only when it gets implemented will we see what it actually means at the grassroots.

Both of these factors render the survey pointless.