Squaring The Circle?
I am often asked how I can ‘justify’ my (senior) position within one of the world’s largest Public Relations firms, with my impassioned views on citizenship and society. I have long held the belief not only that it is a crass falsehood to see PR as a perpetrator of evil but also that the communications...
Citizen Capitalism and the Peaceful Revolution
The following is an extract from a talk given on Saturday 5 March in Portmeirion, Wales, at Names Not Numbers – billed as ‘a very British Davos’. The theme of the 2011 gathering was Community and Values. The most consequential outcome of the global financial crisis is now the challenge to capitalism itself.
Beyond the Bankers: The Advance of Citizen Capitalism
The publication of two significant works within the past fortnight signposts a welcome shift in conversation about New Economics and ‘new’ business models in the wake of the great crises of our time.
Small society, Big Bang
As Professor Tim Jackson says in his TED talk we live in times where we “spend money we don’t have, on things we don’t need, to create impressions that won’t last, on people we don’t care about.” As we have written in Citizen Renaissance, our hyper-consumerist lifestyles are fueled by unsustainable credit-bubble, debt-based growth which...
Heading Our Way: Why the Re-Alignment of Trust is Good News for The Citizen
Today’s publication of the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer, also covered in The FT, confirms the re-alignment of Trust in the wake of the great crises of recent years.
Big Society through the crystal ball
Great Edelman event this week all about the Big Society. Nick Hurd MP explained his view of what Big Society actually means. Peter Oborne journo'ed it out with Kevin Maguire while the other two panellists - Greenpeace's John Sauven and London 2012 Chair John Armitt CBE - both provided interesting perspectives.
The Big Society Can Bite Back: A Citizen Perspective
It is, admittedly, early days but opinion is divided as to whether David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ is a genuine commitment to citizenship and civic responsibility or a clever ideological play to dramatically reduce the size of the state, delivering a Grantham fist within a Notting Hill glove.
Cameron’s Happiness Index is welcome news for progressives
The government has announced a wellbeing review. What might this mean and why is this an important and welcome sign of progressiveness? In conventional wisdom, economic growth and higher incomes mean richer lives and improved quality of life. But, as the Happy Planet Index shows, true prosperity goes beyond material pleasures.
The coalition’s economic blind spot
Critics of Blair’s suggest that one of his faults was his keenness for neoliberal free-market economics in which corporations and the rich got richer at the expense of people and the planet. But where is the coalition on this? Read the Orange book and you can’t help but hear Thatcher’s voice muttering agreement in the...
