As I write this it’s unclear whether the current British Government will survive. Amidst the chaos, spare a thought for the civil servants who have to keep the show on the road. They’re incredibly important. For a description of why their expertise matters, read Michael Lewis’s new book The Fifth Risk. It’s terrifying. There’s no […]
Tag archives: Politics
Inner City Pressure
I’ve read a lot of new books this year but haven’t got round to writing up little reviews of them like I was doing last year. So I thought I might try and catch-up with posts about the standouts over the next few months. The first is ‘Inner City Pressure: the story of grime’ by […]
Are countries over?
Photo some rights reserved by Raja Habib. I think it was nearly ten years ago that I hosted an event with Clay Shirky for Demos in London. Clay was talking about Here Comes Everybody, his fantastic book about the role that decentralised technology is having on society and the collected audience of wonks, geeks and innovators […]
Technology and inequality
A few years ago I wrote a blog post called ‘How to stop geeks becoming the next bankers’. At the time I was worried about technology exacerbating the job losses created by the 2008 financial crisis. I wrote “We need technology to solve the difficult problems we face… technology should be creating new and better […]
Opening up an idea — PartyStarter.org
I put this idea into the 4iP call for ideas but they turned it down (maybe because I’m supposed to be running one of their portfolio investments 😉 ) so I thought I’d just put it out there to see if anybody was interested in taking it on or helping out… PartyStarter.org Starting a political party […]
Institutional fix
Not entirely serious but somehow true: Right now all our faith has poured out of the old institutions, and there’s nowhere left to put it. We need new institutions to believe in, and fast. Doesn’t matter what they’re made of. Knit them out of string, wool, anything. Quickly, quickly. Before we start worshipping insects. – […]
My take on MPs’ expenses
This isn’t really about expenses. What’s going on has been brewing for a long time — it’s a more general disaffection with the structure of politics in the UK and a belief that politicians just aren’t up to the job of taking important decisions. It was only a matter of time before we found a touchpaper issue […]
Meetups and Ministers: Self-organizing public services
[This is a slightly adapted version of a short talk I gave at MASS LBP on 10 March 2009 in Toronto, Canada] It feels a bit unfashionable in tumultuous times like these but there’s something you should know about me before we start. I’m an optimist — a practical optimist in that I like making things happen […]
“Representative democracy was based on the idea that people are thick”
I went along to see Us Now on Wednesday and I like it a lot — and not just because it’s got me in it! The funny thing about being on camera is that you sometimes come out with things you didn’t know you were going to say. In Us Now I surprised myself when I said, […]
Us Now
I haven’t seen it yet (first screening is tomorrow) but there are a few bits of me in a new documentary about government, democracy and technology called Us Now. Here’s the trailer.