We are all subjected to constant shenanigans in our news cycles and politics. Leaders in or out of office, policy swings with every election, and public debate deliberately engineered to divide us rather than bring consensus. Why?
Look beneath the surface and you find individual power plays, corporations and now corporate algorithms all designed to profit directly off outrage, conflict, and distraction. When anger drives humans, we become reactive, exhausted, and easily manipulated.
It is time to step back and focus on what actually shapes our daily lives and all of our futures.
Big visions driven by consensus are desperately needed. What are the core values we hold? What can we agree on? Where is the common ground ? We should have an expectation of our leaders, to support a shared principles, direction—bringing longer term trust and stability.
Policy is where our collective values are tested, funded, or betrayed. And let’s be realistic: political ego, individual power trips, and corporate greed will always try to hijack policy in their own interests.
To protect our communities and rebuild stability, we need a national consensus on the basics that no commercial lobbyist or politician can ever sway:
Protected National Essentials: Core public services—including health, clean water, energy, and foundational educational rights—must be legally protected as public trusts, completely insulated from private profiteering and corporate lobbying.
Local Policy Autonomy: Regional communities, local authorities, must hold genuine authority to agree locally on the policies that serve their unique social and economic realities.
Stop anchoring our hopes to individual political figures or parties and demand that we strengthen our public institutions and uphold non-negotiable human values.
I have seen what happens when public policy drifts away from community agreement. Top-down centralisation birthed PFI and LIFT, all expensive, all now unmanageable, unstable and lacking.
Education, Health and essential utilities are the heart of our society not corporate commodities to be restructured, sold, or managed by lobbyists. Is it really beyond us, stuck in “the too Hard Box”?
Locking in an expectation of some shared consensus anchored in human dignity—helps our schools, health services, and essential utilities remain stable, fair, and focused on human success.
Hard to remember a piece of writing with which I have agreed so vehemently. Public policy is elementally connected to what I call the “common mind” - those beliefs that we hold in common and which therefore hold us together as groups. These beliefs include much of what Caroline refers to in her bullet points.
Thank you, Ben. yes Policy forgets the quiet, shared 'common mind' that holds communities together. Really delighted to have your voice in The Common Place.