As Matthew Taylor has noted in the Guardian:
The British public backs an ambitious transformation of the UK into a greener, fairer more equal society as it emerges from the Covid-19 crisis, according to an inquiry by a cross-party group of MPs.
The consultation exercise, which involved polling, in-depth workshops and telephone conversations with a representative sample of the public, found support for ambitious plans on equality, the future of work and the environment.
The findings come amid growing concern that the government is attempting to rush the country back to a pre-Covid “business as usual” model, rather than learn the lessons from the pandemic and build a more resilient “fairer, greener Britain”.
The inquiry was conducted by the all-party parliamentary group on a green new deal. One of its co-chairs, the Labour MP Clive Lewis, said the coronavirus crisis appeared to be driving a widespread desire for change.
“The findings of our research show that — almost irrelevant of age, sex, class or ethnicity — people want a fairer, greener, more community-oriented future. They do not want to see society go back to how it was.”
These findings were based on a survey called Reset
As that, Green New Deal linked survey reports:
What will life look like after Covid? We asked and over 55,000 people across the UK responded.They told us they wanted a fairer, kinder, greener, more connected Britain
Supported by a group of MPs and peers from across the political spectrum, Reset set out to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us to listen, reflect, plan and act — together — to bring about real and lasting change. We asked the public what they wanted life after Covid to look like, and created space for them to reflect and imagine together. We found:
The public are way ahead of the Government on the scale of change they want, with ambitious ideas about the future of work, public services, community, nature and local life.
They want a fairer society and want to see bold government action on wages, work and housing to make that happen.
There is widespread public support for the government to take steps to completely reshape everyday life in Britain, with more flexible working, a shorter working week and more vibrant neighbourhoods so people can play a meaningful role in their communities and act for the common good.
Some of the most popular changes, including more green spaces, liveable streets, less traffic, more flexible working patterns and food grown closer to home, would also make a significant contribution to meeting the UK's climate change targets.
I recommend the report.
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Hmmm….
I wonder what several people who think its okay to rev motorcycles and use them to create as much noise as possible going through my local area think (they are not young by the way)
I wonder what those people who complained about a dance on a television programme think, or do not like the possibility of a young black female football player hosting a BBC quiz show.
I wonder what people think when they throw litter out of their highly polished cars or motorhomes think when driving round.
I wonder what those people who queued outside the likes of McDonald’s when they reopened think.
I wonder what people think when they make terrible comments about refugees and would be asylum seekers.
I could go on, we haven’t even touched on Leaving the EU yet.
Disagreement is always a part fo life
But minorities do not have the right to determine how we will live
The best way to see what people really think is in a general election.
Remind me how that went last time….
Bryan Gophrey says:
September 18 2020 at 8:05 pm
‘The best way to see what people really think is in a general election.
Remind me how that went last time….’
Sadly, very badly as I recall 🙁
How sad, and yet if a politician or someone well known repeated these ideas the corporate media and BBC would either censor them and/or demonise this person so the majority of people would think of them as weird or dangerous.
The only solution I can see is for organisations that centralise power to be dismantled and somehow for people to organise their communities and own economics based on trust and shared common purpose, fairness and the needs of nature. If organisation takes away someone’s voice and gives it to someone else it can only mean a reduction in accountability which always seems to lead to escalating abuse to communities and nature.
If I had been part of the group surveyed, I would have said much the same thing. One of the benefits of lockdown was the carless streets. Skies seemed brighter too. I imagine the views expressed above are held by many people across the UK. Our press, and political pundits treat the public with contempt and in service of a fearful elite manipulate them and give voice to the minority of oppressed people with aggressive and nationalistic attitudes. But even these people, I think, would be happier in a society that gave their families and friends a break. Decent jobs, decent housing and decent community spaces. We have a society built around fear, mistrust and abuse of power. It has seeped into everday life, bullying at work (aka robust management), bosses who careless about consequences and more about the exercise of power. Not sure how to stop the malaise. But pretty sure majority of people living here are not happy with the way things are.
Listening to radio 2 yesterday 12 30ish discussing british rivers and the fact that most are filthy with plastic/run offs from farms/free range hens ect,the gov environment people are completly useless,it was quite shocking, then theres the recycling issue which is a joke, get in the wrong bag there uproar from the council and your neighbours! we are wasting our time.
How much of my recycling actually gets recycled?
Of that, only nine percent has been recycled. The vast majority–79 percent–is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter.20 Dec 2018
Actually, it is exported to other countries and is landfill there. We pay them to do what we cannot [legally] do here.
Govt [this one] only cares about good news and money.
The thing with this sort of stuff is that the sentiment may indeed be genuine.
But then people have to weigh up what they actually have to do themselves and it gets difficult. So often it seems to me that people want these positive things but are hoping that someone else will deal with it!!
On Netflix there are two documentaries on social media that are worth having a look at. There has been some really good stuff on Netflix in terms of documentaries in my view and they give the terminally crap BBC a run for its money.
‘The Social Dilemma’ looks at the intent by social media companies to steal our time to put us in front of advertising and also explores its impact on democracy as well as the concept of truth and touches on the psychological aspects too. On social media, people/users are the product.
‘Screened Out’ goes deeper into the psychological impacts especially on children and young people and it is terrifying. My daughter is in the thrall of her phone and it was very uncomfortable watching Screened Out seeing issues there raised that had happened in our home. The other day I saw my daughter come down stairs with some pots and she just put her empty can of pop in the general rubbish bin despite the fact that we have always recycled such items.
Social media is stealing our attention from real issues like the environment, our need to stop looking down into a screen, look up, look around and see what is happening.
Sure, social media also helps useful blogs like this, and can be used to mobilise people to indeed speak up. But the warnings I’ve heard is that we are allowing generations of unthinking people (who cannot even recycle stuff in an IT induced stupor) to be created because there attention is being diverted in to issues like the earth is actually flat or that 5G is spreading Coronvirus or Celebrity X has had a fling with Celebrity Y.
Newsnight has been running a two part series of reports on Siberia’s thawing events and these are horrific. But why is such a globally significant story confined to the graveyard shift of a national broadcaster?
Why? Because some ignorant prick in charge of programming decided it that way – that’s why.
It’s not looking good is it? In November last year, the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire was a disaster area; then in February Covid came along. And now the cycle seems set to start again. I live on a hill BTW but no one is safe – it won’t be long before the soil surrounding the footings of properties on these starts to get washed away by severe rain and we all tumble into the flooded plains below.
I work in the public sector and we have been told that Extinction Rebellion are a threat to our operations!!! I kid you not! We we warned of a cyber attack. BTW – every day w get a cyber attack from our IT system which is crap and unreliable.
Yet the the biggest existential threat to us all is IGNORANCE.
Pilgrim Slight Return says:
September 19 2020 at 10:06 am
‘Yet the the biggest existential threat to us all is IGNORANCE.’
Agree with that statement 100% and, I would add, misplaced trust. I had the privilege of being able to retire a few years ago and boy, have my eyes been opened. That privilege has allowed me to spend a little time exploring views from a variety of sources other than the mainstream. It has led me to question the things I always took as read. The process has not been comfortable but it has brought me to a place where the question I now always ask myself is ‘what is the agenda here’?’ I have to say social media has been invaluable in that process – it has led me to Richard Murphy’s blog and a number of other credible and creditable sources of valuable information. I hope I have tried to use my time, and social media, wisely. The privilege of time, critical thinking and exploration has led me to a place that is different than the one I occupied some years ago. I wish all had that opportunity but I am mindful that they do not.
Agreed.
You have to be able to sort out the wheat from the chaff don’t you Royd?
Since the SM companies are manipulating your choices on behalf of their real customers – corporations – the chance to make elective choices about one’s online content is harder but it can be done.
Lanier (in the documentary ‘Social Dilemma) says that the idea (or claim) that SM simply connects people is false (in the context of Facebook and Twitter for example) because ‘their is a sneaky third person bringing them together so that advertisers can sell stuff to those who are connecting’.
Zubhoff says that many users are totally ‘clueless’ that they are being targeted by such third party behaviour even when there is overtly political content being delivered.
So, the utility of connection – the joy of it, feeling connected, the enabling element – changes our perception of what else is coming down the line at us – we see it ALL as benign and helpful and worst of all – trustworthy.
The connectivity is THE Trojan horse of our times.
‘So, the utility of connection — the joy of it, feeling connected, the enabling element — changes our perception of what else is coming down the line at us — we see it ALL as benign and helpful and worst of all — trustworthy.’
We watched ‘The Social Dilemma’ last night on your recommendation PSR. As a result, my OH, who is still working (and patiently listens to my frequent diatribes on this, that and the other) and has little opportunity to use SM, has vowed never to use it on seeing and digesting it. We talked this morning about how the content messages aligned with the methods used by Cambridge Analytica to influence the Brexit Referendum.
Many people just do not have any awareness of how they are nudged, prompted and ultimately influenced to think a certain way. It is subtle and pernicious. I get a lot of useful information from SM. I get to read and think about perspectives I do not see reflected in the MSM and I am always aware that I need to have my ‘critical faculty’ in play. When one ventures into dangerous territory one needs to be on the alert!! 🙂
Yes, this Reset report is very encouraging, both from the size and diversity of its respondents and the cross-party endorsement. Whether anyone in government or corporate decision making circles takes the blind bit of notice is another matter. At the moment I doubt it, as other commentators have shown. Only if these findings lead onto some mass radical movement will any positive change come post-covid.