Most people think only a limited range of ideas is acceptable at any given time, but that doesn't mean they are fixed forever. Ideas in vogue at any given time are said to be in the Overton Window, but the simple fact is, it can be moved.

The proof is in living memory. In 1980, same-sex marriage was barely discussable in Britain. By 2010 it was law.

Margaret Thatcher shifted the window in the opposite direction. She moved government policy away from state ownership and the provision of a social safety net as the accepted norm, replacing them with privatisation and welfare reform within a few years.

The point is, ideas do not become policy because they are "right".  They become policy because enough people stopped treating them as unthinkable.

That said, most politicians never move the Overton Window. They work inside it, using polling and focus groups to figure out which policies to offer that fit within it. That's why, too often, nothing seems to change.

The mainstream media reinforce this stability. They hold most of the power over what is in the Overton Window, deciding which issues are treated seriously and which are made to look ridiculous. Repetition does the rest. Say "we can't afford better public services" often enough and it hardens into fact, even though it is a choice.

But the Window moves when people start thinking differently about what is possible. The fight against corporate tax avoidance is the proof: what was once dismissed as a conspiracy theory became front-page news, which then led to new international agreements to tackle tax abuse. That resulted from years of sustained argument and evidence. That mechanism moved the Overton Window. It is not mystical, and it is not reserved for the powerful. The Window moves because people refuse to accept the choice they are offered and insist on better ones instead.

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This is the transcript:

I've been thinking of late about what is required for us to change the world. And one of the things we need to do is move the Overton Window. But if we're going to move it, I have to explain precisely what the Overton Window is. It is a description that is used for the range of political ideas that most people consider acceptable at any given time.

This is not a real Window. Let me be clear about that. This is a framing of what may be discussed by politicians at any moment in a way that the media find acceptable.

Ideas inside the Overton Window can be taken seriously and debated.

Ideas outside it get dismissed. They're treated as extreme, or dangerous, or just unacceptable.

The Window therefore shapes what politics seems able to offer us at any point of time, and that last point is important because the Window can be moved. That is the point I'm going to make in this video.

Joseph Overton is the man who gave his name to this Window, and he described how ideas move through stages. They move from being unthinkable to being radical, to being acceptable, to being sensible, to being popular, and finally, they become policy, which is of course what we want if we're going to change the world.

Think about same-sex marriage. In 1980, it was barely discussable in polite society in the UK. People were finding it pretty hard to accept that people were homosexual. It was a tough time to be gay or lesbian or anything else. But by 2010, same-sex marriage was legal in the UK and in many countries.

An idea doesn't have to stay where it starts. That's the point I'm making. If you can change what enough people think is reasonable, eventually you can change government policy, and that is a matter of fact that's proven over time.

So the Overton Window is not fixed. It can move. From 1945 to the late 1970s, most politicians agreed that the government should run key services, protect workers, and look after people's welfare. From around 1980, as we well know, Margaret Thatcher shifted the Overton Window. Privatising services, cutting taxes, and trusting markets to solve problems became the new normal. What counts as a sensible idea in politics can change radically within a generation.

Most politicians do, however, work within the existing Overton Window rather than trying to change it. They use opinion polls by asking large groups what they think, or focus groups, which are small groups questioned in detail, and watch how newspapers react to the opinions that they then feed back to them as to what is acceptable. Then they offer policies they think voters will vote for within that Overton Window. In other words, politicians mostly follow the Window. They very rarely lead it.

And the mainstream media, such as TV news, newspapers, and popular websites, has enormous power over what is supposedly within the Overton Window. Owners, especially, and editors, in particular, decide which issues get attention and which get ignored. They also decide which issues are treated as serious and which are made to look ridiculous. In other words, they frame the Overton Window. An idea that never appears in the news can simply vanish from political debate altogether, and that is an issue that we need to overcome.

But there is another problem to address as well. When the same ideas are repeated constantly by politicians, by newspapers, and on television, some people begin to assume they must simply be true. For example, the fact that we can't afford better public services, or the government must spend less or debt will go out of control, are claims that are within the Overton Window, but they aren't facts. They are choices, but repetition makes them feel like facts. Once that happens, alternatives get dismissed as unrealistic before anyone has ever properly examined them.

The Window can, however, move when people start thinking differently about what is possible. Ideas that were dismissed as extreme or naive can, with argument and evidence, and a bit of time, move towards the mainstream.

For example, the idea that big companies were hiding profits in tax havens to avoid tax was once treated as a conspiracy theory, but sustained campaigning, not least by me, made it front-page news. Google, Amazon, and Starbucks came to learn the lesson of that. And as a consequence, new international agreements were eventually made to tackle the problem of multinational company tax abuse. We moved the Overton Window. What seems impossible today can become policy tomorrow, and my own lived experience is evidence of that possibility being very real and something that campaigners can do.

My point is this. We shouldn't just accept the Window as it is and work within it. The important question is: who decides which ideas are acceptable and why? Why can't we? If we can change what people believe is possible, we can shift the Window and create better choices.

Political change begins when people realise that things don't have to be the way they are. That's the key point I'm making: that politics isn't only about picking from the options we are given. Real change means asking who decides what's on offer and pushing to put better ideas on the table.

The Overton Window can be moved. We can open it. We can reach inside it. We can put items within it. The question is whether we understand that well enough to move it in the right direction to affect the change that we want, because if we can, we can create new economic policy.

That's what I think. What do you think? There is, of course, a poll down below. Let us have your comments. I like reading them. I try to reply to some of them. I never manage to get to all of them, but that is simply because so many of you comment, and I'm grateful. Please do subscribe to the channel. Please do click that bell button so you're told when we make new videos. And if you'd like to buy Tom and me a coffee, that would be great and very much appreciated.

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