Everything must change

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After a year of challenging the political status quo, it's time for something new. In this video, I explain how this channel is evolving — more content, more community, and new ways to get involved. Let us know what you think.

This is the audio version:

This is the transcript:


Everything must change.

As a matter of fact, we humans do, and everything around us changes all the time, which we all know.   The only people who pretend otherwise are those who want to maintain the status quo on behalf of those who are in power, who think that society as it is suits them very well.

But I'm not one of those people, and it is time to think about some changes in this YouTube channel.

We started a year ago. We got a lot of things wrong at first, and we'll admit that. And then we found a niche. Since last October, we've been criticising the status quo, whether it's Trump or Reeves, the single transferable party, or the political system as a whole, we've had a go at it here, and I'm not apologising for that.

In fact, it's been a lot of fun, and it seems that others have enjoyed what we've been doing because, over that period, we've had nearly   25 million views of our videos, and we've got more than 200,000 followers as a result. And we are  grateful to every one of you who has clicked that button because getting that sort of feedback does make a difference when you are a YouTube creator, I promise you. If you haven't clicked already,   please do because we will feel better as a consequence. And if that's your good deed for the day, thank you very much.

But there are very clear signs right across politics that people are getting fatigued with the way things are.

Trump is no longer exciting. He's threatening, alright. He's deeply dangerous, and we all know that, but he's no longer attracting the attention that he did because the novelty of his madness is wearing off.

We also know that Rachel Reeves is hopeless. Now, however many times we say it, she will remain hopeless because it is clear she has no intention of changing. That won't stop me pointing it out, but I do understand that there are only so many times you can do so.

And we also now know that  Keir Starmer is the worst Prime Minister that we've had for decades, certainly worse than every Tory who went before him since 2010.

So the question is, why do we need to keep telling that story? Or is it time that we begin to do something more?

We've had a long discussion on that here, and we've decided that, yes, we do need to do something more now, and so we are planning to change things a bit.

We are still going to produce those long-form videos that you've got used to from us; those which last 10 or more minutes and discuss a situation in some depth, but there are going to be two or three a week of those now.

In addition, we're going to produce shorter videos on other days, which are going to concentrate on some key political and economic ideas.

What is GDP, for example?

Or do fiscal rules make any sense?

And is modern monetary theory a miracle cure?

And is Trump really a fascist?

In response to this video, you could really help us by telling us some of the questions you'd like us to answer, but please do make them short, make them specific, and make them ones that will appeal to lots of people because, clearly, we can't make something which is deeply isolated in its appeal.

We also want to involve you a bit more than just doing that. So once a week, we're going to create a video that will pose a question and which will provide answers: up to four answers in most cases. We will ask you to vote on those answers in the poll section below the video. That will provide us with valuable feedback on what you are thinking. And again, we'll appreciate that.

We also want to turn this into something which is a bit more like a community. We're at the early stages of our thinking on this, but we might be launching a membership scheme, partly because it does cost quite a lot of money to create these videos, and it would be great to have some support because we are expanding and we think that's going to cost a bit more, but also because we want to provide some people with insight into how we actually create these videos, and as importantly, why we make videos, and if you've got any comments on those ideas, let me know, below.

Finally, we will definitely be looking at introducing a podcast, and that should happen in the next few weeks, with the aim of producing one about once a week, on average. The format is something that we'll disclose in a little while, but it probably won't have lots of guests. It'll be more like a question-and-answer session, but we'll see how that goes.

The consequence of all this is that there will be more content on this YouTube channel in the future, and we now have the time to produce that. My retirement from academic work, which is partial, but nonetheless real in terms of time commitment, will permit that, and I find making these videos both exciting and rewarding, and I hope that comes across.

The result will be that we will also create more content that will be more varied and that will be quite deliberate, and you will be invited to participate more.

We hope you enjoy the new content even more than you have already. But there's one other thing to add, and that is if you do like the content here, click below the video to the section which says more, and you will find that  on every video there will now be a link to the Funding the Future blog, which I write. And on that link, you will find that there is a specific URL which will take you to a blog post,  which will provide you with a transcript of the video in question, including this one. And there, you'll be able to not only read this but also see comments that are made.

There will also, in the future, probably be some ChatGPT links there to assist you in finding other materials which are of a similar style or to help you provide activist interventions as a consequence of what you've heard. So, those will give you one way of interacting.

And another way we'll provide for you to interact is by providing revamped playlists in the future so that you can find our best content more easily as a result.

Please do subscribe if you haven't already, and if you would like to make a donation, click the Kofi button; there's a link down below, or go to my blog, and it's very apparent where it is there. So, all things considered, that's what we think you need to know about what we are planning now.

But if there's anything you want to tell us, please do, although I'm afraid to say, given the number of comments we get, we won't be able to respond to everyone.

Thank you. We really appreciate your support and your feedback. All of which is important to us because that will help us make better content for you, and ultimately, that is what matters.


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