The Funding the Future team had what you might call an \u201cawayday\u201d yesterday, except that it did not last all day, and we only went as far as Cambridge to consume a lot of coffee and refreshments in the calm atmosphere of the Michaelhouse Church caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Our agenda was quite straightforward. It was to consider how we can take our work forward in 2026, to build on an undoubtedly successful 2025, despite the fact that during that year we only concentrated on output through two channels, which were this blog and long-form YouTube videos.<\/p>\n
Before answering that question, there was, however, an obvious issue to resolve, which was to create clarity on just what it is that we think we are doing. If, after all, we all had different understandings of that, then the likelihood of progress would be significantly reduced.<\/p>\n
We discussed this in the context of a number of recent blog posts here, and some of the very useful responses people have offered about what they think we\u2019re doing, whether those comments were deliberately framed that way or otherwise.<\/p>\n
We also looked at this, taking into account how we, as a team, tend to think and how we all want to work. Thankfully, there is a fairly high degree of agreement on those issues between us, perhaps because we share family traits.<\/p>\n
The conclusion was that our primary focus in 2026 will be to discuss the creation of a politics of care and the necessary economic underpinning for this programme. Everything else is ancillary to that.<\/p>\n
What we all then agreed was that we do not have all the answers on how to achieve this goal and that it is not necessarily our job to provide them. That said, we do think that the work we have been undertaking can provide a basis and stimulus for the development of ideas on this issue.<\/p>\n
As a result, we agreed that our work is to create opportunities for coordination and cooperation around the development of ideas for a politics of care that encourages free thinking while allowing anti-neoliberal ideas to accumulate and exert real political pressure.<\/p>\n
The comments on this blog are a perfect example of that free thinking, enabled by the work we do.<\/p>\n
Why reach this conclusion?\u00a0 In the context of a political environment where we believe that so many people feel alienated by the consequences of 45 years of antisocial neoliberalism, we think the politics of care, based as it is on a concern for each and every person in the community, whoever they might be, wherever they might come from, whatever they might believe, and however they might wish to contribute, has to be our priority. We also recognise the essential role of explaining the economics that make this policy possible.<\/p>\n
This does not mean that we want to give up discussion of current issues, political development, economic thinking, and related issues that help us contextualise why this work is relevant. They are the starting point from which ideas develop.<\/p>\n
The follow-up is that we will now, in various ways, work on developing ideas that flow from this conclusion. What I am interested in now is whether you, as a reader of this blog, think we have reached the right point in defining our work for the coming year. Please let us know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"