After the general election, I found myself sharing platforms with people who wanted to talk about cross-party co-operation, notably a fascinating debate with Caroline Lucas in Hay-on-Way. More on this another day, I hope. Most of these have been debates about...
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What We Can Learn from Bus Stops
One of the best architectural commissions in the world is now on view in a small mountainous region of Austria called the Bregenzerwald. The project involves seven bus stops on the bus routes round the small village of Krumbach (1,000 souls) including stops built by...
Why it’s time to define Englishness
“Dinner was announced soon after our arrival, which consisted of the following things,” writes the Rev James Woodforde describing his meal on 20 April 1796, in a diary which – in a very English way – lists the food in great detail but barely mentions God at all. Then...
The Threat from the Disabled
This week the Independent Living Fund was closed by the Government. This fund has, since 1988, supported profoundly disabled people to live at home in the way they want to. It has been a totally brilliant scheme -giving its participants the power to employ the carers...
People-powered prosperity: what’s possible?
Sunny outlook with a chance of local banking. That is the title of our New Weather event at the Hay Festival tomorrow (May 29, 11.30am). Andrew Simms and I will be talking to Green MP Caroline Lucas about many things, including local banking and including the New...
Come and talk about the circular economy
Maybe the first management consultant was James Oscar McKinsey, a US army logistics officer who became a professor of accounting at Chicago University after the First World War. A lone and exhausting copy of his text book on accountancy is still available in the...
Latest Publication

This pamphlet looks at how the UK is unprepared for a new era of crises and disasters. To illuminate the national predicament we look at lessons from recent history, and what we can learn, often from countries in the Global South, about the kind of local planning required and resources needed to be ready for when storms and other disasters strike near where we live.
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