2020
Vision (introduction)
- The first of 10 episodes,
each 1 hour, broadcast at 20h on the 20th of the
month, starting Jan or Feb 2019
- Groups of members of the
public in the studio, as sources of interview soundbites
and as visual representations of statistical analysis
of results, seated in groups, dressed in easily
identifiable colours and dress (e.g NHS staff in
white).
- Experts and commentators
in studio to talk us through the details of the
issues, supplemented with short prerecorded videos
and graphics.
Questions start with leading viewers through demonstrating
that they have understood the background.
Questions then move on to high level, principle questions,
such as:
- the balance of available
resources for this area in relation to total government
spending;
- the balance of available
resources within this area: how much of the budget
should be spent on this relative to that, given
that we understand the relative impact is such-and-such;
- your priorities in this
area;
- what the measures of success
should be;
- etc.
This introductory programme starts us off with an
overview of how democracy works, why it doesn't work
as well as it could or should, and leads us through
the processes and principles for the remainder of
the series.
1. Democracy and elections
How it works, the bits which work well, and
why it doesn't work well enough.
Preparation Panel to
include:
Cabinet Office
Talk London
Civocracy
Austin Rathe (or other, Dan Snow? Paddy Ashdown?),
More United
Change.org / YouGov
Ivor Crewe - the Blunders of our Governments
The Good Country Party
Patrick Wolfe, Director, Big Data Institute, UCL
Voteforpolicies.org.uk
Gapminder.org Prof Rossler
David Halpbern UK Behavioural Insights Team
More or Less: Radio 4 (Tim Harford)
[Some or all members of the
Preparation Panel may be included in the programme
itself, either on preprepared video clips or as experts
in the studio]
Introduction
The Democratic process: how it is supposed to work
- An introduction to democracy,
in a pure form (and in an adapted form, which makes
allowances for minorities not being forced to do
things which they don't want to do, as long as it
doesn't stop the majority unduly), as well as leadership
and representative democracy using preprepared video
and groups in the studio.
- Introduction to the app,
encouraging viewers to download and register provisionally
(full registration is possible at any point, a bit
like registering for Air BnB, to establish trust),
to participate in the feedback to the studio, working
through the process live in the studio.
Stage One
Why it doesn't work: The 5 year electoral cycle and
Career Politicians
Questions and answers using
the groups and commentators in the studio, as well
as through the interactive app, working through some
of the structural reasons why representative democracy
is a long way from representing us, or from providing
us with either sensible choices or the ability to
express any subtlety in our votes, including:
- one vote every 5 years is
not sufficient to select
(1) a good local representative, who is
(2) a member of a political grouping which is likely
to form a competent administration, whilst simultaneously
(3) selecting a manifesto of what we want that administration
to make happen
- questions exploring:
o How many things are we voting for with one vote?
&
o How many MPs are there? etc.;
Who represents you best?
A fireman for firemen? Or a woman for women?
What about their policies - how are they going to
spend your money? Ice cream? Fizzy drinks? Crisps?
- career politicians don't
represent anyone other than other politicians, with
no life experience other than politics, and we need
to make it possible for our representative to have
had other life experience, not just politics
- questions exploring:
o How much experience other than politics do you
think the average MP, minister has had? and
o Do you think it is possible to understand the
needs of people whom you don't know?.
Ask questions, pause for answers
to give viewers time to think.
This is an opportunity for you to note down what you
felt should be the answer, before we show you the
actual numbers.
Make information 'sticky'. Tell a story.
We're not just telling you, like on the news. We're
trying to help you to be the best informed people
around, by helping you to remember things, in stories,
by getting you thinking and ready to remember things,
by relating numbers to things which are memorable
and meaningful.
Results after the break!
Stage Two
Why it doesn't work: Ministers, and The blunders of
our governments
Questions and answers using the groups and commentators
in the studio, as well as through the interactive
app, working through some of the other reasons why
our government gets so many things wrong, including:
- the power ministers have
to change things, and why this isn't a good thing
questions exploring:
o What do you think the average tenure of a minister
is? &
o What do you think the average length of time is
on which it is sensible to judge the success of
government projects?;
- the blunders of our governments
questions exploring:
o Do you think our government is better or worse
than others at consulting and gathering consensus?
&
o Which of these projects do you think have been
successes? &
o How much public money do you think has been wasted
on these projects, collectively?.
o Do you know how many years of your tax it would
take to collect the amount which has been wasted?
(Assuming you are an average earner)
o Should we be enabling politicians not to be placed
in situations where they feel that they have to
make an impact quickly, to be noticed? Save A Politician
(SAP) !!
Ask questions, pause for answers
to give viewers time to think.
Make information 'sticky'. Tell a story.
Results after the break!
[For more details on the ideas
in the introduction and stages 1 and 2, please see]
Stage Three
What do we do about all of this?
Budgets and priorities.
Questions and answers using the interactive app, both
for viewers at home and for the participants in the
studio, working through the principles of why the
series is important and how it is open to everyone
to participate:
• separate out the election of our representative
from our expression of what we want to happen;
• share the best ideas of what might be possible;
• learn what the options actually are, and work
together to set out what sort of country we want to
live in;
• elect the most competent, trustworthy representative
as our local MP, and ask them to make it so.
20:20 Vision will
bring together millions of people, sharing ideas and
collecting opinions, to create a People's Manifesto.
We won't be in a position to force that into political
parties - and to even think of doing so would be wrong
- but we can set out what the largest, most informed
focus group in history thinks should happen. And political
parties would be stupid not to pay attention, and
to incorporate at least a lot of the ideas and opinions
into their manifestoes. So we can concentrate on voting
for good people, good local representatives, who collectively
can get together to form a competent administration
which can make it all happen.
… with some interesting
insights into the balance of overall government spending:
- do you know whether more
is spent on education, on the NHS, or on defence?
- if you could design a system
from scratch, how would you divide up the cake of
government spending (this is not your final answer,
but will just provide you with an interesting point
of reference to who you can later compare your final
ideas).
[Graphics of exploded pie charts
to enter your own numbers, before we give the actual
numbers]
Stage Four
Overview of the rest of the series
A quick taster of all the different areas in which
viewers and participants on line will have an opportunity
to learn and to contribute, to wrap it all up.
(Possible update programmes
in the interim before the next episode, to provide
feedback on participation levels and on what people
are thinking and saying - It Takes Two)
(Possible continuity programmes
provided through a morning TV regular segment) |