This small but growing library offers various resources and is Liberating Yorkshire's research arm.
Independent Constitutionalists U.K. (IC-UK)
We gained confidence and learned a lot thanks to our close association with the Independent Constitutionalists U.K. (IC-UK). Their Declaration of Purpose has helped shape much of our thinking.
7 keys to Citizenship
Here, we share Simon Duffy’s TEDx Talk in Doncaster, in which he describes his model on the “7 keys to Citizenship”.
Simon is a close ally of Liberating Yorkshire and the president of the Citizen Network, a global movement to create a world where everyone matters. This video will greatly interest anyone interested in lifting left-behind places and individuals.
A New Britain: renewing our Democracy and Rebuilding our Economy.
Published in December 2022, Gordon Brown’s report to the Labour Leadership outlines over 40 recommendations for addressing the UK’s economic and political challenges. While we at Liberating Yorkshire do not agree with every sentence in the report, we would be foolish not to take it seriously when composing the People’s Constitution and preparing our recommendations to put to the government. We will take the best from Brown’s report and build on it in the interests of the people of Yorkshire.
Prospects for a Democratic Yorkshire
Opus is a worker-owned social enterprise based in Sheffield. It started in 2008 to find systemic responses to society’s most complex problems. Opus has kindly hosted several events on Democratic Yorkshire’s and, more recently, Liberating Yorkshire’s behalf that we wouldn’t be capable of hosting on our own. The first of these events was in November 2021, when we were still dipping our toes in the bath water. This film records that event.
Reforming U.K. Public Policy through Elected Regional Government
In his book Reforming U.K. Public Policy through Elected Regional Government, Professor Malcolm J. Prowle advocates creating elected regional governments in England, similar to the devolved arrangements in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. This book is available from Routledge at £43.99.
In this podcast, Malcolm discusses his book with Ed Straw. Ed comes to the issue from a background at the coal face of government. The pair met while working for KPMG and are supporters of Liberating Yorkshire and our predecessor – Democratic Yorkshire.
They kindly agreed to speak on this 52-minute bespoke podcast on our behalf. We trust that you find it as enlightening as we have.
The Earth Charter
The Charter launched in June 2000 is the product of a decade-long, worldwide, cross-cultural dialogue connecting the problems of climate and social change. It helps focuses the mind when planning and developing new policies, even at the most local level. We can imagine much of it making its way onto the pages of The People’s Constitution as a means of reaching our ambitions to tackle climate change and do our bit to herald an Ecological Civilisation.
Tackling Climate Change Using Systems Thinking
The first of our online seminars featured Ray Ison and Ed Straw discussing their book The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency. Copies of the book are available from Amazon for £33.35.
Ray and Ed are members of the Open University Applied Systems Thinking in Practice group (ASTiP). Ray is the university’s professor of Systems Thinking, and Ed is an advisory fellow. In this seminar they discuss how and why government failure is at the heart of the collective incapacity to tackle climate and biodiversity emergencies.
The seminar was a successful part of the Opus Festival of Debate for 2024.
Learn more about Systems Thinking
Suppose you are left hungry to learn more about Systems Thinking after participating in the above seminar or studying the book The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency. The Open University’s Open Learn programme offers a range of free courses.
The Rest Is Politics – The Tale of Two Cities
The Rest Is Politics is a podcast and Channel 4 television series hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart. In this programme, Alastair and Rory interviewed Andy Burnham, Labour Mayor for Greater Manchester, and Andy Street, Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands. They asked
what it is like to run a metropolitan area, how devolution impacts the citizens of regional areas, and whether party affiliation affects mayoral decisions.