If we look back a decade ago, we thought the Arab spring, the election of Barack Obama and the arrival of social media would bring us a world with greater democracy and diversity. Move forward 10 years and we’ve got the opposite. …

As we move into the Autumn, I thought I’d share stories about my holidays. Not this year, but in 2019! That year, I managed to travel abroad almost every season, Spring to Paris, Summer to Sicily, Autumn to Crete. In Paris, we based ourselves at the border between the 3eme…

I’ve been looking at the trends over the last year and there’s an increasing contradiction between what people say they believe in and what they do. The ambitions of organisations are bolder than ever before where they want not just change but systems change, not just innovation but disruptive…

I thought I’d reflect on what I was doing 10 years ago. Ten years ago I had just moved eastwards from Battersea to Limehouse with a couple of friends and had started working in local government, initially to support asylum seekers across the country and then to help Kent County…

One of the trends that will continue to shape our world are the evolution of cities. What will the cities of the 2020s look like? Paul Mason listed “the 10 things a perfect city needs”, ranging from hipster economics to political unrest, but with no mention of public space. Other…

What could the next five years have in store for local government? I’ve mentioned previously what social trends we might see. Below are potential predictions for the wider landscape that councils is in: Gap will grow between those local areas that have the pre-existing infrastructure & investment to survive &…

Bizzarely I rarely talk or even waffle about food in my blog, even though it’s what I do best! I went to stay in my grandparents’ chalet I pretty much spent most of my holidays as a kid. I found in the cupboards a drawing I’d done which was the…

I want to share a story about when I was working with colleagues to develop a new strategic approach to how we commissioned & provided advice. We wanted advice to build on the strengths of communities and individuals, empowered residents, and gave them the tools and approaches to deal with…

When I was at Camden, we brought people together to develop a vision for the future and a call to action. The climate crisis is an issue that affects all of us where we all have a role to play. As a result, Camden developed a Citizens’ Assembly on the…