Essays, thoughts, poems, prayers and quotes:
I like and loathe Twitter; it draws you into debates with all sorts of interesting people and challenges you to make your point as sharply as possible. But it is also frustrating when something seems really obvious,…
I was recently invited to speak to a room of commissioners for services for people with learning disabilities in England about progress on de-institutionalisation. This is a pretty rare event for me these days and…
I am a proud member of the Socialist Health Association. I feel strongly that decent healthcare is a basic human right and that nobody should be deprived of it because of poverty, nor should the wealthy be able to buy…
What connectsThe child abandoned by his mother,The mother beaten by her man,The wounded soldier, andThe fleeing refugee? Love,Love certainly is needed.But love alone,Or love unguided,May fail to hit the…
Hütia te rito o te harakeke, kei hea te kömako e kö?Kï mai ki a au, 'He aha te mea nui i te ao?' Māku e kï atu, 'He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata'. If the heart of the flax is pulled out, where will the kömako…
In the space of a few days I’ve been lucky enough to be part of two workshops where we explored the question of how to narrow the gap between public services (the official welfare state) and the community. Each event…
I was reading Plato's Gorgias recently and I was struck by how close this two and half thousand year old discussion was to the debate currently going on within the Labour Party. In brief, I think it is clear that…
Economics emerged as a moral science, an attempt to understand how to advance justice and the wellbeing of all. The word comes from the combination of two important Greek words: Oikos - which means family,…
I came across, thanks to Samantha Connor, a beautiful new word the other day - confusopoly. After some searching around the internet I think I found the source of the word to be Scott Adams, the comic genius…
As we change our Prime Minister I’m wondering what we’ve learned about the battle for justice in the last six years. While I doubt we can expect a significant shift in policy, we must certainly take a fresh look at…
Neoliberalism has - I think - two main contrary forms. Often the thinkers who are cited as neoliberals are philosophers like Nozick, who argued for the minimal state and who took as the primary problem to be solved the…
Last year I was lucky enough to attend a ceremony in London where Jean Vanier received the Templeton Prize. Vanier (the founder of L’Arche and many other great initiatives) said to the assembled…
Words are like maps. Their meaning shifts as our we find our own position upon the map, as we identify the journey we've travelled and our plans for future travels. We may use the same map, but in radically different…
I was lucky enough to be invited by my friends at KVPS to live and work in Tampere, Finland for the last 10 weeks. It has been a wonderful experience, made even better by the fact that I was able to go with my wife, Nicola.…
I was recently asked by the Almeida Theatre company to answer a few questions about myself and my view of the government's welfare reform programme. Could you tell us a little about yourself and the job you…
For readers outside the UK I must do some scene-setting. In 2011 the television documentary programme Panorama did an exposé on the crimes committed against people with learning disabilities at Winterbourne…
Together we sat. We talked about the world's problems, its injustices, the power of evil and all that is wrong and unbalanced. Then we talked some more. We imagined ways that these problems could be solved,…
This is a copy of a recent letter I wrote on the topic of the RAS or Resource Allocation System in social care. Dear John I have written this note to you so that you can share it with others if you think it’s…
My thanks to the wonderful Charlie Barker-Gavigan for sharing this poem with me. A wonderful discovery. Praised be doubt! I advise you to greetCheerfully and with respect the manWho tests your word like a bad…
There is a very famous philosophical puzzle which asks: "When a tree falls in a lonely forest, and no animal is near by to hear it, does it make a sound?"Charles Riborg Mann & George Ransom Twiss. I had…
I put up this little item on Facebook recently and it seemed to strike a chord with lots of people. So I thought I'd share it here. The other day I received an email asking me to answer some questions about leadership…
Some days seem to have a curious symmetry to them, and this week I have had one of those days. It began in the heart of the Whitehall and it ended in a community radio station in East London; but the theme at the heart of the…
Charities are in the news. Many seem to be failing, failing as businesses, failing in standards or failing in their role as advocates. Standing back, we can see two tendencies, one very negative, the other…
Spot the difference... Here are the words of the Assisted Dying Bill 2 which is currently being promoted by Rob Marris MP in the UK Parliament: Subject to the consent of the High Court (Family Division)…