Just before Christmas 2020, on the 10th December, a rather heated meeting of Handforth Parish Council Planning and Environment Committee took place remotely on Zoom video conferencing software. 

A few weeks later, in January, an edited highlights package of the meeting started gaining some traction on social media. What is this strange pantomime, of parochial public officials tearing strips off one another over the internet? The video largely concerned a bad-tempered committee chair at loggerheads with a guest mediator who had been brought in to try and restore order to a dysfunctional group. The factions were clear, and the battle lines were drawn.
 Council meetings in this part of the UK were notorious for bullying and tensions - if you had reason to be aware of them. On YouTube, the video was racking up thousands and then hundreds of thousands of views, spawning catchphrases, musical theatre tributes, merchandise, parody sketches - suddenly an unassuming meeting from a small town in Cheshire was a global news story. The Washington Post described it as being "like an absurdist British play”.

The undeniable star was the only real grown-up in the room, a professional local government officer and clerk by the name of Jackie Weaver who had been parachuted in to challenge intimidating behaviour. Her calm and assertive manner was recognised and praised - and she became a big star overnight. 

The UK government are looking at making live streaming of all parish council meetings mandatory due the 'Jackie Weaver phenomenon’ - and Jackie has used her new found fame to lead discussions about young people and politics, the role of local government, sexism and bullying and the messy world of democracy.

We spent some time with Jackie at the start of March 2021, and discussed all of these things and more. When the dust settles on the pandemic and on Handforth - what does the future hold for local politics - and, of course, for Jackie Weaver herself. 

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Useful links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsBBGVi2MCw
https://www.handforth.org.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzfaZqmImLU
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jackie-weaver-interview-handforth-parish-council-b1838725.html
https://www.lgcplus.com/politics/governance-and-structure/exclusive-jackie-weaver-the-handforth-legacy-and-her-message-to-jenrick-18-02-2021/
https://speakerpolitics.co.uk/vote-2021/2786-handforth-parish-council-sensation-jackie-weaver-encourages-young-people-to-take-ownership-o

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For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org

You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/

We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform.

This is an always possible podcast (www.alwayspossible.co.uk)
Produced by Lo Fi Arts (https://christt.com/consultancy/)

After Corona? - JACKIE WEAVER ON LOCAL POLITICS

Blue skies, clean air, birdsong, wild animals in town centres, falling back in love with gardens and open spaces - for a moment, the conversation in 2020 was that there are positives to public health lockdowns. Things we might want to keep.

And in 2021, the libertarian-leaning, free-market driven, friend of industry UK Conservative government will be hosting one of the most important UN climate change conferences in history - at COP26. The United States are back on board. China say they are on board. And the UK can legitimately declare that it is halfway to reaching carbon net zero in 2050, with emissions down 51% from 1990 levels. 

But is it even remotely enough? Are there still people who don’t get it? And should we be worried that when restrictions are all over for COVID-19, we’ll have all forgotten how much better our environment was in such a short time?


In this episode of the After Corona? series, we’re looking at sustainability.

Steve Creed is a Canadian sustainability expert, living in the UK a former director of the UK Waste & Resources Action Programme and now advising on circular economy mechanisms and community land trust development.

Robert Jones-Mantle has been involved in running the Magpie recycling co-operative in Brighton for over 25 years, launching one the UK’s first ever kerbside recycling collection services in 1996.

Leo Barasi is a writer, TV and radio broadcaster, climate change consultant, an expert on public opinion around sustainability and author of the 2017 book ’The Climate Majority: From Apathy to Action’.

Ben Miller is co-founder of Latitude Social Design, an agency using cognitive diversity, design thinking and problem-solving to enable people from across society and business to have a shared approach to tackling big challenges.

We asked the same seven questions of these four special contributors, who are all giving personal testimony about their pandemic experiences and what it has meant for their professional mission.

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Useful links:

https://magpie.coop/
https://ethicalshop.org/the-climate-majority-by-leo-barasi-8360.html
https://podcasts.apple.com/pa/podcast/making-eh-happen/id1554340195?l=en
https://latitudesocialdesign.com/

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For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org

You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/

We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform.

This is an always possible podcast.

The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.

After Corona? - SUSTAINABILITY

Mike Fairclough is not an ordinary primary school headteacher. 

It may be an unassuming state school for 7-11 year olds, at the back of an Eastbourne housing estate - but West Rise Junior, is nationally famous for its focus on risk and resilience, teaching children to use fire, knives and guns, to care for dangerous animals and to be candid about how they are feeling, embracing tricky conversations as a part of life.

In this After Corona episode of The Possibility Club podcast, we look at the decisions and perspectives of a primary education leader during the biggest challenge to the delivery of education in the UK since the second world war.

Mike Fairclough’s two books on education and learning ‘Playing With Fire’ and ‘Wild Thing’ focus on the innate creativity and curiosity of children, and how it is the adults that don’t know how to cope when presented with challenges with our playfulness and ability to learn through risk eroded as we get older and more buttoned-up.

We recorded this conversation with Mike in March 2021, in order to get the view from the frontline of how this pandemic has affected children, families and school communities. If the curriculum at West Rise Junior is so cleverly focused on personal capacity to deal with change and uncertainty, how has it benefited students at a time like this?

We talked about the decisions to close schools to all but key worker and vulnerable children, remote learning, inequality and opportunity and the hope for a better understanding of children’s wellbeing and resilience from all of society. 

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Useful links:

- http://mikefairclough.squarespace.com/
- https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19042914.covid-19-sussex-headmaster-teaches-outdoors-says-children-coping-better-adults/
- https://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/what-makes-most-children-so-happy-most-time-3094890
- https://www.waterstones.com/book/wild-thing/mike-fairclough/9781788176286
- https://www.waterstones.com/book/playing-with-fire/mike-fairclough/9781911382072

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For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org

You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/

We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform.

This is an always possible podcast.

The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.

After Corona? - MIKE FAIRCLOUGH ON HEADTEACHERS

Welcome to the third in a new series of The Possibility Club podcasts looking in depth at the subject of Ageing Well.

Each of the four special episodes will feature discussions between researchers, community practitioners, health specialists and more, busting some of the myths that persist about ageing as well as looking at how our understanding of how to live long and happy lives is changing. 

From technology to the care system, innovation in product and service design to narratives about ageing - we will be exploring how to turn the problem of getting older into an opportunity for a life well lived.
This series has been developed by always possible in collaboration with the University of Sussex and in each episode, a member of the always possible team will be in conversation with an expert from the University of Sussex plus special guests. 

To find out more about the whole programme, the free online events and The Possibility Club discussion circle - where people with an interest in the topic can share ideas and connect - visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk/ageing-well

In this third episode, always possible Associate Lucy Paine discusses digital inclusion and inclusive design with Dr Ralitsa Hiteva from the University of Sussex's Science, Policy and research unit and Social Entrepreneur, Eric Kihlstrom – with a special guest appearance from Oscar the dog!

To have future Ageing Well conversations download automatically to your smartphone or tablet hit the subscribe button on your favourite podcast app. You will also receive other episodes from The Possibility Club including the After Corona? series in which we look ahead at society and business beyond the Covid-19 pandemic, and a series about how we eradicate slavery in the 21st century - another collaboration between always possible and the University of Sussex.

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Useful links:

https://the-possibility-club.mn.co/groups/3992209/feed
 
https://www.aging2.com/about/ 

http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/97148/ 

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Ageing Well is an always possible podcast, created in collaboration with the University of Sussex with support from the Economic & Social Research Council. It is produced and edited by Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.

Ageing Well: Digital Inclusion & Inclusive Design

The Possibility Club podcast explores the future of business, culture and education. Richard Freeman talks to the people at the coalface of change.

The Possibility Club

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