the art of the possible

To describing politics as, "The art of the possible," is to describe politics at its best. Sadly in the UK today politics is more a game of plodding along a predictable path. A tired government plodding through a crisis that some of us predicted. An opposition whose response is as predictable as panto. Is anything better possible?

The first job Obama had to do in the States in order to get elected was to convince his supporters that change was possible. In handing over the slogan, "Yes we can," he got his base to articulate and believe that they could win. It was possible for the US to elect a black president. It was possible to elect a president who would look after the economic interests of those worse off in society.

The next stage was to think about what would become possible after that. I was at a public meeting in Ohio during the election when Bill Richardson, now Obama's Commerce Secretary, launched into an extraordinary dream sequence in which he imagined the inauguration speech that a liberal president would make. It was possible to imagine a US president who would announce the closure of Guantanamo Bay, the end of torture by US proxies, a foreign policy that worked for peace rather than heightened hatred. It was possible for a US president to champion liberal social attitudes at home and abroad. It was possible.

So do we dare to imagine what is possible in the UK? Is it possible to create a society that values the strength of the community more highly than the strength of the pound. Can we raise real interest rates. Not the interest rates that obsess the monetary policy committee and the boys in the city but the rate of human interest in our neighbours, our families, our society. How interested are people in what is going on around them and how engaged are they in doing something about it?

Can we imagine a society where no-one is a victim of violent crime rather than one in which there are almost two murders every day. There are things that we could do that would create a safer society - but with our boringly predictable government and our boringly predictable opposition and our boringly predictable media we never will.

As I have recently "decided" to work for myself, I am now in a position where, for me, anything is possible. I am going to spend some time seeing what else is possible for our society and whether it is possible to do something more about it. Does anyone want to make an unpredictable response?