Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett

In an extract from: 'Breaking Out of Britain's Neo-Liberal State' published as a Compass Thinkpiece today, and based on their original openDemocracy essay in OurKingdom, Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett identify seven key steps towards the renewal of British democracy.

1.  We need to identify “the official future” – the mantra of globalisation wherever it is – nationally, internationally, in the public and private realms, and critique it, defeat it and supplant it;

2. The world view of the bloviators – the Floridas, Gladwells and others  – who have offered themselves as voices and apologists for the winners and the global order, needs to be seen as part of the problem, along with the damage they have done and their role in legitimising the “new conservatism”;

3. Public discourse has to be reclaimed from the neo-liberals, whether first wave, second wave, instrumental, personal or unwittingly. Government and public agencies need to fundamentally rethink how they conceive and think of policy, the language and values in documents, and whose voice and interest such processes are serving;