The triumph of a general election is that anything to do with our national life can be discussed. You can talk to candidates about anything – and they will have to at least seem to listen.
The tragedy is that, generally speaking, we don’t. The debates follow the same tramlines. People are not informed. Candidates stay particularly ignorant. manifestos are written in Whitehall. Differences are bashed out of the parties by the BBC.
New Weather is making its own contribution to the general election campaign with four briefings which can bring you up to speed on four crucial issues:
1. Community energy: keeping the lights on sustainably: community energy formatted
2. High streets: how to keep them vibrant: high streets formatted
3. Community land trusts: keeping housing affordable: community land trust policy briefing
4. Co-production: finding more resources for public services: co-production policy briefing
Please pass them on if you think they would be useful to anyone else.