Hello, I'm Anouche, and in this third special episode of the New Statesman podcast, we'll

be joined by the Devon Political Campaigner Clare Wright, an actor and director Chris Addison

to discuss campaigning in British politics, the party system, and where influence really

lies.

Now, Armando, we wanted to talk about this because we were wondering how you can actually

influence politics at a local or at a national level without sort of buying into the party

machine.

What do you think?

It's picking up on this trend I've noticed a lot about, maybe people are just giving

up on Westminster, more independent standing, smaller parties standing, obviously the greens

are now a major force, talk about progressive alliances between parties, which don't make

any sense unless you tackle also the voting system, more and more people actually moving

away from looking at Westminster as a centre of power, and at local areas.

You've got the rise of King of the North Andy Burnham, as you've dubbed him an

New Statesman cover, who is an advert for saying, look, you can actually have power and

influence outside Westminster.

And also has the traditional method of campaigning and electing MPs, does that now seem out of

date or what is a way of refreshing it so that we can get more and more people engaging

with politics?

To help us get to the bottom of this and even imagine how things could be different, we've

invited a couple of special guests.

Clare Wright spent many years as a counsellor in East Devon, and in the 2015, 2017 and 2019

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