Daily: Why do politicians get stuff wrong? – Demos’s Polly Mackenzie on making better policy

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Politicians don’t always give us what we want. So why do they get their decision-making so wrong? Polly Mackenzie is the Chief Executive of Demos and former Director of Policy to Deputy PM Nick Clegg. She talks to Ros Taylor about her report, The Humble Policy Maker, why we always think we’re right, how citizens can participate without dull consultations…and how a mouldy orange reveals what’s wrong with the technocracy today. “If you tell people not to act in their self-interest, you'll end up with a whole load more policy problems on your hands.” “The police is not the most important thing in keeping crime down, but our relationships with each other in society.” “Being a citizen is a big, hard job. It's only by participating that we can build up the democratic skillset that enables us to compromise.” “It's so easy to spend your life with people who are just like you.” Presented by Ros Taylor. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:15.2	But quite often, there too seem to be quite frankly irreconcilable.
1:19.4	Someone who's seen a lot of both is Polly Mackenzie, the chief executive of the Demos Think Tank.
1:24.5	She was Nick Clegg's director of policy during the coalition government between 2010 and 2015.
1:29.7	Yes, that brave experiment that was summarily rejected in favor of the strong and stable government
1:35.0	that David Cameron promised us. Welcome to the bunker Polly.
1:38.9	Hi there, thanks for having me.
1:40.4	Polly's just written a series of papers setting out how we could do things differently and try and make politics and policy work together.
1:50.0	First off Polly, thank you for writing policy papers that are actually a pleasure to read.
1:54.1	Yeah, not enough footnotes, some people have said, but you know what, I think footnotes are
	...

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