Introducing Democratic Yorkshire
- Date
-
Wed 20 April 2022
6:45 pm - 8:00 pm
- Venue
- Online
In partnership with Democratic Yorkshire
The way Britain is currently governed fails to serve the best interests of Yorkshire. At this event we will start to look at an alternative approach to governing our county. A new Democratic Yorkshire will unite the county, provide a just and fair society, enable our citizens to fully participate in decision-making, and provide hope for a better future for our children.
We'll be joined by a special guest panel including:
Dr. Tiffany R. Holloman - Same Skies
Andy Train - Pride in Hull
Glyn Butcher - PFG Doncaster
This is the first of a series of events about the Democratic Yorkshire that we want to pass onto our children and future generations. The centralised system by which Britain is governed is badly flawed and needs radical change. It’s time to lift our horizons and start ‘thinking outside the box’ as far as our county’s future is concerned.
Albert Einstein famously observed: ‘The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.’
We say, it’s time for the people to take charge.
Democratic Yorkshire is a community-led initiative working to bring about a Yorkshire based on a just and fair society in which all of our citizens are enabled to participate and feel their voices are heard, and to whom decision-makers are fully accountable, because decisions will be made as locally as possible - a Yorkshire which is no longer subject to decisions made 200 miles away in Westminster.
Our self-proclaimed task is to seek a fresh, new framework for the governance of our county. One that puts the wellbeing of Yorkshire’s citizens, economy and environment first.
We hope that you will join us in this worthy endeavour.
Future Events
Yorkshire Day event - ‘21st Century Economy’ - Wednesday 3 August
Autumn Event - ‘Cooperative Solutions’ - Wednesday 9 November
Tiffany is Co-Founder and Co-Director of Same Skies Think Tank, a regional democracy organisation in West Yorkshire.
She is a project manager at the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity at the University of Bradford and part-time lecturer at RADA. Her sociological research examines race and education in the UK and US and her historical research investigates King James VI&I in Early Modern Britain. She is the author of several articles, chapters, as well as a co-editor of two books. Her activism stems from a desire to work with community members in the elevation of human development. She loves the Arts, NES roms, travelling, baseball, fishing, and chess.
Get in touch: tiffany@sameskiesthinktank.com
Andy Train was born in East Yorkshire and has lived in Hull most of his life. He qualified as a nurse working in A&E and Minor Injuries in Driffield and is now a self employed trainer. Andy came out in 2002 joining the LGBTQIA+ rights movement and pride teams both locally, nationally and internationally.
He’s a voice over artist, living statue, Tenor at Hull Minster and a licensed Sir Topham Hatt!
Ed Straw is a researcher, writer and activist on systems of governing. He is co-author of The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency, in which existing systems within which governments operate are analysed, concluding that they lie at the heart of many of the world’s problems - climate, pollution, nature, mass inequality and inhumanity. Their response is to apply systems thinking in practice to the design of governance at every level, and propose 26 principles as the basis for new constitutions.
Ed is chair of Compassionate Communities UK, core member of the Independent Constitutionalists UK, visiting research fellow at the Open University’s Applied Systems Thinking in Practice group, and he likes moving rocks.
Glyn Butcher is a person with lived experience of accessing mental health services that kept him feeling powerless and took him out of his community for over 30 years. Peer support set him free. The power of community made him feel alive. His peers bring healing to his life and his soul. Glyn is now a peer support worker at the People Focused Group in Doncaster, where he gives back to his community as his community gave to him. He is living proof that peer support works, as we embark on our journey of recovery and discovery together.
Democracy
How can we reimagine citizenship and our democracy?