December 21, 2025

Keeping Politics Human on the Page

Political writing can become abstract very quickly.

I avoid that by staying close to the person in the room.

What does this policy feel like at a kitchen table, or in a council corridor after everyone has gone home?

Institutions matter, but they are experienced through families, colleagues, parish meetings, and difficult conversations. I am less interested in slogans than in who carries the cost of public decisions.

That approach has also shaped me personally.

The more I write politics as human experience, the less patience I have for theatrical certainty.

Clive

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