And after a brief break after the first series of the Cargo Of Bricks, we start the second series in partnership with Ulster Bank with a brief introduction from Richard Ramsey to the Reset Project, an overview of where Northern Ireland finds itself regarding Covid and how to get involved in #TheReset.
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In it he covers…
- How politicians need to take heart from their ability to work under the pressure of the crisis and change things that needed changing, now to take urgent but unpopular decisions and actually see their popularity rise as a result. And how leadership has come from right across the field.
- During the debt crisis of 2008/9 Northern Ireland experienced the deepest and the longest recession of any part of the UK. We needed a conversation then, which subsequently failed to happen. The contraction this time is three times larger. We can no longer duck that conversation.
- If our elderly are on the frontline of the health emergency, our young people are on the frontline of the economic emergency. Youth employment is set to rise to unprecedently levels. He urges us all to wake up, throw off our ‘capture’ by the status quo, and find new ways to mitigate those effects.
The crisis has revealed many of the underlying conditions that have been holding Northern Ireland back. Serious deficits in infrastructure, the highest rate of unqualified students leaving school, and the longest health waiting lists in the UK. Few of us want to return to that status quo.
We are short of new ideas and perhaps the confidence to invest in those ideas across the piece. Like all wicked problems blocking issues can be interconnected so much of what needs to happen is to gather better intelligence from experts and ordinary citizens (young and old) about the best ways to proceed.
So, over the next two months or so, we want to hear from as many voices as we can, to help us set the context for positive actions, to examine latent opportunities for rising to the challenges of the future, drawing from the positive can-do approaches of the last six months.
We’ll look to co-operate with organisations who can help us bring new voices to the forefront, particularly of younger people most likely to be profoundly affected not just by future change but a wider refusal to contemplate such changes that can mitigate or even improve long term outcomes.
If you would like to get involved in #TheReset, either as an individual or as part of an organisation, please do get in touch by emailing us at [email protected] with an idea for inclusion in a range of articles or events over September and October.
In the meantime, you can catch up Cargo of Bricks and In Conversation and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your quality podcasts.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
