I feel more positive about politics, and more likely to engage

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I feel more positive about politics, and more likely to engage

11.01.2010 // by Paul Senior

Participants blog their thoughts and experiences of the POWER2010 Deliberative Poll.

Paul Senior: The organisers had quite cunningly booked alarm calls for everyone at 8am. This was fortunate. A good number of us had found a friendly bar with a late license just a stones throw from the hotel, and the debate had continued into the small hours.

By 9am we had eaten and were straight into another day of challenging topics. These included referenda on Europe and the Euro, Scots MPs voting on English issues and regional assemblies for England.

As yesterday there was plenty of time for discussion and each group session followed by a question and answer plenary with the experts.

You'd imagine it was hard to stay focussed on subjects like these, and with our group numbering 13 there was a lot of pressure on Ollie our facilitator.

Quite a few of the group have strong opinions, and it has to be said he did a great job in keeping us more or less on topic for most of the time! Nice one.

A few random thoughts on the event:

• I've been surprised how much we have continued to discuss the issues outside the formal sessions. These conversations allowed you to take soundings from those outside your group.

• Many of the leaders and experts also made themselves available, were happy to engage one on one with participants and this was really useful. Thanks.

• Given the opportunity, people do care a great deal about politics and are prepared to put a lot of effort into debate. They are prepared to listen carefully to other points of view, and to consider the facts, even when they don't agree with the conclusions reached.

• Everyone I spoke to agreed that we had learned a lot.

This was a novel and very useful way of spending the weekend. I feel more positive about politics, and more likely to engage with it in the future. And I've been in great company throughout!