Uploaded March 2019 | Updated September 2026, 22 hours ago
Richard spent many years travelling the world with his work in ophthalmics. This, along with a lifelong interest in alternative politics (he was a founder member of Hamish Miller's Parallel Community project) gives him an ability to focus on issues, but also see the bigger picture. Of this talk Richard says:
“Although international affairs appear to be a never ending quagmire of debt, dogma and sheer bloody-mindedness, it would be a major misjudgement to simply retreat from what seems to be insoluble chaos. That large portions of government are not ‘fit for purpose’ is generally agreed, but with what do we propose to replace it with? Lip service is paid to reform, but true change seems elusive. We moan, we complain and then shrug our collective shoulders, effectively removing ourselves from the debate. How we came to be where we are, and where humanity goes next are pivotal questions of our age. Considered and thought-through ideas are long overdue. That the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is no longer an acceptable ‘given’. We can and must do something about such chronic imbalance.”
Recorded at the Glastonbury Symposium, July 2015
Richard spent many years travelling the world with his work in ophthalmics. This, along with a lifelong interest in alternative politics (he was a founder member of Hamish Miller's Parallel Community project) gives him an ability to focus on issues, but also see the bigger picture. Of this talk Richard says:
“Although international affairs appear to be a never ending quagmire of debt, dogma and sheer bloody-mindedness, it would be a major misjudgement to simply retreat from what seems to be insoluble chaos. That large portions of government are not ‘fit for purpose’ is generally agreed, but with what do we propose to replace it with? Lip service is paid to reform, but true change seems elusive. We moan, we complain and then shrug our collective shoulders, effectively removing ourselves from the debate. How we came to be where we are, and where humanity goes next are pivotal questions of our age. Considered and thought-through ideas are long overdue. That the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is no longer an acceptable ‘given’. We can and must do something about such chronic imbalance.”
Recorded at the Glastonbury Symposium, July 2015
