Government, Entrepreneurship and Digital Democracy

Our next Pivotal Tribes event, ‘Government, Entrepreneurship & Digital Democracy’, will be held on the 1st May from 6.30pm in the big events room on the ground floor of Google Campus.  Full details and registration can be found here.

Douglas Carswell MP has agreed to join us as one of our speakers and panellists and we aim to explore some of the issues he highlights in his recent book ‘The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy’ in which he suggests that the digital revolution dramatically changes the way that human social and economic affairs are arranged, thus making collectivism without government possible in ways that were previously unimaginable.  Joining Douglas on the panel will be Andy Williamson, CEO of FutureDigital.Eu and an internationally recognised expert in digital democracy and citizen engagement and Matthew Elliott, founder of the TaxPayers’ Alliance in 2004 and in 2009 the Big Brother Watch campaign for personal and civil liberties.

Earlier today it was announced by Douglas Carswell’s publishers Biteback that every MP is to get a copy of his latest book.  Entrepreneur Paul Sykes was so impressed with the book that he is paying for an individual copy to be given to every MP, regardless of their party political affiliation. He regards it as required reading for everyone at Westminster.  Here is a copy of the letter that Paul Sykes has sent out with each book:

We can’t go on like this. Government continues to live beyond the means of the rest of us to pay for it. As the financial crisis rumbles on, it becomes ever clearer that we cannot continue to run a burgeoning welfare state on the back of a shrinking wealth-producing base.
From Eastleigh to Italy, voters are losing faith in the ability of the political class to fix things. Should we despair? Actually, no. I wanted to send you a copy of The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy, which shows how things could get so much better.

The internet is in the process of overturning many of our assumptions about politics and economics.

In Italy we have seen how the internet can aggregate votes and opinion in a way that previously only established parties could manage. Digital technology will increasingly allow public services to be shaped by the actual public – every individual one of them.

At the precise moment Big Government becomes unaffordable, the internet revolution makes it possible to do without it. Be optimistic. We are going to be able to manage without government and thrive. The old political and economic order is about to give way to something vastly better.

I was so taken with this new book that I wanted to make sure that every MP – from every party – had a copy. I hope that you enjoy it.