Listening to those who have lived experience

By Ewan Aitken

Listening to those who have lived experience

Congratulations to the winner Lib Dem Kevin McKay, he has big shoes to fill. He won in Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart from a field of 13 candidates 鈥 including five independents 鈥 who says no one is interested in politics?! Labour were ahead for much of the counting process as votes transferred from candidates dropping out although, at one point, the Green candidate slipped into the lead after the SNP dropped out. It was only after the Conservative votes were redistributed that Kevin took the lead for the first time. I wrote that sentence with some trepidation. It does not mean Kevin is somehow a Tory or even beholden to them 鈥 some of their votes went to the Greens and some to Labour. When the SNP dropped out their votes were redistributed between the Conservatives, Labour, Greens and LibDems. When the Green candidate dropped out, the distribution of their votes was not quite equal between the remaining Lib Dem and Labour candidates, but not far off. My point in going into this detail is not just to prove I really am a political 鈥済eek鈥, but to suggest that it is a sign of the change in politics which I think will make the biggest difference in the future. Voters are much more sophisticated in their political choices, and they choose to offer their support for many different reasons which often transcend party or ideological lines. The proportional representation system we now have for local government is not perfect, but it at least gives space for that kind of breadth of thinking and to see potential in people we might largely disagree with but may still have ideas worth exploring. There is a great deal of evidence that decisions made by groups holding diversity of views are better 鈥 they are more robust and likely to be more successful. This is why populism is a dangerous political phenomenon. It is built on the shallow foundations of simplistic, untested answers to complex problems and dissent is strongly discouraged to the point where dissenters are in danger. The present political arrangement at the City Chambers between Labour, The Lib Dems and the Tories is clunky and can be slow and difficult to manage but it at least means there are different voices in the room when decisions are being taken. One of the most important things we do in Cyrenians when designing new services is listen to those who have lived experience of the tough realities of homelessness and its causes. That often makes for difficult conversations and hard truths about the difference between theory and practice, data and human experience. It doesn鈥檛 give any one perspective a veto and not everyone is always happy with every conclusion. But if they have been in the room when the decision was made, they at least understand why it was reached and who was being listened to when it was taken. Spaces which encourage people with different perspectives to work collaboratively seems a wise antidote to an often divided world, and the voters of Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart seem to be encouraging that same point of view. Ewan Aitken is chief executive of Cyrenians

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