#thinkbox thinks

[healthysclf]

i am staring at the all of the blogs i have either made or saved urls for and realizing i miiiiight need to take a proper break from tumblr

[capthcwzer]

things are not well in the old thinkbox so i think a hiatus is in order, both here and on lee

[flesherine]

Shapeshifting digital angel from the inner-dimension called Hell. I have wires for veins and my brain is called The ThinkBox. The ThinkBox is a clear plastic box containing microchips and a singular lightbulb that sometimes flickers, but is usually turned on. Humans like to lie to you, saying that what's in your head is "your brain", but some of us really do have ThinkBoxes, only those of us with them are aware of it. Personally, I am what my 'body' is, but my body isn't anything, really. The scientific term is "female", so scientifically that's my body, but I am actually so much more. I am fed with medicine to keep my energy levels in tact, and below my ThinkBox is a radar split in three. I'm not really anything like an animal, I'm much more like a sophisticated human-being. I can also be a pinball machine, but I don't think humans are quite ready for that yet...

explain your gender in 10 words or less without using boring words like “male”, “female”, “nonbinary”, “masculine”, “feminine” or “androgynous”.

go!

[bigraagsbigblog]

Google Summer Of Code (Tools)

3/23/25

 developing tools that could be useful for studying human higher-order cognitive performances for which there is no robust animal model, and post 100 words on your blog presenting to our class (the Lab) what you find interesting about that tools project. You may focus on one of the tools already proposed, or discuss how to develop a tool that you would like to see.

I found OpenSourceMaps super interesting. I love thinking about desire paths and human interaction with the world. We path-find in interesting ways distinguishing between paved structures and unpaved ones, and taking paths for efficiency's sake, subconsciously. There is a robust animal model for this (migration in birds and butterflies, hunting dogs, salmon, etc etc) all with robust path finding capabilities, I just found it really cool to see how humans interact with the world in unique ways outside of paved paths, which are hard to generate maps for, since satellites can't often pick them up.

Another one I found interesting (that I was surprised to see on the list!) was Blender. I've used Blender on multiple occasions for all sorts of things ranging from designing 3d models for 3d printing in the thinkbox, to designing conceptual drafts before throwing pottery, or before doing woodwork. I believe there's no Robust Animal Model for 3d imagination in the way humans have - being able to interact and dream up a fully formed 3d model of something, and build it meta-physically. It's something that would be very hard to prove in other species, but still, I do believe we're unique in this way.

[fanaticartisan]

whats with one's own brain being like a thing that has to be figured out ?

like "okay, what is going to make you happy? what is bothering you right now? where does this thing you are thinking come from?"

why am i a separate entity from my own thinkbox

[squideo]

Advert Alchemy: Thinkbox’s Trick

In this series, Squideo has examined the best ways to turn advertising content into gold. Now that we’ve broken down the eight key ingredients, it’s time to dive deep into some examples of stellar advertising. This week, the advert in question was picked by Squideo’s Video Producer, Lesley Ovington.

When asked why this Thinkbox advert had become her favourite, Lesley said: “I love the entire series with Harvey because it’s so funny. I also had a Jack Russell Terrier growing up, and these adverts always reminded me of him. The entire series is great but the first one, Every Home Needs a Harvey, remains the best.”

101 Thinkbox

Thinkbox is unlike other companies analysed in this series, as it’s a marketing body for commercial television in the United Kingdom. Since 2005, Thinkbox has existed to manage the advertising for British TV channels and help businesses marketing on these networks meet their marketing objectives.

It’s shareholders are four major UK television networks: Channel 4, ITV, Sky Media and UKTV. As the trade body for these hugely popular networks, Thinkbox has needed to think outside the box when enticing businesses to advertise. All of these channels have hugely successful shows linked to them, and the advertising produced by Thinkbox had to match the creative energy of its shareholders.

Raining Cats and Thinkbox

Made with Red Brick Road, the advertising agency behind the iconic ‘Every Little Helps’ Tesco slogan, Thinkbox aired its Every Home Needs a Harvey advert in 2010 – five years after the trade body was created and was still relatively unknown to the general public. Every Home Needs a Harvey was only their second television advert ever; the first also made by Red Brick Road. According to the agency, the brief from Thinkbox was to educate media planners and marketing directors about the power of TV advertising.

“‘Harvey’ was born – a resourceful, talented dog, who uses TV to tell stories and to persuade. His first TV outing, created by us in 2010, was voted Ad of the Year by ITV1 viewers. TV ad revenues reached a record £5bn in 2014, continuing 5 years of successive growth.”

Television has seen a lot of competition in recent years as an advertising destination, especially as more viewers move away from television to advert-free streaming platforms. Comparatively cheaper adverts can also be run on social media, with algorithms used to ensure it ends up in front of the ideal demographic for your product. As Red Brick Road proves, however, revenue can still be generated from television adverts. Businesses invested £1.2 billion GBP in television advertising in 2021, a 42% increase in spending compared to 2020. With the cost-of-living crisis forcing consumers to unsubscribe from costly streaming services, this revenue may grow further as viewers return to public networks like Channel 4 and ITV.

Thinkbox & Me

ITV1 viewers named Every Home Needs a Harvey Ad of the Year in 2010, and Red Brick Road went on to produce two additional Harvey adverts for Thinkbox between 2010 and 2014. The advert was clearly popular when it aired, but that was thirteen years ago. What was it about this advert that stuck in the memories of so many people?

Super Sell

Show don’t tell. That’s what Thinkbox accomplished by running Every Home Needs a Harvey. What better way to demonstrate the power of advertising than to create an advert about advertising. In the advert, Harvey presents a video to his potential adopters which sells the idea of choosing him amongst the line up of rescue dogs. The other dogs look cute, but the video shows everything else Harvey can offer.

To marketers watching the advert, it also showed what television marketing still had to offer. Times have changed, and mass public adverts are no longer constrained to intermission breaks, newspapers and billboards. As we explored in Advert Alchemy: The Location, modern marketers have an overwhelming choice of advertising destinations from social media to video games to eggs (that’s not a typo, CBS put adverts on eggs in 2006, go read the blog if you haven’t already). But television adverts haven’t been chased off the stage, advertisers just need to be more creative to attract attention away from phone screens.

Heavenly Harvey

The star of the advert, Harvey, was played by Sykes, a dog actor who appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Young Victoria and Doctor Who, as well as other notable films and television shows. In the year of his debut advert, he also acted in a John Smith’s Brewery advert alongside Peter Kay.

In the wake of the advert, Sykes’ Facebook page had 11,600 friends and he was getting offers to open pet shops around the country. Not bad for a rescue dog. He eventually retired in 2016 after going deaf, ending Thinkbox’s Harvey adverts in the process. Because who could follow such a good boy?

Monumental Music

Set to the 1974 song You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet by Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the audience – like Harvey’s potential adopters – are quickly hooked into watching the advert. Like Cadbury’s Gorilla advert, the choice of such a popular song cannot be underestimated in the success of this advert.

The song peaked at number 2 in the UK singles charts the year of its release, beaten to the top by a Christmas song (Lonely This Christmas, Mud), which surprised the band who had been reluctant to release the song. You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet was introduced to a new generation in the mid-2000s thanks to one of Thinkbox’s shareholders: ITV. The network used the song for several years during its coverage of Formula One grand prix races, which reignited sales of this insanely catchy single thirty years after its release.

Content Worth Gold

What do you think? What made Thinkbox’s Every Home Needs a Harvey advert so successful? Watch the full advert below and let us know in the comments.

[ridleymocki]

I've seen a few people be like "he wasn't interested in Zheng before it was all spearheaded by her," which I think is true but you really can't overstate the appeal of someone telling you that you're their first choice.

The S1 context is that Jim left Olu for their revenge quest, they were distracted and impulsive, dragging him into Spanish Jackie's and courting danger when he tried to pull them away. And yes, Jim came back, they chose Olu - and don't get me wrong I loved their s1 relationship and kind of mourn it. But it was a dynamic where Jim was leading and Olu was following.

They'd also been separated a while by s2, and things happen. They remain loyal to one another like family but the passion is maybe cooling off. (Also they probably think one another is dead). And then when they do reunite, Jim has kind of moved on, romantically, and yet again Olu is just following them.

On the background of all that, having someone as awesome as Zheng say - "you were the break in my day" - must be kind of a revelation. And Olu literally says, "I've never been the break in someone's day before."

Even though he and Zheng weren't on the same page when he was on the Red Flag, once Olu is with Jim and Archie on the Revenge and seeing their bond, I can totally see how Zheng's words and sentiment would percolate in the ol' thinkbox. If anything, Zheng is memorable. It's plausible that Olu would think about her, turn their interactions over in his mind, recognise that he was being appreciated in a way he hasn't been before, and ultimately develop feelings that then lead to their reconciliation. As Jim says, he thinks of Zheng often.

I do think Olu and Jimchie's decision to leave for the Red Flag was pushed mainly for narrative purposes to instigate the fight between Zheng and Stede, but the growing affection Olu has for Zheng I think is plausible.

My theory on why Olu was just gonna leave with Zheng—Jim is basically the “be poly without having a conversation about it” meme, so they haven’t really all sat down and had a big talk. Olu is left with jealousy of Jimchie that he feels he can’t express in order to be a good friend. He thinks he needs to be the calm, level-headed, rational one, he can’t get upset.

I think the question of why he likes her is pretty easily answered—look at everything about her, all of tumblr was in love with her after 3 episodes. So when this amazing, brilliant woman is interested in him—yay! Why not? Oluwande is first choice material and knows it he deserves to have the Queen of China in love with him!

And when he tells Jim he’s going with her, in the back of his mind it’s a little bit “yeah and you and your gf can stay on the Revenge and watch the captains break-up for the fifteenth time.” He’s making a decision for himself. Compare that to him telling the Chief “I’ve got someone on the ship”.

In conclusion: Oluwande claimed his well-deserved vacation and break from his relationship drama

[hollyoaksloversx]

Do you know how Hollyoaks is performing in the ratings at the moment?

The ratings for the show are still pretty poor at the moment. Last week, all episodes on Channel 4 were somewhere below 297,000 viewers. On E4, the highest rated episode had 322,000 viewers and the lowest 239,000 viewers.

I'm not sure if those figures take into account those who're watching on All4. I don't think they do and the 'timeshift' on Thinkbox refers to those recording it, but I'd be really interested to hear how the show's performing there now. Last figures I saw said it had about 50,000 viewers an episode on All4, but that was a few years ago now, so obviously before they started the online premiers.

[trifolium-octavius-blog]

This is a jack-o-lantern candy dispenser that I'm 3D-printing at my job, and it's with a new UltiMaker 2+ printer that we'll have soon. When this is done (in 7 hours), I'll post a pic with a link to the file for it I got from Thingiverse.com.

[aetherarcanist]

wat do u think of him

not a single thought inside his little thinkbox, looks like he would enjoy some patting!

(he will resume having thoughts later, but not now because sleepy)

[moodysnowflake]

It’s a matter of (not) coincidental perspective

Speculations are running wild in my ThinkBox about Nanami Kento.

His surname is written as 七海 (七 nana "seven", 海 mi "ocean").

Well-seasoned veterans like me know that (almost all) names are not coincidencies. 

The anime/manga Universe is rarely so lazy.

This is the only official coloured image we have of him; we can see where the ocean might come from (expect his shirt).

Also, we can think that yeah, 七 is a nice touch; considering his cursed technique, it’s a nice reference.

B u t

In episode 9, Kento explains how Ratio works, and pronounce three as ‘san’, which is the usual way of doing it. 

We already know this show is not a usual one (if my Reversal:Red rant is anything to go by XD).

Because you know what? Guess how you can also pronounce 三: "mi". 

Yep (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

So, technically, ‘Nanami’ will still sound the exact same if you’d write it as

七 三  =  "seven" "three"

[peppersbin]

Damn...this video gave me something to think about. Like, I LOVE Bugsnax, but Thinkbox Chris really made me think of all the good shit but also flaws this game has, character wise. This was very insightful and, of course, gay as fuck watch that y’all should listen to!

[amethyst-designs]

Thoughts on ThinkBox and Brave's website designs.

Thinkjam is clearly professional and well versed in web design and presentation as its site is very easy to navigate and is very accommodating of traffic and internet connection as it runs smoothly without any lagging.

The overall look and feel of their website is very fun but still carries a professional tone. It is packed with bright colours and various shapes without making it seem tacky or too ‘in your face.’

Their social media is slick, taking their twitter for example and they are active frequently without posting too much. It looks like they post on average once or twice a week promoting their own content and things related to their work, keeping a professional but light tone.

I think thinkjam has taught us how to balance being ‘trendy’ and ‘casual’ but still keep our business professional friendly. The biggest takeaway will be that just because we are a business doesn’t mean we have to be plain, and cold in our designs and attitude, we can still make it fun.

Brave again has a relatively simple to navigate website whilst simultaneously including lots of pictures and fluid movements.

The website seems very summery, with all brightly light pages and moving videos to keep you entertained without distracting from the website itself as you can scroll past them very easily.

They make it very easy to find their social media on their website to let you access all of their sites and things that they have available. They have a very simplistic social media layout with a healthy amount of promotional content with lots of interesting links to their own work and projects.

This website has made the idea of having moving things such as gifs or videos on our site seem very appealing as it again balances the professionalism and aesthetic side of the website.

[psatalk]

Mondi presents ThinkBox

Mondi, a global leader in packaging and paper, has opened three brand-new customer engagement centers for its corrugated packaging customers. ‘ThinkBoxes’ enable the co-creation of better, more sustainable packaging designs through inspirational and insightful events, training courses, and individual workshops in physical, digital, or hybrid formats.

Mondi on providing with access to a knowledge pool

ThinkBox was created to support customers from various industries in any phase of their quest for improved corrugated packaging. It is a knowledge pool continuously filled by industry and sustainability experts and the ideas and expertise of a large network of award-winning designers. The first three ThinkBox sites are located at Mondi Bupak in České Budějovice (Czech Republic), Mondi Tire Kutsan in Tire (Turkey), and Mondi Ansbach (Germany).

Design is a process

The ThinkBox concept invites customers to unleash their full potential in a variety of possible settings -

Think Co-creation – individual workshops to solve a specific packaging issue or to explore how to bring visions to life

Think Skills – a variety of training courses and skill transfer events

Think Inspiration – interactive webinars and insight events

Think Verification – performance tests of packaging solutions

ThinkBox is not only a place but also an immersive creative experience with a clear outcome. The processes are designed to deliver a solid set of options in a short time and offer tangible solutions. The facilities provide the latest testing equipment for instant proof of concept. Possible risks in the product life cycle can be eliminated during the design process.

Everyone is creative

ThinkBox fosters creativity and knowledge sharing by bringing together the right set of people and expertise. This way, the opinions and needs of all stakeholders, external factors, production realities, legislation, society, and the environment can be considered in the design process and satisfy the minimum viable product requirement when exploring further opportunities.

“Our customers face a fast-changing environment driven by legislation, rapid growth, or have clear targets in mind to secure competitiveness. They seek clarity and certainty, often while the clock is ticking. We built the ThinkBox to provide space and professional guidance, addressing every aspect of modern packaging challenges. We offer our customers this unique ThinkBox experience to help them fulfill their next packaging objective or gain an understanding of the options that support their vision,” says Armand Schoonbrood, chief operating officer at Mondi Corrugated Solutions.

The flagship ThinkBox at one of Mondi Corrugated’s eCommerce packaging hubs – Mondi Bupak, offered 500 sqm of space for engagement and shared experiences in the Czech Republic. The ThinkBox at Mondi Ansbach in Germany has special expertise in heavy-duty packaging, while Mondi Tire Kutsan in Turkey specializes in new ideas for the changing retail environment and fresh produce packaging.

[dawahmotivation]

Secrets unveiled.

WHY DM?🤔

Well, this was the name chosen as i believed more than anything in this world, motivation for active dawah is severely lacking. So i chose dawah motivation because this has always been my main focus and passion.

There are many dawah organisations in the world, many dawah blogs, dawah YouTube channels, duaat, social media profiles and pages, Alhumdulillah. So rather than adding to a big list, myself and the small budding team that i work with online are offering a ‘freshness’ and hopefully ‘original’ content towards the world of dawah.

Using the Quran and the sunnah and under the guidance of the authentic scholars is something which i hold on to. So all this content is something i have merely built upon and made more relevant for the 21st Century world

Here are some FAQs that are unique to what my ‘philosophy ‘ for dawah is. In this list are my passions, my experiences, what ive learnt, what ive been good at , my skills obtained over the years all combined into one.

Motivation and head hunting. I am very passionate about keeping an eye out for a talented caller to Islam. Of course any slave of Allah can become a caller to Allah but i like to look for someone with certain qualities. So most of the blogs, videos, statuses and posts will be revolved around making people curious and become motivated for dawah and then approaching these brothers and sisters online. Ideally i am always on the look out for someone very enthusiastic, lively, confident, has time, good at networking. But these are ideals! So if you need motivation and inspiration for dawah, get in touch!

Dawah networking. For many years, i have successfully connected people, way before the internet was around and social media,Alhumdulillah. Ive always had a knack to connect people to an islamic organisation or a student to a scholar. So when networking was taken to another level via the internet inc WhatsApp/ FB etc, i upgraded my networking skills and for this reason, by the fadhl of Allah swt i have ‘opened’ many areas of dawah including cities and towns, May Allah swt accept. So effective networking is something that we will teach

Learning from the best iERA and Youth Club PK are two of the main dawah organisations which i will promote heavily. I believe they are sincere and very effective. iERA when it comes to dawah to non muslims and all things intellectual. YC for dawah to the youth and non practising folks and all things spiritual!

Dawah to the youth Something i have always been involved in since mid 90s. Observing great duaat operate, learning from them and then developing my own ideas. This is something team DM is heavily focussed on. There are hardly any dawah stalls, or dawah training or even activities whose sole focus is to inspire change within those Muslim gangsters or those Muslims not praying or even those involved in with forbidden addictions. We have made training material called ‘ effective dawah tips for the non practising youth’.

Dawah to Non Muslims because of my attachment to iERA and having the privilege of being around great duaat like Hamza Tzortzis, sheikh green and others, i am always learning new content and style. I have attended several specialist courses and can comfortably deliver dawah training ,so after conducting many online dawah training sessions i have now moved onto public speaking and dawah training on campuses. Mainly teaching the GORAP method.

Effective tips: At the core of my dawah projects, i am always emphasising effectiveness. Rather than just doing it or getting it over and done with make sure whatever dawah project you are involved in, is done with excellence and results driven. So if you are going to speak at an event, how can you ensure that what you teach, will actually be implemented?! Rather than just doing the talk and ‘hoping for the best!

’ tips

Creativity: This is something which i am always looking for. I don’t like to do the typical run of the mill style of doing things. Eg if we are going to serve food at an event, then rather than the typical rice and chicken dish, let’s try Mexican snacks or Fiji’an desserts! If designing a leaflet then dawah flyers have to high quality, well analysed and be super creative in design!creativity

Thinking outside the box: Always bring a fresh idea to the dawah. A new title, a new style of doing dawah, how to persuade or influence someone by thinking about new ideas and so on

. thinkbox

Confidence: At the heart of everything i do, i am always trying to instil being fearless and confident. Not just in dawah but generally in life. Whether it comes to approaching someone randomly or starting a conversation or public speaking, i always try to inspire super confidence in people.

Online: I am very active online and have dedicated my social media profiles for the sake of dawah. Online is a very good way of recruiting talent for dawah, good for connecting people, having a large reach etc.

Street dawah: My favourite tool for dawah is street dawah. From my fundraising days i have developed skills which help in not just stopping people on the streets but how to start a conversation effectively. Initiation is something i teach to many teams and individuals.

Dawah stalls: Something which i am always encouraging. You could put up a dawah stall, or an advice stall or networking stall literally anywhere. It’s a great way and a great platform to engage with the public. dawahstall

Practical tips: I get enquiries on a whole range of different cases. For example, someone doesn’t know how to give dawah to an uncle. Or someone would ask what sort of event can they do at their institute. So i always think about these cases and provide actual ideas that they could implement.tips

Sisters: There is a huge need for sisters to be involved in active dawah. We need female duaat and female dawah trainers. Something which i am always encouraging and calling for. sistersdawah

If this blog has got you excited and you’d like to learn more about Dawah Motivation and its style then you can visit :

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/MotivationForDawah/

YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIt5kgXA-DzL0UFRYerCbxQ

Instagram:

dawah_motivation

Duas!

https://dawahmotivation.wordpress.com/2018/07/04/secrets-unveiled-why-dawah-motivation/

[rogerjharding]

Essay in the #OurOtherNationalDebt collection in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Full report and responses to it available here: https://www.ourothernationaldebt.com/

FULL TEXT:

The coronavirus has illuminated who is truly indispensable in modern Britain.

While some are confident this will bring about new-found respect and reward for working class people, I’m sceptical. The financial crash also brought the sense that things wouldn’t be the same again, and they weren’t, but not for the reasons we hoped. Working class people rarely fare well during or after economic turmoil and, with the financial crash in the rear-view mirror, many of us know it.

I worry an anger is building in many working class communities about how inequitably the current costs and risks are being shared. Just like the idea ‘we’re all in it together’ after the crash, the idea this crisis is the same for all of us just isn’t ringing true. The disconnect presents fertile ground for polarisation, pessimism and populism to grow.

The pain in communities is raw and real – and it risks being deepened by middle class activists and commentators too readily racing to talk about the ‘opportunities’ this time presents. Working class movements can, however, start to think – carefully, cautiously, compassionately – about the things we can win together if we stick together. The young people at RECLAIM kicked this off with a rapid response campaign to thank #TheIndispensables but we will need to have a medium and long term plan if we’re to make sure Britain’s working class comes out of this time stronger and more united.

Right now, YouGov polling for the Times Red Box suggests that there’s a reasonable degree of togetherness but in a recent report the Collective Psychology Project highlighted that there’s a fairly consistent progression in collective emotional responses to major events. The initial ‘heroic’ phase is met with high altruism and is then followed by a ‘honeymoon’ phase of great togetherness and optimism. However, this relatively quickly gives way to a long ‘disillusionment’ phase marked by increased polarisation, feelings of abandonment and concerns about the limits of the response.

It is hard to say whether we have reached a disillusionment phase of this crisis, but the toll on people’s mental health is already clear. Ipsos Mori polling for Kings College London finds that half of us feel more anxious and depressed and 29% are finding lockdown extremely difficult (or expect to) in the next four weeks (notably rising to 42% for 16-24 year olds).

Working class people are already experiencing greater threats to their jobs (as reported by the Resolution Foundation), living in more densely populated areas (as covered here by the FT), not having enough space at home (as reported by the JRF), not having as much access to decent green spaces (as reported by CABE), having poorer lung health due to being more likely be exposed to air pollution (as reported by Asthma UK), being more likely to have underlying health conditions (as reported by the King’s Fund), finding it harder to get online or have enough devices for everyone at home (as reported by the Sutton Trust), having less ability to home school (also reported by the Sutton Trust), having less access to affordable food (as reported by the Food Foundation), being less able to access cheap credit (as reported by the Centre for Social Justice) and low paid workers are disproportionally represented in the key worker jobs that expose them and families to increased risk (as reported by the IFS).

Put even more starkly, Office of National Statistics data shows that living in the poorest neighbourhoods means you're twice as likely to die from the coronavirus as people living in the richest ones.

Strangely, I’m not sure that horrific reality is the thing likely to generate the most anger. Having a shorter life due to your postcode was already the pre-coronavirus reality. Instead it’s often the subtle, more visible things that anger people more.

Who is (not) in the room always shows in a crisis

Being working class often makes you acutely aware of the little ways people unconsciously reveal they’re better off. Despite us now being physically separate, social media, video calls and simply how we talk about our lockdown experience is giving people greater insight into ‘how the other half lives’. People won’t easily forget their sneak-peek into the bigger, nicer, greener space of others doing less essential work or making fewer sacrifices.

This moment also tells us a lot about who makes decisions and what informs them. There’s one example that features frequently in discussions at RECLAIM. In early March, during the government’s new daily press conference, ministers and scientists provided guidance on what to do if you suspect someone in your home has the virus. It encouraged those self-isolating ‘to use a separate bathroom’ if possible. This obviously isn’t bad guidance, but the assumption this was more important to cover than how, for example, you deal with isolating in an already-overcrowded home, is telling. I similarly doubt the need for guidance – then flouted in at least one notable case – on whether you can use your second home will be forgotten either.

Some working class people will also be asking themselves why it is that old unemployment and housing benefit rates (the improvements noted in Ashwin Kumar’s essay) aren’t good enough now that it isn’t just them who need to claim them.

This sore created by the coronavirus is only likely to increase when our divides are further exposed by the lockdown easing. People will spot that middle class professionals are more able to continue to work from home and that middle class young people are benefiting from more home-schooling and tutoring (as reported by the Sutton Trust). The young people we support at RECLAIM already often flagged the state of their high street and related areas as top of their list of local economic concerns. Boarded up shops and ever-decreasing visitors are visible signs of something not being right, and sadly many high streets will look a lot worse when the lockdown ends.

In this context it’s not surprising that people hanker for the past. While activists on Twitter enjoy sharing slogans about how ‘we can’t return to normal, because normal was the problem’, much of the British public have been enjoying nostalgia. Recent research from Thinkbox, the TV marketing body, reveals a lockdown surge in the number of us watching old TV, with Last of the Summer Wine and Only Fools and Horses repeats doing especially well. Spotify has seen something similar, with increased subscriber use of ‘throwback’ playlists.

Part of why we get comfort from the past is that we see it through rose-tinted glasses. Comparisons (many unhelpful) are regularly drawn between this crisis and WW2. Our national mind’s eye view of the end of the war is the street celebrations of VE day. Many hope for something similar at the end of this period. What we don’t tend to reflect on is the disillusionment and anger many people felt soon after 1945.

While some people cautiously but thankfully dreamt of us building back better, many just wanted done with Britain. David Kynaston’s Austerity Britain notes that in spring 1948, just weeks before the creation of the NHS, a Gallup poll found that 42% of people wanted to emigrate (up from 19% in 1945). We also tend to ignore the post-war resurgence of antisemitism on the streets of our cities, showing that hatred and division can quickly re-emerge.

Turning anger into accountability

It’s hard to know what the exact dividing lines will be this time, but in crises there are always those who encourage working class people to fear one another. White people encouraged to fear people of colour, working people in towns and villages told to be wary of those in cities, southerners to suspect northerners and vice versa, and longer-standing residents urged to fear more recent arrivals. As Kitty Usher notes in her essay, one new split in this crisis might be those furloughed and those not.

We face a double threat here – populists on the right exploiting divisions and some on the left being parasitic on people’s pain. There are some who get excited by a crisis, despite all the human misery, because they see this as a necessary price for change. It’s often not even subtle: at one recent webinar for organisers I heard a left activist happily tell people ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m really excited by all this’. Those don’t feel likely to be the words of someone who spends a lot of time truly listening to working class people.  

We need to get past the anger and turn it into a drive for real accountability. The list of policy, societal and business responses needed to do justice to those leaning into risk or having to get by with even less is huge. This collection covers a good number of starting points on wages, job security (see Andrew Pakes’ essay), the strength of our social security (see Ashwin Kumar’s essay), housing (see Rachael Orr’s essay), our approach to immigration (see Satbir Singh’s essay) and much more. This will all be vitally important to honouring the country’s other national debt, but so will ensuring working class people have a permanent seat around the country’s top tables, regardless of which party is in power and whether we are facing good times or bad.

We need much more direct involvement of working class people in the decisions that affect our lives, starting with specific youth assemblies as part of the national commission outlined in the introduction to this collection. At every layer of society – not just in the professions, business and politics but in charities and funders too – we need class inclusion to be a core equality concern.

There is a very real risk an unrepresentative charity sector becomes more distant from the country when the register of which organisations survive is taken (as noted on race by Charity So White). As work we supported young people on last year showed, the current approach of some charities inadvertently alienates young working class people. If organisations in any sector want to build back better they will need to look as much at their own practice as the changes they demand in others. At RECLAIM we’re reshaping our work and are pleased to see a growing number of organisations work with us and the young working class people we support to go on co-discovery processes to work out the specific changes needed in their field.

Finally, we all need to get better at explicitly calling out those that sow division amongst working class communities. Emerging research from the US shows this is the best framing approach to counter hateful populism. This approach means campaigners on economic issues getting more comfortable explicitly talking about race and immigration, rather than always hoping to pivot away from them. This also means helping everyone to feel included by being explicit about how policy ideas deliver for working class people whether white, black or brown, a more recent arrival or someone whose family has been here for generations. Most importantly, to be successful this requires campaigners getting as busy delivering better communication messages to the unconverted as they can be debating how best to fine tune them with the choir.

That we owe working class people is so beyond question it unites the Guardian, Telegraph and FT. This situation is also changing so quickly that it’s hard to know what exact prescription of proposals will do their contribution and sacrifice justice. The only way to know for sure is to have working class people round the table when it’s decided. This should be a central legacy of this crisis, the idea that essential workers are essential voices. Working class people more than have the talent, strength and ideas to finally steer the country they so obviously drive. It’s time for all of us to make it happen.  

Roger Harding is Chief Executive of RECLAIM, the Manchester-based charity powering young working class people to change the country today and lead it tomorrow. He is a trustee of Victim Support.

@Roger_Harding