DISCUSSION ON A STATEMENT OF VALUES FEEDBACK FROM SOUTH WEST LONDON HUMANIST GROUP 26 Jan 2009 39 people What values are important to you as an individual? Question: What values are important to you Everyone was requested to write down their top three individual values. The results were then grouped with the following outcome: What values are important to you as an individual? /2 Toleration / open mindedness 5 Freedom of speech / thought 4 Integrity / honesty / truthfulness 4 Kindness / care / compassion 2 Justice / fairness 0 Equality 8 Community / cooperation 6 Other freedoms (e.g. from poverty) 6 Respect for others 5 Cultural diversity / inclusiveness 4 Individuality Humour Scepticism / cynicism 2 Loyalty 2 # Votes (max 3 per person) 3 3 What values are important to you as an individual? 2/2 Civility 2 Support for public services 2 Cooperation Good losers Respect for time Happiness Stewardship of the planet History / traditions Children Security Countryside A moral conscience # Votes (max 3 per person) Page of 7
Identifying common values Question: What are the values that represent the best about being British? There was debate about: Whether this was a desirable or useful question to answer. Just over half those present 25 out of 39 had the view at that stage in the evening that it was not. Whether the values were meant to be aspirations or the current reality. (I see that, in the paper version of the feedback form, the question has been changed to: What are the values that best represent or should represent Britain? That is clearer but unfortunately is not the question posed in the guidance to facilitators.) Whether it was useful to have to make a forced choice. Nevertheless, the Group did answer the question by: considering whether there were values that should be added to the above list of individual values in order to answer the question; each voting for their top three values (but please note the concern over forced choice); with the following result: What are the values that represent the best about being British? Freedom of speech / thought Justice / fairness & respect for law (two distinct but related values) Cultural diversity / inclusiveness Humour Individuality 27 24 Toleration / open mindedness 24 Integrity / honesty / truthfulness 9 Kindness / care / compassion 6 Equality 7 Community / cooperation 3 Respect for others Scepticism / cynicism # Votes (3 max per person) 4 3 2 A moral conscience Willingness to question authority History / traditions Respect for time # Votes (3 max per person Page 2 of 7
Question: What are the shared, possibly daily, experiences that bind us together as a nation? The Group simply brainstormed their views, with the following outcome (roughly grouped but in no particular order): Queuing Complaining about the weather Moaning / grumbling generally Talking about holidays Smalltalk Laughing at ourselves Laughing at others Love of culture Eccentricity Nostalgia for past greatness Sense of superiority BBC news unbiased? The Archers David Attenborough Soaps Daily papers Tea / Coffee Sunday roast British beer Fish and chips Curry Going to the pub Sport Umbrellas English language Traffic jams Commuting the Tube Shared open spaces parks and footpaths Free healthcare Bureacracy Family, Birth, Death, Sex Page 3 of 7
Expressing common values Question: Would a Statement of s give us a firm base from which to face some of the difficult challenges we are facing today? There was a majority negative view on this. Some people commented that some of the most difficult challenges, such as the recession and climate change, need different type of solutions. There was also some scepticism on the real-life priority of the exercise for the Government. We took a vote with the following result: Yes 9 No 9 Maybe 9 On the other hand, when it was suggested that we might get a different outcome if we asked the question Could a Statement of s give us a firm base from which to face some of the difficult challenges we are facing today? the result was: Yes 9 No 4 Maybe 4 In part this was because it was pointed out that could = maybe in this context, so many of the Maybe votes were converted to Yes. Question: Having had this discussion, what do you think about explicitly setting out our shared values? Not answered as a separate question as we felt there was a large overlap with the final question. Page 4 of 7
Using a Statement of s Question: How and where could a Statement of s be used? We felt that it could be useful in, for example, the following contexts: If we had a written constitution For members of parliament to adhere to the Lords cash-for-influence scandal was cited as an example of the need for a change in this respect. For new citizens to sign up to In schools To protect liberties Some people expressed concerns that the benefits could be two-edged: The impact of an energetic pursuit of common values would be to homogenise society. That could be for better or for worse. One person s value could be another person s limitation. A particular example of concern to the Group was freedom of speech. Other groups in society, especially some extreme religious groups, may feel that this value is outweighed by the need to respect their beliefs, gods or holy men. If such a value were to be written into a British statement of values, we would all be diminished. On balance the sense of the Group was that the democratic process was the safeguard against these risks. Page 5 of 7
ORGANISER S FEEDBACK FORM Your name Jeremy Rodell Your organisation South West London Humanist Group Date of session 26 Jan 09 Location of session The Old Ship, Richmond, Surrey The Group Gender: roughly 50/50 Age range: around 30 to 80 Disabilities: small minority Ethnicity: great majority white, British (not all English), but included a small number from other countries. Number of attendees` 38 to 39 Were you clear about the purpose of the discussion? If not, how could we make this clearer? I read the letter from Michael Wills MP to the Group, following a request for further clarification on the purpose of the exercise. That did not entirely satisfy everyone, so I: referred to the fact that one of the questions we had to answer was about the uses to which such a statement of values could be put; expressed a personal view that the motivation was related to misgivings about the consequences of multi-culturalism and the desire of the Government to counteract them by forging a stronger national identify. Maybe there was more on this in the various materials supplied, but the purpose/motivation could have been made more explicit. Were you clear what would happen during the session? If not, how could we make this clearer? Yes. As the Group was much larger than the 6-0 you recommended, and we effectively had around hour 45 minutes for the exercise, including a break, we had carefully to design the session in advance. Of course, we did not know what would happen in terms of the discussion, and there was a point at which sentiment about the value of the exercise became rather negative. However, feedback at the end was predominantly positive in terms of people s interest and enjoyment of the evening. Did you find the suggested techniques useful in helping you have a discussion about values? If not, what alternative ways could we suggest to people? Your materials were useful, though we needed to adapt them, and have a timekeeper to ensure we followed our agenda. We included a 5 minutes icebreaker, but we dropped the warm-up to save time, as the Group has no problem with lively debate (though we had a number of new faces this time) while generally listening to one another and respecting the role of the chairman To cope with the large group, we used a Post-It exercise for the first session on individual values. Prompted by the one-page distillation of ideas from the Page 6 of 7
discussion pieces, people each had three Post-Its on which they wrote their top three values. During a break these were grouped and added to give the scores shown. The list then provided the starting point for the discussion on British values. Summary of potential improvements: I can see that you wanted to provide a lot of material to cater for different types of groups, but the effect of the volume was that the design and preparation for the discussion was time-consuming as we had to distil out what we needed. For example, it would have been helpful to have a onepage list of examples of values from the Discussion Pieces (we had to create one). It would have been helpful to have all of the pack available electronically. This would have made it easier to share among the organisers, and potential attendees. The deadline for return of the feedback is not easy to find in the materials. It would have been helpful to have had some ideas on how to run the exercise in a larger group than 6-0 (ours was only slightly larger than a school class I guess, so presumably not that uncommon). In practice our design worked adequately. It was disappointing to find that one of the key questions, on British values, had different - and more helpful - wording in the Feedback Form versus the Facilitators Information pack, which we used as the basis for our design. I only discovered the change in preparing this feedback. The specific objectives that the Government had in mind when setting up the whole exercise should have been stated more clearly.. Jeremy Rodell Chairman South West London Humanist Group home@jrodell.com Page 7 of 7