Our year in review and finding hope in the politics of connection

Every year on Christmas Eve. I find a moment to read A Christmas Carol. This small annual ritual has been going on since I was a teen, and bar the few times when a hangover or cooking has got in the way – it is a joy. Partly because I know I will never read a single story more than that of Scrooge and Tiny Tim, but also because it’s a rediscovery of an old friend.

For politicos, a small token of stability in an unpredictable world. Marley will always be dead as a doornail, and Scrooge will always find it in himself to hold Christmas in his heart and have hope once more.

As we come to Christmas and New Years, a time to pause, spend time with those we love, and undertake the rituals of friendship and family. It should also be a time for us to reflect, to think back on what we’ve achieved together – and for those who work in and around politics – to think about the work yet to do.

What bookended our year here at the UCL Policy Lab was the launch of our two publications as part of the Ordinary Hope project. More than anything, the thread that ran through this work was a belief that a politics that reconnected and respected the lives of ordinary people would be politics that could sustain us through tough times. Whether it’s tackling the housing crisis or the NHS waiting lists – decisions taken closer to people’s everyday lives and shaped by their experiences would be the foundations on which national renewal might be built.

In his essay for the Ordinary Hope project, our Director, Marc Stears, spoke about those we’d brought together as part of the project. 

“These inspiring people have experienced first-hand how local initiatives, driven by people in communities themselves, drawing on their own ideas, can often outpace the big programmes drawn up in political backrooms and run out of London.”

As we reflect on the year that was, we’re struck by the immense privilege it is to visit so many of these places across Britain. A chance to see that far from the political drama and intrigue of Westminster – it is in the smallness of everyday acts, those working do to right by each other in trying times, that we will find the foundations of a more stable and hopeful politics. 

Those who work in politics and policy perhaps too often shrink from the messy space between the institutions that govern us and everyday life. The space in which love, passion and joy are the drivers of change. The space where we are no longer agents and users of the state or economic actors but friends, neighbours, and family. 

In developed economies around the world, we are grappling with ever more complex challenges that sit directly in this gap.

Technology promises us ever-greater connectivity, and yet many lack the means or time to find true connection and rest. How we understand the complexity of our connections to one another and create space for understanding and shared differences will be central to the work of politics. And will be a key component of our work on social connection in 2025.

On improving the state, we know all too well from our election report with our brilliant colleagues at More in Common that people are frustrated and tired of the failure of a system to hear their cries for change. Sir Keir Starmer said so much on the steps of Downing Street when he said:

We clapped for the care workers and delivery drivers in the pandemic “…and yet as soon as the cameras stop rolling, their lives are ignored.”

One answer for us at the UCL Policy Lab is to think deeply about the institutions, spaces, and relationships that will help rebuild the connective tissue between our politics and communities across Britain. In the Ecosystem Project, we seek to forge these connections and networks, sharpen people’s capacity and generate new tools to bridge this divide and deliver positive change and more connected politics. We recently saw the work of those working to design new ways to deliver change in public services. Building on the work we discussed at the Britain Renewed conference in May with our partners Citizens UK, The Future Governance Forum, and Power to Change. 

We certainly know that the world has never been more complex; our politicians must navigate globally challenging times, where war is far too frequent and economic challenges leave many without the means to breathe and rest from a noisy world. In our report The World in 2040: Renewing the UK’s Approach to International Affairs, led by the brilliant Moazzam Malik (now leading Save the Children) and Tom Fletcher (now Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs), we saw the passionate work of diplomats, researchers and others who strive for a more peaceful world.

We saw once again this summer how political or cultural divisions can so quickly boil over into hatred and violence. Building social cohesion and understanding across differences will be ever more important in 2025. In our report, Finding a Balance with the University of Oxford, Tim Soutphommasane and the team at More in Common pointed us towards tools for greater understanding and compassion across differences.

All of this is underlined by what we found in the Ordinary Hope project: that power is found not in the noisy political debates but in the quiet compassion of everyday acts and ordinary moments.

And at this time of year, in the depths of winter, we turn to our rituals of friendship and family to sustain us. It is rituals like these that individually and collectively give us the confidence and fortitude to face an uncertain world.

I am reminded of the first book I read in 2024, and perhaps the best, The Ritual Effect: The Transformative Power of Our Everyday Actions, in which Harvard Professor Michael Norton sets out the importance of everyday acts of ritual in reconnecting us with one another and finding peace in the world.  

The ritual of spending time with those with the people that give us joy. Whether it’s an annual get-together of friends, the chance to see family or the giving of gifts, if politics can enable more of these moments, it would be a true mark of success. 

Indeed, in the final moments of Scrooge’s story, he sees what he’s lost in the slippage of time: that he can find true sanctuary in the gift of friendship and love, as the saved man famously said.

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

We’d do well to hold on to what bridges our divides this Christmas and give us hope for the year to come. 

James Baggaley is Head of Politics and Partnerships, UCL Policy Lab and Office of the UCL Pro-Provost (Policy Engagement).