Making politics compassionate

Compassion in Politics is a relatively new organisation set up to improve the political culture in Britain by advocating for more compassion in political life. The founders Jennifer Nadel and Matt Hawkins are the editors of this book, and focus on what action is needed, and the work they are already undertaking. They say: 'We'd essentially both come to realise two things: firstly we needed an organisation calling for a set of values to be at the heart of politics (otherwise it was going to be single issue campaigns winning one day and losing the next) and that we really had to sort out the sickness at the heart of our politics and think about how we can structure politics to promote the best in us.'

They note there was some significant resistance when they first set up the organisation, largely stemming from the belief that compassion was cosy, emotional and psychological, and not connected with action – nothing to do with politics. The contributors convincingly show that nothing could be further from the truth. The book presents a manifesto for compassion in politics.

I was particularly interested in Professor Mark Maslin and Professor Simon Lewis's chapter on climate, which is one of my preoccupations. Maslin and Lewis explore how to navigate the changes required given the climate and environmental emergency we face, suggesting a couple of ideas that link with compassionate approaches – the Universal Basic Income and reforesting and rewilding.

Many clinical psychologists have had compassion-based training and will have read Paul Gilbert's work. Clinical trainees will be learning this approach on their courses. This book will help them be better clinical psychologists, and it should also thoroughly justify extending our gaze from the clinical to the political if we are to compassionately take action to address the enormous challenges we face. The take home message is that if you want to embrace compassion, you can't leave out action. This will be music to the ears of activists.

Reviewed by Tony Wainwright [email protected] Originally published in longer form in Clinical Psychology Forum

See also this piece.