Simpol-UK news archive

Items are shown in reversed chronological order:

2015

Nov. 15: Simpol at Conference on Collective Action on Climate

Simpol's founder, John Bunzl, addressed a conference on The Psychology of Inspired Collective Action on Climate Change held in London on 21st November 2015. Organised by CONFER, this cutting-edge conference examined psychological processes that help or hinder collective action. See this video. For more, go here.

Aug. 18: Jonathan Edwards MP signs the Pledge

We're delighted to announce that Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East & Dinefwr, Jonathan Edwards, has signed the Simpol Pledge, bringing the total of Simpol-pledged MPs to 30. 

2014

Dec. 1: Woollcombe endorses Simpol

David Woollcombe, Co-Founder and Trustee of Peace Child International, has strongly endorsed John Bunzl's latest book on Simpol entitled Global Domestic Politics. "Like many I meet," David said, "you have a great grasp of the apocalypse towards which we are hurtling. Unlike most, you have a plausible, viable proposal for avoiding that apocalypse".

Nov. 24: Simpol presented to Southwark Green Party

Simpol's founder, John Bunzl, gave a talk on "The Need for a New Global Politics" to members and supporters of the Southwark branch of the UK Green Party on Monday 24th November. The meeting resulted in a number of GP members signing on to the campaign.

Euro Elections: Simpol's results

Thanks to action taken by our supporters, we're delighted to announce the following results:

Number of Simpol-pledged MEPs: 5

  • Claude Moraes (Labour, London)
  • Keith Taylor, (Green, UK SE)
  • Alyn Smith (SNP, Scotland)
  • Catherine Stihler (Labour, Scotland)
  • David Martin (Labour, Scotland).

Candidates that signed the Simpol Pledge: 27

Number of EU countries with pledged candidates: 6

Download our Press Release.

May 16: David Martin MEP signs the Pledge

David Martin, Labour MEP for Scotland, is the latest Euro candidate to sign the Simpol Pledge. Thanks to vigorous campaigning by Scottish Simpol supporters, David is the fourth Scottish Euro candidate to sign, following Alyn Smith MEP (SNP), Catherine Stihler MEP (Labour) and George Lyon MEP (Sc. LibDems). Signalling to politicians that we'll be voting for ANY candidate, within reason, that signs on to Simpol seems to be having the desired effect. To see all politicians from around the world who have signed the Pledge, go here.

28 Apr: Ian Murray MP signs up!

Ian Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, has signed the Simpol Pledge. Following closely on the Pledge made by George Lyon MEP, it's been a busy but productive week for Simpol-UK. For more on Ian, visit his website.

25 Apr: George Lyon MEP signs Simpol Pledge!

We're delighted to announce that George Lyon MEP, Scottish Liberal Democrat MEP for the Euro constituency of Scotland has signed the Simpol Pledge! This is a great start to Simpol's European election campaign and congratulations go to Simpol-supporter, Andy Lippok, who told George Lyon about the campaign.  To see all parliamentarians who have signed the Pledge, go here.

2013

Jan. 30: Economist David K. Levine endorses Simpol

Game theory specialist, David K. Levine, John H. Biggs Distinguished Professor of Economics at Washington University, St. Louis, USA, has endorsed the Simpol campaign.

Impressed by John Bunzl's recent TEDx presentation, The Political Prisoner's Dilemma, read Prof. Levine's endorsement here.

2012

Oct.9: Simpol short-listed for Global+5 award

"Which innovative projects and ideas could have the biggest global impact 5 years from now?" That's the challenge of the Global+5 awards organised by The Global Journal, a magazine specialising in global governance issues. Simpol was among 21 short-listed projects judged by a jury including former Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, Pascal Lamy, Director General of the WTO, and David Held of Durham University. 

Unfortunately, neither Simpol nor any other global governance proposal were selected for an award as the judges seemed to prefer humanitarian or scientific projects. But both George Papandreou and another judge, Karin Hagemann, a top management consultant with KPMG, both personally felt Simpol offered a very innovative solution to the central dilemma facing today's politicians: the impossible task of reconciling democracy and social and economic justice with the need to keep their national economies internationally competitive.

Ken Wilber dialogues with John Bunzl on IntegralLife

Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Theory, and John Bunzl dialogue about global governance and how Simpol may be key in achieving it. Available in several parts, the dialogue can be heard here.  It is based on a new article by John to appear shortly in the Journal of Integral Theory & Practice entitled Transcending 1st-Tier Values in Achieving Binding Democratic Global Governance. Wilber has described Simpol as "a 2nd-tier political practice that makes a great deal of sense, and is certainly worth backing" and is a member of Simpol's Advisory Board.

Sep. 30: John Bunzl presents Simpol at Conway Hall

John Bunzl will deliver a presentation at Conway Hall in London on 30th September, 2012. Entitled "Thinking like Einstein", John will speak about how we can move from nation-centric to world-centric thinking, and will show Simpol, not only to be an example of world-centric thinking in action, but a way citizens can drive politicians to solve global problems. For more, click here.

Sep. 2-5th: John to present at Oxford Globalisation Conference

Simpol's founder, John Bunzl, will address the 10th Annual International Oxford Conference taking place 2-5th September, 2012. Organised by the Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative (GCGI), the theme of the conference will be "Theology, philosophy, ethics, spirituality and economics: A call to dialogue". The subject of John's presentation will be "Current Problems Require New Thinking". For more information and to register to attend, please click here.

August 8: John Bunzl at KCL Climate Change Round table

Simpol's founder, John Bunzl, was a panelist at a Round table on climate change at King's College, London on 8th August, 2pm entitled "Beyond Kyoto - Diverse avenues or impasse for climate governance?" Other panelists included the Rt Hon. John Gummer (Lord Deben), Ruth Davis (Senior advisor on climate change, Greenpeace UK), and Ms. Alesha De-Freitas (Head, Low Carbon Team, Foreign and Commonwealth Office). The event was organised by visitig professor, Dr. Diana Bozhilova AKC.

Mark Horler speaks on Democratising the Global Political Commons

See Simpol-UK trustee, Mark Horler, addressing a seminar on Democratising the Global Commons on May 7th in London. Speaking alongside the renowned advocate for the Commons, James Quilligan, Mark explains why Simpol could provide a very plausible way to achieve the task. To see the video, click here.

The seminar was just one of a series organised by the School of Commoning. Simpol-UK looks forward to a fruitful association with SoC.

Simpol-UK's Mark Horler interviewed by Politics UK

Simpol-UK trustee, Mark Horler, was interviewed about Simpol by Politics UK. Read the interview on Facebook by going here.

Terry Patten interviews John Bunzl

Integral teacher, Terry Patten, interviewed John Bunzl on May 13th as part of Terry's excellent Beyond Awakening interview series. John explains more about global consciousness and how Simpol offers a solution to global problems. To listen to this and other inspiring interviews, click here. To read Terry's blog about the interview, click here.

April 29th: Simpol at BetterWorldForum 2012

Simpol founder, John Bunzl, will present Simpol as part of the BetterWorldForum 2012 online conference being held over two weekends, 21/22nd and 28/29th April. Many prominent change agents and thought leaders will be presenting at the event, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Deepak Chopra, Hazel Henderson and John Perkins. John Bunzl will speak about Simpol in an hour-long dialogue on Sunday 29th April 10am (U.S. Eastern Daylight Time) or 3pm (UK time). John will discuss how we can use our votes in our national elections to drive our politicians and governments to cooperate internationally to solve global problems. To see the full schedule and to register, click here.