I just read this blog post by John Sturrock, a preeminent Scottish mediator who has long worked to mediate political conflicts involving Scotland and the United Kingdom. He was active before the recent referendum on Scottish independence and he has been working on issues related to “Brexit,” the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union.
He and a colleague, Charlie Woods, from his company, Core, sponsored an event yesterday bringing together representatives from a wide range of stakeholders to participate in simulation of the current political situation. The stakeholders included “the Scottish Government, the UK Government, the Welsh Government, the Northern Ireland Government, the Republic of Ireland Government, EU Heads of Government, American Congress, regions of England outside London and the South East, the islands of Orkney and Shetland, and young people of Scotland.”
As John noted, this event took place just as the Scottish Government voted to pursue another referendum on independence and the UK Government formally announced its intention to withdraw from the EU.
The deliberative process he conducted is such a stark contrast to the sharp political polarization and poor communication in the US these days. Of course, they didn’t solve the problems of Scotland and the UK last night, but hopefully it will contribute to a constructive path forward for all the stakeholder groups.
John Sturrock recently posted a detailed account of this simulation, which is worth reading. I thought it was particularly useful to see the list of common interests, needs, and concerns of the participants (in their simulated roles), as well as the questionnaire they used and the process guidelines.