Weekend. Booktv, television for serious readers. Booktv attended a party and washington, d. C. For the publication of Steve Hiltons book more human designing a world where people come first. Former Senior Advisor to british Prime MinisterDavid Cameron mingled with guests and spoke informally about the book. Prior to the start of the party he did interviews with several news outlets. We are at Juleanna Glover house bringing the u. S. Launch of the book more human. Tells all but about this book and where the idea came from. It was born in my experience in government. David cameron, i was out in california now. Ive been observing whats going on. Iv political tech stock in california. I think that notion of promoting competition so you dont allow corporations to do with all this stuff, that is a very conservative approach. It may not be the approach of the republicans. Thats a different thing. We met last year. Of course, i remember. Congratulations. Thank you. [inaudible] i was on my way to london and i tried to track you down and i did not totally here we are. Great to see you. We met last year and then we kind of lost exactly. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] just before i left i heard from random house in the uk. I didnt know what was going to be doing. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] this might be an interesting idea. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] hi, how are you . How did he get in . Hi, im lindsay. Its all recorded. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] he was the chair of that group and i met with him a lot. He didnt realize what i wanted. He actually didnt believe me when i told him what i wanted to do. Thats what every government gets in. They never ever do. None of them. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] steve is going to be allotted u. S. Citizenship. But he is fighting for the u. S. Political movement and being a player in the evolution, for the conservative movement as usenet and i will handed over to steve now. But i couldnt be more delighted to having him talk about his interest and the issues tonight. If he is really important. Thank you very much. Im not sure what to do about my issues. Thank you so much. I just wanted to thank you very much for hosting tonight. And the other hosts that are so numerous i had to write the notes i didnt forget them. Some of them may even be here, who knows. Thank you, Juleanna Glover, thank you susan, nikki, steve smit, josh ginsberg. I dont how they got them all on the imitation. Pretty amazing. I think were heading for a record where there may be more people hosting the book part than actually buying the book. [laughter] but its great to be at and its great to see such a lovely crew. Might do something i wrote in about a double region just a snippet. I wrote it down. Its from the first chapter on politics. When the corporate lobbyists, the politicians, the journalists and authors of books like this all go to the same parties or live in the same neighborhoods in washington, new york and services go regardless of whos in office, the same people are in power. Its great to see you all here tonight. [laughter] the thing is i do have one complaint though. When i get my book party in london the Prime Minister showed up to the party. So im very let down. Its not quite the same stature. Whats he got to do that is better than this . His publishers around the back of the white house having a fight with john boehner. What . What did i say . You know, a cigarette. What is the point of being a brit if you cant make that joke . It did make me think here and diving into the political debate of being a brit in america and coming at this very tight and time. Many years ago i did, i move to another country for a while, and there was an acronym for what i did. It was actually hong kong and theres an acronym for people who leave london and go and work in hong kong. Its called filth, failed in london thrive in hong kong. I was think about what might be an appropriate acronym for whats going on here with my entry into american politics at this very interesting time. Can you guess . Donald. Donald britain, america looks desperate. So here i am to help. I hope i can do my bit. I dont know whether theres much chance of making an impact in the immediate days ahead but i do really hope to get involved in the political argument here. Ive been here for four years networking on my startup crowdpac in california. In this book tonight is just another until its been too much time talking about it because i would love to have some opportunity to your questions and respond to those by which a skidoo a quick scene setter for what this book is all about. Im going to start with not the whole story but the star the book opens with because it really does get to the heart of why i wrote the book. Theres a story right at the beginning about a mothers experience traveling on jetblue. Its a horrible experience and it is detailed in the book, but the conclusion that i draw from it is based on something that the mother said which is interviewed about this experience. And she said, like it was just treat people with kindness, like human beings . Adages thought that was a very profound thing to say about not just her experience on jetblue that day but all of our experience in so many areas of life, whether that relates to our experience of government or businesses, our daily lives. So much of it i think has become too big and too bureaucratic and distant from the human scale. Its the systems and structures that are at fault. Thats the argument i make in the book. They reminded me also something of a political theorist said when she was thinking about the holocaust and how it was that normal people could be aid to other people in such an inhuman, such a disgusting way. Her argument was that it is not them, nothing wrong with them, its the bureaucracy, the system that make people behave in terrible ways. Im not comparing, just in case the lawyers amongst you are getting ready to act, jetblue to the nazis, but i am arguing whether thats how we think about government, about how we run schools, about how we do health care, about how we try to help families in poverty, but also look at the economy the way the businesses have become these giant corporations that have captured how in such a concentrated way that they can make decisions that are so distant from the people that are affected by them. In all these areas were designed and built a world that have become in human and that the central argument i think the political reform needs to be how we do something about that and how we make the world more human. Thats it for the moment. I would love to hear what you think and any questions you may have. [applause] please. Steve spent i love the title more human. Most great ideas have to struggle and get the against others. So interested in who the enemies of your idea, if somebody went up about every copy of your book and buried somewhere, who would that be . I think the central theme in many ways of the book is the nature of power, the concentrated power, political power and economic power. And, therefore, will its those who have the power. What i want to do is take the power out of their hands and put it in the hands of people. In government that means decentralization, and decentralization is the kind weve never seen. Not just on the federal government to the states, which is discussed a lot but right down to the neighborhood level. And that, of course, affects those who currently hold the power. Similarly in the economy and with the structure of capitalism. I think what we need to do is attack this concentration of economic power in the hands of a smaller number of big corporations. So i do generally think that means literally breaking them. Not just the banks we hear about all the time discussed in terms of breakup. But the other sectors where you have these incredible powerful corporations that abuse the system to their ends. The telecom sector, the Health Insurance sector. Look at food as a giant agriculture companies. All these areas you have these giant businesses that need to be broken. That ceos of those companies would not like it. I think the enemies come its a great question, are those who currently hold power. Richard reeves. You have to speak in an american accent. I cant do that. Talk a bit about how this all happened physically. The famous british philosopher said everybody is in favor of the decentralization power down to approximate the level which they currently sit. [laughter] steve and i worked together in government, editing out experience board that out is whether governments tend to be hugely in favor of states getting power and county is in favor of councils and power. The trouble is could you want to give power to are in the structure moment dont have a all the people who are currently in positions of power will want it to go down as for you wanted to. So talk about the politics of bringing about this change. Such a great question. I dont want to give a flippant answer, but the truth is what you describe, i will repeat what you said i completely agree with your characterization of the problem. And, therefore, i think, and it really reflected on this when i was writing it because im a practical person and ive been in government. Ive tried to ultimate change like you have. This is not a theoretical book. If you get the chance to read you will see there is an idea underneath the budget is very practical about how to change things. That made me think, i literally reflected on your question how are they going to change things. And actually the answer that i got to was that we need to change the people in the system. We need people to believe in these ideas, literally to take over the reins of power. And, therefore, the conclusion of the book literally the very last bit says, if you read this book on if you believe in this, if you agree with me, then this is the first step. This is what you have to do. You have to run for office. You have to run for office if thats what you think. That is the only way we are really going to bring about this fundamental change. That connects into what ive been doing at crowdpac, what i built as a company that makes it easier for people to run for office. Its a crowdfunding site for politics which if you want to run for office or nominate someone you can quickly start raising money and get into Office Without depending on the big Party Machinery that tends to trap people within the existing power structures. Because they have to argue for the cause of their founders. Its the same power structures and thats why getting a fresh generation of people to run for office at every level and who truly believes in this kind of decentralization in the end may be the only hope. That may not be much of a help but you know people can take power to give it away. Thats right. Lets leave it there. Just follow up on that. Theres a wonderful quote you have a year or two ago after, you are an adjective in government thats one way of putting it. You said it was the bureaucrats essentially had, you know, you didnt like them very much. They didnt like you. You said it was a mutual divorce in the end when you left. You said they are still there doing the same thing. In the book i just finished i wrote a lot about my bracket are very similar to what youre trying to do. He ended up leaving because they were not willing to go far enough. It just feels like when people like you and mike and others come in to try to push for change, eventually the push is like really strong against it. People move on, the reformers. The people who are trying to protect the status quo, they are still there. Ill give you a couple of responses. I didnt other accurate characterization. I am at pains to say in the book and want to say publicly, almost every single Civil Servant i met and worked with incumbent was on an individual level was a good, wellintentioned, incredibly oppressive small, series person on the individual level. Going back to the point about the holocaust. The system and the structures on the problem, not individual people. Talk about personal battle with individuals in that sense. It also reminds of something that tony blair told me before we got into government as part of my kind are trying to learn about what was going to be like him to think about how we would prepare. I went to see people who had been in government including tony blair and his chief of staff andy lots of conversations. Want to thank tony dorsett is he will not believe until you get there how strong is the sense on the part of the Civil Service that they really are the ones who are entrusted with running the country and that the politicians and their advisers are just here today, gone tomorrow, and their job is to wait them out. You would not believe how strong that sense is that you do something about it. And he said to me we didnt take thait seriously enough and i rey learned that lesson toward the end of his time in government. This is why i ended up in a position where i reviewed, pretty controversial one, in the end to do something about this. The only serious answer was to drastically cut the number of Civil Servants. Not because they were bad people are underperforming but simply because the scale of the operation means that they inevitably grow the structures and the systems and the bureaucracy that they thrive on. Their incentives are to make that growth. So theres only one thing to do which is to county. To my analogy which we start off with a bit of a joke actually but then took on i thought the level o of seriousness because i really meant it. There was a building in london called Somerset House which was the Administrative Center of the British Empire when that was, the saying goes, half the world. That was run from this one building in london. Its now a civic space, the Art Galleries and restaurants and so on. I did run the British Empire and now you talk about the British Empire. You are not even talking about britain because its really england. So i said how many people could fit in that building that once ran the entire . Home and offices . The answer was about 10,000. The central policymaking bit of a Civil Service was more like 200,000. The talk about how the government government does not also apply to tech Companies Like facebook, apple and a lot of people in this room [inaudible] its a great passion. You shouldnt break a Day Companies just for the sake of them being big unless theres actual public policy. They agree that you just said. This is a really important point. First of all, i need to declare an interest, which is my wife, rachel, from that ahead of government and peer relations at google now doing that another company you mention, which is uber. So be aware that you hear arguments i make in the book and paid to say this book is not another way of saying small is beautiful and big is bad. That is not what i think. I think often scaled is to dehumanization, but not necessarily. Similarly, technology often leads to dehumanization, but not necessarily. I think one interesting way if i cannot cite any of the companies my wifes involved with, but your b b i think is a brilliant example of a big company that has made the world more human. Its facilitated, enabled and a credible human connection. We should be concerned about it. For me, the central argument here is there is competition and the ability of the company to challenge another one or the ability of a big company to distort policy or regulation or whatever else it may be to serve their end in an unhealthy way. Through the use of lawyers and lobbyists in all the rest of it rather than competing fairly in the marketplace to me the central concept is not even market share for scale. Can a company be challenged . The truth in the tech Sector Companies can be challenged and defeated overnight. That is what is really amazing about it, the dynamics that are. You dont see that happen in other sectors the key argument here is does it scale enable the company to exploit policy to the detriment of wider society. In thank you. [applause] stay as long as he would like. Please buy the book. [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] tv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress with their reading this summer. First of all, thanks to cspan for all you do on this front