30 July 2019

In a speech to the TED Summit in Edinburgh, the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon argued that a focus on policies that promote wellbeing, and not just economic growth, could help address the rise of alienation and disaffection from politics.

The First Minister said:

When we focus on wellbeing, we start a conversation that provokes profound and fundamental questions – what really matters to us in our lives.

What do we value in the communities that we live in, what kind of country, what kind of society do we really want to be – and when we engage people in those questions and finding the answers to those questions, then I believe that we have a much better chance of addressing the alienation and disaffection from politics that is so prevalent in so many countries across the developed world today.”

"GDP measures the output of all of our work, but it says nothing about the nature of that work, about whether that work is worthwhile or fulfilling." @NicolaSturgeon https://t.co/We0hkVe3ta

— TED Talks (@TEDTalks) July 29, 2019

You can watch the First Minister’s speech in full here.