David Butterfield

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739 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 20 May

David Butterfield’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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TRIGGERnometry · How Civilisations Die - Ancient Greece Expert David Butterfield · 20 May 2026 podcast

that ended up getting hacked and pulled apart in various ways.

But fundamentally, education was tied in with citizens having a clear sense of what's happening.

There was a high level of transparency and trust.

And the system, in principle, was able to work.

As to where we are now, so many things are happening.

eroding the very bedrock of the kind of democracy we celebrate.

Even democracy is something we don't interrogate.

We assume that democracy is not just a good thing, but the good thing.

we don't step back and think, well, hang on, if there's some genocidal dictatorship sitting around a table and they have a vote on what the next genocide should be, and the majority wins in that democratic vote, we don't wonder about whether that's good or bad democracy.

Democracy only means something if it's tied into the broader aims and goals of the people using it.

It's a process, not an unalloyed good in itself.

and it depends where we're talking about in the world, but if we talk about our shared country of Britain, the democratic deficit is the widest I've ever known it, that's to say, in my lifetime.

On paper, everything should work.

We have not a direct, but a representative democracy.

Anyone over a certain age can vote.

If 10% of people in a constituency don't like what their representative is doing, that person can be recalled and you can have a by-election and you can change them.

And inside the House of Commons, if a majority decide they don't like the direction of travel, literally on the day, you can pull the government down and there'll be an election as soon as possible.

That all sounds great.

but it only works if your MPs, your representatives are of a caliber and of a character that means they spend their time carrying out ultimately the broad will of the people.

And I've never known a more

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