{"id":78,"date":"2026-01-09T09:45:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk.washbourne.instantlink.co.uk\/?page_id=78"},"modified":"2026-01-19T14:15:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:15:55","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/?page_id=78","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The media, the billionaires and certain politicians are telling us we&#8217;re all obsessed with immigration \u2013 &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;that we don&#8217;t care about human rights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;that we don&#8217;t really believe in climate breakdown.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;that we&#8217;d be OK with an American healthcare system and the end of our free NHS.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But people are not the same as algorithms.&nbsp;They DO care!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They don&#8217;t want the UK to go the way of Trump&#8217;s America&#8230; and nor do we.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we set out to collect the evidence that we are kinder, more compassionate, more tolerant and more savvy than these grifters would have us believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if we pull together, we reckon we can beat them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/?page_id=141\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"141\">Are you in?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Our Purpose and Passion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>At Common Ground, we believe it&#8217;s time we stood up to hatred and division<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;We&#8217;re not from any political party. But we are united in rejecting the politics of the far right, and we want to tackle the lies that are deepening division in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We listen, we discuss and sometimes we explain and gently correct mis- and dis-information.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We want to help mobilise people to demand kind, constructive policies from their politicians and to use their vote to keep the far right out of power.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>99% of people we speak to do NOT want to live in Trump&#8217;s America, and that includes Reform supporters.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We can&#8217;t stand by and watch our democracy, our rights \u2013 and our NHS \u2013 being destroyed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>If you want to be hopeful, then do hopeful things!<\/strong>   Jane Fonda<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How we started<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We got involved in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.southdevonprimary.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">South Devon Primary<\/a>, a grassroots initiative to end 100 years of Conservative rule in the Totnes \/ South Devon constituency.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We ran our &#8216;democracy meter&#8217; sticker polls on the streets and held &#8216;Town Hall&#8217; meetings across the constituency to choose one candidate from the progressive parties behind whom to unite. You could call it a step up from tactical voting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In July 2024, voters united behind Caroline Voaden, LibDem, and she defeated the Conservatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And we decided to stay on the streets and keep listening and talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What we are hearing in these conversations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Apathy and disillusionment are real, BUT most people<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>are hungry for a healthier democracy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>want to be able to talk politics without the shouting<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>want to be heard<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>feel that moderate, kind voices are being ignored<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>are happy to find that others share their views.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes we just have to agree to disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And everyone enjoys a sticker poll!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What we love about talking with people<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s genuinely uplifting. &nbsp;Examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The young woman who said she knew nothing and had no views \u2013 proud to discover that she did.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The angry man who came back and apologised when he realised he had been gaslit on immigration numbers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The couple who recognised that they didn&#8217;t support Reform UK&#8217;s policies after all.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The many, many people who thank us for doing this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What we do with the information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We take photos of the board at the end of each session and post them on social media and share with pro-democracy groups.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>People are often pleased and relieved to discover that so many others in their towns and villages feel the way they do on the key issues of the day.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When the media are constantly telling us that EVERYONE thinks one way, it\u2019s great to disprove that lie!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The difference it might make<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We want to give hope and encouragement to all those who share our values<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We encourage people to use their vote rather than shrugging and giving up.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We arm people with facts so that they can help counter the disinformation and propaganda from the far right.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bottom line: we don&#8217;t want to live under a Farage\/Reform UK government. And when people get a chance to think through the policies rather than get bombarded with endless soundbites, many of them realise they don&#8217;t, either.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The media, the billionaires and certain politicians are telling us we&#8217;re all obsessed with immigration \u2013 &nbsp; &#8230;that we don&#8217;t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-78","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/78\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commongroundorg.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}