In 2018 the United Kingdom was the first country to ever appoint a minister of loneliness – an initiative founded on the self-evident basis that loneliness is one of the greatest public challenges of our current times. Or perhaps as a retaliation to the unsettling finding from the Office for National Statistics that places Britain as the “loneliness capital of Europe.”
Today is my second day at DG Cities and my excitement is only gaining momentum. Two days into the role and already I envision this team of 11 growing in size, quickly becoming a sea of hundreds, all eagerly brainstorming and collaborating to reshape and improve our cities. Or perhaps these are the musings of a graduating millennial wishfully getting ahead of himself. But how could I not, when the setting is so compelling?