The post-war consensus has been dismantled in favour of a culture that rewards and empowers a small acquisitive elite at the expense of the great majority. This culture actively prevents the creation of a society of mutual recognition and respect. But without just such a society there can be no true comprehensive education. Where it exists, progressive comprehensive education develops pedagogies of recognition in learning communities that mediate worlds of difference, and, in some areas, has fostered the introduction of tiered deliberative forums to enable at local level democratic discussion of major decisions. This framework offers a model for informing and sustaining inclusive democratic participation of the kind required to establish the new cohesive national-political settlement we need.