Four people were present. Two sent apologies.
1. The implications of current row about which tier areas are going into. Will people be less willing to obey restrictions? High deprivation = high Covid. Good article by John Harris (Guardian) saying this is also about class. The right don’t want to address issues around poverty. Tories wanted Mayors and they have now come into their own. Leicester is still in lockdown with the LA initially being ignored. Not using local authorities earlier was a big mistake. The awarding of contracts is now being challenged by the Good Law Society. No tendering process and no information about the adherence to any criteria in a contract. Usually payment is made when specifications are met. Interesting alliance between Manchester Tory MPs and Burnham. Different deals with LAs is causing confusion. Prime Minister & Tories have ideological hostility to LAs . Rates in Manchester seem today to be lower than other areas. There has been some distortion in the figures. 50% of positive tests do not have symptoms. Herd Immunity now seems a fringe view. Tories in southern England have little sense of the poverty in other regions. 2/3 of a minimum wage is not much money. Much of this is about class. Marcus Rashford, a young black footballer shamed the Tories about hunger in poorer families and they relented over summer holidays and free school meals. LAs can organise things well – e.g. elections; work in neighbourhoods. Example of Sheffield getting free school meals to children at home during lockdown – imaginative use of workforce and suppliers.
2. University education is now commercialised. Big rebates to students could mean in near future you don’t have a university. People who have been to University can expect to have a higher income. Student fees are in fact a Graduate Tax. When University education was free would students have stayed at home and studied on-line for humanities subjects. Lab-based subjects can work with social distancing. The point was made that in some subjects students learn from each other. On-line teaching is more labour intensive than many think.
3. Brexit: The Gove /Marr interview had a video of a Gove speech from 2016, containing promises about Brexit. Politicians can be shameless about their failure. It has a Trump-like quality. The blaming of the inflexible EU; the cliff-edge and drawing back tactic (?) – where will be in 3 month’s time?
4. The Internal Market Bill will need the Monarch’s signature…..will she sign and what could be the impact constitutionally?
5. Our next meeting will be after the US election – we looked at the implications for the UK as the UK Government will need to re-calibrate if there is a Democrat in White House.