Meeting held on Monday 15th April 2019s
12 people were present. Five sent their apologies.
We decided not to discuss Brexit at this meeting.
We were pleased at the recent move to limit the right of landlords to evict tenants, but perhaps it is too early to make a final judgement about this.
There are two Greens and no Labour candidates in local elections. Not surprisingly, Labour will not publicly endorse supporting Green candidates, but in private there is some evidence of support.
The main topic of the evening was stimulated by Extinction Rebellion (ER), which blocked major roads in London today. We were concerned that this movement should not fade, like the Occupy movement. Reporting on BBC had been relatively sympathetic, and campaigns for local councils to declare ‘climate emergencies’ were hopeful. We considered measures to effect a more balanced ecology, but understood the importance of ER keeping its message clearly on ‘climate emergency’.
We were encouraged by reports of major investors disinvesting in fossil fuels, the increasingly competitive pricing of alternative sources of energy, the advance of electric cars (particularly in China), and ultra low emission areas in London which might be followed by other cities. But the message from ER is that much more radical moves are needed, not just in relation to fossil fuels. It is not easy to see what such measures might be, or what their unintended consequences might be.
Children have very different life experiences from the older generations, and their concern for the environment and equality offered us some hope for the future.
But in a discussion of knife crime, which has been much in the news, we wondered how it is that some children are moved to save the planet, while others to knife their neighbour. It seems that the former group have an investment in society, while the latter are rejected by it and so do not care. Long term policies of austerity have served to create this sense of rejection and despair.
We ended on a note of uncertainty regarding the case of Julian Assange, particularly in terms of the relationship between politics and the judiciary.
The next meeting will be on 20th May