Meeting held on Monday 19th February 2018
12 people were at the meeting. Two sent their apologies.
Some had attended Ruth George’s (Lab MP for High Peak) meeting in Glossop to consider housing. In a general discussion of the importance of the issue, it was pointed out that in Northants., a Tory Council had gone bust following the outsourcing of most services. In general, austerity policies had led to some reduction in public debt, but at the cost of an equivalent increase in private debt, which is now a major problem and risk to stability.
This consideration led to an exploration of the nature of debt, the role that banks play in this and how banks function in general. Many of us felt extremely ignorant about the basic facts of banking but aware that the country’s finances do not function like family finances. Most political discussion does not recognise this and furthermore makes the assumption that an increase in Gross National Product is always desirable. We questioned this from different angles: first, increased GNP is (arguably) inconsistent with increased environmental protection; second, the factors which contribute to GNP are purely monetary and regardless of the social value of the particular products measured; third, this leads to increasing monetarisation (eg of education) and lack of recognition of socially valuable activities (like caring for elderly relatives); and fourth, increasing GNP is inevitably accompanied by increased consumerism in which the value attached to people becomes a measure of their possessions.
Nevertheless, we acknowledged that it is perhaps too easy for those who do not suffer financial hardship to recommend restraint in economic expansion. But we did consider the need for a change in the basic neo-liberal assumptions behind financing the economy on economic, social and ethical grounds.
We wondered how government (specifically informed by Labour or Green policies) might create the conditions for the changed needed. Or perhaps such change would come from the people more widely and is only consequently be reflected in government policies.
Taxation (of various kinds) is one such change needed in a move away from neoliberal assumptions. The change required is from viewing taxation as legal theft by ‘the taxman’ to viewing it as something to be celebrated as an intrinsic aspect of citizenship. We should perhaps work for such a change in attitude from many different places in our community rather than simply expect it to emerge from changes in government policies.
We returned to consider the need for a Progressive Alliance to address such changes and again disappointment was felt, by some, to the Labour Party’s reluctance to entertain the idea.