Meeting held on Monday 17th June 2019
15 people were present. Charlotte, four sent their apologies.
We briefly discussed the previous nights’s debate between prospective Tory party leaders (and hence next PM). Rory Stuart stood out as being different from the other candidates as being on the ‘left’ of the party. He appears to be gaining popularity and the audience gave him much applause. At the same time, there was a poll published which indicated people were their gloomiest for 30 years. Was this a consequence of them being more engaged with politics? It appeared that people were also more concerned with homelessness and poverty and were working voluntarily in the community.
We also discussed Tom Watson’s recent appeals to Corbyn to support Remain, through a second referendum. But we were not in agreement about this. Some of us were coming to the view that, despite supporting Remain in the 2016 Referendum, we now thought it may be better to leave so that we can get on with other issues. But others thought that if we did leave, this would not be the end of Brexit as there would be much negotiating to do and an economic crisis to address. There would also be a need for the next government to bring together a divided country. Would this best be led by a PM not too strongly associated with Leave or Remain? Is that possible?
We returned to earlier discussions about democratic methods (parliamentary system, people’s assembly, etc) but did not see any immediate solution to present divisions.
We were concerned that those leading the Leave campaign appear to want a Free market, low tax, low regulation situation. But Tories who supported this were in contrast with other Tories who wanted the migration, cheap Labour and trade deals associated with the remaining in the EU.
Where did consideration of the environment fit into the Brexit debate? Many consider the EU provides a more collaborative framework for addressing the environment, whereas out of the EU, with low regulation, environmental issues would not be addressed. We wondered whether a collaborative stance comes more naturally to EU countries which suffered humiliation in the war and learned to collaborate in order to survive afterwards, while UK, with memories of its empire, wants to see itself as master rather than collaborator with there nations. The UK’s Brexit temperament is thus perhaps less conducive to collaborating to solve environmental issues.
The next government would need to address social inequality as well as environmental matters, and it will be important that people see how the two are related.
The next meeting will be on 15th July .