Meeting held on Monday 19th March 2018
10 people were present, one sent their apologies.
Some disquiet had been communicated prior to the meeting of a perception that the expression of strong support for the Labour Party leadership during discussions may lead to some participants feeling that views from other positions were somehow unwelcome. As the whole point of our group was always intended to facilitate the sharing of views across the broad left of politics we continued to discuss our current topics on that basis.
Corbyn’s response to the evidence of Russian involvement in the use of nerve agent in Salisbury may have been initially misplaced. Allowing May to appear to assume leadership in the country against, what is after all an ultra- nationalist and aggressive state, can distract from valid criticisms on Crimea/Ukraine, Syria, cyber attacks, money laundering, etc. The approach of Caroline Lucas in backing May on the specific issue of the nerve agent attack whilst continuing be critical of other aspects of government policy towards Russia seemed to strike a better balance. It was suggested that the Tories will not do much to threaten the financial assets/ property of the oligarchs or to reduce the reliance on Russian gas.
There was some discussion on the general state of the Corbyn leadership. The main policies being developed had support but the ability of Corbyn and his team to manage and seek consensus across what is a broad church was questioned. The role of Momentum was looked on as either a ‘ginger group’ attempting to organise and campaign around the Labour leadership in order to steer party policy to the left and enhance the role of ordinary Party members or a body dedicated to the takeover of the Labour Party. The majority opinion seemed to favour giving them the benefit of the doubt.
An interesting final subject was the effect of Proportional Representation on politics in Scotland where both Local Government and the Scottish Parliament elections use this system. It was suggested that there is evidence that P.R. has resulted in a greater engagement with politics and, as people give the issues more attention, has moved opinion to a more anti-establishment position in general, not just to the SNP.