Monday 21st September 2020
Five people were present
1. Has there been a cultural shift with more resistance now to government guidelines about Covid? People seemed to have more goodwill earlier in the crisis – more recrimination and reluctance at present which could be dangerous. Is there now a sense of young v old when previously there was greater cohesion? The Swedes seemed to have treated their population as intelligent and asked them to take responsibility. Does the curtailment of our civil rights need to be discussed in parliament? The behaviour of the government and lack of democratic process is not helping the credibility of instructions. If many people are dying is the public more inclined to go along with the regulations?
2. Tory establishment is dissatisfied. Will Johnson be there for the next election. He is betraying the ‘true faith’ of the right; his incompetence is annoying most of them; the more centrists think the law should be obeyed. There is genuine discontent on a number of levels. In December, did the Red Wall voters believe there would be a ‘levelling up’ or did they just want Brexit done? There was real anger against Labour – some of us experienced it canvassing. How well do we think KS is doing? He is playing a long game and the current job is to introduce himself to the nation – many seem to like what they see. PMQ’s is only for politico’s like us. He is focused on Labour being viewed as competent and he is succeeding in that. He is cautious but maybe wise not to leap in with comments that get us feeling good about ourselves [ie the lefties].
3. We looked at the role of social media in the national conversation. Important role of education in developing critical thinking. [Plug for BBC programme – “More or Less” – Radio 4 Sunday afternoon – focusing on statistics. Highly recommended by some of our group.] Targeting voters with misleading information has to be challenged.
4. We looked at the lack of a tendering process for much important work and the government shamelessly giving work to organisations with little experience. World-beating? There have been many offers from universities that have not been taken up. The exclusion of Local Authorities and NGO’s from the track and trace provision has caused problems.