Meeting held on Wednesday 21st May 2025.
12 people were present. One gave his apologies.
We discussed the emergence of Zack Polanski as a contender for the leadership of the Green Party. Describing himself as a ‘socialist’ he has developed an argument for ‘ecopopulism’. What exactly is ‘populism’ we wondered. Prominent movements towards populism have all been of the political ‘right’. Corbyn, perhaps, was a populist of the left. But at present, the left seems unable to present a clear story which offers an alternative to the neoliberal norms of globalism.
Several expressed misgivings about Starmer’s leadership of the LP and it was suggested that there was, within the parliamentary Labour Party, a split between Rachel Reeves who is wedded to the Treasury version of economics, and others (like Clive Lewis) who are more aware of alternative economic perspectives which would favour redistribution of wealth. Is Starmer moving the Party to the right in order to attract those who might otherwise vote for Reform? Or do his right wing policies and language (talk of ‘aliens’, etc) more accurately reflect his own right wing values?
In a discussion which ranged between considering a wealth tax, to issues of immigration, we thought the realities were in fact very complex and the danger with any form of populism (right of left) is that it tends to reduce policy discussion to simplistic, often ill-informed policies which don’t work. For example, Reform’s simplistic notion that they would get rid of all ‘woke’ Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in their councils was, in fact, ignorant of the fact that there are no LTNs in Reform governed councils.
Considering the situation in Gaza we were appalled by the fact that our country has, and indeed continues, to support Israel’s genocide. It’s protestations from the sidelines mean nothing when we support Israel with arms and trade relations. There are some hopeful indication (eg from the Co-op and from EU) of economic pressure being applied, but little from UK government.
The next meeting will be on June 18th.