Meeting held on Wed 18th March 2026
Seven people were present. Three sent their apologies.
There was approval for Starmer’s response to Trump’s Iran war. We felt that this is more in line with his own values (eg, he had joined the march against the war in Iraq) as a human rights lawyer. This contrasts with many of his recent policies which have been at odds with those values.
We reflected on significance of the Gorton and Denton by-election. Had this, perhaps, contributed to a possible shift in Starmer’s policy to the left? Were the charges that a vote for Green is a lost vote, or will leave an opening for Reform, no longer valid? We also noted that Green policies are no longer seen in terms of the environment, but also the wider issues of social justice.
This by-election result appeared to contribute to the likelihood of some form of Proportional Representation (PR). We noted that there are different forms of PR and that the experience of Israel, with its right wing dominance, was not a good advertisement for PR.
We considered that the power of the hyper-rich, such as Musk, who now have arguably more influence than many nation states, undermine the democratic process. We need rules which limit the influence of money on the party system. Or would any such change be rejected by the power of rich on our parties? Were we destined to live in a society where the rich just keep getting richer and undermining democracy.
In relation so such a depressing notion, the by-election result showed that the Green mass turn out of supporters, in the end had more influence on the election result than the massive financial support that was given to Reform.
After a brief discussion of Israel’s genocide being extended to Lebanon and the conflation of antisemitism and anti-zionism, we returned to consider any other hopeful signs there might be. The widespread recognition that we need hope is itself hopeful; so is the fact that the Green Party is not patronised by labour and that its more left policies will be considered seriously; and at a more local level, the new establishment at The Beeches, in Bamford (the building that used to be the Quaker Community) is admirable.
So we were able to leave feeling a little less depressed than is often the case!
The next meeting will be held on April 15th