About 40 people at the anti-Brexit hustings last night in Guildford to which parties contesting the elections in the five Guildford town divisions were invited, i.e. Tories, LibDems, Labour, Greens, Peace Party and us. No UKIP representatives as they seem to have given up on Guildford, not having any candidates there.
In the absence of UKIP the pro-EU audience tried to make the Tory representative, Bob Hughes, the whipping boy but, unfortunately for them, this former MP and junior minister was very prominent in the Remain campaign. The Lib Dem and the Green were a mutual admiration society (they are a joint group on Surrey County Council), the Labour (and Cooperative) representative was an EU "immigrant". The Peace Party candidate was an old-fashioned pacifist who preached "be nice to everybody". He did, however, venture into economics by claiming that "Modern Monetary Theory" meant that austerity was unnecessary as the money could be made available if the government decided. A perfect opening to point out that austerity was not a free government decision but one forced on them by the requirement of capitalism, when in a slump, for pressure on profits to be relieved by cutting government spending and the taxes to pay for it. As most local council money comes from the central government, these cuts trickled down to local level, leaving councillors too no choice but to implement them at their level.
There were questions on the environment. Another opportunity to explain that under capitalism making profits has to take priority over everything else, including the environment, and to point out that a global problem like climate change required a global solution which capitalist states, with different energy sources affecting their competitiveness, were unable to agree on doing anything effective.
SEE BLOG FOR SPGB ADDRESS https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2017/04/we-want-capexit.html
About 40 people at the anti-Brexit hustings last night in Guildford to which
ReplyDeleteparties contesting the elections in the five Guildford town divisions were
invited, i.e. Tories, LibDems, Labour, Greens, Peace Party and us. No UKIP
representatives as they seem to have given up on Guildford, not having any
candidates there.
In the absence of UKIP the pro-EU audience tried to make the Tory
representative, Bob Hughes, the whipping boy but, unfortunately for them,
this former MP and junior minister was very prominent in the Remain campaign.
The Lib Dem and the Green were a mutual admiration society (they are a joint
group on Surrey County Council), the Labour (and Cooperative) representative
was an EU "immigrant". The Peace Party candidate was an old-fashioned
pacifist who preached "be nice to everybody". He did, however, venture into
economics by claiming that "Modern Monetary Theory" meant that austerity was
unnecessary as the money could be made available if the government decided. A
perfect opening to point out that austerity was not a free government
decision but one forced on them by the requirement of capitalism, when in a
slump, for pressure on profits to be relieved by cutting government spending
and the taxes to pay for it. As most local council money comes from the
central government, these cuts trickled down to local level, leaving
councillors too no choice but to implement them at their level.
There were questions on the environment. Another opportunity to explain that
under capitalism making profits has to take priority over everything else,
including the environment, and to point out that a global problem like
climate change required a global solution which capitalist states, with
different energy sources affecting their competitiveness, were unable to
agree on doing anything effective.
SEE BLOG FOR SPGB ADDRESS
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2017/04/we-want-capexit.html