On this page you can read detailed updates on what happened at our bi-monthly coffee mornings and other events.

It also contains links to other information and documents that may be of interest.  

 

Notes from Brighton and Hove Compass Coffee Morning

16 November, 2024

After the Riots - Causes, Impact and Solutions

‘the embers of hatred, frustration, and alienation still shimmer under the ashes. The violence has subsided for now, but it’s not hard to see, given the context, how something similar, worse even, might arise again – and soon’

– Neal Lawson, Director of Compass

The gathering of 27 Compass members and supporters became “real” right away when guest speaker Neal Lawson, Director of Compass, shared that he felt somewhat uncomfortable about some of what he’d written in his paper, and that he hasn’t pushed the paper out broadly yet, as a result. He felt compelled to write it, however, because it allows us to talk about everything we need to. For example

- We need other things than locking people up and growing the economy unequally.

- If we want to intervene, we need forces – people who vote and think and want the market to serve us rather than the other way around – and policies to intervene in the political economy as well as the financial one.

- Control of borders is necessary. Democracy only works within the borders of a nation-state. Free markets are causing chaos by forcing us to open our borders – moving people from one country to another to make money for them.

- 25 years before 1997, 9,000 immigrants; 25 years since 1997, 6 million immigrants.

- Some people find it difficult when their town changes. Some have the money and confidence to feel comfortable with change. Progressives have to have a compassionate conversation about that.

- The Far right is smart and well organized. They can exploit people who find change difficult. Our Labour majority is at risk in the next Parliament.

What can we do?

Progressives need to be less smug, and more generous. We need to stop “othering” people who’ve had it tough.

How do we get Government to pay attention?

Better than a public Inquiry, get Government to create a new Community Resilience body that would:

- Bring organizations together and make recommendations

- Facilitate deeper considered opinion/response

- Pick a place or 2 to work in – knit together the social cohesion and fabric.

Compass can work on this. It’s at the heart of everything Compass does.

USA is what’s going to happen here if we don’t get it right.

Let’s use this threat to galvanize us.

Attendees moved into breakout groups, which generated many questions for Neal, listed below.

Where is Compass going?

After the discussion, Neal gave an update:

Developing a 5 year strategy so we can be influential when the time arises.

1) Ideas - components of the good society

2) Relationships with Parliament and Mayors, and across progressive parties

3) Relationships with civil society (Greenpeace, Tax Justice Network, Friends of the Earth, 38°, Byline Times, Led by Donkeys)

Crystalize these in campaigns

- Ownership of water

- Devolution

- PR – First past the post promotes the right.

He values Local Groups as the people who make the issues resonate.

Many in the audience were inspired and energized by the political discussion. Thank you, Neal, for making so many connections within our society so we can all work together to improve it.

Questions from the breakout groups

Economy

• “Growth is good” – Neal – is it? Is this assumption healthy in a world of environmental collapse? Should ‘progressives’ be thinking of alternative measures of a successful society – Whose GDP is it?

• Are we over-focused on economy compared to society?

• How to tackle the influence of global finance and big tech Bros. They are bigger than nation states. This is a bigger issue than free markets. What do you do about it?

• What is the inclination of British people who can afford it to pay more taxes to invest in society?

Democracy and Participation

• How do we increase participation amongst the disenfranchised or those feeling/believing they are disenfranchised?

• How do we attract young people to the cause of the democratic left?

• How to have uncomfortable discussions among ourselves?

• What are the vehicles - over the next 1/2/4 years – to ensure people are heard and make a difference to people’s lives and the way they feel about their prospects?

Reform UK

• What can we/local groups do to combat the Reform vote? Ideas from the Compass groups?

• How do we form a language to speak to Reform voters?

• How to bridge the disconnect between us and the right/those in power?

• How do you address inherent social conservatism in the UK?

Immigration and Borders

• Most of the boat people are Afghans. How do we handle borders in a world devasted by climate change and war?

• Re borders and the way democracy is exercised nationally: is localism an/the answer? Devolution of more decision making to local communities?

Hope/ What Compass Can Do

• Request for further info re the consortium with Hope Not Hate please – its objectives? Will it be pushing at an open door in government? In which department/ministry will the trust be placed?

• Role of social media has been key? How would this be addressed?

• Trump emphasizes tribes and charismatic leaders. We are in the wrong “woke” tribe. How to get facts and reason to other tribes, and people talking across tribes.

• Is the choice ‘barbarism or socialism’? And if so, what do we do about it?

• How do you give people in “deprived” areas hope? Tackle the emotional (with a) calmer rational response?
  

The Blue Wall Toppled!

Yes after fourteen long years the tory government is gone and so has many Conservative held seats in the south east and Sussex.

Brighton and Hove Compass is proud of the role we played in the victory, along with our friends in Lewes and Horsham we campaigned hard for Labour, LibDem and Green candiates who support PR.  

So a huge thank you to our friends and supporters who helped in the campaign. 

A month has passed and we can start to take stock of the extraordinary changes that have taken place in Sussex. The political landscape has been upended and the chequerboard of colours that make up our two counties has transformed dramatically in ways inconceivable only five years ago.

We Compass wouldn’t want to claim all the credit for this but we believe that our 'Win as One' campaign and the long running efforts of the three Compass groups in Sussex, with their numerous members and affiliated supporters, had a significant impact in the marginal seats. 

Compass groups canvassed in most of the key constituencies, running events and street stalls, promoting tactical voting and leafleting on behalf of the endorsed candidates (the Lewes groups’ activities even caught the attention of the national press).  Campaigners also set up a Vote Heart/Vote Smart operation using an online tool to let voters swap their ‘heart’ vote with someone in a seat where the vote would make the most impact, say Green voters in West Worthing swapping with Labour voters in Brighton Pavilion.  

 On the day, the Conservative Party lost nine seats across the 17 constituencies of East and West Sussex. The map which was once almost entirely blue is now a patchwork of orange and red with that familiar green patch in the middle, the Green Party having held what until then had been its only seat, in Brighton Pavilion. These are undoubtedly historic changes.

 All this, and a cautionary tip-toe around what the future might hold, is described in a recent Sussex Bylines article here.