It’s been a while since our last newsletter, so it’s long overdue to provide an update on what has been happening at Politics in Pubs. The last year was our most successful yet, with a wide range of fantastic talks and speakers. Topics covered included:

• Digital ID
• The Supreme Court ruling on gender
• The pros and cons of psychopathy
• Grooming gangs
• The state of trade unions
• Reforming Lancashire County Council
• Globalism v Nationalism
• Can AI save democracy
• Holding power to account
• Assisted dying

We had some great speakers including Labour MP Graham Stringer, Sebastian Moore (who stood in the recent Gorton and Denton by-election for the SDP), Hilary Salt from the SDP, Danny Matchett from Reform UK, Ben Elks from the Tax Payers Alliance and Pauline Hadaway from the Liverpool Salon. For a full list of past meetings please visit our website here.

The Manchester and Newcastle groups were particularly active with regular capacity attendances.

Politics in Pubs comes to London!

In October we travelled to London to host a stand at the Battle of Ideas festival. If you haven’t been, this is a fantastic free speech event organised by The Academy of Ideas, led by our friend Baroness Claire Fox. Our small stand was inundated with enquiries, so much so, that we realised we really needed to get meetings started in London.

We were joined by Mike Swadling, who has been running our partner group, Croydon Constitutionalists in Purley, for many years. Due to the number of enquiries, Mike has kindly volunteered to start a new Politics in Pubs meetup in central London. Habib Talukdar, a member of the Communist Party of Britain (Marxists Leninist) has also volunteered to help out. Coming from opposite ends of the political spectrum should ensure some lively discussion!

The inaugural meeting will take place on the 20^th April in Pimlico, when the topic will be Slay the Stagnation Dragon: Ignite Real Economic Growth! If you are in London then, please do come along. The meeting is free to attend but, if you can, do let us know if you are likely to attend. Register via info@politicsinpubs.org.uk.

New partner – Free Thinkers Nottingham

During the year we also signed up a new free speech partner, called Free Thinkers Nottingham, organised by Chris and Heidi Nettleship. If you live in or around Nottingham, please do go along to support them. Their events are free and open to all.

Sheffield is looking for organisers

Unfortunately, our Sheffield group not been active this year. There is the potential to get the group restarted, but we need one or two people to take the lead. If you live in the area and fancy helping out, then we would love to hear from you. It doesn’t have to be a big commitment, particularly in the early days, and we can provide support. If nothing else, these are great social events, and an opportunity to forge new friendships. You can find out more here. If this appeals to you, please contact us via info@politicsinpubs.org.uk.

Email issues

Unfortunately, we have been having increasing issues with our emails being bounced, so we are experimenting using a new email service. This newsletter is our first one to use this new approach. If you have a BT Internet account, we would be delighted to know that you received this email, as many of our last emails do not appear to have reached BT Internet addresses.

Upcoming Events

Find out about all upcoming events here.

Speakers sought

Last but not least, we are always looking for speakers. If you have a topic that you feel passionately about, we would be delighted to have you come and speak to one of our meetings. Please get in touch via info@politicsinpubs.org.uk.