Sheffield – how will the new Government affect our city and town centres

Many of our town centres are in crisis. Will Labour make things better and are they already attacking free speech?

We are a month into our new Government and it is probably unfair to make judgements quite yet on how they are performing against their manifesto promises or indeed against what we might wish their manifesto promises had been or even how they are performing against real world events.  Either way we will have to live with Labour for good or for bad for the next five years.  At least Starmer took his ‘big coat’ to the Olympics and didn’t end up dripping wet like we all remember Sunak did.  So maybe things are getting better. Or are Labour just better at covering up?

As an aside, one negative sign, for those of us who value free speech, was buried on Friday afternoon just past, as we were all no doubt preparing for the Olympic Opening Ceremony (or, as in my case, Gardeners’ World).  Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson snuck a written statement into Parliament saying the Government were to block the Higher Education (Free Speech) Act 2023 from coming into force.  I subsequently checked the Labour manifesto and the word freedom appears just four times. Free speech is in crisis and Professor Dennis Hayes of  Academics for Academic Freedom has promised to come to one of our meetings this year to discuss this with us.

We would like, wherever possible, to give our discussions a local angle.  So, back to this Thursday, as well as free speech, many of our town centres are also in crisis.  We see dubious economic models and tottering attempts to revitalise town centres as places to live, shop and work.  Tensions between local and national government leave them struggling.  The, to me, utterly pointless, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority makes a mockery of devolution and seems to add just another power battlefield for ineffective politicians and bureaucrats. Sheffield has apparently hitched itself to running the city on student loans.  Barnsley seems to be just moving shops around.  When these merry go rounds stop what’s going to happen?  Are Doncaster and Rotherham faring better? Local government money is our money, are we getting value for it?  Who are our town centres for?  What does the often used slogan ‘revitalise the high street’ mean?

You are warmly invited to join us at The Red Lion, 109 Charles St, Sheffield, S1 2ND, for our next meeting on Thursday 1st August 2024 at 7:00-9:00pm, (in the snug behind the bar). See here for location.

We are growing!

We are expanding our activities via regional Politics in Pubs groups and have created a map where you can search for a group near you. Our latest group in Ilkley is actively looking for new members and if you live in the area please contact them via email.

Don't worry if you can't find anything nearby as you can start your own group. If you would like to be put in touch with other people interested in talking about politics, please reply to this email letting us know your location and we'll help to get the conversation started.

We have also started to grow our network with other free speech groups who have a similar interest in open discussion and debate. If you have such a group and want to appear on our map please get in touch.