MP invites Quaker to write on ‘new economy’
A Friend from the North London New Economy Reading Group was invited to write for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Inclusive Growth's blog
North London Quakers called for ‘reform of our banking and financial systems’ in a blog for the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Inclusive Growth.
Sue Newsom, member of the North London New Economy Reading Group and Winchmore Hill Meeting, was asked by Labour MP Liam Byrne’s office to write for the APPG after meeting the MP in November 2018. In the blog ‘Rethinking a New Economy’ published on the APPG website on 7 March, Sue Newsom argues that the ‘unbalanced distribution between dividend and wages has depressed living standards and led to the public purse subsidising low wages through benefit’. It also says: ‘Maybe we need to return to the core purposes of the financial system and start from there’.
She also expresses surprise that ‘the previous APPG on Economics, Money and Banking appears no longer active’.
Sue Newsom told the Friend: ‘Being asked to write about our Quaker work to further banking reform means we are reaching more people who may share the same view.’
The meeting with the MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill was set up after the North London New Economy Reading Group wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby who suggested they meet Caroline Spelman MP, second church estates commissioner and APPG committee member.
Sue Newsom said that Liam Byrne ‘was keen to meet with us and consider the need for a moral compass in the world of finance and banking’.
The MP has also asked the group to help plan an autumn conference on finance and the need to reconnect wealth creation and social justice. Sue Newsom told the Friend that the overall process has been strongly ‘Spirit-led’.
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