New Economy Group meet MPs
Friends from the North London New Economy Reading Group met with MPs last month
Friends from the North London New Economy Reading Group met with MPs last month to talk about setting up an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on banking reform.
The group met three MPs at Portcullis House in Westminster on 30 January: Quaker Ruth Cadbury, Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth, Quaker Catherine West, Labour MP for Hornsea and Wood Green, and Bambos Charalambous, Labour MP for Enfield Southgate. Haringey Labour councillor Patrick Berryman also attended.
The group were advised they may be able to take part in an already established APPG on ‘Inclusive Growth’.
Sue Newsom, member of the North London New Economy Reading Group, told the Friend: ‘The important point is that currently there is no APPG exclusively on banking reform.
‘Our purpose in seeking one is to provide a space for parliamentarians to come together and dispel the mystique of economic language. We feel the complexity of financial understanding needs to be simplified and the culture needs to be changed.’
According to Sue Newsom, the action came out of discernment at the Quaker conference at Friends House in London in October 2016, ‘Break Up the Banks: we need a banking revolution’, and its follow-up meetings in spring 2017.
She added: ‘We explained our focus was to consider means of building support and action for positive change to create an economic system that is more fair, sustainable and resilient, and this will necessitate addressing the shortcomings of our banking and financial systems.’
The group shared the Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) booklets with the MPs.
Ruth Cadbury agreed to approach Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham and Hodge Hill and chair of the Inclusive Growth APPG, to see if the group could attend. They are awaiting his response.
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