Richard Seebohm<\/b><\/p>\n
Friends, <\/span><\/p>\n I have asked our Business Meeting to ask Area Meeting to ask Sufferings to get Friends House to reinstate the Quaker Committee on Truth and Integrity in Public Affairs (TIPA). TIPA was laid down in 2004 because scandals seemed to have subsided, and running committees was a drain on our resources. Now our testimonies are being tested to the limit. I hardly need to rehearse the revelations that have NOT led to ministerial resignations and NOT silenced subversive messaging. <\/span><\/p>\n If you want to see some of the false news stories, read Peter Oborne\u2019s The Assault on Truth<\/i>, reviewed in the Friend <\/i>of 19 March by John Hall of Clacton Meeting. If you want to savour the sleaze read the newspapers every day, or the article by Matthew Parris in the 26 October 2020 issue of The Times (https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/smirking-ministers-dont-care-what-we-think-sklkklfjm<\/span><\/a>). <\/span><\/p>\n This is how he ends his article.<\/p>\n \u2019It is the populist right\u2019s refrain that all politics is corrupt, in that they\u2019re \u201dall in it for themselves\u201d and that \u201dthey\u2019re all the same\u201d. Once this becomes embedded in the public imagination, the consequence is perverse. People stop trying to to distinguish between honourable and dishonourable politics, between the more honest and less honest politicians. Universal resentment turns into generalised indifference. We lose the ability to be shocked.<\/i>‘<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n My key point is that in the ways of today, the committee can work by zoom and has no need to be housed in a hotel for meetings. It may not even need a staff secretary. It could feed into our Parliamentary Liaison and Communications people. The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) in Brussels would be a useful counterparty, and there are many other like-minded groups. And it\u2019s not just a British domestic problem. If this country can\u2019t set an example, what\u2019s the point of trying to be an independent nation state that calls the dictatorships into account? <\/span><\/p>\n Please help!<\/p>\n Back to April 2021 Newsletter Main Page<\/a><\/p>\n Forty-Three<\/em> e-Newsletter \u2022 Number 504 \u2022 April 2021 newsletter@oxfordquakers.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Richard Seebohm Friends, I have asked our Business Meeting to ask Area Meeting to ask Sufferings to get Friends House to reinstate the Quaker Committee on Truth and Integrity in Public Affairs (TIPA). TIPA was laid down in 2004 because scandals seemed to have subsided, and running committees was a drain on our resources. Now … Continue reading Truth and Integrity in Public Affairs<\/span> \n
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\n<\/strong>Oxford Friends Meeting
\n43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW<\/p>\n