We had 10 attendees, thank you all for braving the rain.
There was a lot of discussion about the Humanity Project. This is all about encouraging people to work together to find a voice on current issues. The Forest Row Forward-dominated Forest Row parish council is open to progressive democratic innovations. There was a lot of discussion about what HP is, how Citizens/popular Assemblies are organised and run and how processes like sortition work. HP’s website is https://humanityproject.uk/ although this is currently down.
Much of the climate campaigning of the last few years has been about demanding government and business change direction on the climate and start being part of the solution. They clearly aren’t interested, so it is sensible to start working on a “bottom up” democratic model for change.
The deadline for comments on the expansion of activity at Gatwick Airport closes this weekend. This also prompted debate. Gatwick wants to turn its existing emergency runway into a second runway in order to expand landing and take-off capacity. This will obviously cause more noise and air-pollution, increased emissions and more vehicle traffic around the airport. Nobody wants that except for the airport itself. The expansion process is complicated and there are many hurdles yet for the airport owners. Have a look at the Campaign Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (CAGNE) website for a good explanation of what is going on. https://cagne.org/