On this page you can see details of previous monthly meetings. Recent reports about the main speakers are on the next section. For previous years please scroll to the lower part of the page. This also shows how to find out details about past second subjects presented at the monthly meetings.

Recently
153: Ian Martin: What fuuture for the UN: Former Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Ian Martin, mainly talked about the UN and his 20 years of service. He opened his talk by reminding us of Colonel Gaddafi’s rambling speech and of him tearing up the Agenda at the UN 2009 and of Trump getting laughs at his at times non-factual assertions in 2017 but this year they listened largely in silence. So a critical time to reflect on the UN especially in the context of UNRA and Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The key aim of the UN is to save people from the scourge of war, but today it doesn’t address these issues. Finally the composition of the UN is the 5 permanent members of the Security Council including France and the UK but not key countries such as Turkey, India, Nigeria, Brazil etc. The need for multilateralism is still vital to address issues like climate change. But where next for the UN and for a UK Government willing to stand up to the USA in pursuit of the UN objectives?


152: Tim Gill: Child-friendly cities: We were delighted to welcome Tim Gill to address our Monthly Meeting in August. He spoke on the subject of child-friendly cities and illustrated his lecture with interesting statistical slides and photographs. He is an independent scholar, writer and consultant on childhood. We were invited to reminisce about our own childhood and many of us remembered being mostly out of doors and out of adult supervision! Now children live in a shrinking environment when they should be experiencing a transfer of responsibility from adults to themselves. Housing and the public realm should be designed to encourage independent mobility on foot and bicycle. One-tenth of child deaths are caused by road accidents because we prioritise vehicles over pedestrians. Neighbourhoods which are sustainable and child-friendly are economically successful and pleasant for all of us to inhabit. Recording link: 152


151: Professor Tony Travers: 'The Development of Local Government in London': Tony Travers led us through the history of London from the Romans until they left in 410, to the Normans in 1066 and then through the development of the city itself initially through the expansion via the Strand to Westminster and then through to today when we have a city of 9 million with a forecast for 2040 of 10 million. He looked at the development of the government of the City and of the rest of London from the Board of Works to the LCC (with Herbert Morrison as the leader) and TfL. By 1939 three quarters of London was outside the LCC which led to the creation of the GLC in1965. Inner London was losing residents all through this period but began to grow again in the eighties to 8½ million. A time of development, the DLR opened in 1987 and building in the docklands and city grew apace leading to the establishment of the GLC in 2000 with a Mayor, an Assembly alongside the power of the Boroughs. We face huge challenges ahead, planning/resources across a capital city, with 50% born outside the UK, strong growth and a housing crisis. Recording links 151-1 and 151-2.


150: Alec Forshaw: We welcomed Alec Forshaw on his second visit to Islington u3a. He showed us how Islington and other parts of London are subject to pressure for change from developers and investors. This has led to widespread building of tower blocks, which he suggested can be detrimental to the historic landscape of London. Alec explained how this has led to a reduction in the building of social and affordable housing and he suggested that the private sector is not the best provider of these services. Many flats in London are deliberately left empty — there are now 450,000 empty flats! Student housing blocks are built to lower space requirements; if government policy changes to reduce the numbers of overseas students, would these tiny flats be sold off on the market?  Alec showed us an interesting selection of photographs of the juxtaposition of lovely old buildings being overshadowed by steel and glass towers. Recording links 150-1 and 150-2.

This was a fascinating presentation and inspired us to notice and respond to our environment.

149: Quentin Peel: The challenge for the UK and Europe in a DysTrumpian world. Does it spell the end of NATO and the West?: We were delighted to welcome Quentin Peel, distinguished writer and journalist, to speak to us for the second time — the first talk in our new venue. He entertained us with his take on Donald Trump and coined the phrase 'Dystrumpian World' to describe these times. Quentin sees Trump as a destabilising influence, shaking our post-war certainties like NATO. Trump does not like multilateralism whereas Europe has it at its heart. Particular events which concern Quentin Peel are the withdrawal from many international organisations causing huge job losses, tariff wars which risk global recession, siding with Russia over Ukraine, the threat to neighbouring states such as Greenland and Canada and singling out China as a rival. There is a real threat now from the far right and in order to preserve a multilateral approach we must include the global south. Recording links 149-1 and 149-2.

148: Gordon Bennett: In 1961 when Botswana was still Bechuanaland the Central Kalahari Game Reserve was created. One of the aims was to protect the hunter-gatherers who still lived in the area. However, in the 1990s various attempts were made to remove the 'bushmen' from the reserve. 500 people were evicted.  Barrister Gordon Bennett represented them in a very long trial and was successful. He recounted this important trial with humour, showed us some interesting slides, and we are very grateful to him for being our last speaker at the Resource Centre. We look forward to seeing everyone at the new venue in May. Recording links 148-1, 148-2

147: Baroness Tessa Blackstone: Millicent Garrett Fawcett: The Fight for Votes for Women: Dame Tessa led us on a fascinating journey depicting the life of Millicent Garrett Fawcett, who was an early campaigner for Votes for Women. Her statue can be seen in Parliament Square and is the first depiction of a woman there. She was born into a large family and one of her sisters was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman doctor in  this country. Their father was an entrepreneur who moved from the political right to the Liberals and succeeded in business, ensuring that the family were comfortably off. Millicent's husband was blind and supported her throughout her life, becoming a feminist himself. Millicent campaigned for higher education for women, equality in matters of custody and divorce and the abolition of the slave trade. She was patriotic but not always in touch with working-class people and remained at odds with the violent protests of the Suffragettes. She died in 1929. Recording links: 147-1, 147-2.

146: Dame Gillian Pugh: London's Forgotten Children: Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital: Coram Charity was founded in 1739 and is the oldest children's charity in the country. The founder Thomas Coram was deeply moved by the plight of children who were being left to die on the streets. The stigma attached to illegitimacy made it hard to raise funds but Coram succeeded in opening the Foundling Hospital in 1839. Today the Charity runs a parents' centre, an early education  centre, an adoption service, support service for placements and music therapy. A large audience enjoyed this interesting and moving presentation. Dame Gillian's book "London's Forgotten Children" is available at the Foundling Museum. Recording links: 146-1, 146-2.

145: Lord Turnberg: Patients First: How to save the NHS: We welcomed a big audience to hear Lord Turnberg's reflections on the NHS today. He described the areas in which improvements should be made, including moving away from competition and towards integration, investing in community care for better domiciliary and residential provision, paying carers more and giving them a career structure and a nationally recognised training programme and a salary structure which encourages nurses to stay on the wards. He recommended that GPs should be grouped together and that more GPs should be trained and recruited. These measures would go a long way to reduce the disillusionment in the workforce. We should consider the introduction of National Insurance contributions from the over 65s as a way of funding these improvements. Recording links: 145-1, 145-2.

144: Martin Rosenbaum, Freedom of Information: how important is it today?: We were informed and entertained by our guest speaker for November, Martin Rosenbaum. He is a leading expert on Freedom of Information and, in his time at the BBC and elsewhere, used the legislation many times to expose data, facts and statistics in government departments and other public bodies. Despite resistance at first from these organisations they often become  much more  open and transparent than they were before and are proactive in publishing their data. The aims of the FOI legislation were twofold — holding power to account and exposing wrongdoing: we were impressed that both of these objectives are now being met regularly. Recording link: 144

143: Tony Klug, Palestine: We were privileged to welcome Tony Klug to address our Monthly Meeting this month.  He gave us a masterly account of the current Middle East situation and a summary of the important historical events which have led to this point. He sees the present situation as the worst for 60 years with the prospect of escalation to a regional war.  Tony's proposition of a two-state solution is also supported by other countries; Czechoslovakia was split into two with no bloodshed so it can be done.  Any solution seems elusive but unforeseen seismic events do happen and things can change.  An Israel / Palestine Federation, including Jordan, might be an answer.  Tony's pamphlet "A Tale of Two Peoples" is available to read online. Recording link: 143-1 and 143-2 and the narrative text here: Text 143

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