December welcomed Prof Anand Menon. Prof Menon presented analysis on the political priority shifts over the past decades, and the altered dynamics associated with having the Leave-Remain identity in addition to the Left-Right identity.

A few personal takeaways:

• The UK will always be talking about the EU, in the same way Canada is always talking about and influenced by US policy.
• The reported Leave-Remain identity is currently stronger than political party identity, and continues to be a feature of politics despite the priority being the Economy over Brexit
• There could (should) be more done to effectively communicate with the publicly about economics.

Now, some pictures!

We also had Christmas dinner afterwards at a local pub, attended by some 25 members and guests, with the usual banter. The new AI study group was also mentioned during the meeting, with the intention to have a project on Greater Manchester construction and a series of meetings in addition to the usual sessions starting in Jan. Those interested should contact guy.marshall@manstatsoc.org in the first instance.