Brexit Conference and Trump's Slippery Slope to McCarthyism?

Artwork on wall of Guild Hall

After most of a day of video editing, I set of on the 3.03pm bus to town, to attend the Cambridge & Brexit: Discussing our Future conference in the Guild Hall, just off the Market Place. I'd missed the first session but was there for the Keynote discussion. The speakers included Stuart Tuckwood  (Green Party/ Healthcare workers), Prof Iain Martin, VC of Anglia Ruskin University; Francoise Lefevre, Cambridge alumna and partner at Linklaters; and Dr Victoria Bateman, Lecturer in Economics.

Key concerns were insecurity for current EU nationals in UK, who make up 50% of the staff and 25% of the doctors in the healthcare system in our region and the impact on the University. With EU universities now beginning to appear more attractive than the UK, which is viewed as increasingly hostile, there has already been a 7% decline in student applications for Cambridge University, which is still better than the 14% drop in the rest of the UK. There were late talks by Julian Huppert, Daniel Zeichner MP and a Lord, whose name I didn't catch.

The overall consensus was, yes, the people had spoken, yes, article 50 was going to be invoked. This did not stop us from raising real issues and concerns that would affect Cambridge.

I was down to act as moderator for one of the round-table discussions, on business. Due to the lower than expected number of delegates, I first teamed up with fellow moderator from another table, American postgrad Colby, and then Joined up with Esther and 'Elise'. Now having a full table with additional delegates, our discussions bounced actively back and forth for about 100 minutes.

The key points we agreed on were that:

• Whilst currently the Pharmaceuticals and hi-tech sectors were likely to ride out the Brexit storm, there was considerable uncertainty. Particularly about what could be the tipping point that would initiate these companies leaving the UK in the longer term.
• The raising of tariffs and trade barriers could only have a negative effect, in raising prices on foods, fuel and raw materials for manufacturing.
• There was a real risk of the disparity between the poorer regions outside of Cambridge and the Cambridge bubble would grow.

President Trump went to town against the media, as 'Enemy of the People" and railed at the use of unnamed leaks from his administration that provide negative news. The situation appeared to escalate at today's routine press briefing with Sean Spicer, which was changed at short notice into a gaggle. This was not unusual in itself.  What was, was the selection of which media could enter and which not. Tellingly, it was the more critical media, including CNN and the BBC reporters, The Guardian, New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and BuzzFeed , whilst the more right sympathetic Breitbart and Fox news were permitted in.

Reporters from The Associated Press, Time magazine and USA Today boycotted the meeting and and the White House Correspondents Association protested strongly about how the press briefing was handled.

Is Trump really on the path to McCarthyism? Well, judging by the definitions on Wikipedia and Dictionary.com, yes:

"McCarthyism

1. the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.

2. the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism."

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mccarthyism?s=t