Dozens of campaigners from the Hastings and Rye and Battle and Bexhill Constituencies joined over 100,000 others in London for largest ever pro-European march
Members of the European Movement 1066 branch travelled to London on Saturday June 23 for the biggest pro-European march ever, as more than 100,000 people filled the streets around parliament demanding a “People’s Vote” on the final Brexit deal.
Ben Patterson, spokesperson for the European Movement 1066 branch said:
“It was an amazing day out but the huge numbers shows the strength of feeling. The People’s Vote campaign is taking off across the country on this vital issue for all our futures.
“In the 1066 branch we have seen our membership increase in recent months as it has become clear the government is intent on a bad Brexit deal that will destroy jobs, harm our NHS and wreck the future of young people”.
“Whether you were a leaver or a remainer two years ago, this government is making a complete mess of negotiating Brexit. Instead of fighting among themselves they should be working to put a good deal to the voters. They claimed they were up to the job, but less than nine months away from exit they haven’t come up with anything worth looking at.
“There is so much that we weren’t told at the time of the referendum, we weren’t told about – the £40 billion divorce bill back or that promises on extra money for the NHS would be broken. We weren’t told that companies like Airbus and BMW would have to cut jobs, we weren’t told that 75,000 jobs in the City could go if there is no deal. We weren’t told that taxes would have to go up to pay for the NHS because the Brexit dividend won’t arrive. Land Rover are moving production abroad and even Jacob Rees-Mogg has shifted his company to Eire in anticipation of a bad deal.”
“Here in the Hastings and Rye and Battle and Bexhill Constituencies we will be out campaigning all summer to make sure the people get their democratic right to have their voice heard on Brexit. Our constituency MPs need to be held to account for the current shambles and that is what the Peoples Vote campaign is all about”
Photo: David Daniels
What Simon van der Slikke and his fellow campaigners will have to answer is whether or not they will vote for ‘an ever closer union of the EU’ once they have destroyed Brexit which in the end is what they’re trying to do. So while thinking on this, let’s also consider the following….
Brexit is an exciting opportunity for the UK. We will regain the democratic authority to have all our laws made by our own elected government and Parliament – and enforced by our courts – with Britain’s national and economic interests at heart. We will control our own borders and fully determine our immigration policy – ensuring that it is tailored and honed to the specific needs of British-based businesses and the economic, infrastructural and social realities of the UK.
We will take back control of the taxpayers’ money that Britain, as a net contributor, currently pours into the EU’s coffers – spending it instead in Britain on British priorities. We will regain control of UK fishing waters and determine our own agricultural and fisheries policies. We will, for example, have the capability to reduce wasteful discarding and enable our fishermen to sell more of their catch to their customers whilst at the same time taking less fish out of our waters. We will also be able to grow and produce more food in the UK.
And we will have the democratic capability to build Global Enterprise Britain – establishing a host of new commercial opportunities to increase our nation’s prosperity through higher volumes of trade across the world. We will have the freedom to negotiate our own free trade deals – rigorously pursuing them across the US, Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, Singapore, the Middle East and elsewhere. And, as senior EU officials have conceded, trade deal talks with the EU can progress – because the realities of interconnected markets and international business ultimately transcend the political obsession to construct a single federalised state.