Does Simon Heffer know what grassroots means or is Grassroots Out just more smoke & mirrors?

Simon Heffer writes in the Telegraph today that Grassroots Out should be designated as the lead Leave organisation in the EU Referendum campaign.

He justifies this in part on the basis that Grassroots Out is the only Leave organisation “that has genuine grassroots support”.

But is this true?

Quite rightly he says “The referendum isn’t about politicians, it’s about people”.

Let’s just examine what grassroots means.

It is a term coined in the early 1900’s in the USA for organisations which were organised from the bottom up rather than by top down command & control. They are usually considered more spontaneous and natural than traditional political structures.

The Northern Ireland Peace movement inspired by Mairead Maquire and Betty Williams is an example of a grassroots movement. An organisation inspired and organised by ordinary people with extraordinary passions.

Have a look at the MPs & MEPs on the Grassroots Out About Us page where are the ordinary people, the grassroots?

There is another type of organisation that disguises itself as a grassroots movement. It is called an “astroturfing” movement. This is an organisation that attempts to mask its origins by making itself appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participant(s).

It is up to you to make your own mind up as to whether Grassroots Out is a “grassroots” or an “astroturfing” organisation

Posted in reflections, UK citizens | Tagged ,

European trade a Brexit cautionary tale: Could do better UK SME’s!

If UK SMEs can’t be bothered to export to the rest of the EU now how would they do better if the UK was outside the EU?

IdentitySpace

Today after months of delay a man with a white van arrived at my French property with our long awaited luxury bathroom suite from Victorian Plumbing Supplies in the UK.

victorian

I feel I must share this story with you as a cautionary tale if you are not sure about the upcoming British EU referendum and think ukip and eurosceptic Tories have a point about the vast majority of UK Small and Medium Enterprises (UK SME)  having nothing to gain from Europe and are only needlessly tied down by EU red tape.

Note: French DIY products are ridiculously expensive. Customer service is non existent in France. There is a great market opportunity for UK services sector here!

Our quest for a new British style luxury bathroom suite started in the January sales after visiting our kids and grand kids in East Anglia. Walking around various B&Q and Homebase type of shops…

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Within the EU the UK can’t trade with the rest of the world,but we do & Germany does better.

Can't trade outside the EU

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Liberty, Compassion, Justice

To the brave people of Belgium: courage, first, and then solidarity. We salute you.  This mad terror will pass if we all stay together and share our collective resources.  Together we shall defeat this menace.

To those who think that Britain would be made safer by deserting our friends and drawing the blinds, I say think again.  Think of the signal we are sending to the terrorists.  What does it say about how easily Britain, which has stood shoulder to shoulder with Belgium through two World Wars, may be defeated?

And let no-one think that we could stop determined terrorists planting their bombs in London simply by not sharing our intelligence and taking away the right of certain folk to enter Britain.  Those who come here by the front door, through our ports and airports, have to face, as we all do, the UK Border Agency.  But what about the back door?  The thousands of miles of unprotected coastline and the fields where a helicopter or light aircraft may land at will?  We can only hinder the bombers not defend ourselves completely against them.  That said, the more we hinder them the sooner they will give up as the third man in the Brussels airport attack appears to have given up.

Our solidarity with our European colleagues is already paying off.  We have not won the war against Islamic fanaticism;  we are not even close to having won that war but the fanatics are now on the back foot and not the front foot. Like the Maoist terrorism Europe faced in the 1970s, so Islamic terrorism is something of its time and if we show our determination this zeitgeist, too, will pass.

But this is a time for solidarity with Belgium and with Brussels, a city in which my own sister lives and works and where I once worked too. If these attacks serve any purpose at all it should be to bring us all closer.  The terrorists would like to drive us apart.  Nobody should let them.  We will not defeat terror by running away like cowards and shutting ourselves away behind the door.  That would be to give them the terrorists the very encouragement they seek.

A long time ago and on a much happier occasion I wrote these words to the European Anthem.  I want to sing them now.

Liberty, compassion, justice 

Citizens with common goals, 

Challenges and sharèd duties 

To befriend less happy souls. 

Ours to build a new tomorrow 

For our children great and small 

To create a cherished freedom 

Europe, you must hear our call. 

After war her nations broken  

Europe lay in misery, 

Sole her spirit, weak and feeble, 

Rose to forge new unity. 

Now among her divers cultures 

Europe’s spirit grows anew 

Heritage and innovation 

Draw us to the flag of blue.

Once again thanks to Peter Sain ley Berry for letting us use his post.

Posted in pro-EU campaign, reflections, terrorism | Tagged , ,

The EU Leavers are Running & Hiding, we are British people we Stay & Fight.

Eddie Izzard - Running & Hiding

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John Major – EU Referendum “It will decide Britain’s place in the world for generations”

In today’s Sunday Telegraph, former Prime Minister John Major has called for the UK to remain in the EU.

“When we joined the EU we were the “sick man” of Europe: today, as a result of our domestic reforms and membership of the European Single Market, we have the best performing economy in Europe.”

“in a global market drawing ever closer together – it is verging on the reckless for us to seek divorce from the world’s pre-eminent trading bloc?”

“We are safer, because the EU has brought together former enemies to face common perils. In the last thousand years of history, no previous generation has been so fortunate.

It would be sheer folly to put this all at risk.”

“Suppose we left? What are the risks? They are many and real – and simply cannot be brushed aside with flippant slogans such as ‘Project Fear’.”

“Moreover, if we left, it is blithe optimism on a Panglossian scale for the “leave” campaign to assume that our partners – having been re-buffed and deserted in an EU diminished by our departure – will be well disposed and eager to accede to our demands.”

“The Referendum decision on 23 June is not a prelude to further negotiation. It will be final. Our nation can either decide to be true to our history – and remain outward-looking internationalists on the world stage – or shrink to lower prominence.”

“As our children and grandchildren look back at this pivotal moment in our history, I hope they can be proud that, in a world of uncertainties – of Daesh, of Syria, of Putin’s Russia – our country did not turn its back on Europe and cripple its authority, but chose to remain in it, reform it, and play our part in maximising British influence and European power for the common good.”

 

The full text of his article is quoted on the Stronger In website

Posted in consequences, pro-EU campaign | Tagged ,

Ask not what Europe can do for you . . .

The Government say that Britain will be safer, stronger and better off in a reformed European Union.  Of course as someone who wants Britain to remain in the EU I agree with them.  Yet the statement also disappoints me: here’s why.
It’s because the statement is all about what’s best for Britain.  What’s wrong with that?  Well suppose we behaved in this way towards our families, our friends, our work colleagues.  Always asking what is best for me.   They might ask, well what about us?  Don’t you ever think about what might be best for us also?  If we all pursued our narrow selfish interests none of us would achieve our goals.
Countries aren’t people but much of the EU referendum debate is conducted in the same way.  One side argues that Britain might be better off in, the other that Britain would be better off out.  But what about everyone else?  If Britain left the EU and as a result the European project collapsed – would that be good for Britain?  What about the wider consequences? Do we no longer care what happens elsewhere in the world?
The great eighteenth century French statesman, Talleyrand used to claim that he had always acted in the interests of Europe because whatever was good for Europe was also be good for France. A strong Europe means a strong Britain too.
I was born just after the end of WWII.  I can remember bomb sites, rationing and refugees;  central and eastern Europe enslaved by tyranny;  military dictatorships in the south and everywhere people poor and reeling from the effects of genocide and total war.
I wish I could take you back to Berlin in the 1960’s to see a city crudely divided by concrete and barbed wire, where on one side you could say whatever you liked and on the other there were soldiers with machine guns and secret police patrolling even your visit to the opera.
The feeling among people then was that such savagery must never, ever happen again; that we must collectively build a new Europe, whose culture we all shared,  with an overarching political structure;  checks and balances to underpin democracy and to make future war and human rights abuse impossible.  It was from this that the European Union was born.
What has been achieved has been amazing.  Each country has contributed according to its strengths. The Europe of today is unrecognisable  compared to the Europe of yesterday.
But the price of this success is that peace and democracy are now taken for granted.  This is dangerous for, as we all know, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.  Europe still faces many challenges.  You can read about them in the press every day.  The task of making Europe safe and prosperous and helping the less fortunate to become safe and prosperous is far from complete.
Britain signed up to this European construction in 1973 and we have contributed massively to it.  If we were to leave now we should be abandoning our friends and allies in a selfish venture to better ourselves.  The reality of course is that leaving the EU would impoverish Britain as well as impoverishing Europe. So ask not what Europe can do for you; ask what you can do for Europe.
Thanks to Peter Sain ley Berry, a member of the Say Yes 2 Europe – Remain in the EU alliance.
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Expatriates in High Court legal action over Brexit exclusion

Update on the High Court action to remove the 15 year limit on voting for expatriates for the EU Referendum.
 
According to the Telegraph a High Court judge has ordered the Government to file a written response to the claim by April 1.
 
The court will decide how and if the case should proceed further.
 
Don’t forget to support the Parliamentary petition to remove this arbitrary limit and to get your family & friends to do the same.
 
There is more information on the web site of Leigh Day who are handling the case.
Posted in expatriates, referendum, UK citizens, VotesforLife | Tagged , , ,

International Conspiracies: A Demagogue’s Favorite Ploy

Throughout history demagogues have blamed outsiders for all their peoples’ woes in difficult times, they have been accused of ruining the economy, undermining the fabric of the nation and of subversive or criminal activities,  I’ve posted on the ludicrousness of some of these accusations before: Immigration scandal: Lancastrian takes Yorkshireman’s job, Yorkshire threatens to leave the UK

I hear some people are bemoaning the nebulous and spurious nature of this claim, so here are two examples from modern history where xenophobia has gone from inappropriate to horrifying.

Not so long ago, in a country in the western world, a group of people were persecuted: this persecution was not aimed at their race, their religion or their sexual orientation. This discrimination was aimed at their political views, they were considered a threat to the nation’s way of life. People were arrested on suspicion of belonging to this group, special hearings were held by a committee where these people were publicly slandered (sometimes without a scrap of evidence), subjected to blackmail and threats. Hundreds were targeted with far more abuse than evidence. Their lives were ruined, they were unable to find work, and were pariahs in their communities. These peoples’ rights were violated wholesale, rights enshrined at the highest possible level in their country’s constitution. Their alleged political views made them unpatriotic, they were part of an international conspiracy. These were not all “little people”, some were movie stars, famous directors, writers and personalities.

Earlier, again in the western world, there was a country in economic depression. In this country a certain person came into the public eye, who promised to fix all the country’s problems, rebuild the economy, restore its prestige and regain its rightful place in the world. How? The solution was simple: get rid of the source of all these problems; get rid of a certain group of people, who along with others like them elsewhere were part of an international conspiracy to ruin the country. It all sounds so deliciously simple, doesn’t it? Excise the tumor and all is well. Again, these people were not nobody’s and unlike the previous example, there weren’t just hundreds of them.

Those of you who’ve read your history will know which events I mean. It’s my deepest fear that many people will fail to see the connection between these events and some of the rhetoric being bandied about today. Now as then it’s all about scapegoats.

Speaking of conspiracies, I seem to recall reading recently about an international conspiracy of Eurocrats whose goal it was to take over Europe…

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Immigration scandal: Lancastrian takes Yorkshireman’s job, Yorkshire threatens to leave the UK

It’s interesting to listen to the list of wrongs done to the UK by immigrants (or even some times non-white or non-Christian people). This often leaves me baffled even before I look at the facts and figures. I like to call this process “the sanity check” – is it physically and reasonably possible for this to be true?

Mr Ulysses Kipps often tells me, “Immigrants come into the country and then proceed to sit around their nice semi-detached houses all day, claim the dole, before going out for nights of crime.”

I doubt Mr Kipps would bat an eyelid if I replied, “On top of all that, they’re stealing all our jobs and partying all night in OUR pubs, out with the lot of them!”

Did you bat an eyelid? Good for you! For those of you who didn’t (and for those of you who enjoy critical analysis) here are the “little” flaws in Mr Kipps’ reasoning.

Firstly, and quickly, let us deal with the problem of putting Mr Kipps’ and my statements together. If they (the immigrants) are stealing all our jobs how can they sit around their houses all day? If they are busy handing your TV through the window to one another, how can they be drinking pints down at your pub?

Now let’s have a crack at Ulysses’ rant separately: immigrants come into the country, don’t get a job, claim the dole, go around stealing our cars (and are therefore rolling in cash) and go partying each and every night, and you’re telling me that neither the Police nor HM Revenue & Customs can pursue this massive crime and money horde, which is supposedly so obvious that no supporting arguments are needed to demonstrate its existence (i.e. It’s there, look, in black and white!)?

Finally for my statement, regarding the “stealing” of these jobs, is Mr Kipps saying that he has right of first refusal on every job in the UK?

If a Yorkshireman’s job was “taken” by a Lancastrian, would we be having this conversation?

Posted in brexit, immigration, reflections | Tagged , , | 1 Comment