Why are we thinking about dividing and winning, wouldn’t it be better to unite and lead?

There are a couple of spats going on at the moment that people are using to justify the idea that the anti-EU camp is splitting.

There is the inevitable competition between the two main No/Out/Leave campaign groups and a rift between UKIP and their sole Westminster MP.

Worryingly there are some who refer to these spats as evidence that the Leave campaign is becoming divided and therefore getting weaker.

Even if that is true, why is that relevant? Why should we allow some passing disagreements in the opposing camp distract us from other issues that are having a far more significant effect on the Leave/Remain sentiment and votes.

The EU is coming under attack from both the left and the right of the political spectrum.

All the old arguments are still there, overbearing and excessive bureacracy, freedom of movement policy allowing a flood of refugees into the country, the threat to our domestic sovereignty from unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.

But there are new factors which are causing other people to question and in some cases reject the EU.

The apparent lack of a social solidarity was something that first stirred more people to question the EU during the Greece bailout discussions, the idea that ordinnary Greek people were the authors of their own misfortune and they would just have to deal with what ever financial and social difficulties they had brought on themselves.

This has come to a head again with the current refugee crisis. The lack of social solidarity is not only evidenced by the lack of cohesion between the EU nations in the way they are dealing with the refugees, but also in the way that Qualified Majority Voting was used to imposing arbitrary and rather meaningless quotas on countries that said we can’t/won’t do that.

Once again there is a single, everybody must do the same, solution regardless of individual nations needs, pressures and abilities.

The quotas don’t solve anything, they fuel the anti-EU sentiment and imposing them makes achieving a consensus on the substantive measures needed even more difficult. Short term feel good result for some people, shorter term relief for some of the refugees.

The EU leaders, or most of them, say we have a solution to the current situation but even before they have finished patting themselves on the back Donald Tusk is saying “Hold on guys, it is not as simple as we thought and it’s going to get much worse”.

Kick the ball down the road and catch up with it later. Does this approach sound familiar?

It is the same “put it off, we’ll deal with it tomorrow” approach that we saw in the negotiations with Greece and THAT particular ball is going to have to be dealt with or kicked further down the road very shortly.

The refugees are in a desperate situation and the world needs to address that immediate need. But we need two solutions, one that deals with the immediate, here and now crisis and another that stops EU stumbling from one crisis to another.
The EU needs to develop a way forward that takes into account the different needs & capabilities of all the member states not just the overriding imperatives of a few of them

That is why the UK should not only be in the EU but it should be taking a lead in an EU more suited to the needs of all its member nations.

So does it matter whether the anti-camp is divided? It is of interest, we need to know what they are doing/saying BUT we need to be paying more attention to what the EU is doing and how that affects us.

Above all we need a pro-EU campaign alliance which engages with the people directly and will mount a positive, realistic campaign for the UK to remain in the EU and play a leading role in making the EU suited to the world we live in.

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The EU Referendum campaign must belong to the public.

A day over three months ago I wrote a piece called “EU Referendum & the grassroots campaign” about how the grassroots pro-EU groups were filling a need for an apolitical/cross-party pro-EU movement.

Little did I think that they would be the only organisations filling that need 3 months later.

There is perhaps still the excuse that the main parties are continuing to struggle with their internal issues, and that is handicapping the established groups in their efforts to get organised.

Whatever the reason is, back in June the message was “hang on, we are getting organised, we will tell you when we are ready”. The message today is much the same.

What these groups don’t seem to realise is that the pro-EU public has been ready for a long while, months if not years; ready for confirmation that people are listening to them, ready for leadership.

This is why traditional politics is being rejected in favour of people-based (grassroots) activism.

True grassroots movements have the advantage that there is the commitment and the enthusiasm for the campaign coming from people who believe in and are ready to work for the cause. The disadvantage is they have further to go before they reach a critical mass where newspapers, politicians, and pundits take notice and give them the attention they deserve.

It is possible that the established groups just might be closer to getting organised, although there is little evidence that they are reaching out to those grassroots organisations that filled the vacuum in their absence.

The “Remain” campaign still needs thousands of people, not just using social media but organizing local groups, still talking to people, still challenging the anti-EU arguments in their day-to-day lives.

If the “big” players on the pro-EU side are wise, they will support and engage with the grassroots campaign groups. Helping them to get the message across is the surest way of getting a big turnout for the referendum and a decisive pro-EU result.

Help, support and advice are more than welcome wherever they come from, but the campaign to keep the UK in the EU must belong to the public.

 

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I worry about a Brexit

As a young person on the cusp of setting up a professional life, the threat of a British exit from the EU is very worrying indeed.

I am in my twenties and have grown up with the notion that as British citizens, Europe is our birthright. We British are free to pursue opportunities both in Britain and the continent, as other European nationals can do so in their home countries and throughout the rest of the EU, too.

In an increasingly globalised and integrated world, the benefits of this privileged exchange cannot be quantified or stressed enough. Just as European citizens have moved to the UK to seek opportunities, many British citizens live and work in Ireland and on the Continent. Millions of people, in fact. This is the nature of reciprocal exchange.

I worry about a Brexit, because it would threaten the future of all of those people who simply exercised their birthright as citizens of the European Union, and tried their luck in a fellow member state. I am one of those people.

I am as British as I am European, there is no conflict of identity there, and it seems untenable that this duality might be denied to future generations of otherwise cosmopolitan and worldly Britons, simply because of the myopic and narrow self-interest of a largely misguided group of people.

EU membership is in our national, regional and global interests. The top scholars from our best universities, the brightest analysts from independent think-tanks, and the all important voices of business leaders who provide jobs and wealth to our country are saying the same thing: Britain will be best served by remaining in the EU and striving to reform itself and the institution from within. Strong together, and still British.

It is not our way to shirk from our commitments or responsibilities simply because we find the going complex or tough. Isolation is not the answer. Let us not retreat to an irretrievable past, but instead look to the future. A future with our place at the centre and helm of our region, Europe. We can only do that within the EU.

Shama – PhD Curtin University – Oldham. UK

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Why we are planning a grassroots campaign.

The “No” campaigners are getting organised and seem to be learning from past mistakes. Rather than relying on rather unpredictable politicians, they are planning on a business-led campaign with a “flock of birds” leadership, i.e. one that frequently changes, as with a flock (murmuration) of starlings.

This “flock of birds” idea is to make sure that people do not get bored with seeing a single leader at the front of the campaign, plus they hope to keep the “Yes” campaign off balance by keeping the “No” campaign fluid and unpredictable.

Even so, business-led campaigns are often rather unfathomable as far as the general public is concerned and turn off the voters, leading to a lower turnout when it comes to voting. But perhaps this is what the “No” campaigners are hoping for. The polls have already shown that the “No” supporters are more likely to turn out on voting day than the “Yes” voters.

For me this referendum is unnecessary, because in a representative parliamentary democracy these decisions are the responsibility of our elected representatives, that is why they are there.

But given that the pro-EU politicians and organisations have let the Brexit debate get away from them over the past 20 years or so, the Referendum is now an opportunity, perhaps the last one, which should be grasped with both hands by the pro-EU public.

The popular case for the EU has never been made, not even in 1975. I don’t subscribe to the view that, since nobody born since 1957 has had a chance to say whether the UK should be in or out, there should be a referendum. I do, however, take the view that in the current circumstances we should put the question to the popular vote.

There is also the case that there has been a significant change in how people engage in politics. More and more people do not want to engage via the traditional party political route or by the established (semi-)professional led campaign groups. Those parties & groups are no longer trusted.

Instead they want to be involved via local groups, peer groups basing a campaign on common interests rather than decades old political ideals.  This is why the grassroots campaign is growing and developing its own view of how politics should be conducted.

This is a chance, perhaps the last one we’ll have, for supporters of the EU to influence the way people in the UK feel about the EU.

It is also an opportunity for people to show that it is possible to build a force campaigning for the EU based on common objectives rather than political ideologies, from the right or from the left. A chance for the voters to decide what they want, instead of choosing from what the politicians say they are offering.

We will achieve this by building a myriad of focus groups and interest groups working towards a common cause. Some of these groups will be a small handful of people, some may be several thousand.

Large or small, it does not matter provided that the groups work together, sharing information and helping each other.

People will spread the word by talking to family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances.

That is how we will win the campaign and beat the “No” campaigners, whether they be business- or politically-led.

Why? Because the “Yes” campaigners will be working for and with people they know, people who share common interests, and, most importantly, because they are working with and for each other.

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Two countries at opposite ends of Europe

Slightly more than 70 years ago two countries at opposite ends of Europe stood firm against a culture, a force, which ran contrary not only to their national interests and democratic instincts but their perception of what was acceptable.

Those two countries did not withdraw and give  up, they contested the right of the seemingly irresistible force to dominate them and their way of life.

Even though one of those countries was temporarily forced to concede, the other country continued the struggle. It attracted political and practical support from and gave support to the countries subsumed by the unacceptable quest for European domination.

History is repeating itself in the current context, the UK & Greece are once again allied in a cause to rebut the current European dogma.

Greece is convinced of the need to change that dogma and, despite the pain that dogma imposes, is prepared to say so.

Is the UK prepared to step up and fight for a change in the model for the future of Europe or is it going to simply retreat and betray its heritage?

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Safe European Home

Posted on June 25, 2015

In a large European city last night, a small, but remarkable meeting took place. It was the initiative of one man, young, unsectarian, committed to the public good. It is an example of how, perhaps falteringly, politics is being renewed from the ground up. A group of people, from several parties and from none, unsure of how to proceed, coming together for a reason.

The city is Birmingham. The people, without the backing of billionaires of dubious conscience, met to ask what they could do to keep Britain a member of the European Union. A real grassroots initiative.

Those who attended had their own reasons to support our continuing membership of the EU. There was some internationalism and idealism, but also a weary recognition that whilst far from perfect, the EU was a place in which Britain could be far more significant than we could ever be alone in a globalised world in which to be small is to be vulnerable.  In our various ways, Europe was fundamental to our individual and collective identities. The thought of being wrenched out of the EU was something we shuddered to consider.

Ideas were shared about how to take things forward, but that’s not what I’m interested in for the purposes of this post. What gives me the greatest cause for optimism was simply that the meeting took place at all. One person who was concerned set up a Facebook page. He used his contacts to get people he knew to support the idea of a local campaign in the city.

There was a time when such an initiative would have to have come from an organisation, with a structure, a membership, and funds. Indeed, if an effective campaign is to be organised, it will need some of those things very soon. But it didn’t start with a political party or a pressure group – it was a true, spontaneous citizens initiative.

People crave a different type of politics. The recent general election result was a shock to many of us not so much because the vagaries of the system gifted the Tories a victory, but because we did not ‘sense’ a mood that there was widespread support for David Cameron’s party. It felt like an election victory that was ‘bought’ with the cynical deployment of cash and the grooming techniques of the Tory-supporting media. It is almost as if ‘politics’ as practiced by most parties, especially the governing party, is something completely hollowed out, disconnected from the people with the votes.

So when a few people choose to turn up to a meeting, hesitant, unsure, wondering how to engage others in a campaign, it feels like a sign that just maybe we can change the course of our politics by a return to idealism.

Is that a vain hope? It needn’t be. The one thing we know about referendum campaigns is that they are rarely about the question on the ballot paper. It scarcely matters what, if anything, David Cameron presents as his triumphant renegotiation deal. The referendum, for him, is about managing his unruly party, and throwing some red meat to the crazies who own the press.  But there is absolutely no guarantee that he will be able to confine it to that.

Whilst knowing that the primary issue is to enthuse people in sufficient numbers to turnout and vote to stay in the EU, the referendum campaign can also be a way of starting a conversation about what sort of society we want to be.  Unsullied by party political labels, we can perhaps break through the sullen resentment people now display routinely towards politicians.  We can use the campaign as part of a broader strategy of political renewal.

That’s why the meeting last night was important. All movements start somewhere. Perhaps Britain’s 21st Century politics started at the Priory Rooms last night?

Reproduced from Yasmin Ali’s own blog –  All Human Life Is Hereabouts

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EU Referendum & the grassroots campaign

The two main parties are starting to organise for the referendum with “Yes” and “No” campaign groups being formed in both parties. A “No” cross-party alliance has been formed.

At the moment there is no sign of a cross party alliance emerging for the “Yes” campaign despite newspaper reports, but given the state of flux both main parties are in that is perhaps not surprising.

The issue is, as it was in the early 70s, not about party but about where you think the UK’s future is.

Thus far the anti/eurosceptic groups have been much more effective in engaging with the public and making noise, even if they are much weaker when put under pressure on facts and figures.

But that is changing and it is changing from the grassroots upwards.

The advantage of a grassroots “Yes” campaign is that the commitment and the enthusiasm for it is coming from people who are already motivated to keep the UK in the EU , the disadvantage is that they have further to go before they reach a critical mass where newspapers, politicians, pundits take notice of them and they can gain the attention and the publicity they deserve.

The “Yes” campaign needs thousands of people, not just liking Facebook pages, Tweeting or even joining Facebook groups but thousands of people organising local groups, writing articles, talking to people, challenging the anti-EU arguments in their day to day lives.

If the “big” players on the pro-EU side are wise they will realise that supporting the grassroots campaign, helping them to get the message across is the surest way of getting a big turn out for the referendum and a decisive “Yes” result.

Whatever happens when the big players do finally get themselves organised they must not attempt to hijack the grassroots campaign and turn it into a business led, negative sounding campaign which might win the “yes” vote in the referendum, but without building on the popular support for the EU . Their help support and advice will be more than welcome, but the grassroots campaign belongs to the people

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UK over 18s to be denied vote in referendum

People who are:

  • over 18 years of age

  • hold UK passports with the right of abode in the UK

  • old enough to serve in or have served in the UK’s armed forces

  • are directly affected by decisions made the the UK Parliament & Government

almost all of them

  • pay tax in the UK

  • are reliant on the UK for part or all of their pensions

  • have strong family connections in the UK

They would all be able to vote under the UK’s General Election franchise except for one arbitrary unprincipled rule:

They have lived outside of the UK for more than 15 years.

We know that this is an arbitrary rule because since the first limited enfranchisement of these UK citizens in 1985 the UK Parliament has arbitrarily increased and decreased the rule on two occasions.

Denying the right to vote to these UK citizens is plainly not a matter of principle otherwise the right would never have been given in the first place and you can’t have degrees of principle.

For those living elsewhere in the EU their right to do so derives from the fact that they are citizens of an EU member state, the UK. If the UK withdraws from the EU their only right of abode could be the right of abode in the UK.

The Government has made a commitment to remove this restriction but has not proposed removing it for this referendum which affects these people at least as much and quite possibly more than any other single group.

Even more surprisingly given the talk about U-turns, failure to hold to commitments, none of the opposition parties or politicians have included the removal of the 15 year limit as part of their argument for extending the Referendum Bill franchise.

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