Bristol For Europe

The Brexit referendum was three years ago this Sunday. Since then we've gone nowhere, except deeper into the mess it's made.

On 23rd June Bristol for Europe took two lively coachloads of people to join over 100,000 people for the March for a People's Vote in London.  ITV News West Country reports:

(Video courtesy of ITV News West Country)

Thank you to all who joined us in London in June!

If you haven't already signed the People's Vote petition, it's here.

And if you missed the march in June - or even if you didn't - here are two upcoming events you can get involved in:

1. The South West Rally for a People's Vote, in Bristol on 11th August.  More information.
2. The People's Vote March for the Future, in London on 20th October.  More information.

We're expecting a huge turnout for the march on 20th October, and so we've booked twice as many coaches as we did in June.  Watch out for more details, including Eventbrite tickets - coming soon.

There’s got to be a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal now, hasn’t there?

After months of fighting between the cabinet’s hard and soft Brexiteers, on Friday 7^th July Theresa May got them to sign up to an actual plan (all three pages of it!) setting out what Brexit should look like. The following Monday, David Davis and Boris Johnson tried to torpedo the whole thing by resigning, but that doesn’t seem to have worked. So now there is a template for Brexit that the government says it will turn into a white paper and use to start negotiating with the EU.

Contrary to what voters in the June 2016 referendum might have been led to believe, withdrawing from the EU is fiendishly complex, likened to “trying to take an egg out of an omelette.” (BBC)

Stop press: The Government have taken views on each of the 15 Lords amendments for debate next week. See this handy guide to their responses, and watch live here.

A party of twenty six pro-Eu campaigners descended upon the European Commission on Monday 19th March 2018.  There were thirteen of us from Bristol and thirteen from Bath.  Here we were at the entrance to the Commission building.

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the inadequacy of the Government’s so-called Brexit impact studies.

But some much more substantial research has also been attracting media attention -  the economic assessments carried out by the Treasury on the likely impact of our exit from the EU.

The results of these impartial assessments do not make happy reading, particularly for those parts of the UK with the strongest “Leave” vote. All parts of the UK will grow more slowly outside the EU than in – and that includes Bristol and the West of England.

In the referendum our city voted 62 per cent to stay in the EU, partly because so much of our economy relies on the jobs, training and apprenticeships provided by trans-European businesses such as BAe Systems, Airbus and Rolls-Royce, alongside the vital research and employment opportunities at our world-class universities the University of Bristol and University of the West of England, allied to our NHS Trusts based at Southmead and the BRI.

Kate Hoey at UWE February 22^nd from 5-8pm. SOLD OUT

How excited we were that arch-brexiter Kate Hoey was booked by UWE Labour Society to give a talk. Following on from the previous debacle that was Jacob Rees-Mogg we expected huge crowds, the world’s media and a great photo opportunity. Bristol for Europe got ready to Flag Bomb!

Arriving early, we navigated the maze of identical lecture rooms and found the right one. It was completely empty with the lights switched off. We trudged back to reception to find out what was going on, eventually tracked down a last minute, unadvertised room change.

Conventional wisdom says that Brexit will definitely happen.  And it is most often said by those who least want it to occur.  Any number of seemingly sensible MPs sagely advise those listening that Brexit is certain.  Political commentators and even the leaders in the Guardian reaffirm this apparent inevitability.  Those who don’t conform to this now commonly accepted view are seen as living in cloud cuckoo land - extreme or delusional. 

A new year and it is a big year if we are to stop Brexit.  As we wrestle with how to engage with the unengageable, Madeleina Kay from Sheffield aka EU Supergirl has few doubts about the solution.  She tells stories, draws cartoons, sings songs and creates EU adventures for herself and for us all.  She makes the EU fun while never losing sight of her goal.

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If a week is a long time in politics, the last few feel like a lifetime. Just a month ago it seemed as though the UK was careering towards a crash and burn Brexit, the hard Brexiters firmly at the wheel, still deaf to concerns over the border with Ireland, the rights of citizens or the damage to our environment and economy. Now all of a sudden it look seems as though the fevered dreams of the hard-Leave leaders have run into reality.