21 Oct 2018

People's Vote March For The Future - what a march it was!

Yesterday saw one of the biggest ever protest march in the history of the UK, second only to the anti-war protests in February 2003. Following beforehand on Facebook how many people from all parts of the UK said they would come along this time, I expected this march to be big, and the organisers put a number of 100,000 participants out there. The actual number was heart warming: most media reported about 700,000 participants!

Britain for Europe tweeted this:

And of course The People's Vote UK has a lot of tweets about the march on Twitter.

Here is the Winchester coach travelling group with members from the European Movement Hampshire and The 48% - Winchester before they boarded their vehicle:


Another big group of committed campaigners, possibly even more, travelled by train.

A big well done and thank you to everyone who invested their time and energy on making this protest so outstanding!

What do we do now? The Leave side is busy rallying people to write to their MPs ("£250,000 ad campaign urges voters to oppose May’s Brexit plan"). It is very important to write to your MP too to represent the other side! It doesn't have to be a long email or letter, but the more they get, the better. Letter writing is an important tool to have your voice registered with your representatives. See the Have Your Say! tab with suggestions on how to go about this.

----

Here is a compilation of several articles about the march as published on Twitter by The 48% - Winchester yesterday and today:











----

Please do write to your MP!

Sylke on behalf of Win-IN

(All copyrights of photos are with the people who took them!)

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

13 Oct 2018

Pro-EU campaign update

Since our last blog post in June, things have been moving fast: there were two more street stalls in Winchester - and it is only one more week until the big People's Vote March For The Future in London!



This march is hugely important! If you can, drop everything and attend! We need to show how many are opposing what the UK government is trying to do! It's easy to get to the march from Winchester in good company on the COACH organised by the European Movement Hampshire. Have you booked your ticket yet? If not, do so now, there are not many seats left! If you should prefer to go by train but don't want to travel on your own, we would recommend to ask for travel companions in the Facebook group of The 48% - Winchester.

Whichever kind of Brexit the UK government is going to implement, it is going to be a failure! See this short but brilliant video done by Femi from OFOC explaining once again the consequences of different scenarios and why we need a proper People's Vote on all options (video opening on Facebook):



The street stalls


The September stall

Find below text and photos from the Press Release done by the European Movement (EM) Hampshire and some additional comments from campaigners who were there on the day:

"EU supporters gathered on Saturday 22nd September for Action Day, marked by all the leading organisations opposed to Brexit. In Winchester the Hampshire European Movement, the 48% Winchester and the Win-IN (Winchester International Network) set up a stall by the Buttercross to show passers-by in the High Street the folly of Brexit.




Winchester voted 59% to remain in the EU, and the prospect of Brexit is already having negative effects on many. Holidays are more expensive, prices are rising quicker than wages, the NHS and others have staffing problems. FEELING THE BREXIT SQUEEZE? was the right question on our brochure — and the right question for the High Street.

More than 60 volunteers, wearing something blue and waving EU flags, attended the European Movement stand and the 48% Winchester gathering. Many members of the public signed the EM petition asking the Government to Release the Brexit Impact Studies. And in a spirit of democracy there were also some heated discussions with a few Brexiteers, where all “agreed to disagree”.


The lovely sunny afternoon added to the occasion — as did the presence of the Winchester Morris Men, giving extra sound and motion effects to the discussions on politics and Brexit. Perhaps inspired by the Morris Men’s hankering for tradition, a group of Remainers then adjourned to the pub!"

One campaigner wrote this about the day: "My favourite quote from the day was a lovely lady who said 'it's all a bit of a muddle really' thus summing up the whole Brexit debacle in one sentence. People were divided on the question about who should have a say on final decision with someone saying 'it was the people who got us into this mess in the first place' and someone else saying she feared giving a peoples vote risked dividing an already divided nation even further. Lots of people are very unhappy with the way things are going."

Another one had this to add: "the Brexitometer was busy throughout the morning, in spite of the rain. At times we had a queue for it. I met a young man who had been working in the EU import/export business who had just been made redundant because of Brexit. He was very interested in our campaign and signed up to join the group."

The October stall

The next stall was on 6 October. One of our campaigners described the day as follows: "Unfortunately for this event the weather was foul. The purpose of the stall was to promote the march on 20 October. What struck me was (1) the number of well-wishes from outside Hampshire (e.g. Shropshire, Northern Ireland). Plus a lady came from Andover just to wish us well. And (2) the number of people who were already committed to going in the march."


Once again, a big thank you to all the people who helped with the stalls!


If you should be interested to help with the next activity and are not yet connected to us through Facebook or Twitter, please sign up to our mailing list to keep in the loop.

Sylke on behalf of Win-IN

(All copyrights of photos are with the people who took them!)


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)