Campaigns

By Bev Haigh-Jones

June street stall in Falmouth

We had plenty of visitors at our street stall in Falmouth recently, with lots of responses to our questions. We asked people for their views on Boris Johnson’s honours list, whether Johnson should be allowed to stand again as an MP, on the RNLI and refugees, sewage and water company dividends, and on Labour’s EU policy.

Lots of people wanted to have their say and their responses speak for themselves. Johnson likes to present himself as a friend of Cornwall, but our Opinionmeter suggests that he’s only slightly more popular than the fat cats who profit from polluting our rivers and beaches with raw sewage.

One of the reasons for the question on Labour’s stance on the EU was to gather information that could be passed on to Labour candidates, and pro-EU elements of the party, to help with their attempts to influence future policy. Many people told us that they want to be able to vote Labour at the next election, because that is the best chance of unseating Tory candidates, but they have a real problem with the statements that have been made on rejoining the single market and the EU.

The Opinionmeter outcomes were sent to two of Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidates, as well as to the South West Labour Group, Labour for a European Future and Labour Movement for Europe (LME). LME sent us a very encouraging reply:

“Thank you so much for your email and sharing this information with us. As the organisation leading the conversation on what Labour’s future with Europe should look like, we are always keen to hear from and work with CLPs and organisations inside the party and their views, to ensure the central Party hears the opinions of all. Thank you for all your work.”

The LME also mentioned that they have some spare delegate places available for the Labour Conference in September. If anyone is a member of a South West Constituency Labour Party and would be interested in attending conference as an LME delegate, please get in touch with us and we can provide further details.

Back to the questions on our board, most results were pretty much as expected – the one related to the water companies and sewage outfall being unanimous. The responses that really shocked us, however, were those from the twelve people who felt that the RNLI should NOT rescue refugees who get into trouble in the English Channel! Fortunately, they were far from being the majority.

Next stalls – Friday 21 July in Truro

We are hoping to hold a stall on Friday 21 July, having had to postpone from 14 July as a result of the appalling weather on the day. By the time you’re reading this, the stall should have been and gone and we will report on it next time.

– Potential stall in Launceston on either a Friday or Saturday in August

We are thinking that after the one above, our next stall might be either a Friday or Saturday in August (Friday is looking favourite at the moment), and as some people have asked if we could do a stall further east, we’re considering Launceston. If anyone would be interested in helping out on a stall there, we would love to hear from you. Also, could you please let us know whether your preference would be for Friday or Saturday. You could either reply by a comment on this post, or send an email to newsroom@cornwallforeurope.org – many thanks!

If you have missed those above, there will be other stalls soon so keep a look out for notices in the next newsletter, and on our Facebook and website events pages. We love to meet our members face to face whenever the opportunity arises and we want as many stickers as possible on our board each time! Plus we always have our usual badges and Brexit stickers available. Come and join us – it’s fun!

European Movement – Market Access Campaign

As we mentioned last month, Cornwall for Europe have signed up to take part in one of the European Movement’s latest campaigns. The object is to build a dossier of statements from small businesses that have been adversely affected by Brexit, particularly in the field of import/export. The information will be gathered by means of an online survey and we now have business cards available containing access information which we will distribute to people on our stalls. If you own, are involved with, or know someone else who runs a small business that falls into this category, we would love to hear from you. You can email us at newsroom@cornwallforeurope.org, or comment on this article and we will get back to you with the relevant information. We can also provide a supply of the business cards to anyone who is in a position where they come into contact with such businesses.

National Rejoin March II

At last! The GLA and the Metropolitan Police have finally given permission for the National Rejoin March II in London, which will take place on Saturday 23 September. Cornwall for Europe will, of course, be offering coach tickets as usual, see the notice in the email header for more information and the link to our Eventbrite page. If you haven’t taken part in a London march before, it involves an early start – and a late finish – but it is a brilliant day! Don’t leave it too long to book your tickets, the sooner we know the numbers, the sooner we can plan for more coaches, and possibly additional pick-up points.

Keep watching for the latest in this newsletter, on our Facebook page and our website.