By Bev Haigh-Jones
latest stalls
The team has twice been on the streets with stalls since our last newsletter. The first, on 24 February, focused on support for the European Movement’s Erasmus+ campaign, and as you can see from the Opinionometer, support was almost unanimous. It was a chilly day, but we had lots of visitors and some really interesting conversations. Six new members signed up to email and there was plenty of enthusiasm for putting opinions on the board. Most of the results followed the normal pattern, though we did have three people who had found a Brexit benefit. Not sure about the third one, but the first two only said: “We have left, so nobody can tell us what to do now.”
As usual, thanks has to go to our volunteers, without whom we could not run our stalls. We would really love to have more of our members involved, rather than relying on the dozen or so stalwarts who put themselves forward regularly. There is no regular commitment needed, just join in when you’re free and when we’re in a convenient location. It doesn’t matter if you have never done anything like it before, because even if you just handed out stickers at a stall, or posted some leaflets, it all helps the cause. If you think that you might wish to get involved in any way at all, please just message us via Facebook or email.
Our latest stall on 16 March had a slightly different focus. We were still encouraging people to support the Erasmus+ campaign, sign up for European Movement membership, or at least join our mailing list, but, in addition, we were publicising our upcoming event on 23 March with Molly Scott Cato. We wanted to encourage as many people as possible to attend to ensure that it would be a successful evening – which indeed it was! (See our separate article “The Journey Home”.)
Our street stall team – cold and a bit damp – but still smiling!
Sadly, however, it was a wet and rather miserable Saturday morning, but we still managed to engage with some of the few passersby. We always knew that the third question would likely generate the same response from both rejoiners and Brexiters for different reasons, but it was very encouraging to see that the answer to question one was unanimous.
Before anyone wonders – no, we can’t provide detail of the supposed benefits of Brexit – it seems it was just that we had left!
Next stall event
We will be out on the streets again soon, but the date and location have not been finalised yet. If you would like to suggest somewhere you’d like to see a stall, perhaps joining the team to talk to passersby and/or a date that you think would work, please get in touch via email as soon as possible.
We always like to meet our members, so we would love to see you at the stall, whatever the location. Why not stop by for a chat, put your opinions on our board, pick up some stickers, or a badge – or even stay a while and help out. Whatever the case, it would be great to have you there.
Once finalised, full details will be posted on our Facebook Events page and on our website.
The European Movement
As mentioned above, we’re still encouraging people to consider becoming members of the European Movement. The cost is low and the benefits of having one large, umbrella organisation bringing more than one hundred regional, grassroots, pro-EU groups together is considerable.
The European Movement has been in existence since just after World War II, when it was set up by Winston Churchill, among others, to promote friendship, peace and cooperation between European nations. In the early years and, more latterly while the UK was an EU member, friendly communication was their main objective. However, in 2023 Mike Galsworthy was elected as the new Chair of the Movement and since then many prominent figures have joined the organisation, (Michael Heseltine, Dominic Grieve, Vince Cable, Caroline Lucas, etc.), and the membership has grown to over 22,000. The benefit of the new structure of the European Movement is that it gives us all the opportunity to work together, using joint resources, sharing campaign ideas and using collaborative working.
If you feel, as we do, that the bigger the drive within the UK for rebuilding the relationship with the EU, rejoining Erasmus+, rejoining the single market and, eventually, becoming full members of the EU again, the more chance we have of success, then please join the European Movement today. As I’ve already said, the membership cost is very low and it’s as easy as scanning the QR code shown above and filling in a few details. Alternatively, you can join via their website.
Face the Music
The latest campaign from the European Movement is “Face the Music”, a drive to get the government to take action to reverse the post-Brexit rules that have made it so expensive and difficult for performers and musicians to tour in Europe the way they used to. Our involvement is likely to consist of distributing leaflets when they become available, or maybe finding venues that would take a campaign poster. Please keep checking our social media and website for further details and if you would like to get involved, please contact us here.
Embrace Erasmus+
“The Young European Movement, in partnership with European Movement UK and the British Youth Council, is calling on the UK Government to restore Britain’s membership of the Erasmus+ Programme, which was ended abruptly in 2020 despite promises of its continuation.”
After the success of the campaign to rejoin Horizon where we have at least become associate members, YEM and EMUK are now campaigning for the UK to rejoin the Erasmus+ scheme. They are running a petition to gain support and you can sign it, as well as obtaining more details of the campaign via this link.
