The word on the streets

By Bev Haigh-Jones

For our latest stall in Truro, we took a slightly different approach. Rather than being almost totally focused on the EU and Brexit with our questions, we concentrated our efforts on the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). And for a good reason: we felt that many people probably didn’t know a great deal about it, an assumption that proved correct.

As can be seen from the photo of the Opinionometer, the stall wasn’t as busy as many that we run, but it was certainly worthwhile. The first question was interesting, and produced the result that we were expecting – almost 50% of those answering either thought that the ECHR is connected to the EU or didn’t know, but it was those answering “No” who were correct. It’s not necessary to be a member of the EU to be in the ECHR; there are, in fact, 46 member states in all, far more than in the EU.

Questions two, three and four showed that people had opinions about the subject, even if their knowledge of it was sketchy, but the most interesting question was the last one. Not one person we spoke to realised that although it isn’t necessary to be in the EU to be in the ECHR, being in the ECHR is a prerequisite of joining the EU. In other words, if the UK left the ECHR, we would NOT be able to rejoin the EU! A fact, I’m sure, that is not lost on Robert Jenrick, but one that he has failed to mention during his anti-ECHR rhetoric!

On Friday 15 November we set up stall in Falmouth, and again we changed the focus of our questions somewhat. One of the main purposes this time was to promote the petition raised recently, calling on the government to “Apply for the UK to join the European Union as a full member as soon as possible.” However, we also retained references to the ECHR and even popped in one question relating to the recent election in the United States!

This was a much busier morning than we’d had in Truro and it went very well, despite the fact that there were only four of us manning the stall. We spoke to some lovely people – and some not so lovely people – as evidenced by some of the responses on the board. But that’s a good thing, as it shows that we do talk to people whose opinions differ from ours, assuming that they are prepared to talk to us.

It was very apparent that almost everyone was uncomfortable with the outcome of the American elections, and that they would feel safer if we were again part of the EU. This was further borne out by the fact that many of our visitors took advantage of the QR code to sign the petition there and then. With most of those who didn’t, they took away a mini flyer with the information, so that they could do it at home and pass the details to their friends. There were a limited number of exceptions, and these coincide with the small number of dots that support Trump and/or leaving the ECHR.

As with our previous Opinionometer in Truro, it was the final question that was the most enlightening. The majority of people did not know that leaving the ECHR would preclude the UK from rejoining the EU, and were horrified to find out that was the case. Fortunately, unlike the Tories, the Labour government have categorically ruled out leaving the ECHR, but things can happen quickly in politics, and whenever we next find ourselves in an election situation this could well raise its head again. This fact needs to be widely shared and publicised.

As a very positive end to this report, over the two stalls twenty new members signed up to receive our emails. People are still interested in the EU/Brexit debate, they just need reminding that there is still campaigning taking place and that not everybody has just accepted the status quo. The fact that the petition mentioned above has, as I write this, reached over 44k signatures in less than three weeks is proof of this, and, in addition, the membership of the European Movement continues to rise, especially since Dominic Grieve and Caroline Lucas have just been announced as the new co-Presidents. A truly cross-party organisation.

If you aren’t a European Movement member yet, why not join now? They are the glue holding all the pro-EU groups across the country together and, more importantly, they have a far more public profile than the regional groups, which results in the Rejoin campaign gaining more and more national media coverage.