It is perhaps fitting that 2018 ended with the mix of fantasy and menace that has characterised Brexit from the start, while the Government dances back and forth between threatening no deal and threatening no Brexit in an effort to stave off defeat when MPs vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal in two weeks’ time.
2018 was the year in which the People’s Vote campaign brought the option of holding a new referendum with the option halting Brexit in from the margins of the Brexit debate to the mainstream, all thanks to the efforts of tens and hundreds of thousands of grassroots campaigners across the UK.
In 2019 our task is clear. We must secure the People’s Vote, then we must win it to stay in the EU.
So, how can each of us help to stop Brexit in 2019? Well, here are our top recommendations.
Help Cambridge Stays be ready to campaign to win!
We’ve done and achieved a lot in the past year, but over the next few months we are going to have to campaign harder than ever, and for that we need both people and funds, so please join Cambridge Stays, and donate what you can to our Crowdfunder.
Join our Action Day events on Saturday 12th January
Our campaigning in 2019 kicks off with the Nationwide People’s Vote Action Day on Saturday 12th January with events including:
People’s Vote stall in Cambridge
12 noon – 4 pm, outside the Guildhall on Market Square Cambridge, CB2 3QJ
We’ll have our Brexitometer, as well as leaflets to take and postcards to sign and send, and we are also planning to send teams to hand out leaflets in other areas of the city. If you can join us for a couple of hours on 12th January email us at info@cambridgestays.org.uk and tell us when you’ll be there.
People’s Vote stall in Sawston
10am – 12 noon, outside Budgens on Sawston High Street, CB22 3BG
On 12th January we’ll have a Brexitometer, as well as leaflets to take and postcards to sign and send. If you can join us for a couple of hours between email us at info@cambridgestays.org.uk and tell us when you’ll be there.
People’s Vote stalls in Huntingdon, St. Ives and St. Neots
10 am – 4 pm, locations and exact times TBC.
St. Neots and Huntingdon People’s Vote are holding stalls in Huntingdon, St. Ives and St. Neots on 12th January. The exact times and locations of these stalls will be confirmed soon, but keep an eye on their Facebook event for more details, or email us at info@cambridgestays.org.uk if you would like us to put you in touch with the organisers.
Write to your MPs…and keep writing
Theresa May chose not to risk allowing MPs to vote on her Brexit deal in December, but has announced that the crunch vote will happen in the week beginning Monday 14th January 2019.
It is critical to our campaign to stop Brexit that MPs vote against her deal, and then support a People’s Vote, so please keep writing, especially to:
- Your own MP
- The MP whose constituency includes your workplace (e.g. if you work on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus this would be Heidi Allen)
- Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer (keir.starmer.mp@parliament.uk) and Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn (leader@labour.org.uk)
Letters sent by posts are best, emails and postcards are also very useful, but keep the letter or email focused and polite, and if possible include examples of how Brexit is affecting you, your family or your work.
On our website you can find tips on letter/email writing and contact information for local MPs, and there are suggestions for what to say in a recent blog post on our website.
The People’s Vote campaign have also launched the “Only Way Forward – Demand a People’s Vote” online tool, which generates a template email based on your constituency and priorities, to adapt and send to your MP.
Be ready to rally in London…week beginning 14th January!
Every day when Parliament is sitting Stephen Bray and other volunteers from SODEM (Stand of Defiance European Movement) are outside Parliament making sure that resistance to Brexit remains very visible (and audible!), and if you can get down to London to join them as Parliament debates the Brexit Deal we strongly encourage you to do so.
On the afternoon and evening when Parliament votes on the deal we need to make sure that we fill Parliament Square with campaigners demanding a People’s Vote and waving EU flags. We don’t yet know the exact date of the vote, but we will let you know as soon as we do. We will organise travel as a group by train down to London in the early afternoon to join the thousands of other campaigners who will be there.
Write to your local Newspaper
Local newspapers are widely read, and writing to your local newspaper can be a good way of drawing their editors’ attention to an issue, and to raise the profile of our campaign.
Letters to local newspapers need to be kept short and polite – 200 words is the maximum allowed by some papers – and to be effective letters need to be sharply focused on one issue. There are some useful pointers here and here is a letter from one of our members that was the featured letter in the Cambridge news on 24 May 2018.
There are several newspapers in our region, but in Cambridge we have the Cambridge News, Cambridge Independent, and Cambs Times.
We would like to set up a local newspaper writing circle to coordinate this more effectively, if you’d like to be part of it email us at info@cambridgestays.org.uk.
We’ve come a long way since 23rd June 2016, and stopping Brexit is now a real possibility. Together let’s make 2019 the year stopping Brexit becomes a fact!
