On Sunday 2nd September about 800 pro-EU campaigners from across the East Of England gathered at the Junction in Cambridge for the East of England People’s Vote Rally. It was an inspiring event, and it’s timing was perfect to feature in reports on the BBC and ITV evening news. On the same day that Theresa May ruled out a new referendum on the Brexit deal, host Mitch Benn reminded those attending that she also ruled out an early general election early last year, and we all remember what happened next!
If you couldn’t get a ticket for the event – it was booked out – you can get a flavour of what it was like in this video.
People's Vote East Rally – Sunday 2nd September
WATCH: hundreds of people packed the Cambridge Junction yesterday in our People's Vote East rally. Featuring young, local & national speakers, all summer we've been taking our campaign out of Westminster and out into the country.
Posted by People's Vote UK on Monday, 3 September 2018
The very fact that Theresa May felt it necessary to do an interview to specifically say she is against a People’s Vote shows how the People’s Vote has gone in a few months from being an often casually dismissed outlier to being a mainstream and increasingly popular option that is widely discussed and debated, and with which its opponents have no choice but to engage.
The rally in Cambridge followed similar events in Bristol, Newcastle and Edinburgh, and next weekend there will be rally in Cardiff, followed by the People’s vote March for the Many in Liverpool on 23rd September, and all part of a UK wide campaign that accompanies the many hundreds of stalls and other grass roots campaign events happening across the country every week.
Speakers at the Cambridge rally included Amanda Chetwynd-Cowieson (Chair, British Youth Council), Chloe Donovan (For our Future’s Sake), Amatey Doku (National Union of Students), Andrew Adonis (House of Lords), Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat leader), Daniel Zeichner MP (Labour Party, Cambridge), Hannah Dunleavy (Standard Issue magazine), Ian Chapman (GP), and representatives from St. Albans for Europe, Cambridge Stays, Open Britain Bury St Edmunds, Norfolk for Europe, Ely for Europe, the Suffolk EU Alliance, Open Britain Peterborough and People’s Vote Uttlesford (and Bedfordshire for Europe joined in from the audience!). You can watch videos of their speeches by clicking on the linked text above, or clicking on this playlist. Thanks Antony Carpen for recording these!
Volunteers for Cambridge Stays helped set up the venue on Sunday morning, and worked hard at our very busy stall in the marquee outside the main hall, where we gave out lots of leaflets, balloons and stickers, sold T-shirts, and signed up a couple of dozen new members! thank you Clair, Cahir, Carol, David, Jacquie, Miriam, Gareth, Mark, Paul, Boris, Michael and Amanda! Thanks especially to Mary for representing us on stage!
The People’s Vote campaign goes from strength to strength. If you want to get involved – whether it’s to organise an event or take some leaflets to push through doors in your neighbourhood – email is at info@campridgestays.org.uk.
Don’t forget to join us in London on Saturday 20th October for the People’s Vote March for the Future.
As Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner said in the concluding messages “Be ready, it’s going to happen!”
