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Rejoin Party Press Statement

In the wake of Rishi Sunak’s admission that Brexit was a mistake and we should Rejoin the EU, here is a helpful statement from the Rejoin Party:

February 28, 2023

The government’s much-hyped Northern Ireland protocol deal shows the whole of the UK can and must return to the EU’s single market and customs union as soon as possible, the Rejoin EU Party says.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who supported Brexit, is now incredibly claiming the agreement has put Northern Ireland in a “privileged position” by having access not only to the UK home market, but to the EU’s single market as well – apparently forgetting that the whole UK had exactly that privilege before Brexit.

The comments have sparked a storm of criticism on social media, with many people demanding to know why – if having such single-market access is so desirable – he and his fellow Brexiters backed leaving it in the first place.

One tweet read: “Sunak claims that because NI is in the single market, it’s an attractive location for businesses. So why are Scotland, Wales and England outside it?”

Another said: “Does Sunak realise what he’s saying? What about the thousands of GB businesses suffering because we have all sorts of obstacles between us and our biggest market?”

The Rejoin EU Party says the massive hype surrounding this deal is merely a desperate attempt by Sunak and this Brexit government to cover up the fact that they created this mess in the first place.

It believes the only real solution to the problems Brexit has caused – the latest of which is the chronic shortage of fruit and veg in our supermarkets – is for the entire UK to return to the single market, customs union and EU.

Former Conservative MEP and Rejoin EU Party supporter John Stevens said: “Sunak said this morning this deal will unlock an enormous amount of investment because Northern Ireland has this very special position where it has access to both the UK and EU markets, making it an incredibly attractive place to invest for business.

“This should be entered as a contender for the most grotesquely shameless and hypocritical remark of contemporary politics. We need to end this farce and re-join the EU now.”

Rejoin EU Party leader Richard Hewison said: “This shows what happens when Brexit dogma meets cold harsh reality and will be seen by many as the first step back to re-joining the EU.

“As for the detail of the agreement, the green channel will swiftly turn into a smuggler’s paradise, whilst the so-called ‘Stormont brake’ is virtually impossible to activate and liable to collapse the whole deal if it’s ever triggered.”

Please sign the Rejoin EU Party’s petition to re-join the single market at: https://actionstorm.org/petitions/rejoin-the-single-market-now

The Rejoin EU party is campaigning to re-join the EU because we believe re-joining is the only way to solve the problems Brexit has created. Brexit is broken and it’s breaking our country too. All the promises on which Brexit was sold to the electorate in 2016 were nonsense. Far from reducing red tape and providing £350m a week for the NHS, Brexit makes trading with the crucial European market more complex, difficult and expensive and threatens to reduce funding for public services. If you agree Brexit is making our country poorer, less tolerant and less united, join us and send a message to Westminster that you want your EU membership back, with all its freedoms and benefits.

Find the Rejoin Party website at www.therejoineuparty.com. Please support us via the Rejoin EU Party Campaign Fund – www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/rejoin-eu-party-campaign-fund. You can also follow the party on Twitter at @rejoinp

Michel Barnier

I was delighted to attend a superb event hosted by Professor Anand Menon of UK in a Changing Europe. Even more delighted to meet Michel Barnier and present him with copies of the books Reboot Britain and Private Eyelines.

Here are my takeaways from the event. It was necessary to attend in person to gain the full value of the conversation between these two giants. Just click the link to Twitter below or go direct to the the full article on Linkedin.

Merci beaucoup pour tout ce que vous avez fait pour essayer de sauver notre pays de lui-même. Le Brexit est perdant. Nous allons nous réveiller doucement.

Whilst we are here, do check out my riotous conversation with James O’Brien on LBC re Rishi Sunak’s motivational strategy.

Talking bollocks about Rishi Sunakered – Please download the album and subscribe to our Bandcamp page for updates

We are failing

Life long Tory voter Rod Stewart has just declared that the country is a mess and the Tories need to hand over power to someone more competent. This prompted me to think of the song he covered on his Atlantic Crossing album. Apologies for the lyrical changes which are occasionally grating !! 🙂

Brexit Britain 2023

Some will know that, in 2016, Britain voted to become an isolated country via the Brexit vote.  The marginal 52:48 popular vote was pumped up by:

  • Outlandish promises that we would fund our healthcare system with the proceeds of Brexit.
  • Brexit ‘freedoms’ from EU laws, 98% of which Britain helped to make.
  • The weaponisation of migrants ‘swarming’ into the UK, using the very same language used by the Nazis to justify the Holocaust.

It then took five years to leave our membership of the club we call the European Union, mostly because nobody in our Government could agree what Brexit meant.  Some wanted total isolation with free market capitalism on steroids, a kind of ‘Singapore on Thames’.  Others wished to retain all the benefits of trade and co-operation from Europe without any of the responsibilities of club membership.  The battle raged on between the various factions, consuming four Prime Ministers in the process, with our fifth currently sitting in the departure lounge.  Ultimately, it seems that Brexit consumes all its offspring.

Two years on from our departure, it is possible to see the beginnings of the realities of Brexit.  In this film, I have taken what could be described as a ‘Brexit Stock Take’.  This piece deals with the economic realities of Brexit.  Others in the series will deal with Social effects, Political futures, Legal outcomes, Environmental impacts and Technological effects.

Please take a look at the film and subscribe to our EU TUBE channel.  The film is 17 minutes long but well worth your time as a case study in populism which is sweeping Brazil, the USA, India, Russia and several other places.  Paradoxically, the world needs collaborative leadership and joined up thinking to face climate change and the many other global issues we must address if we are to survive.  Instead, many think that ‘strong men’ are the answers to such problems.  We shall see who prevails.

European Movements

I occasionally write about the lack of strategy, structure, cohesion, collective capability and leadership in the Remain / Rejoin movements. Once again, with a heavy heart, I must report that the chronic organisation development issues which divide us remain (sic) alive and kicking. This article concerns senior members of Grassroots for Europe, overseen by the CEO of The European Movement and its chair Lord Andrew Adonis. For some months I have attempted to resolve a worrying problem with a concerted smear campaign against me by senior people at Grassroots for Europe and The European Movement. I have had no reply in private from CEO Anna Bird, so I have reluctantly decided to go public. Here is a summary in the form of my letter to the EM CEO:

The WhatsApp group where much of this smearing takes place is overseen by Anna Bird and Lord Andrew Adonis, thus they are complicit in the campaign, by ‘letting it happen’. Andrew does not like uncomfortable truths and blocks people who he disagrees with. Thus I have no route to resolution with him.

The ‘mob’ also follow the leader, sometimes without knowledge of the facts of a given cased. This is not without consequence. For example, I have been blocked from attending the March to Rejoin. I was blocked from attending a meeting with Gavin Esler. The ‘mob’ also asked that professional EM groups and affiliates in Sussex and Merseyside ‘deplatform’ me from speaking at events and so on. I mean, WTF are they frightened of?

I actively promote pro-European and anti-Brexit views and am perhaps more vigorous than many at a grassroots and strategy level, so I cannot understand their desire to silence me. Then again, I have worked on Brexit for 6 + years and I ‘get’ organisational illnesses etc. from my professional life as a business and organisational consultant. I’m hoping that Anna Bird will now make this nonsense stop and remove Richard Wilson and the other ringleaders from power. Here are some examples of the online smearing below – it is persistent and wearing. I cannot write to Richard Wilson to deal with the matter quietly, as he also adopts the Vote Leave strategy of blocking people he does not agree with.

It’s possible to see the level of confusion in these groups. For example, Lynne Armstrong manages to confuse me with Peter Corr, the leader of the March to Rejoin, but it does not stop her from condemning my / his work. In fact it’s unclear exactly who she is condemning. Other European Movement execs appear to join in with the ‘herd impunity’. For example, Emma Knaggs admits that she knows nothing about my work, but, of course, feels she must agree with those in power. She is also badly informed: Despite her assertion to the contrary, I remain Chair of The European Movement Mid Kent. Following a review by the Council chaired by Dominic Grieve QC I was confirmed in the position. My removal was an exec decision made by Anna Bird, without approval or authority of the EM. This, of course, mirrors the approach of The Conservatives re Brexit. It is quite surprising from an organisation that promotes transparency, open-ness and diversity.

In my professional life, I work with chronic organisational problems like this. When politics / egos and so on are added to the complexity, these issues become insoluble. I had offered my services for free to EM way back to help make them match fit, but they refused to accept professional help. Ostrich thinking and silos are not good enough if we are to build a movement fit to take Vote Leave on. As a result I have little confidence in Grassroots / EM’s abilities. Help can still be given but I’m not hopeful that they are in listening mode. One of their groundfloor troops, Magdalena Williams has recently stepped into the fray on Twitter.

Twitter thread

There is a long list of people who have actively initiated and / or amplified this campaign. Others have passively supported or allowed the campaign to spread. In no particular order: Richard Wilson, Colin Gordon, Yvonne Wancke, Chris Hammond, Anna Bird, Lord Adonis, Robina Jacobson, Peter Packham, NE for Europe, SSTIE, Sue Wilson, Bremain in Spain, Doug at SODEM, Magdalena Williams, some of the SODEM gang, Lynne Armstrong, Emma Knaggs, Patrick Reynolds. There is a longer list of people who hide in the shadows … come out into the light please.