Our European Union

In 2016, a minority of the UK population voted to leave our European Union, in an “advisory” referendum which was soured by numerous factors. Many people were excluded from voting: UK residents from other EU countries, UK citizens long-term resident elsewhere in the EU, and of 16 and 17 year olds (who are able to vote in Scottish elections), all of whom perhaps have the very most to lose from any change from the status quo. In addition, the Leave campaign greatly misled many voters by stating many less than entirely truthful “facts” in their campaigning, painting an extremely skewed picture of the EU and the UK’s position as a long-standing member.

The referendum resulted in a decision to “Leave”, which won by only the very slimmest of margins, barely 52% of the votes cast, but actually representing only 37% of the eligible electorate, which (as noted above) itself excluded at least 3 million people who should also have had a voice. Many areas, including, Scotland, Northern Ireland, London and many of our other most economically important urban regions, voted to Remain.

Already we are seeing what a disaster so-called “Brexit” would be for the UK: significant losses in the value of the Pound; many important businesses reporting that they may have to downsize their presence in the UK, or move their headquarters to elsewhere in the EU, should the UK find itself isolated from our friends, neighbours and fellow Europeans; disgusting increases in instances of xenophobic and racist behaviour; and many EU citizens (many of whom are permanently settled here, and part of our community) feeling much less welcome in the UK.

In addition, many areas which voted to Leave are gradually starting to realise the full impact on them as sources of investment funds from the EU are not likely to be replaced by the UK Government, and local employers suddenly realise how they will struggle to fill jobs that have often been carried out by migrant workers from other EU countries.

However, it is still not too late to stop the UK from leaping off the cliff to an uncertain, but almost certainly very painful, fate.

This section of the website includes actions that you can take, and petitions that you can sign to try to steer our country back onto a sensible path.