Voices of the Beehive

In a small room above a pub a group of people gathered together to talk about how Brexit touches and will continue to touch the very minutiae of their lives.  The event was a Beehive run by my wonderful friend Nicky and her foundation Final Say for All, a crowdfunded group who’s stated aims are to keep the UK in the EU and to give a voice to the groups of people who were completely ignored during the referendum.   

Her Beehive project seeks to gather testimonies on video to be shared to a wider audience. People stand up and speak about how their lives are being impacted whether it is because they are EU27 citizens in the UK or whether they are British people living in the EU or whether their livelihood or career is endangered or whether they feel a personal violation at having their European Citizenship removed against their will.  If they agree the speakers are recorded but this is not mandatory to be able to take part.

After the London march in June, many of us were unhappy that the 5 million were not to be represented in the formal speeches at all.  I marched with FSFA that day. We were a big group and a pub had been booked for us all to go and have a drink together afterwards.  So, at the last minute some people were asked by Nicky to stand up and speak about why Brexit is Personal.  This led to several others being moved to get up and tell their personal stories and it was all filmed.  The pub we were in was the Beehive in Vauxhall and so the Beehives were born.

Nicky opened with her personal experiences.  She is a British national who was disenfranchised during the referendum because she has lived outside the UK but in the EU for many years.  She lives in the Netherlands. In fact, not only was she disenfranchised in a vote that seriously impacts her life, but she has not got a vote at all in British general elections either as the vote for life was removed from British citizens overseas some years ago.   If we go ahead and leave the EU she will not be able to vote for an MEP and there is a question mark over whether she will even get a vote in the local elections – as is the right of all EU citizens wherever they are resident in the EU.  For the British in the EU, their disenfranchisement will be complete. This seems to me a completely unhealthy step backwards for our democracy. 

Her quandary does not stop there.  She cares for her husband, a Dutch national who is disabled and she also has elderly parents in the UK who need her help.  In the post Brexit world, she will be finding these two demands on her time difficult to manage together.  Her freedom of movement will have been removed.  It is doubtful her parents could move to the Netherlands or her husband could move to the UK.  Nicky delivers her story very calmly, but you can feel the sense of intense emotion just below the surface. 

Tim then spoke very movingly from the point of view of Northern Ireland.  His direct experiences of growing up and living in Northern Ireland, of the bombings and the conflict and the people he knew who died or were damaged forever by the bloodiness of the divisions there, give him a perspective on the EU that everybody should listen to and actually hear.  The Good Friday Agreement was made possible by people talking together and the EU and our EU citizenship made it possible for the groups on different sides to find a way to work and live together and shun the violence.  This was only 20 years ago.  The pain of the conflict is still fresh in the memory of many people.  Tim’s intensity brought a tear to everybody’s eye.

A couple who didn’t feel confident enough to stand up and speak for the camera nevertheless shared with the group what they had gone through since the referendum.  Out of a fear their status was under threat, they had applied for the Permanent right to Reside, a ridiculously bureaucratic procedure that demanded a filing cabinet full of evidence from their many years in the UK and they wanted to get their daughter a British passport to protect her rights to come back as she is due to study abroad for a spell under the Erasmus scheme.   Although they started with the practical issues, their personal feelings started to spill out. 

They quickly got onto the issue of how it makes them feel, how the atmosphere towards them in the community changed and here we get to the nitty gritty leave voters don't want to take responsibility for.  EU27 citizens in the UK are angry and have been hugely hurt by the fact that their neighbours and even their families and  friends did not for a moment consider what the real impacts would be on their lives.  Not only that, but this issue continues to be ignored and dismissed as if they are second class citizens, an afterthought. People point to the various proclamations of government that they will be protected but how can we trust politicians on this one issue when they have shown themselves so demonstrably willing to lie and row back on every promise ever made both pre and post referendum. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Don’t forget there has not been a single piece of legislation voted through the house of commons which protects the rights of the EU27 citizens or the British in the EU to date.  

I could sense the relief in the room at finally being in a forum where these issues could be fully discussed without somebody trying to shut down the debate with platitudes by saying “it will all be okay” or “what about my rights too”.  I am afraid this goes on in some Remain circles a little too.  The fact is there are 5 million people around the EU and their families who are now uncertain about their status.  How would you feel if you had lived happily in your house for 5, 10, 20, 60 even 80 years and your neighbours voted in such a way that overnight you had to actually ask for permission to stay or return home having been away travelling?  I urge each of you to walk for a moment in the shoes of the people whose lives have been plagued with uncertainty for over 2 years. I think this would change your outlook and your perspective.

There was a kind of round table discussion in the room at this point and several people made some interesting and thoughtful points.  What came out was the shock felt as people learned things they simply had not realised about the details of the impact of brexit. 

It was my turn. I was feeling rather nervous.  It’s been some time since I had to get up and speak before a room full of people, but I wanted to do it having opted out in London.  I had things to say.  Of course, anybody who knows me well will know I always have things to say so I tried not to ramble on for too long.  

As I started to speak, somewhere deep inside me the anger that has driven my intense opposition to 

Brexit flared brightly and drove my words and probably drove me to do rather too much arm waving - my latino dna showing itself.  I found myself speaking about my family history, a history of immigration of course, about the beautiful EU Citizenship umbrella that made sense of the different fragments of my identity.  I spoke about the intolerable interference of Brexit on our lives, on decisions made by families in good faith in the context of our citizenship rights.  I spoke about the outrage and offence I feel on behalf of  honest and hard-working people like my father whenever foreign people are measured as economic units, whenever they are spoken of as if they are a problem to be fixed but never depicted with a sense of the positive, vibrant, colourful and beautiful loving contributions they bring to our cultures and our communities.

The meeting was rounded off with a few brief words from Nicky's husband about his family history and their connections to the resistance in WWII to Nazi occupation.  This was a very intense and emotional moment for us all.  This reminded me of one of the most important reasons why the European Project came into being and absolutely must continue to thrive.  70 years of peace in Europe have been brought about by the EU, surely a thing that we take for granted but which in fact has improved the lives of millions beyond recognition across the continent.  Dimitri is an artist and musician and played us a  wonderful and uplifiting song he wrote about the campaign to end the meeting. 

From a personal point of view, I felt intense relief after I had spoken, I was emotional by the end of my contribution, and it was liberating to speak of these things aloud.  I would urge people who have stories to share about why Brexit is Personal to them to go to a Beehive if they possibly can and get talking, it’s an intense experience but a worthwhile one. Leavers may learn a thing or two if they go and watch, campaigners will get some valuable insights which they will be able to use on street stalls. These videos will be an important resource as we all bear witness to the effect of this horrible EU Referendum result in the lives of ordinary people.

#brexitispersonal

@redalphababe

You can follow @FinalSayForAll and their events on twitter or look at their website for more information on the Final Say for All foundation and their aims and activities  www.finalsayforall.eu

The Defiance of the People

The caffeine desire was strong in me having had a late night at a Peoples Vote event in Chester.  We walked through Lime Street Station heading for the nearest cafe that would satisfy my coffee void but it took us a long time to get anywhere that morning.  Dressed in our Peoples Votes T Shirts, carrying banners and flags and stickers, the people of Liverpool looked at us and wanted to talk to us that day. A group of Italian students and their teacher took photos of us and with us. The teacher explained to the teenagers that we didn’t want to leave the European Union.  We got a beautiful cheer from them. 

People of all ages, both sexes, different accents, wished us well and begged us for the vibrant Bollocks to Brexit stickers which encapsulate so perfectly the strong emotion that most of us feel when we think of how our European Citizenship is being taken away from us against our will – this I believe is at the heart of virtually every campaigner, every so-called citizen of nowhere. An elderly English couple stopped us for stickers which they wore with glee and wanted to chat about their feelings.  A wonderful couple full of warmth and intelligence.  They were baffled and angry at government and opposition alike.  Brexit was insane they said.  The people had been lied to, the people are still being lied to. 

I heard stories that day from families who marched because they were filled with doubt about their future status.  With EU27 spouses what would happen? Why were they being treated as the whipping boys for British discontent with issues which were all in the purview of domestic Governments to fix?  This is of course an inconvenient truth for politicians and none will address this question.  The government’s own investigation into the impact of immigration recently has clearly debunked the myths that were trotted out during the EU referendum.  The pernicious lies about immigration and about Freedom of Movement have gone on for years.  A steady flow of headlines filled with hate and prejudice on the shelves of newspaper stands day after day spreading their toxic damage, spilling over in recent years onto our social media timelines and of course deliberately used on Facebook to trigger people into voting leave.   

Other people walked because of their continuing anger and worry that Brexit is a shambles which is damaging the country and damaging everybody’s lives. They see the pathetic farce that passes for government negotiations and see clearly that the Emperor is stark bollock naked.   

Others have businesses and jobs which depend on the Single Market and simply have no idea if they will be able to continue with their lives as they know them after Brexit day.  Politicians do not have their jobs at risk on Brexit day.  Can the rest of us all say exactly the same? Really, are we sure about that? 

Overwhelmingly the mood I saw on Sunday was defiance.  It was a word that popped in my head as people came to speak to us and stayed with me all day. It was Defiance with a smile on it’s Face.  We marched and chanted as loud as we could with sweet, beautiful defiance.  

We saw it in the faces of the passers by who came up and spoke to us or just begged for stickers.  Liverpool was a sea of Bollocks to Brexit stickers on Sunday.  We got a couple of hecklers along the route and in the street, but I would say 90% of the people we came across that day were either with us already or extremely interested in what we had to say.  The Defiance of the People on Sunday was a beautiful peaceful openhearted but nevertheless deeply entrenched defiance.  It takes a very deep well of belief to make thousands of ordinary British citizens give up their Sunday to walk through a city and shout and chant and wave banners.   People are seeing the shambles, the broken promises, the loss of British influence in the world, hearing the sound of jobs dripping away, thinking about the bonkers technical notices preparing us for no deal and they are saying very clearly STOP, WAIT, WE WANT TO LOOK AGAIN, WE WANT TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE BRINGING TO US.  

A warning to Labour and Conservatives alike, you have a massive fight on your hands.  You can either accept that we have a right to examine the consequences of any final Brexit proposition and have a say on that with an option to remain or you can subject this country you claim to love so much to years of marginal governments and the wrath of the voters when they discover we are right and the Brexit unicorns, whether they are blue or red, are simply a figment of the imagination of ambitious self-serving political players.

If this chimes with you come and be DEFIANT with us on the 20^th October and tell London, the Government and Opposition that we will not be quietened and we demand a Peoples Vote.

The Defiance of the People will win the day. 

#peoplesvote #finalsayforall.

@redalphababe

Face up to the Truth about Freedom of Movement.

Those of you who voted Leave because of immigration I have news for you.  Everything we have been saying to you for more than 2 years about immigration is correct.  Ask the Migration Advisory Committee who have brought some inconvenient facts out into the open.  They were assigned the job of designing an immigration system outside EU membership.  In so doing they made a thorough examination of the impact of EU immigration in the areas of concern.  I have laid those out below point by point in a handy table for you to cut out and keep.   

In short, if you saw the Breaking Point Poster revealed by the leave campaign and Nigel Farage and when its clear and unsavoury message sat in your head, burning the fire of resentment and righteousness inside you, making you look at the foreigners around you with new suspicion or as a group of people who are taking the proverbial, well I am sorry to tell you once again the poster was wrong.  You are still wrong if you believe that immigration or FOM has a single thing to do with any of the things that made you unhappy.  You are still wrong if you think throwing away your (and everybody else’s) EU citizenship and your rights to FOM will make any of these things better.   

If you are fed up of static or low wages, or expensive housing or big queues in the doctor’s surgery, or the lack of growth in the economy, well stop worrying about where your neighbours were born and start looking at our government, who makes the policies which help to address every single one of these things.   You will not be any better off as if by magic on Brexit day – whatever the kind of Brexit foisted on you.  All you will have achieved is the creation of  upset and hostility towards a group of people who have just lived their lives, just like you.  Going to work, paying their taxes, looking after their children, loving their neighbours, running their businesses, looking after old people, looking after sick people, supporting the environment, offsetting the impact of our ageing population on services.     

So now we have this “FOM has damaged us” nonsense debunked by the Governments own findings, can we have a proper conversation about our EU membership please and the genuine benefits of being EU members?  Can HM Opposition finally stop upholding these immigration myths at every twist and turn?  Can we now properly assess the real and full consequences of the outcome of government’s Brexit policy on ALL OUR LIVES PLEASE.

Time for a #peoplesvote with an option to remain.

@redalphababe

	IMPACT	REPORT COMMENT
Employment	Little or none	“we found that migrants have no or little impact on the overall employment and unemployment outcomes of the UK born workforce”
Wages	Little or none	“migration is not a major determinate of the wages of UK born workers. We found some evidence suggesting that lower-skilled workers face a negative impact while higher-skilled workers benefit, however the magnitude of the impacts are generally small.”
Self-Employment	No Meaningful evidence	“We do not conclude what, if any, impact immigration has had on the economic prospects of the self-employed but do present some descriptive statistics taken from Self-Assessment and National Insurance Number registration datasets. These show that self-employed EEA nationals have lower declared profits than UK nationals on average, likely reflecting differences in the type and duration of work undertaken”
Productivity	Positive Probably	“the studies we commissioned point towards immigration having a positive impact on productivity, but the results are subject to significant uncertainty.”
Innovation	Positive	“high-skilled immigrants make a positive contribution to the levels of innovation in the receiving country”.  Innovation is hugely important to an economy like our because this is what drives new industries, technologies and skilled jobs.
Training	Positive	“no evidence that migration has had a negative impact on the training of the  UK-born workforce. Moreover, there is some evidence to suggest that skilled migrants have a positive impact on the quantity of training available to the UK-born workforce. Any potential impact on the quality of training provided is unknown”
Services Prices	Downward pressure	“We found some evidence that migration, particularly from New Member States (NMS) and non-EEA, has reduced prices of personal services”
House Prices	Upward Pressure	“Our analysis suggests that migration has increased house prices. The impacts of migration on house prices cannot, however, be seen in isolation from other government policies. The evidence points towards a higher impact of migration in areas with more restrictive planning policies in which it is harder for the housing stock to increase in line with demand”
Contribution to public purse	Positive	“Our commissioned research found that EEA migrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits.”
Health and Social Care	Positive	"contribute much more to the health service and the provision of social care in financial resources and through work than they consume in services."
Education	Positive	"no evidence that migration has reduced parental choice in schools or the educational attainment of UK-born children. On average, children with English as an additional language outperform native English speakers."
Social Housing	None to slightly negative	"Given there is little building of new social housing this is inevitably at the expense of other potential tenants."
Community - crime	No impact	"migration does not impact crime "
Community - well being	Varies - no real evidence	" no evidence that migration has reduced the average level of subjective well-being in the UK."

A Letter to Pariliament

Dear Sirs

In a recent letter to Lord Adonis, Jacob Rees Mogg said, ‘I do not believe there should be any special terms for EU migrants,”.  This really is a scandalous position to take and demonstrates the underlying lack of care in the position of the European Research Group – a party within a party who are currently attempting to be the tail wagging the dog. 

EU27 citizens in many cases have been here for decades. My family came to the UK in 1971 when I was 3.  Although I have a British passport (I chose to take one in 2005) I have 2 older brothers who have not.  One lives in the UK, educated here through his teen years has always worked and paid his tax here and has an English wife and son.  My other brother also went to school here and worked most of his working life and paid tax here.  A few years ago, he moved to Spain to follow a work opportunity.  He has an English wife and a grown-up English son here who has just married.   In a post Brexit world, it would seem there is a big question mark as to whether he would have the choice to come back and live in the UK to be close to his family should he want to do that on retirement for example.  Questions are also raised regarding pension rights for the many years he worked in the UK

All the decisions our family have made over the years were in the context of our EU citizenship which made the different fragments of our identities come together to make sense.  You can replicate those decisions 1000s of times up and down the country with even more complex problems and family compositions.   What Brexit is doing is putting unnecessary barriers right in the middle of family life, it is an egregious interference in our lives by government and for no benefit – in fact it is likely to damage the British economy.  I do not believe for a second the vast majority of people who voted leave did so in the knowledge that families would be damaged in this way.  Whilst government has attempted to use the insecurity of our #5 million (EU27 citizens here and Brits in the EU most of him were disenfranchised), HM opposition has been sadly quiet on the plight of the 5 million and the uncertainties thrown at them and I would have wished to see more opposition to the abominable way Brexit has disrupted and will continue to disrupt their lives.  Anybody doubting the uncertainty hanging over the 5 million and their mistrust of government agenda should look carefully at the stories which emerge every day around families caught in in the Home Office’s hostile environment

I would also draw attention to the plight of SME’s.  I run a small business.  We employ 12 people.  3 of those jobs were created on growth on the back of being able to sell across the EU with relative ease and lack of regulation and complexity at a time when growth in our British markets became flat.  This aspect of our business continues to grow.  It seems that we do not even know how we will be affected or what preparations we are supposed to make. The government tells us to prepare for no deal but frankly there are thousands of companies across the country who do not have the resources to be able to game the potential scenarios and it is preposterous to expect us to do so.  In short Brexit has put business especially SMEs in an impossible situation and jobs will ultimately be lost across the country – not just the big companies but small companies. 

In 2016 we did not know what leaving the EU meant, it was an emotional response to a complicated question.  Nothing about Brexit which has unfolded in the last 2 years makes sense, no benefits have emerged, “sunny uplands” have become “it won’t be the end of the world” and it really is time that parliament acknowledged as one voice that given the severe outcomes facing us,  we must be allowed the opportunity to air and examine all the real consequences of the Government’s propositions on our lives in a thorough public discussion.  We need a final public vote with an option to remain.

@redalphababe

Pride comes before a fall

The current relationship between the UK and the EU27

Think Carly Simon for the tune

You were partner in our EU project
But you acted like you were always on top
You wore your hat of red white and blue
Your tie in an Oxford Knot
You had one eye on the mirror
And watched yourself gavotte
And the world dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain,
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you?
Don't you?

So we worked together for these long years
And we developed all the rules
You said we made a pretty team
But your press treated us like fools.
Now you’re throwing away the things you love
And one of them is sense.
You have new dreams, but they’re clouds in your coffee
Clouds in your coffee

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain, you're so vain
I'll bet…

@redalphababe

RALLYING CALL FOR #FBPE

RALLYING CALL FOR #FBPE

This is a thread for my fellow Remainers in the #fbpe movement.  There were some threads yesterday which have caused upset and anger in our community and a shaking of people’s confidence.  Well I awoke his morning with these thoughts on my mind and wanted to get them down on paper.

We have the privilege of having some excellent specialists in their fields fighting by our side, I thank each and every one of them.  But it is by THEIR SIDE.  They know the technocratic stuff and understand the legalities of treaties and trade deals. But all of that on it’s own is not what will get us a peoples vote and our personal opinions, worldview and knowledge and experience should hold equal weight when considering our own positions.

I am no specialist in a technical field, I know about my business, my EU27 family and friends, my staff, my British in Europe friends and my identity which was torn in half against my will on the 23^rd June in 2016.  I have not seen a single tweet, article or speech from an MP in two years which has shown me how Brexit is of benefit to our lives.  I only see the benefits that are being ripped away from us.  This has not changed. 

We have fought for two years but not because of the complexities of customs arrangements and trade deals.  It’s important for us to have people in our community giving us the specialist understanding and opinions and we need them.  But what drives each and every one of us is a fundamental belief that a dreadful mistake has been made by the UK.  We will all be demonstrably poorer in both money terms and more importantly in family and cultural terms.  In human terms we are already poorer.

Norway, EEA, all those compromise positions which if adopted early as a goal by government may well have stopped our movement from  growing in the first place were thrown out FROM THE START.  Pilar Gomez from Chester tweeting IN 2016/2017 made ZERO difference to that position taken by government.  The Remain movement has literally been ignored and is only now due to our stubbornness  finally getting traction and MPs are starting to move and back us.  Why only recently?

Well because it is now clear to the everyone there was no plan. Let me say that again. THERE WAS NO PLAN.  Leavers voted for a NON-EXISTENT PROPOSITION.  Govt have had 2 years to lay out a leave proposition but they are as divided as they were in the beginning and have come up with a choice between fudge and no deal.  It was government who publicised that no deal was a distinct possibility not the Remain movement. It was government assessments which discovered we will be poorer not remainers.  

Fellow #fbpe, I refuse to take any responsibility for this shambles created by politicians and I urge you to think hard for yourselves before you lose your confidence in our movement. Our campaigning did not lead Parliament to find themselves in this insane position, it has simply cast a huge magnifying glass on the continuing splits, errors and inconsistency of Brexit and its drivers. Brexit simply cannot work in a way which will leave us in a better position than our already excellent position as equal members of the EU.

In my opinion ultimately Brexit is damaging to our lives and no amount of fudge will hide that, no amount of negotiating will square the circle without setting the economy back.  It won’t in my opinion be a sudden overnight decline even in no deal scenario though clearly that will bring major immediate practical problems.  The decline will be slow – a drip drip drip of jobs moving, small companies closing down because they can no longer get the return they used to.  A continuing weak pound.  A vulnerability to the right taking over and reducing our standards and rights in order for them to profit from our decline.

I don’t believe another year of actual negotiations with the EU would make things any better. All the obvious compromise positions have been thrown out by government. They have left themselves literally nowhere to go.  In my opinion we do need an extension to the A50 so that we can run an unhurried thorough and well explored Peoples Vote on the proposition that will come before us by government – DEAL/NODEAL/REMAIN but we need to secure the promise of one by Parliament before Brexit day.

So I say this.  Forget the wobblers and the people who we think let us down yesterday.  We are not responsible for this insanity we are the magnifiers and we hold Leavers and Government and Opposition to account for their promises and their lies and their obfuscation.  We shine a light on their inconsistencies and ulterior self serving motives.  I for one will not let self-doubt get in the way of protecting my people and the amazing #fbpe people and Peoples Vote street campaigners who inspire me every single day to fight again.

Viva #fbpe The
fight goes on #peoplesvote #fbpe #finalsayforsall #finalsay

The #5million - a Poem

Dealt a blow

Injured by your Indifference

See our hurt and anger

Even families sought to damage lives

None of us did anything wrong

Free us from this madness

Rid us of anxiety

All our plans made long ago

Now drenched in the toxicity of your mistake

Cowards refuse to look us in the eye

Haters profit from our discomfort

Is this what you voted for?

Senseless direction to be followed

Eyes closed

Damaged Lives

by @redalphababe