Letter to A Lost One

You moved away when I was young to have adventures which could only belong to you, but you always wrote long and loving family letters telling us your tales.  We were missing one of our essential ingredients but there was a comfort in knowing you were always somewhere else waving the flag for us, building your future.  You would walk through the door on visits complete with your smiles, dark cloud of hair, beautiful dimples and your unusual grey green eyes that were prone to flash dangerously if you were driven to anger.  A big sister to be proud of, a hero to worship, a beautiful soul to love.

The years passed.  I grew older and closer to the time when it would be my turn to strike out in the world.  My dreams, no matter how they changed, never failed to include you somewhere in the fringes.   I quietly nursed unvoiced ideas that you would be a bigger part of my everyday life.  On visits we talked about things we would do together, jumbled, laughing excitable brain storming sessions.   You never squashed my ambition.  You never laughed at my opinions.  Support and humour were your tools of sisterly love. 

Then the day that would change all days came.  You were taken from us, no notice, no warning, no preparation. A cruel twist to life’s tale.  I can still feel the agony as I think of that day, though the memory of it has been blunted and dulled by the passing of time.  My  inner organs twisted and shrank together into a hard ball of pained loss which I carried with me for some years.  Glass shards in my heart making holes that would never properly heal.  How could it be you were no longer somewhere in the world waiting for us?  How could you not be there to see your children grow?  What could we possibly have done that was so bad to deserve having one of our own taken away, too soon, too young, too cruelly?  How could our parents be burying a daughter? Why were you, a kind and well-meaning woman, taken whilst the world was still filled with heartless and ruthless bullies and despots who thrive on the back of the suffering of others? 

Why did I not tell you I love you the last time I saw you?  I watched your train pull away clueless that I would never see you again. This was a precious moment lost forever.  For a long time, I plagued myself with imagining your last moments in the accident.  What went through your mind?  What was the last thing you said?  Did you suffer?  Were you frightened?  These questions drove me insane and filled by head in quiet moments, blocking out sleep for weeks.

I didn’t want my memory to be tainted by a vision of you tumbling through space inside the vehicle and I fought hard to remove those thoughts.  I found no comfort in religion or in God.  I wanted to, I tried, but it was just a poor sticking plaster for me.  I found some comfort in family and the shared pain made it easier to carry the load of loss.  In the end though I realised that the healing can only come from within ourselves.   My life has always been a little colder without you.  The world has been emptier, knowing you are no longer occupying a physical space on it somewhere waiting for me to share my plans and dreams with you.  

So, the best I have is for you to live in my heart and in my memories.  Never forgotten.  Always loved.

@redalphababe

My latest letter to my local MP following up after the Peoples vote march

I spent my Saturday this weekend with 700,000 plus other people from up and down the country on the streets of London to make a peaceful request of all parliamentarians that they allow us to have an opportunity to examine the appalling consequences of the vote from 2016 and the deal (or no deal) which the government intend to finally put through parliament for a meaningful vote.  Parliament is deeply divided on Brexit, there is no viable vision of Brexit which does not make each and every one of us losers ultimately.  We stood for 6 hours on the streets of London, shuffling along unable to make headway for a couple of hours because there were so many of us. 
Each of us carried the names of our friends and families who could not be there but wanted to be because of work or economic circumstances so you can probably double or triple the numbers of people who are sufficiently concerned about Brexit to make an active stand to get a people’s vote. 

We are not asking to stop Brexit without another democratic exercise.  We simply want an opportunity for a vote on the deal versus remain which is fair, open, truthful, transparent and informed.  In 2016 the public were poorly informed on the EU and the arguments, they were subjected to a campaign where Leave cheated and blatantly lied.   All the Leave promises in 2016 are lying on the ground like tattered confetti at a wedding where the couple decide to annul the marriage even before the honeymoon night is over.   From day one leave politicians rowed back on each and every lie they promoted.  We have a right to examine where this leaves us all and think again.

It is incredibly disappointing that the Labour Party, as the main opposition, saw fit to actively ignore our march and seems unwilling to recognise that many of the voters in that march will carefully consider the part the Labour party will be seen to have played in the final reckoning on Brexit day on the 29^th March 2019.    I would urge you to raise this with your colleagues and given how short of time we are  I would ask you to seriously consider whether it would not be in everyone’s interests for you to add your voice to those of your Labour colleagues who are openly supporting our campaign.


@redalphababe

Righting the Wronged!

Over the last two years I have had many conversations with good people who are at the front of the queue for the Big Brexit Chaos Bonanza.  Their stories are all different.  They are young, old, married, single, parents, grandparents.  They are nurses, musicians, warehouse operatives, civil servants, cleaners, carers, students.  They live across the UK and the EU.  They like literature, popular culture, sport, cooking, eating, watching the Proms, Strictly and the GBBO.  They like burgers and the theatre and pop music.  They run businesses, they work for someone else, they hold down 2 jobs, they travel across the continent as consultants or as tradespeople or as carers. 

Here is what they all have in common.  They were deliberately denied a say on a question which affects their lives and their status.  #the5million.  I don’t think many of us thought too hard about that.  Even now there is recognisable shock when my friend Nicky tells people how she was not allowed to vote because she has lived outside the UK for more than 15 years.  They are even more shocked when she points out that losing our EU citizenship, for her, will result in losing a right to vote for an MEP in the Netherlands and she may even lose her right to vote in her local elections.  She will have no political voice at all. 

At the same time 16-17 year olds were also denied a say, young people who were perfectly grown up enough to have an opinion of their own are the ones who will live with the consequences of this referendum outcome for the longest time. Incidentally these are the same kids we are all relying on to pay for our pensions and old age care.  I hope you were all careful what you wished for when you decided where to put that cross on the ballot paper.

Brextremists are very fond of saying it is undemocratic to campaign to stop Brexit because it was the “greatest democratic exercise in the history of the UK”.  Well I have news for you – your democratic exercise was pretty stinky as democratic exercises go.  It was flawed in a multitude of ways. Not only did leave campaigns (yes plural) cheat, not only was there lying and empty promises by them but fundamentally a huge group of people who would be affected by the decision were ignored as if they did not matter, as if they were objects to sort out later whether to keep or throw away, only measurable in pounds and euros and usefulness to those with British passports. 

Brexiters, you deliberately stopped all EU27 citizens in the UK, regardless of how long they have been members of our communities up and down the country, from having a voice. the people immediately affected by the outcome were ignored.   You stopped British citizens in the EU and elsewhere who had been overseas for more than 15 years from voting and many of the ballot papers to those who qualified did not arrive.   You stopped 16-17year olds from having a voice even though you deemed Scottish youth to be capable of casting a vote only a year before in the indyref.  You tried to tell them they would be okay – everything will work out, of course you don’t want them to leave, of course they would be protected.  At best you guessed, at worst you blatantly lied about your intentions.  The fact remains you have kept these people in limbo for 2 years and overnight millions will have a different status and will have to “register” to go back to their home that they never moved out of.  Millions across the EU have been given no guidance or support by the British government and are relying on the countries of their residence to help them secure their status.  What did Mrs May say when asked in the house of commons?  “I hope they’ll be okay”.  If this does not pull you up short on this subject I don’t know what will.

This Brexit is nauseating enough.  The economic consequences over the short and medium and long term are ridiculously damaging and in themselves should ensure a rejection by a sensible parliament of Brexit – yes, I know we are way short of a sensible parliament.  But the disenfranchisement of so many of our friends, our families, our neighbours underpins my greatest disgust, fills my head with anger and determination to fight. 

On Saturday I will be marching for a Peoples Vote, for an opportunity for a new vote to examine all the consequences we now know will result from the so-called work the government have been doing for 2 years.  A new vote requires a new franchise.  I will be arguing that not only should we have the opportunity to examine the deal, not only should we be able to keep remain as an option, but there is no doubt in my head the franchise should include the voices of the #5million and the 16-17 year olds who will carry the biggest burden of Brexit.

It will be an opportunity for us to Right all the Wrongs of June 2016 and we must fight for all of that.  

#brexitispersonal

#finalsayforall

@redalphababe

Illegal Activities by the Leave Campaigns in 2016

Text of letter I sent to various letters pages in Newspapers and version of a similar letter written to my local MP


I note today there have been comments from David Lammy on social media, highlighting a recent news story that the Met Police have decided not to investigate Leave Campaigns which broke electoral law citing political sensitivities.  Also, this week it has been reported that Jon Thompson, the head of HM Revenue and Customs, has revealed that police have investigated two death threats he received after setting out the potential cost to businesses of post-Brexit customs options. 

Additionally, in recent months there have been comments from senior politicians who seem to think we should put aside our democratic rights to campaign for what is best for the country or be cowed into silence through fear of violence from an extreme minority who think democracy stopped one day in June 2016.

I find it appalling that our institutions and public servants are being stopped from doing their jobs due to fear of the minority who are trying to impose a harmful and damaging Brexit on us. We are not some tin pot republic run by despots riddled with corruption.   This tyranny of silence on those who speak to truth is extremely damaging and in the long term will only feed into further mistrust of governments and institutions as the people will say “why didn’t you tell us we would have our economy damaged and our rights removed?  Why did you all tell us we would be better off? Why didn’t you tell us that people cheated to get the result they wanted in 2016”.

Regardless of how anybody voted, if laws have been broken during the EU referendum campaign and if there has been improper foreign interference helping Leave groups,  this should be properly investigated and the full facts should be laid out starkly to the British public   Additionally parliamentarians have a duty to speak out when the policies pursued by government in their opinion will harm the people they represent.

I have written to our local MP Chris Matheson and hope he and his colleagues will reflect on these matters and will stand up for transparency and raise the matter of the illegal activity during the EU referendum in parliament.   The Met Police should hold an investigation with no political interference and the results should be given to the public and looked at carefully in Parliament.  I would urge everybody no matter where they live to raise these concerns with their local MPs as these principles affect each and every one of us

@redalphababe