People's Vote
“Our future is greater than our past.”
The biggest political story in Europe in 2019 is no doubt Brexit, Britain’s exit from the EU. When I read about the People’s Vote March on October 19, I decided that weekend should be the moment to revisit London. It was in the late 1990s I visited London for the last time. After the break-up with my then London girlfriend May Oduah I didn’t feel much like visiting the city afterwards for a long time. Memories and so on. But after twenty odd years I was ready for the city again.
In January of 2019 I started following Brexit. The 29th of March was the moment the UK would withdraw from the EU after invoking Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (2009). This was astounding to me. Why on earth would you give up power voluntarily? This is practically unprecedented in politics. Soon I was spending two to three hours every day following Brexit. Of course, 29 March came and nothing happened. On 21 March the EC extended the deadline until 12 April 2019 but mere days before the PM asked for another extension.
By then Parliament had rejected the negotiated Withdrawal Agreement three times, the third vote was on 29 March. The deadline was extended to 31 October. The new European Commission would take office on 1 November so the final weeks before 31 October were to be very significant.
“Britain has two strong alliances, it has a great alliance with America and it’s part of the European Union, which is the biggest political union in the world and largest commercial market in the world. What on Earth would induce you to think that you’re going to gain by giving up that relationship. It’s an unbelievable act of self-denial. For me, it’s just a very simple thing, power is power.”
Boris’ new deal
It became clear there would be a meaningful vote on Saturday on a new ‘deal’ Boris Johnson agreed upon with the EU27. This was the first time since the Falkland war in 1982 Parliament would assemble on a Saturday. 19 October was to be a ‘super Saturday’. If Johnson could summon a majority in the House of Commons the UK would be on track to leave the EU on 31 October to start a decade long process of negotiating new arrangements with the EU.
Letwin amendment and Benn Act
But then there was former Tory minister Oliver Letwin. He put forward an amendment to withhold approval of Johnson’s deal until the legislation to enact it is passed. There would be no approval of Johnson’s hastily cobbled together deal until the European Union Withdrawal Agreement bill (WAB) of 115 pages and 126 pages of explanatory notes was scrutinised and voted for. The WAB gives Johnson’s deal legal status. MP Sir Oliver Letwin is no remainer. In fact, he supports Johnson’s deal. In his mind his amendment was an insurance policy against crashing out of the EU of 31 October.
Passing the Letwin amendment would also trigger the Benn Act. The Benn Act, officially know as EU Withdrawal (No.2) Act requires the prime minister to ask the EU for an extension to the Article 50 negotiating period, to avoid a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. The 19th was the deadline imposed by the Benn Act. When I arrived in St Pancras International station it wasn’t clear at all if the UK would still be a member of the EU two weeks into the future. The scene was set for the weekend.
The People’s Vote campaign group was launched at an event in April 2018 with the aim to unite anti-Brexit groups. Among supporting groups are For our Future's Sake (FFS) and Our Future Our Choice (OFOC). The October 2019 People's Vote March was the third London march.
One of the people who shaped my ideas on Brexit is Femi Oluwole. I have been following his Twitter account @Femi_Sorry since 2018. Femi is co-founder of Our Future Our Choice (OFOC).
A People’s Vote is the only way out of the deadlock but has no support in Parliament. In the ill-advised 2016 referendum 51,89% voted to leave the EU and since then there has been no consensus on what the future relationship with the EU should be and whether the UK should stay in the customs union and the single market or not. In fact, there was no idea before the referendum how that relationship should look like if people voted for leaving the EU. The referendum was likely won by Facebook micro-targeting campaigns by Vote Leave (a cross party government campaign co-founded by Dominic Cummings) and Leave.EU founded by Arron Banks and Richard Tice. Vote Leave has been fined £61,000 after being found guilty of breaking electoral law during the Brexit campaign. Many of the micro-targeting adds were simply untrue.
Facebook has settled with the U.K.’s data protection watchdog, the ICO, agreeing to pay a £500,000 fine. The ICO concluded that Facebook “contravened the law” — specifically the 1998 Data Protection Act — “by failing to safeguard people’s information.” Data on 1 million UK Facebook accounts might have been used by Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 referendum campaign. Vote Leave put out one billion political adds to 7 million users in the last weeks of the referendum.
UKIPs “Breaking Point” bill board mixes the refugee crisis of 2015 with the issue of economic migration.
The march
The People’s Vote March assembly area was Park Lane (Hyde Park) and the march led to Westminster Square. I arrived a couple of hours early in Hyde Park. At that moment only a group of Scots had gathered at the foot of the Statue of Achilles (Wellington Monument) waving Scottish flags adorned with the 12 golden stars borrowed from the EU flag. The statue commemorates Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852). Somewhat ironically Wellington had a multinational “European” army to his disposition consisting of Dutch troops, the King's German Legion and units from Ireland, Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau when he fought the Battle of Waterloo.
During the march news broke that the Commons voted for the Letwin amendment. There would be no meaningful vote on super Saturday. On Monday 21 October the Withdrawal Agreement Bill would be published for the first time. On Tuesday 22 October MP’s approved the Withdrawal Agreement Bill for a second reading but minutes later in a second vote on a fast-tracked timetable for the bill, Johnson was defeated, again. On Tuesday it was clear the United Kingdom would not leave te EU on the 31st of October. Johnson could have let Parliament debate the Withdrawal Agreement Bill but instead withdrew the Bill and everything went back to the EU for a new extension of the Brexit-deadline, which led BBC-presenter Andrew Neil to say: “Kids are fond of dressing up as zombies at Halloween… but for this zombie Parliament, every day is now Halloween”.
Addendum 30 October: The EU agreed to a January 31 Brexit extension in 2020 and days later a General Election on December 12 was approved in the House of Commons. Everything now depends on the outcome of the GE. It is clear there will be no confirmatory referendum before the election. An election is a hell of a risk to take for the opposition.
Banner by Led by Donkeys.
Quote by Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, February 2019.
Boris’ new deal revived Brexit, barely.
Brixton Market
Whenever I felt hungry in London I hopped on the Victoria Line towards Brixton. I love Brixton market which is technically a collection of Electric Avenue, Brixton Station Road Market, arcade Brixton Village and arcade Market Row. I didn’t find all the Jamaican food stands open at the time of my visits but at least I was able to get some oxtail soup with mostly brown beans and potato. My trip was too short to try proper oxtail stew and ackee, but I will save that for a trip to Jamaica hopefully in 2020 but depending on my mood.
Street food on Electric Avenue.
Jamaican Oxtail Soup
Electric Avenue.
Only after my trip to London I read about Stormzy’s favourite restaurant: Bluejay Cafe on 2 Market Parade Portland Road, South Norwood, London. Apparently they serve the best Caribbean cuisine, including curry goat (never goat curry), ackee and saltfish and jerk chicken. Something to remember for my next visit.
Cheap beer as ‘Brexit benefit’
On my first day I visited the Wetherspoon pub The Knights Templar. JD Wetherspoon’s boss, Tim Martin, uses the pub chain for his political pro-Brexit message. Wetherspoon News magazine is full of rather positive articles on Brexit. He cut the price of a pint of Ruddles ale by 20p to illustrate “Brexit benefits”. A pint could cost as little as £1.39. I ordered a Ruddles but after the barman figured out what I was trying to pronounce, he said: “We don’t do Ruddles”. So I ordered another ale which cost me £3.29. It was clear Wetherspoon prices vary greatly depending on the location. The Knights Templar was located near Fleet Street, so no “Brexit benefit” for me.
“In fact, this will be the first FTA in history that loosens economic ties, instead of strengthening them. Our agreement will not make trade between the UK and the EU frictionless or smoother. It will make it more complicated and costly than today, for all of us. This is the essence of Brexit.”
Conservative Michael Heseltine (born 1933) was one of the speakers in Parliament Square. An excerpt of his speech:
“Our accession led to Margaret Thatcher's pivotal role in the creation of the Single Market. She insisted that our voice at the table was heard alongside France and Germany. She would have been appalled to see us excluded from the top table, and we saw it so clearly on Thursday. Mrs May's dash across the channel begging bowl in outstretched hand, excluded from a lengthy meeting of our former partners. The take-it or leave-it offer.
That is what the Brexiteers have done to our country. A national humiliation made in Britain, made by Brexit.
I look back over the years. 70 years of peace in Europe. 50 years of European partnership. The fascists have gone from Spain and Portugal. The colonels have gone from Greece. Communism hardly features in European politics. 29 parliamentary democracies working together, with power based on a shared sovereignty far in excess of anything any one of us could achieve individually.”