30/01/2020
Change is coming. There’s no way to put it delicately; tomorrow we will leave the European Union. It’s been a long road to get to this point and there is a longer road ahead of us. I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you of what we’ve done together, to ask you not to despair, to ask you to reach out and end the division.
Four years ago, many of us met for the first time. We came together from all parties and none, proudly defending our common values and building lasting friendships. We were joined by MPs and Peers, actors and comedians, businesspeople and buses. With the struggle for badges and for ever more leaflets, from “Britons Needs You” to our chats in Costa, we knew the result would be close.
Thanks to our hard work, we earned a victory in Newcastle. As the first to declare after Gibraltar, we were briefly the face of Remain and we should be so proud of what we achieved locally. Then followed Sunderland. It became a tumultuous night full of “dumpy towns” and desperate sadness but we got through it together.
After a brief respite, we met once more to move forward. It wasn’t the result we wanted but we knew that it had a democratic mandate which we respected above all else. We became the first local group of Open Britain and carried on campaigning to bring Britain together with a secure and sensible compromise, a solution that lay in the Single Market.
Our calls were unheeded. The path our government was set on did not respect the almost evenly split result and the division in our country grew. It became clear that the only way to resolve the issue was a confirmatory referendum so we threw ourselves into support for a People’s Vote. We continued to campaign locally, hosted rallies, and travelled to million-strong marches in London.
We came so close to turning the tide, but machinations outside of our control cleared the way for the big red bus. Although the General Election did not provide the specific mandate we advocated, the outcome was undoubtedly decisive, and we remain on the path to a different future from the one we had hoped for. I hope you’ve managed to reconcile with that as I have.
Take heart in the words of Jo Cox, who we sadly lost to hatred during the referendum campaign: we have far more in common than that which divides us. Forget about transitory percentages and never judge a person by their party, instead remind yourself of the good we can do when we come together with a look back at more photos from our page and videos from our YouTube channel.
I can’t promise that we’ll go on campaigning but I can say that this isn’t the end. We have a year in the implementation period in which we can continue to enjoy many of the freedoms we’ve held as European citizens, and we can continue to engage in the democratic process. Remember to keep voting, writing to your MP, and making your voice heard. You can always make a difference.
Thank you again for your efforts and support over the last four years.
