Natalie Bennett: With the right campaign, we can stop Brexit

We have the chance to hold a second referendum and stay in the EU. But only if the campaign is led by the grassroots.

The need for a so-called ‘second referendum’ – or as I’d prefer, a ‘ratification referendum’ – on Brexit is now clear. And it’s winning a wide range of backers, including the OECD just this week.

First and most fundamentally, democracy demands it. The vote on June 23rd 2016 set a direction of travel. It said, to put it in concrete terms: ‘drive north from Sheffield’. But depending on where you’re heading and the distance travelled, that allows for a wide range of destinations, from Leeds to John O’Groats.

Nothing in the referendum debate, or the vote, indicated which of those it might have been – or any point in between. Daniel Hannan, Nigel Farage and many other arch-leavers at various times said we could stay in the single market. The idea of ‘no deal’ was not even on the radar.

Secondly, we don’t have a stable government or a united Cabinet. The one we’ve got can’t even manage a debate among themselves on what destination they want.

The government aren’t providing leadership. So it must revert to the people.

Thirdly, party politics no longer gives people in most places a choice in our current electoral system. There are fervent Leave MPs within a lukewarmly a Labour Party that supports a long-transition period but eventually Brexit.

And there are passionate Remainers in the largely Leave-backing Tory Party. Only the Greens and Lib Dems line up fairly solidly behind a Stop Brexit position. So with our current politics, an election can’t solve the Brexit mess. (Indeed, with our current electoral system, an election can’t solve anything at all).

The people decided the direction. They must also be allowed to decide whether the final destination is what they want. That means a ratification referendum.

The argument is further strengthened by the fact that the debate since June 2016 has gradually built a far greater public understanding of the issues of Brexit – something that should have happened before the first vote, but couldn’t possibly in the scant period provided.

I think of an audience at the Green Belt festival. After an explanation of the insoluble problem of the Irish border, an audience member expressed with exasperation – to general approval: “Why weren’t we told this before the vote?” People have been told now, and have had a chance to hear.

If the ratification referendum were held at the end of 2018, if and when a deal had been done (or it had become clear that a deal would not be done), the public will be in a far better place to take part than they were in 2016.

But speaking as someone who wants Britain to remain as part of the EU, I sympathise with the cry I heard in York last weekend at a Citizens of Europe event: “But what if we lose the second referendum?”

That’s why it is crucial that we start now to look to build the case for a Remain campaign that looks vastly different to that of 2016. That means this needs to be a campaign led from the grassroots, making the people’s case for Europe.

We need to make the case for EU membership as the way that we can work together with people across Europe – to build a different sort of Europe.

There’s much that needs to change, to democratise, in Europe, as the Green Party has always said. But we’re starting at least starting from a better base than in Westminster.

If we’re going to make multinational companies pay their fair share of taxes, we’re far more likely to succeed by working together through the instruments of the EU than on our own.

If we’re going to defend the environmental standards hard won over decades in the Union, far better to stay in and keep them by default, than put them seriously at risk, as Brexit is doing.

If we’re going to defend human rights in the UK and elsewhere, operating through a multinational format is clearly the way to go.

As I write, the European Parliament vote on banning the glyphosate weedkiller has yet to be taken. But however it goes, there’s no doubt that citizen activism has been a key force in bringing a ban on this ubiquitous product into the range of the possible.

And when it comes to the neonicotinoid pesticides that are harming bees and other pollinators, it was our EU partners who helped drag the UK into this essential step for all of our futures.

None of these were arguments which David Cameron and his friends were ever going to make in 2016. Indeed, they never seriously tried to make any kind of positive case for the EU at all in the first referendum.

But we have the time now to build a different kind of Remain campaign. Not a lot of time, true. We need to start today.

Natalie Bennett is the former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales

12 Responses to “Natalie Bennett: With the right campaign, we can stop Brexit”

  1. Dave Roberts

    So the Greens don’t believe in democracy. I voted remain but I am sick of the left’s contempt for those who didn’t and the way they portray them as fascists.

  2. Chester Draws

    The government aren’t providing leadership. So it must revert to the people.

    The very people that voted Leave, despite the government of the day opposing it?

    And then proceeded to vote for the party most likely to deliver it in the general election. (Or has Ms Bennett conveniently forgotten that her side didn’t win the second round either?)

    Ms Bennett didn’t like a first referendum, didn’t like the general election but somehow has convinced herself that it’s all a stitch-up and third time will be a charm!

  3. Mike Stallard

    “But speaking as someone who wants Britain to remain as part of the EU,”

    You bet you do! Greenpeace and a lot of other greenies are lobbying like mad there and their views are consequently the policy of the EU. Fracking anyone? Wind power? Solar panels in rainy old Britain in the winter?

    If you really want us to be governed by a distant, probably corrupt committee of unelected foreigners in perpetuity the of course you will stay in the EU!

    We need to accept reality, to join EFTA/EEA as the least worst option and go from there. That way, Ireland, the ECJ, and the money problem can easily be settled and trade simply will not be an issue. And we can leave the ghastly EU too.

  4. Chris Lovett

    Well, that has brought the fruit cakes out, emboldened no doubt by the aftermath of the ridiculous non binding opinion poll in June 2016. Let’s deal with Mr. Stallard’s contribution first. Fracking is banned in many EU states – it’s a British problem. Wind is now the cheapest energy source – as I type 27% of the UK’s electricity is being generated by wind power. (https://winderful.diascreative.net/) Solar pv works even on dull days and the cost of pv panels is falling constantly.

    The EU undemocratic? Brexiteers often claim that the EU is run by ‘unelected bureaucrats’. It isn’t true. The European Commission has a role in administering EU law, but it isn’t in charge.
    Laws can only be passed by the DIRECTLY ELECTED European Parliament, together with the Council of the European Union, whose members are the ministers from each government of EU countries.
    The European Parliament has the democratic power to accept, amend or reject proposed laws and regulations.
    The European Commission President is ELECTED by the Parliament, which must also approve the individual Commissioners. The Parliament has the democratic power to sack the entire Commission at any time during its five-year tenure.
    Indeed, the Commission is ultimately responsible to the elected Parliament, and not the other way round.
    Another organisation, called the European Council, consists of the democratically elected leaders of each EU country. It’s separate to the Council of the European Union, and often people get the two organisations mixed up.
    The European Council sets the political goals and priorities of the European Union. It does not negotiate or adopt EU laws, but it does decide the agenda that the European Commission must follow.
    Treaties, and any new country joining, have to be unanimously agreed by the Parliaments of every single EU country.
    Indeed, all EU treaties since Britain joined 44 years ago were fully debated and democratically agreed by our Parliament in Westminster. Not once were any changes to our EU membership imposed upon us, and neither could they be, as the EU is a democracy.
    Between 1999 and March 2016, the UK was indeed outvoted in the Council 57 times. It abstained 70 times, and voted with the majority – wait for it – 2,474 times.
    According to recent research by VoteWatch Europe, over 97% of adopted EU laws in the last 12 years were supported by the UK government and MEPs.
    During our membership, Britain has helped to run and rule the EU, and not the other way round. Whatever the EU is and has become, Britain helped to create it.
    Indeed, the EU can become whatever all its members unanimously agree it can become. But of course, that only applies to EU members, and not to ex-members. Outside of the EU, Britain will only be able to watch as the future of our continent is decided without us.

  5. greg

    Indeed, Mike S, so-described ‘Green’ organisations are actually paid by the European Union to lobby the European Union; it’s beyond parody.

    As for Ms Bennett, does she take the British people for fools?

    Does she honestly believe that 17.4 million people will merely shrug and continue having EU constitutions being imposed upon them?

    Deluded.

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