Author Archives: Antony Hook

I have taken part in hundreds of debates, canvassing sessions and media interviews about Europe. At the moment I am doing several debates per week. My experience is that to be persuasive you have to be positive.

Leave campaigners try to suggest that we are campaigning in a negative, “scare mongering” way.  The best way to disprove this is to be positive.  Speak about what has been achieved and can be achieved in future by Britain in Europe.

This article sets out some words, phrases and points that I find work for me. I hope they may work for you too.

BETTER IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE

The risks …

This week the High Court in England heard argument in a legal challenge by UK citizens’ living abroad to their disenfranchisement in the European Referendum on 23 June.

British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years are to be denied the vote, unless (as their counsel pointed out) they hastily move back to the UK.

They cannot vote while Commonwealth citizens living in the UK, whether for a long or a short time, can vote.

Aidan O’ Neill QC for the claimants pointed out the great deal at stake for the claimants – their right to live, work or study …

I remember a time, in the early 2000s, when it felt like every discussion on the future of the Liberal Democrats or of political parties in general mentioned the fact the RSPB had 2 million members whereas political parties were reduced to a few hundred-thousands between them.

This massive organisation has now spoken out in the referendum debate. It has not taken a side but demanded that each campaign answer how the environment will be effected.

My view, taking part in public IN/OUT debates every week, is that the environment itself will not swing a huge number of votes but there are some it …

Gibraltar is part of the UK for purposes of EU membership and will vote in the referendum on 23 June.

The Gibraltar Chronicle has reported on a speech to rally support for Remain by former Deputy Party Leader, Simon Hughes:

Gibraltarians should use their personal, professional and family networks to campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union, Sir Simon Hughes said this week.

The former deputy leader of the UK’s Liberal Party said Gibraltar had a role to play ahead of the ahead of the June 23 referendum on EU membership.

“You have friends, you have family, you have children

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James Kirkup in the Telegraph has analysis of the Treasury’s study that says we would be £4,300 worse off if we leave than if we remain in Europe.  The report is summarised:

The Government analysis is that without full membership of the European Union and access to its single market, UK businesses would find it harder to sell goods and services to customers in the EU and, in some circumstances, elsewhere in the world. The UK would also become less attractive place for foreign businesses to invest. Some businesses would grow less quickly. Some would close down. Over time, the UK

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Travelling the South of England, speaking for Remain at debates and public meetings it has been fascinating to hear the arguments of speakers for Leave.

Phrases I have heard include “remember the English civil war” and “Enoch Powell was right” from speakers from the right of politics and “we owe the Red Army our security” and “we don’t want any free trade” from more left wing Leave speakers. These points are entertainment and have no real traction or credibility with undecided voters.

Another suggestion sometimes heard from Leave speakers, and from Leave-inclined attendees at debates, is that the European Union can makes law about anything it pleases.

This is completely wrong.

The Union’s power to make law is limited to certain areas (technically called “competences”) delegated to it by the 28 States.

If the Union exceeds the powers given to it by the States the law in question would have no effect.

The limited powers of the Union are set out in the Treaties that create the Union. If you want to be technical they are in Title 1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Infacts has a good short article on why Farage is a fool to crow about the Dutch referendum on the EU-Ukraine association agreement.

No doubt he is trying the please Putin, whose regime has funded anti-immigrant / nationalistic / anti-EU parties.

The Dutch vote makes the point that getting all the EU states to agree to an association agreement with Britain, if we were to the Leave the EU, might be difficult and is certainly not guaranteed.

As Infacts rightly say:

Farage and his fellow Eurosceptics like to say that we won’t have a problem getting a post-Brexit deal with the EU.

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Two weeks ago we reported the availability of a Lib Dem #INtogether leaflet for the referendum campaign focussing on the cost of living.  Any member or supporter can order copies  of this leaflet.

There has been a great success with over 400,000 copies ordered in this first fortnight.

There are now two more leaflets available. These focus on jobs and security.  This is what the jobs leaflet looks like (click to enlarge)

Any member or supporters can order copies of these leaflets at cost price of £40 per 1000 (including delivery). This is an effective …

UKIP are hardly in the news now except where plots, rival campaigns and divisions are concerned. They seem to have collapsed from the party that as promising to win 100 seats at the last General Election and got just 1.

An example of this is in South Thanet, which was meant to be their top target at the General Election, with party leader Nigel Farage MEP as candidate. They no longer appear to be taking the seat seriously.  In your top target area you would expect to contest every election vigorously throughout the Parliament, even Town Council by-elections. Some might say especially Town Council by-elections.

5th May sees a by-election in the constituency’s medieval market town, Sandwich. There are only Lib Dem, Conservative and Labour candidates; no UKIP. Given that the area has no regular local elections on 5 May it should not have been hard to find one candidate.

In another part of South Thanet, two UKIP councillors on sick leave from Thanet Council have been charged with shoplifting. UKIP took control of Thanet Council promising to bring about a re-opening of Manston airport. You will not be surprised to hear it remains closed.

Airbus, which employs 15,000 people and the UK and supports another 100,000 UK jobs through its supply chain is backing Remain, reports the Guardian.  The same article reports a survey that found 70% insurance professionals believe that leaving the EU would harm their industry.

Stanley Johnson (father of Boris) says that staying in important for the environment.  He was supported by former Tory Cabinet Minister John Gummer who said:

The people who believe in Brexit do not accept a world in which you no longer have the sort of national power that we had in 1945 or 1900. You now

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Lib Dem Voice reported before on the trial at Southwark Crown Court of Peter Skinner (Labour MEP 1994-2014). He has been found guilty by the jury of around £480,000 of fraud.

The essence of the fraud was misusing funds assigned to him as am MEP for the employment of staff to assist him in his duties as an MEP.  There was clear evidence before the jury that a large part of these funds were diverted for personal expenditure or paid to people who were his family members (and cannot be employed) or did not work for him.  It appears that the …

I wrote yesterday that Tim Farron might be the longest serving party leader by the Autumn. He is certain to lead us into General Election 2020. Cameron and Corbyn have looser grips on their parties.

Liberal Democrats should use this internal stability to answer fundamental external questions.

It seems to me that chiefly among these are:

1. What is our electoral objective for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years? This is essential for answering further questions like whether our candidates should adopt 1 or 2 General Election plans.
2. Do we have non-electoral, legislative, objectives? UKIP and the SNP have legislative goals (repeal of the 1972 and

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Tim Farron is undoubtedly in a more secure position as leader of the Liberal Democrats than Cameron or Corbyn are as leaders of their parties.

Cameron

If Britain vote to leave Europe on 23 June, the public think Cameron should resign as Prime Minister by a margin of 48:41.

I agree with that. By analogy, no self-respecting Chief Executive could remain in post if his shareholders rejected his advice on such a big issue.

Whichever way the referendum goes, it takes 50 Tory MPs to trigger a leadership ballot.  150 have come out against the PM’s position of the EU. It seems very likely that the …

InFacts has an article by two senior lawyers about the affect of leaving Europe on UK citizens’ healthcare rights.

They conclude:

The healthcare rights we enjoy under EU law are specific, practical and make a difference. The risk of losing them illustrate clearly the dangers of Brexit. We might manage to negotiate to keep them – as Norway and Switzerland do. But that could not be guaranteed. Other options, such as the Canada model, would have a significant adverse impact on the welfare of British citizens, whether they are visiting or working abroad or simply wanting the option to be treated elsewhere

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InFacts dismantles Leave’s claims that leaving Europe would make us safer from incoming criminals.

After leaving the EU, the only significant way to make UK border security tighter than it is now would be to introduce pre-travel controls, such as visas, for travellers from other EU countries. But disruptions to business travel and tourism would make this option highly unappealing.

Brexit wouldn’t give Britain any additional control over its borders, but it could potentially jeopardise the UK’s continued membership of data-sharing programmes. ECRIS, for example, is a database set up in 2012 to exchange criminal records information between member

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Business Insider has considered why polls on the referendum show a mixed picture and may or may not be reliable. Many have noted that phone polls give IN a much bigger lead than online polls. A point made in this article is that most phone polls, unlike online but like the real ballot paper do not offer an explicit “don’t know” response.

This may suggest that when confronted with the choice “don’t knows” break for IN (assuming they have taken part in the vote).  This would support the much cited belief that higher turnout will favour IN and lower turnout …

One of the things I do in the party that I very much enjoy is giving training, usually at the party conference, to people who are interested in being a parliamentary candidate.

Having been a candidate for Westminster and the European Parliament, my view is you cannot get enough training and I attend many sessions as a participant too. My colleague on the Federal Executive, Ramesh Dewan, who is also a highly successful businessman, is fond of saying “a champion trains everyday.”

A lot of good training sessions end with suggestions for further reading.  Here are my suggestions for what you could read over the Easter holidays.  All of these are available from well known booksellers online or on the High Street.

Earlier today, in a post publicising the Lib Dem Europe Policy Paper I mentioned Charles Kennedy’s speech in the Europe debate at the party conference, Glasgow, Autumn 2013.

You can watch the speech here:

No-one should think the Lib Dems want the EU to stay the same.

No-one should be in any doubt about the ways in which we want to improve the EU.

No-one should be in any doubt about detailed information on the advantages of membership.

That is because in 2013 the FPC commissioned a working group chaired by Ben Jones to update Liberal Democrats policy on Europe. That resulted in a first-class policy paper that was passed by an overwhelming majority at the Party Conference at Glasgow in Autumn 2013.  The debate is remembered for a barnstorming speech by Charles Kennedy that brought conference to its feet for a spontaneous standing ovation.

LDHQ have published a new A4 leaflet making the case for IN. This leaflet focuses on the specific and very important issue of cost of living. Being IN we have the opportunity to enjoy cheaper prices. 

You can order this leaflet at £40 per 1000 including delivery, which is about as good value full-colour printing can go.  Orders can be up to 40,000 copies.

You need to order by this Friday 25/3/16. But further leaflets and offers to order them will …

Royal Mail delivered a new Stronger IN leaflet to me this morning. It is going out around the country this week. This is the second Stonger IN delivery this year – so far none from the Leave campaign, at least not in my postcode area.  It’s a A3 leaflet setting out advantages for us all of being IN and dangers of leaving Europe.

It is my understanding that the last Stonger IN delivery went to 10m households (about a …

Letters to your local newspaper are a great way to get the IN message across.  You may even be able to persuade the editor to print a full article making the case.

Effective writing in a typical local paper needs to be punchy, direct and local. Short words in short sentences and a local angle on the bigger picture. It also helps to tell a story. Start with where we were, then where we are now, followed by where we could go if the reader joins this great adventure.

My view is the key points to make are Peace, Prosperity, People and rebut Cost and Sovereignty objections. If you do that you make a good case to motivate IN supporters, sway Undecided voters and give some OUT supporters pause for thought.

Above all, stay positive. #INtogether is fundamentally about the hope of a better tomorrow.

England’s geographically closest local newspaper to continental Europe, the Dover Express, asked me to write an IN article, printed opposite a pro-Leave argument.

Liberal Democrats have several #INtogether logo that anyone campaigning for an IN vote can use:

These versions and more are available from the resources portal.

Why not let LibDemVoice know how you use any of these?

Brexit would weaken NATO says a senior US general.

Alan Johnson says the Leave campaign is “Project Fantasy”:

Project Fantasy goes like this. Diminish Britain’s standing by suggesting that Europe is somehow something that is done to us; ignore the ways in which, from terrorism to climate change, we are far more effective working with our partners; label all workers’ protections “red tape” and say the economy would be better off if we could scrap them; ignore the huge economic benefits our EU membership has brought us and try to convince people that there is a land of milk and

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EURef Talking Points is a new series of articles about words that work in everyday conversation,public debates or in writing when you make the case to remain in Europe.

Having spoken at hundreds of meetings on Europe, my personal view is that to make a winning case for IN you need to make 3 points and rebut 2.

The 3 points are Peace, Prosperity, and People.  The 2 to rebut are sovereignty and cost, which are the two Leave arguments that have traction with many people but can both be answered.

In this article, I shall deal with rebutting the cost point.

Leave say that being in Europe costs us £50m a day or £350m …

In speeches and conversations with party members in the South East, I have asked people to make Freedom of Information requests to their local council to ask what EU funding their area has received or applied for.

Several members have done this and one member who has done some really excellent work along these lines is James Moore of Reading.

James made a simple FOI request to his council:

Dear Reading Borough Council,

Please can you provide me with details on how much funding the
Council has received from the European Union since it’s inception
and what projects/building/services did the funding provide for?

Yours faithfully,

James Moore

He received …

The trade union Unison has launched a consultation with its members on the EU referendum.

Any Liberal Democrat supporters who are Unison members should please take part in the consultation and urge your union to speak up for jobs, the cost of living, social protection and the co-operative ethos of the European Union and campaign to keep us IN.

The consultation is here.

Peter Skinner was a Labour MEP 1994-2014 for my region.  He is now on trial at Southwark, England’s specialist court for fraud cases, reports the Telegraph.

accused of using his expenses to pay £10,000 to his ex-wife.

Skinner, 56, is also alleged to have used some of the cash to repair the gearbox on his ex-wife Julie Skinner’s Land Rover Discovery and funded hotel stays, restaurants and jewellery by claiming a maximum £480,000 for support staff over five years.

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Germany’s finance minister says the UK would be shut out of the single market in the event of Brexit.

Investment warning from the experts

The world’s biggest fund management company, BlackRock, says Brexit offers “a lot of risk and little reward” and has explained how it could damage the financial services industry in Britain:

Under one of the potential scenarios analysed by the fund, Britain could be excluded from the “passport” framework , which would deal a significant blow to those looking to sell or advise on investment funds within the EU.

Should such a scenario come into place, investors looking to

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Everyone knows there is going to be the all important EU referendum on 23 June. It’s the biggest political event of our lifetimes and we need to stay in for peace, prosperity and people.

But do you know what will happen on 20 June?  England will beat Slovakia to secure their place in the Quarter-Finals of Euro 2016.

The final is not until 10 July.  So, we will know whether we are going in or out of the EU before we know whether we are going in or out of the tournament.

It will be a busy week for hard core music fans as …