WATCH: Vince Cable at the #PeoplesVote Bristol rally – We can win this

Vince went to Bristol yesterday to speak to the People’s Vote rally. His message was one of confidence and optimism – that the tide was turning in our favour and we could win a People’s vote.

Watch highlights here:

He said:

The situation has changed, the facts have changed. We were all told the British government was going to save vast amounts of money. We now know that’s not the case: there’s the £40 billion divorce settlement, the economy’s slowing down, there’s less money for the NHS.

We were told it was simple – it’s actually proving unbelievably complicated… Another thing that’s happened in the last two years is Trump. The whole premise of Britain embarking on some buccaneering free trading adventure around the world as a country independent of the EU has been completely negated by Trump’s protectionist agenda. This has made a complete and utter nonsense of it.

So our position in arguing against Brexit and for a peoples vote is now stronger than ever.

But we have to work together; we have to work across party frontiers. I happen to be the leader of a party that is fully committed to fighting Brexit. But there are speakers here – Dr Sarah Wollaston and Stephen Doughty, Conservative and Labour Party – and they’re brave. They’re having to speak out against their own party leadership, getting a lot of aggro.

And I just want to thank them and thank the people who are showing that kind of independence of mind. It’s absolutely essential that we stick together, we fight together, we work as a team – and this is now happening.

This is a campaign that we can win. Keep fighting, keep campaigning and we will win at the end of this.

His praise for his co-speakers Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston and Labour MP Stephen Doughty, against the policy of their parties is necessary. They need to be shown solidarity for speaking out. It’s not an easy thing to do amid an increasingly fraught atmosphere in both parties.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings

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9 Comments

  • Barry Lofty 12th Aug '18 - 1:34pm

    So pleased to hear that members of other parties are coming together to fight Brexit, I hope more of them join with us to reverse this awful mess we have got ourselves into.

  • marcstevens 12th Aug '18 - 1:57pm

    Yes Barry I agree. I’d love to see Vince do Q & A sessions around the country on a range of issues. Was Caroline Lucas there?

  • Yeovil Yokel 12th Aug '18 - 5:38pm

    ‘The tide is turning’ is an apt metaphor, and the way the leading Brexiteers are clinging on to their fantasy vision with increasing and mulish desperation reminds me of an incident I saw during a family day trip to Newquay beach about 15 Summers ago. My young daughters and I watched 2 children building an elaborate fairytale sandcastle with the help of their Dad. They spent a long time and devoted much effort to their marvellous creation, completing it with little Union flags posted in the tops of the towers. But then the tide turned, the sea started creeping back up the beach, and the water began lapping at the outer defences. The 2 kids’ vain attempts to prevent the merciless wavelets from crumbling and overwhelming their mighty edifice became increasingly frantic and slapstick, and my daughters laughed like drains at the pantomime performance. Brexit would be similarly farcical and hilarious if it wasn’t so serious.

  • OnceALibDem 12th Aug '18 - 6:39pm

    @marcstevens – a number of other rallies etc planned. Whether Vince is at any/all of them I don’t know but I would suspect they would have strong Lib Dem representation if not.
    https://www.peoples-vote.uk/events

  • Andrew Daer 13th Aug '18 - 7:00am

    One of the messages from Vince and other speakers was the need for people to write to their MPs, urging them to withdraw support for Brexit, and get friends and acquaintances to do the same (my Tory MP already knows my vote is a lost cause).
    Inevitably, some of the focus at the rally was on the fact that the Brexit ship is on the rocks, but I think we now need to change the emphasis; Brexit isn’t going badly because of poor implementation; it’s going badly because the whole idea is fundamentally wrong. If we don’t make this change of direction, leavers will continue to rationalise their vote as a good idea that is just being badly handled (or “sabotaged”). Some leavers are already resigned to getting a bad deal, and then blaming that on the EU (or remainers, or anyone but themselves). Our task is not to talk up the farcical state of talks, but to remind people that changing your mind isn’t an admission of guilt or failure, and that sometimes, when what you know changes, it can be just a really good idea.

  • William Fowler 13th Aug '18 - 7:18am

    I am a Remainer but there is an economic case to be made for Brexit and Free Trade plus paring back State spending to a more tolerable level whilst reforming personal taxes but it is not one the May/Hammond team have a clue how to implement. The problem with Brexit, at the moment, is that we will end up with the worst of all worlds, higher taxes, huge bureaucracy and politicians bloated with their new found powers.

    Hmmm, just a pity that with the possible exception of the Blair clique none of the LIbDem politicians are offering any new policies to ameliorate the influx of low skill workers into the UK from the EU other than vague promises of printing more money to pay for infrastructure and housing upgrades.

  • John Littler 18th Aug '18 - 10:56am

    William Fowler you are being disingenuous at least.

  • john littler 18th Aug '18 - 10:59am

    If that advisory vote in 2016 is maintained as the way forward, then why shouldn’t every election campaign from now on follow in it’s footsteps? By lying, exaggerating, cheating, overspending, using stolen personal data, wiping evidence before a Police raid and continuing a disastrous path for Britain after every bit of evidence disproves what was on offer?

    Not to mention money and online support for the Leave campaign from the UK’s main hostile power, Russia.
    The Russian Republic wishes to break up the EU and western alliances to enable it to gain influence and territories without serious opposition, even if this is rarely spoken of.

  • john littler 18th Aug '18 - 11:02am

    Leave was lead by the disreputable elites.
    The speculators, short sellers of the pound, the pushers of the gig economy for low pay, low rights and standards, the hedge funds and asset strippers, or the professional tax evaders calling themselves investment consultants. All will make a mint off the rest of us.

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