Thursday March 3rd 2016
Tom Walker of Grassroots Out
Article by Tom Walker, of Grassroots Out
On Thursday the 23rd June a referendum will take place to decide whether we stay a member of the European Union. Grassroots Out is a cross-party, grassroots campaign to encourage people to vote to leave the EU.
Grassroots Out was started by politicians from a range of political backgrounds including Kate Hoey of Labour, Tom Pursglove of the Conservatives, Nigel Farage of UKIP and Sammy Wilson of the DUP. The GO movement in Scotland is equally diverse with volunteers from all walks of life representing all political viewpoints.
I am personally not associated with any political parties and have never campaigned for anything before but I got involved due to my opposition to TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). TTIP would bring devastating consequences to the NHS and I was glad that it has been condemned by Midlothian Council at a meeting in November, stating that “it risks public service provision across the UK”. (http://www.midlothianview.com/news/midlothian-council-adopts-strong-anti-ttip-motion/). My partner and I are both doctors that live in Loanhead, and we will be both be volunteering to help encourage everyone in Midlothian to vote to leave the EU.
We will always be a part of Europe but the EU is run for big business, big banks and big politics – not for ordinary people. Every Treaty since the 1950s has given Brussels more power and the new Treaty is planned to take more power from EU members including power over taxes. Some people talk about remaining to influence the EU from with but the UK has relatively little influence in the EU. It’s incredibly difficult to make changes, and we’re consistently outvoted in the EU Parliament. The UK has not managed to block a single proposal from the Commission, like TTIP, passing through the Council of Ministers despite trying 55 times.
Leaving the EU will have a great impact on people from all walks of life. Powers over fishing would automatically default back to Holyrood and would return jobs to our coastal regions. We pay £4.6bn annually to the Common Agricultural Policy and only get £2.9bn back. This is not fair on our taxpayers or our farmers. We send £350 million a week to Brussels – money we could spend on our own schools, hospitals and services.
We are delivering a positive message to show the people of Scotland that we will continue to prosper and grow without the European Union. We will be delivering leaflets and holding more street stalls to continue to raise awareness. If you would like to volunteer to help or learn more, please email:
edinburgh.leave@gmail.com
Grassroots Out will have a street stall in Penicuik town centre on Saturday to raise awareness about the upcoming referendum on membership of the European Union. It will be part of a national “action day” with hundreds of similar stalls in towns + cities across the country.
