On 27 th January 2018, 16 members of SSTIE (affiliated to the European Movement) campaigned in Swanley speaking to hundreds of Swanley shoppers on the issue of EURATOM, which is the EU agency that oversees, among other things, the supply of isotopes to the NHS for cancer diagnoses.
There were a number of signatories supporting the European Movement petition to the government that the UK should continue to be a member of Euratom after Brexit as we do not have a reactor capable of producing these isotopes.
600 leaflets on the Euratom petition and hundreds of SSTIE’s own leaflet were accepted by Swanley shoppers.
On the general issue of the EU most people in Swanley seemed to take the view that things will work out in the end. They were quite philosophic about it and were heard to say we managed fine before and we’ll manage fine once we are out. At the same time a number were prepared to read and consider our views.
It was interesting to see the extent of support for Remain among the local Labour party people who were also out campaigning on the NHS and with whom a number of us had very positive contacts.
All in all it was a positive campaign and this encourages to return to Swanley which we will do later this spring.