Tag: sevenoaks

New Union, New Name.

West Kent European Movement (WKEM)  was established as a branch of the European Movement UK many decades ago.
 
SSTIE – Sevenoaks Swanley & Tonbridge in Europe was established in 2017 following the 2016 Referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. It became affiliated with the European Movement UK soon afterwards.
 
The two groups remained separate despite them both being part of the EM family, and despite them both covering broadly the same geographical areas.
 
They have had the same aims and objectives but slightly different operating styles.  Like many campaigning organisations both groups went very quiet during the pandemic.
 
But other groups have woken up and are now back out in the big wide world again, and it is probably time that we joined them.
 
With a view to moving this forward we have taken a number of steps and made some changes.

  • WKEM and SSTIE have merged into a single organisation – West Kent for Europe.
  • and we have a new logo.
  • We now cover the constituencies of Sevenoaks & Swanley and Tonbridge & Malling (as we did before), and we have added Tunbridge Wells (where TWIN is sadly no longer active) and also Dartford (which has had no EM local group).

We are signing up to the EM Membership System. Other EM local groups that have done so have found that there are significant numbers of EM member who were not known to them. We hope that this will also be the case in West Kent.
 
These EM members that we do not yet have contact with will not of course receive this email, but we will contact them soon.

What are the Candidate’s positions on Brexit in the 2019 Election – Sevenoaks and Swanley Edition.

As the 2019 General Election Campaign enters its final weeks, SSTIE has tried to distill the local candidates’ statements on Brexit, to try and give a better idea of their respective positions.

This page covers Sevenoaks and Swanley candidates — Tonbridge and Malling is here.

Continue reading “What are the Candidate’s positions on Brexit in the 2019 Election – Sevenoaks and Swanley Edition.”

Sevenoaks Voter Registration Campaign 9th November 2019

We had a successful mornings campaign on Saturday in Sevenoaks. We had about 12 members out with 2 large posters shown below, which were either side of our Brexitometer Board.

The NHS poster caused a reaction from certain leavers who flatly deny that the NHS will be sold off after Brexit, while NHS workers acknowledge that it is being sold off already.

Many passersby were interested in the factual information about voter registration and associated deadline and also the deadlines for Proxy and Postal Voting. As a result we handed out 3 or 4 hundred leaflets.

Register to vote LeafletDownload
NHS not for sale BoardDownload

Remain Alliance active in Sevenoaks

SSTIE Campaign in Sevenoaks Saturday 12th Oct

In the last month SSTIE has invited local political parties who are in favour of a People’s Vote to join with us in a Remain alliance and campaign together. As a result, we had visits to the stall in Sevenoaks from Kyle Marsh PPC for the LDs in Dartford and Helen Fiorini of the Labour Party. This cooperation will  hopefully develop and will be invaluable going forward in the event of another Referendum.

Continue reading “Remain Alliance active in Sevenoaks”

Sevenoaks Town, Saturday 7 September 2019

These are politically turbulent times – nobody knows where we are going and people are both very concerned and aghast at the chaos that Mr Johnson and his cohort seem to be unleashing on the country.

Brexit is Breaking Britain and we need to for a way to fix it. So, on Saturday we asked shoppers in Sevenoaks Town whether they thought we needed to go ahead with No Deal, with May’s Deal, with Johnson’s Deal or whether we should Remain in Europe (which is of course the Deal that we have now).

Continue reading “Sevenoaks Town, Saturday 7 September 2019”

Nearly 80% say they do not want Brexit

Almost 80% of Sevenoaks shoppers told us they wanted No Brexit

In Sevenoaks on Saturday, we canvassed people for their views on whether the UK should leave the EU with No Deal or should not leave the EU at all. There was the opportunity to suggest something else.

Continue reading “Nearly 80% say they do not want Brexit”

Sevenoaks shoppers looking forward to European Parliament elections

Despite heavy rain at the start of our three hour slot, when the weather brightened up people were generally receptive to taking one of SSTIE’s leaflets about the European elections.  A small number of people expressed a view that they wouldn’t be voting and one or two said they would vote for the Brexit Party.  There was a  greater number at the other end of the spectrum who were very keen to vote for a Remain-supporting party, and some who wanted to sign up to our group to help us campaign to Remain in the EU. The atmosphere was civilised and friendly, even with some of the committed Leavers who were happy to shake hands after an impassioned exchange of views.
In general there was a positive attitude about voting in the European Parliament elections and a number of people  indicated that they would be voting Change/Lib Dem/Green. There was a positive comment about the Lib Dems’ new slogan; and of course there was the usual mixture of bizarre comments.

Peter


Voters enthused by the shift to Remain parties in the local elections and looking forward to the EP elections.

European Parliament Campaign        Sevenoaks 4th May 2019

In Sevenoaks it was clear that Remain supporters were supporting the LDs and The Greens in about equal numbers with Change UK  trailing the others.

Continue reading “Voters enthused by the shift to Remain parties in the local elections and looking forward to the EP elections.”