Tag: Tonbridge

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Sevenoaks & Swanley and Tonbridge & Malling (as we did before), and we have added Tunbridge Wells (where TWIN is sadly no longer active) and also Dartford (which has had no EM local group).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.

Stop the Coup protest in Tonbridge

Hats off to Tonbridge Labour group for reacting quickly to the prorogation. The gathering in Tonbridge today had all-party support, with lots of Greens, LibDems and some remarkably outspoken Conservatives saying they’d voted Conservative all their lives and never would again. The demonstration included a number of Leave Voters were there too, objecting to the way Take Back Control was leading to Boris Johnson’s power-grab from parliament.

Heather Martin reports having walked to the demo with her “Yes to Europe. No to Boris” sign and being stopped by young people saying “Thank you for doing this!”

Continue reading “Stop the Coup protest in Tonbridge”

Joint SSTIE and T&M4EU campaign finds great interest in the European Parliament elections in Tonbridge

Saturday 18th May in Tonbridge

No sooner had we set up our stall at Botany in Tonbridge (see attached photo) than along came the Brexit Party with balloons for youngsters in buggies.

Continue reading “Joint SSTIE and T&M4EU campaign finds great interest in the European Parliament elections in Tonbridge”

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.”

SSTIE in Tonbridge 9th March

While we were setting up in Tonbridge at 1000, 4 members of the Tonbridge Labour Party, who were heading for a meeting in London stopped and leafleted with us for an hour. We very much appreciated this gesture.

Four members of Tonbridge & Malling For Europe also joined with us and again we were delighted to have their support.

Together with the 11 SSTIE members who were in Tonbridge on Saturday this made a  formidable leafleting group – so much so that one passer-by remarked that there were too many of us! We actually distributed many leaflets entitled  The lies and truths of the EU, Imagine If, and the Arrangements for the March on the 23rd.

Common themes on Saturday were:

a) that those Leavers who stopped and spent any time with us had not changed their mind since the referendum 2016.

b) those who refused to take leaflets did so politely; and

c) Remainers seemed more  encouraged

Our posters are taken from the Led  by Donkeys campaign

70% of Tonbridge shoppers want a Final Say

On Saturday morning we asked shoppers in Tonbridge whether they wanted a Final Say on Brexit and 435 people put a sticker on the board:

  • 291 want a Final Say vote
  • 121 do not want a Final Say vote
  • 23 people did not know

Of the people who knew what they wanted, over 70% wanted a Final Say vote.

At least three former local councillors had their say – one Tory, one Labour and one LibDem – and they all wanted a Final Say. Tom Tugendhat, the Tonbridge and Malling MP was out with a photographer and told one of our group that he would return and have his photo taken with us – sadly he had not done so when we packed up at one o’clock.

Many said they were fed up by the whole rigmarole, but also a number who wanted a proper vote, feeling that the first was based entirely on lies

The main argument that we heard against a Final Say was that we have already voted and it would be undemocratic to have another vote.

There is a very negative view, by both those saying Yes and those saying NO, of the Government, the Labour leadership, and of politicians generally for the way in which this is all being dealt with.

The demand for a People’s Vote is growing

SSTIE Brexitometer evidence shows that The demand for a People’s Vote is growing

Tonbridge 8th Dec 2018

SSTIE were aided on Saturday 8th December by some Tonbridge people from other groups and most encouragingly by several new people joining us at our Brexitometer. This bustle of people became a magnet for many passers by and drew many into discussions with us.

The results of our polling speak for themselves with 78% in favour of a People’s Vote and 73% in favour of No Brexit. These results echo what SSTIE has uncovered in the past fortnight in Swanley and Sevenoaks.

Continue reading “The demand for a People’s Vote is growing”