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Irish Government committed to providing £1.7m of funding to enable Northern Ireland to participate in the Erasmus+ scheme
August 01, 2023
Meet the new Young European Movement Board
July 21, 2023
The European Movement's 2023 Grassroots Conference
July 17, 2023
'Baffled' UK Scientists Urge Rishi Sunak to Strike Horizon Deal
July 13, 2023
Britain, Equality and the EU; A ‘Progress’ Report
July 11, 2023
New film for NHS' 75th birthday takes direct aim at Brexit architects
July 05, 2023
Happy 75th birthday, NHS. 🎂 #NHS75 pic.twitter.com/b5PAzP1eXC
— European Movement UK (@euromove) July 5, 2023
A new film, called ‘Brexit Dead Ringer’, released for the NHS' 75th birthday takes aim at leading politicians who lied about the health service to deliver Brexit in a film that is striking, bleak and utterly compelling.
The film, produced by Apostrophe Campaigns for the European Movement, shows a man calling the NHS to book an appointment in a split-screen sequence calling back to one of the most memorable and disingenuous Vote Leave ads from the EU referendum.
Vote Leave’s 2016 split-screen ad depicted overcrowded hospitals, with overworked staff drowning in paperwork alongside a parallel, imagined world where Brexit has magically turned the United Kingdom into a perfect utopia, thanks to an NHS with an extra £350m a week after leaving the EU.
The European Movement’s advert, released exclusively to The Independent, takes a swipe at the original “disingenuous propaganda.” Their film reminds viewers of those lies, showing us the reality of empty building sites and unanswered phones in place of the promised new hospitals and properly compensated staff.
In the new rip-off split-screen, a man attempting to make a hospital appointment has his call quickly answered on one side of the screen, whilst on the other, nobody picks up. Instead, we hear the piercing, jarring and relentless ringing of a bright red phone.
It sharply divides the false promises made by the Brexit campaign from the reality of post-Brexit Britain.
The phone call made in the film goes through to ‘Extension 350’ (another dig at the £350m a week promise) before the camera pulls back to reveal that the phone is hanging on a paper-thin, fake wall, in an unused building site, with the promised funding nowhere to be seen.
An answering machine tells him, “You’ve reached one of the hospitals built with the £350m a week for the NHS when we took back control.”
The phone disconnects with, “Message box full, goodbye.”
The caller is left with no response and no way to get help, appearing unsure why the fantasy he was sold hasn't come to pass; a voice-over tells us, "They want you to forget their Brexit lies. Don’t.”
We are then delivered an urgent call to action: “Join the Battle for the Soul of our Country".
Emma Knaggs, Interim CEO of the European Movement, said:
“In 2016, the Leave campaign released a series of deliberately misleading adverts, spinning a fantasy of a well-staffed, well-funded NHS with near-empty emergency rooms populated exclusively by smiling, uninjured patients. They claimed Brexit would inject £350 million a week to spend on the NHS, building a new hospital every single week. It was a lie then, and it’s a lie now.
“As we celebrate 75 years of our beloved NHS, the European Movement is the only organisation with the courage to call out the deliberate deception and propaganda of the Brexit campaign that has pushed hardworking staff and our invaluable service to the edge.
“They want you to forget their Brexit lies. Don’t. Don’t let them get away with it. We can't allow politicians complicit in these gross fabrications to sweep it all under the carpet and ignore their culpability — Brexit has been a disaster, especially for healthcare, and everyone knows it.
“Decades of Brexit lies, cover-ups and scandal are finally catching up. Britain cannot thrive whilst crippled by Brexit. The European Movement is the only organisation with the courage, confidence and commitment to reverse the calamity of Brexit and win the Battle for the Soul of our Country.”
Mike Galsworthy, Chair of the European Movement, added:
“The truth has always been that Brexit was a bonfire of public money and that, in fact, EU citizens were adding more to the supply side of the NHS than the demand side.
“Without EU doctors and nurses feeling welcome here and with huge sums of money consumed by Brexit, our NHS is under huge strain.
“The European Movement is the only organisation with the courage, confidence and commitment to call this out, reverse the calamity of Brexit and lead the country back to a place where fellow European nurses, doctors and carers feel fully welcome in our NHS and this country again.”
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For more on this, see our breakdown of 10 ways that Brexit has been a disaster for our NHS.
Sir Nick Harvey becomes CEO of the European Movement
July 04, 2023
The EU has changed since UK left – what now for Brexit Britain?
July 03, 2023
European Movement UK does Pride
July 03, 2023
Monthly Chair Report | July 2023 (Members Only)
June 30, 2023
What a month it has been.
We’ve smashed through the 20,000 members barrier and have taken on Dominic Grieve as our new Vice President! Plus – we have an exciting new CEO.
Membership
A massive ‘welcome’ to over 1,300 new members since my last update a month ago! At the time of writing, I see our live membership counter is clocking in at over 20,800 European Movement members. We’re becoming a mass movement fast – and I want to thank all of you who helped us reach this target. Also a big ‘thank you’ to all the local groups who are encouraging their lists of followers to come onboard. We’re growing at pace and it's very exciting!
Dominic Grieve
I’m absolutely delighted that Dominic Grieve accepted our offer to become an EM Vice President (alongside Vince Cable, Caroline Lucas MP and Baroness Joyce Quinn) and that his appointment was so overwhelmingly and enthusiastically approved by our Executive Committee and National Council. Dominic is a champion of our movement and the affection between him and our grassroots is clear to see. Since his announcement as our new VP, we have seen another wave of new members. See The New European article on his appointment.
A new CEO of European Movement
I want to take this opportunity to thank our former CEO, Anna Bird, for her leadership and stewardship of the movement. Under her tenure, the membership has grown by 50%; turned the organisaiton into a laser focused, campaign driven movement which has contributed to a significant shift in the public’s opinion of Brexit.
Anna left big shoes to fill, and the recruitment process is now complete. We were very flattered by the calibre of applicants and, despite the range of strengths presented before us, we all settled on one candidate. The new CEO will take up their new role on July 17th. I cannot tell you who it is yet, but you’ll be finding out very shortly!
On behalf of everyone at European Movement UK, we owe a huge ‘thank you’ to Emma Knaggs, our Interim CEO, for her flawless work in stepping up to the plate and running the team. Emma will soon return to her role as Deputy CEO & Head of Grassroots Engagement.
European Movement in Scotland (EMiS)
Last Saturday, I went to Edinburgh and Glasgow to visit European Movement in Scotland. I enjoyed spending time with the EMiS Chair, David Clarke, meeting with the Exec about their priorities, dropping in on the Young European Movement meeting up there and then talking at a rally in the evening. Scotland is its own nation with its own political environment and that’s why at EMUK, we know the right way forward for pro-Europeanism in Scotland is to get behind EMiS and resource them with everything they need to be THE society-wide cross-party driving force for rejoin in Scotland. We’ve laid out some plans together on how best to do that and are working on them now, so … watch this space! And you can read some of my thoughts on it in my interview with The National.
In case you missed it…
Make sure you catch up on two articles by European Movement President, Lord Heseltine: The first being on Boris Johnson’s departure where Heseltine says that Johnson’s “real legacy is Brexit, the biggest historic mistake this country has made in peacetime” and the second being a follow-up entitled: “With Boris disgraced and his Brexit project failing, we must rethink joining Europe”.
Also, did you see the stunning finding that only 18% of Leave voters think Brexit has gone well? Hardly a ringing endorsement of the calamitous project! In fact, there’s more bad news for Brexit coming out of the Covid Inquiry too, as it’s becoming increasingly clear that part of our poor preparation and response to covid was down to no-deal Brexit risks dominating the government’s attention. It is interesting to see just how much bite the Covid Inquiry has when it comes to setting the record straight. Surely that only strengthens the hand of the campaign for a Brexit Inquiry, run by Leeds for Europe.
Finally, we would just like to note the beautiful message that Sadiq Khan sent to EU citizens in the UK on the seventh anniversary of the Brexit vote. In fact, we liked it so much that we invited him to echo that message again in an email to our followers. If you missed it, search your inbox for his name and an email entitled “Europe is a core part of our identity” – it’s bang on about the values we should be championing.
Until next time,
Dr. Mike Galsworthy, July 2023