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Former diplomat Robert Chase gave a talk on “Some historic and diplomatic arguments for Brexit” at our April dinner starting with key events in Britain’s history, which helped develop our strong sense of separate national identity.

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Your members' weekly briefing rounds up a selection of Brexit-related news from the UK, the rest of Europe and beyond. Click on the blue links for the full article.

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From InFacts

Stop talking about riots, start healing our divided country (Luke Lythgoe)

Brexit militants evoke images of French-style riots in Britain if Brexit does not go ahead (Reuters)

Nothing has changed except PM is wasting two precious weeks (Hugo Dixon)

We must show Labour rebels People’s Vote means change (Luke Lythgoe)

Brexiters sound desperate, fear giving people a say (David Hannay)

Six ways to clean up election law to ensure fair people’s vote (Luke Lythgoe)

Video of the Week

The Conservative Party have come up with a "new" solution to Brexit.  The problem is the solution isn’t new and it won't solve anything. InFact’s Luke Lythgoe explains more in this video.

Brexit Comment

England can be better than the Brexit caricature. We have to make the case for it (Guardian)
“I know what a modern, open, accepting, diverse vision of my country looks like: I see it not just in Bristol, Manchester, Leicester, Leeds and Birmingham, but in endless small kindnesses in places that are too often either ignored or reduced to a Brexit-supporting caricature,” writes John Harris. “We need to seize on such examples and make the case for a new England. When do we start?”

Martin Selmayr is taking over the Brexit negotiations and that’s bad news for Britain (Spectator)
It’s no coincidence that the EU had already prepared a statement on Monday that ruled out any Brexit renegotiation, even before the ‘Brady amendment’, which requested the replacement of the backstop within the withdrawal agreement had been voted on. One of the reasons why, is that a certain Martin Selmayr is now very much sitting in the EU’s driving seat.

Tony Blair: Leaving before we know where we are going is a profound mistake (Times)
Rather than Theresa May’s deal allowing us to turn a corner, it will keep us on the same stretch of road after March and for many years to come. Of course, the public want us to “get on with it”. This is the sentiment the prime minister is playing on. But her deal is a contrivance to avoid a decision on the future relationship and so instead of getting on with it, we will be trapped in the same discord after March.

May wins less a victory than a reprieve; and an extension to Article 50 is still likely (Conservative Home)
Theresa May’s Brexit priority since she became prime minister, increasingly visible as the long months have dragged on, has been keeping herself in Downing Street and her party in one piece. So if she is unable to gain a compromise with the EU... she will try, in the nicest possible way, to muddy the waters, hinting to her party’s soft Brexiters that she will never accept “no deal”, and saying to its harder ones that a new deal is almost there: it just needs a little bit more time.  What will happen then?

An anti-Brexit demonstrator sits next to a pro-Brexit protester outside the Houses of Parliament. (Reuters)

More Brexit News

British Jews apply for German nationality as Brexit looms (Associated Press)
More than 70 years after the Holocaust, Brexit has prompted  thousands of Jews in Britain to apply for German citizenship, which was stripped from their ancestors by the Nazis. “This disaster that we call Brexit has led to me just finding a way to secure my future and my children’s future,” said Simon Wallfisch, a well-known classical singer and cellist.

Exodus of City jobs ‘is irreversible’ (Times £)
Banks will not bring back jobs moved out of Britain in anticipation of Brexit even if the country ends up staying in the EU, industry figures say. There have been signs that financial companies such as Bank of America are pressing ahead with job moves out of the UK to other European cities before the March 29 deadline.

Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller urges UK to ‘lead not leave’ the EU (New European)
“Our initiative will allow all the citizens of the UK to come out of this long period of soul-searching, self-doubt and acrimony with our heads held high; resolved as a union to be rule-makers, not rule-takers; to once again command respect around the world as a force for stability, rather than chaos; and above all, ours will once again be a leader of nations, not a leaver.”

Gina Miller on an anti-Brexit rally last year (Reuters)

NHS trust chief in no-deal Brexit medicine warning (BBC) 
NHS trusts could "quickly run out of vital medicine" in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the chief executive of a leading hospital group has warned

Gibraltar, fishing and Brexit divorce bill could go back on table (Times £)
Renegotiating the backstop could mean reopening issues such as Gibraltar, fishing and the Brexit divorce bill, the frontrunner to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker has warned.

(Reuters)

UK ready to declare martial law to avert no-deal Brexit chaos (Sunday Times £)
Whitehall officials are considering how to stop any civil disobedience resulting from the nation leaving the EU without a deal on March 29. Curfews, bans on travel, confiscation of property and, most drastic, the deployment of the armed forces to quell rioting are among the measures available to ministers under powers that could be invoked.

Bring on no-deal, say Dover’s Brexit backers (FT £)
The port of Dover may be hit more than any other by disruption from a no-deal Brexit, but  many residents critical of government seem unmoved by the prospect. Recent polls suggest that overall around a quarter of voters want Britain to leave without a deal on the scheduled Brexit date of March 29. This is despite warnings about the risks to food and medical supplies, jobs, travel and the UK’s global reputation should the country fail to agree divorce terms with the EU.

South Foreland lighthouse on the White Cliffs of Dover (Reuters)

Enthusiasts of the European Movement who believe Britain should remain in the European Union met at the New Art Exchange, Hyson Green, Nottingham, on Saturday 13th April, for a discussion on the way forward for Britain.

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My name is Linda Bradbury, and I am a member of the European Movement Oswestry and North Shropshire Branch, who is actively involved in the People's Vote Campaign. 

On Saturday 23rd March 2019, I was proud to be one of the 1 million+ who took part in the People's Vote, Put It To The People March in London, demanding a final say for the British public on Brexit. I decided to march because I am passionate about the UK getting a People's Vote and possibly remaining in the EU. 

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A crowd estimated at over one million people on Saturday 23rd March walked through central London to demand a fresh vote on Brexit. It was a good-natured affair with a pop group, a brass band, morris dancers and more, catering for people with a wide range of tastes and backgrounds. The marchers came from as far afield as Edinburgh, Cardiff, Birmingham, to Bristol, Plymouth and Exeter. The East Midlands were well represented.  Nottingham’s People’s Vote Campaign and European Movement were both there in force. Local MPs Chris Leslie and Anna Soubry joined the marchers.

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On Saturday 23rd March the European Movement Macclesfield and East Cheshire descended on London to join more than a million others at the ‘Put It To The People March’ It was not quite a case of ‘Planes Trains and Automobiles’ but very nearly as we used all means possible to get to the capital (including, for the earliest risers, coaches with our colleagues from Staffs4EU and Manchester for Europe).

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L4E secretary Andy Pye talks to his friend and former business colleague Chris Rand, who came down from Cambridge to experience his first London march for the People's Vote campaign.

The campaign is now more than a protest. We are, as Mike Galsworthy says, building a community. A community which is based on a solid foundation, is here to stay and will sustain until the end of the Brexit episode. It is a community which can put comfortably over a million like-minded people onto the streets of London. A community which is based on a solid foundation, is here to stay and will sustain until the end of the Brexit episode. It is a community which can put comfortably over a million like-minded people onto the streets of London.  How extraordinary that as many as 1 in 40 of the entire population of the UK took time off to visit London and protest - just think of what that means.

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