We took a motion calling for affiliation to AEIP to Congress, the debate is on you tube see overleaf/below; one interesting aspect of this debate is that it was opposed due to the view that AEIP took a divisive position in 2019. I was able to reply and took the high road, using the Buffy Somers argument, “That was then, this is now!”. The video and speech are documented overleaf ...
Again I want your support.
AEIP is running its election for its national committee. I am standing again, I hope to continue the work I have been doing in ensuring that the truth about Brexit is known. This is what I said on their candidate statement pamphlet. What i said last year is still relevant. Please vote for me if a member, the ballot links are in your mailbox.
I got on ... thank you
My short statement is overleaf ...
A better Brexit?
Another Europe (AEIP) have issued a pamphlet, called “The fundamental problems in the UK-EU trade deal and how it can be reformed”, it’s release is announced on the AEIP blog and commented on in the Guardian, Labour group urges Keir Starmer to back better Brexit deal
Luke, its author has started a thread on twitter which I have unrolled here. Central is the argument that the negotiated sovereignty is bogus and that it would be more efficient even in liberal terms to synchronise some laws and regulation. It catalogues what it sees as the weaknesses of the agreement and the demands are summarised as,
- Harmonisation with EU standards, with a no-downgrading principle written into future deals
- A review and weeding out of regulatory duplication
- Re-joining EU programmes on the basis of common interest e.g. Erasmus and Erasmus+
- A mutual rights agreement for UK and EU citizens to reinstate free movement rights
- Promoting a democratic economy, with state investment and industrial strategy sitting alongside strong protections against cronyism
- The creation of a forum in which to cooperate on human security and foreign policy
I am disappointed that he doesn’t talk about the customs union, as this is key remedying the collapse of the SME import/export industry and part of the threat to the Good Friday Agreement.
I am also disappointed that he doesn’t talk about Parliament and while I understand why, I think it’s a mistake, but I am equally disappointed with the apolitical nature of UK trade and business commiussion and the support it has won in the PLP. Its a lack of a political defence of the EU and its internationalist future that has led to us being where we are today. …
The EU, too early to ask to rejoin?
I am standing for anothereurope’s national committee, the poll closes tonight, if you’ve not voted, please do so and put me first, I explain why in another article on this blog and in this article I look at rejoining. I had thought “rejoining the EU” to be off the table for years but the post Brexit trade deal is turning to shit even more quickly than I expected. Again, I over-estimate the Tories; if I was planning to fuck up the economy, and betray noisy element of my electoral coalition, I’d have sort have planned to do it over a period of time, inspired by the instruction manual of how to boil a frog, hoping they wouldn’t notice. But no, within days, it’s clear that the threats identified by ‘Project Fear’ are well founded. I believe that we should rejoin, but there are two problems, one the Tories and secondly, there will need to be unanimity amongst the member states and many of them will be fed up with our behaviour over not only the last 11 months but in much of the time leading up to our 2016 vote. We will need to show that we’ll be better Europeans and probably show it for a sustained period. It will take time; in order to mitigate the damage being done to the economy now, I think we’ll have to pursue a stealth mission to re-join the single market either via a swiss route, of a bilateral agreement, by developing the future relationship agreement. This will be hard with this current Government and Parliament, partly because of its hard on for ‘controlling our borders’. The full article says more, with hyperlinks on the economics and on the paths to rejoining, ...
A.E.I.P.
I am standing for a place on the AEIP National Committee. Its role is changing, and I think I have the campaigning and professional experience to help it develop into what it needs to be. If you are a member, you will receive your vote via email shortly. Please use your vote wisely, and for me 😉
I am a Londoner and committed pro-EU activist in the Labour Party ; I supported remaining in the EEC in 1975, and it’s wrong to leave now. This is a lifelong commitment for me.
The need for AEIP is still as great today as we move into a post-Brexit relationship with the EU and that relationship is governed by a Tory Govt and the partnership council. The issues raised by the alternate mandate remain as live today as they were before the treaty on future relationship was signed. I am quite shocked at how quickly even the stuff the Tories supposedly value is falling apart, from fishing, to exports, to creative artists and financial services, the worst predictions are coming true. It seems too few people understood, Johnson’s anglo saxon summary of his industrial policy. The good news is that we can still conduct politics as the treaty is a living treaty with institutions in which we can build coalitions for a better answer. To do that, we need popular support and AEIP is the best instrument for doing that.
I am used to and experienced in arguing for good policy in the Labour Party; this experience will be useful for AEIP as we develop policy and seek support for it. I have written a lot about the economics and justice of the remain case on my blog, http://davelevy.info/tag/brexit/ . I have worked in IT for a series of blue chip companies and am a trained economist. I have expertise in macro-economics, and industrial innovation; I served on one of the predecessor Horizon 2020 incubator committees in the noughties. I am a co-author of the European Union’s software strategy and an expert in data protection law. I believe this experience would be of use to the AEIP national committee.
On Europe and the European Union, I believe in the words of my father, a WW2 veteran, that the EU is a project for peace, it’s been too often forgotten. Free movement and the Charter of Fundamental Rights will come to be seen as the greatest losses, the case on economics was won 18 months ago. AEIP needs to continue to campaign for a better Britain. For more of what I think, I have written a lot about the economics and justice of the remain case here, on my blog, http://davelevy.info/tag/brexit/ …
The campaign to remain
Here’s the AEIP leaflet distributed today. The campaign to remain, at #lab19. …