LME – davelevy.info

A manifesto for the Labour Movement for Europe

I am standing for election to the LME national committee in the London region.

I’ve been a member of the LME for many years.

It’s interesting that over the last couple of weeks it seems that even the government recognises that we need a better trade agreement with the European Union and that the “reset” is not going well.

Mood is not enough.

The simplest and most complete relationship is of course full membership which I support. We need to rejoin.

Brexit is a mistake and more and more people realise this.

But the UK cannot rejoin the European Union until it is ready to be good citizens, this will not happen without Labour commitment and leadership.

If elected I will seek to bring the LME to a position where it campaigns to rejoin the single market in preparation for rejoining the European Union and calls on the Party to commit to full membership of the EU and to argue for rejoining as good citizens.

This Labour government has the impossible policy of seeking to Fix Brexit; this is not possible. The Labour Government’s cherry-picking approach is making little headway and the claim that they will not sign deals not in the interests of the British people while pursuing a topic by topic approach makes achieving deals at speed exceedingly hard and provokes resistance in the European Union and its member states.

Labour needs to commit to rejoining when the time is right, commit to joining the single market as soon as possible i.e. this parliament and if elected to the National Committee, I will do my best to see that the LME plays a role in bringing Labour to these positions.

That’s what I want to do, and that’s why I want to be on the committee as I think my views will make a difference however I’m a lifelong IT worker having worked in development, operations, and policy, finishing with time in privacy compliance. I also served on committees running the predecessor to the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. These skills and experience might be useful to the committee and organisation.

I am on the national committee of Another Europe, and work with Citizens Takeover Europe. I am a Labour Party member in Lewisham North.

The vote is by a preferential voting system, I’d ask for your first preference and to transfer to anyone else who argues that we need to rejoin.

Image Credit: by me, CC 2017 dfl1955 BY-SA …

No more a nation of shopkeepers

I went on the National Rejoin March. These are the notes I made if I had been chosen to represent Another Europe on the platform.

Now we have a labour government, one that claims to represent its federal party constituents and its voters. Unfortunately, would seem not on the question of European Union. The majority of Labour’s voters and members both support rejoining the European Union.

The LME, Labour’s pro-Europe socialist society, issued a call to attend their Labour Party conference fringe, claiming that in Parliament their membership was larger than the Tory party. It is probably not very helpful; the PLP is in fear of the leadership and so it’ll be sometime, if ever, before the LME members will find their voice and commitment. Their behaviour in the selections and manifesto making process illustrate a supine attitude towards the leadership, who had variously announced, “Not in 50 years” and that they would “Fix Brexit”.

The LME did not call for the rejoining of any element of the European Union, basically opposing joining the customs union and the single market. These Labour’s MPs join those journalists, consultants, and academics for whom their career and reputation is more important than their cause.

The persistent attempt to cleverly design demands that allow the government to claim they’re not rejoining but are in some way improving or resetting our relationship with the European Union is dishonest and will fail.

Even a medium term project to rejoin the Union or the single market requires the Labour Party and its Government to change its mind. Those of us who are still members need the help of those who are not.

The job of left wing, and all rejoiners, is to argue that the UK will not be permitted to rejoin until its ready to be a good citizen and to convince the people and their parliament that it’s an advantage to be members of a united Europe where member states and people act in solidarity.

We must leave the mentality of the “Nation of Shopkeepers” behind us. …

Post Brexit Citizenship

I attended the LME/New Europeans webinar on citizenship and Brexit yesterday, here is what I heard and learned.

There are political and economic demands, if we look at the political demands, they include

Citizenship rights for all residents, including the right to vote
The need for a fast and cheap route for citizenship, many residents have been here for decades
The UK currently permits dual citizenship, this should be retained and we need to argue that those European states that prohibit it should allow foreigners to have dual citizenship, this will benefit those in the UK and UK citizens in the EU
The current legal regime in the UK means that the hostile environmemnt will be extended to many EU citizens who are long term residents, it shows the injustice of the hostile environment; it must be repealed and both the health surcharge and NRPF must be abolished.
Access to Erasmus must be maintained.

Three insights were offered about the UK’s european diaspora, 80% of it are of working age, the stripping of their votes after 15 years absence is hurtful and demeaning. The likely loss of intra-European/Schengen freedom of movement is also a significant loss of rights.

How does Labour and its progressive allies work to defend the rights of its European diaspora.

British citizenship and naturalisation rules need to be exemplary and include voting rights for all residents and then we can argue for reciprocal citizenship rights. The post transition agreements need to ensure that British Citizens in the EU keep their rights to free movement. ( The proposed retaining of the British Isles Common Travel Area might be an effective precedent and enabler for this change.) Once the UK is behaving decently, then it might be possible to argue for fast track citizenship processes for British citizens resident in the EU. (Most European countries will need to consider their language qualification rules, as will the UK if it wants reciprocity.

One of the problems with the reforms immediately above is that it would seem to be Tory Party policy to retain our unfair and racist immigration rules, and thus changing them to make reciprocity worth offering will be politically very difficult.

Another reform in the EU which would make life easier for the UK diaspora would be movement towards a common social security policy. The irony being that this might be more likely now we’re out than if we’d stayed, although, still not easy. …