In 2018, I joined Stratford4Europe on their street stall outside the Post Office. We had our flags, berets, capes and badges in blue and yellow with stars. Just to make sure that people knew we were on the Remain side.
In those early days after the referendum, we had lots of discussions on those Saturday mornings. There were plenty of Leavers, with lots to say how wrong we were! But there were as many Remainers, despite the politics of Stratford in 2018.
I have dozens of photos from these stalls and the four major marches in London. We went regularly to London to support Steve Bray.
Minds are changing
The stall on 18 February in Stratford was very different from those early years. We had a good team and people were keen to have a chat. The stickers show that political opinion has been gradually moving on.
We had a new chart too. We wanted to know how people felt about the government’s plan to remove thousands of EU restrictions.
We chose four questions:
- Should food standards be lowered?
- Are you happy for your rights at work to be reduced?
- Should large polluters be able to damage rivers and beaches with no consequences?
- Should our rights expire at the end of the year?
All went for NO! People in Stratford (as elsewhere in England) were horrified at the state of our rivers. Right now, only 14% of them are graded as ecologically good.
It’s really interesting that so many people have changed their minds. All the polls currently show that Labour is in a prime position.
It’s still a long time until the general election in 2024. But Stratford4Europe keeps going.
