By Anna Damski
Off-season, Southwold is a sleepy town on the mid-Suffolk coast, with a pretty high street full of independent shops that runs northwest from the beach. On Saturday morning, with the weather set to be cool and variable, we set up our stall outside the closed-down Lloyds Bank building next to a stall run by local environmentalists. They were happy for us to be there – they know the EU will do far more to combat climate change than a post-Brexit Britain.
Unlike other locations where we’ve attracted a crowd, we had more of a steady trickle of people coming up and voting on our Brexitometer, with around half of them visitors from outside the area. We were promoting the London march by handing out leaflets about it, and a number of people told us they were intending to go, which was heartening.
With six of the committee and several volunteers, there were enough of us to have some good conversations and keep the Brexitometer manned. As something different, I decided to do a live feed of our stall on Facebook showing what goes on when we set one of these up. While not many watched in real time, it ended up getting nearly 200 views and lots of ‘likes’ later on.
Most of those we chatted to were already Remainers who were concerned about the events going on in Westminster, with a number of amendments to come later this week. All of us are holding out hope that a call for a second referendum will pass.
The biggest change to note is the number of people who are now voting to revoke Article 50, rather than put it back to the people. In the past, there’s always been a sense that democratically, a referendum would be the correct step to resolve parliament’s impasse, but as we approach the deadline later this month with little to show that there will be any resolution, Remainers seem to be hardening their stance and would now prefer parliament to take the reins and stop the process before we fall off the cliff of a no-deal Brexit.
In the end, the weather got the better of us when a squall hit us with rain and wind and we decided to pack up early after less than two hours on the street. In that time, though, we had about 50 engagements on the Brexitometer and had handed out lots of leaflets. The only thing left was to repair to the pub opposite for some welcome refreshment.
