The People’s Vote campaign today announced a new date for what was expected to be the biggest protests in UK history. Supporters who planned to attend had already booked planes, trains, hotels...
First published in August 2019.
The new march will now take place in London on 19 October – just 12 days before Boris Johnson plans to take the UK out of the EU without a deal. The previous date was planned for 12 October. But the amateur team at the People’s Vote explained that they have just “discovered this would have clashed with an annual fundraising event in Hyde Park to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.”
The GOSH event is a beautiful charity event that takes place every year on the second Saturday of October (last year it was on 13 October). A quick search on Google before choosing that date would have made it clear to anyone at the People’s Vote that the GOSH event was going to be on the same day as the People’s Vote march.
A quick search on Google is all that was needed...
So, why did they go ahead with it? Such amateurism!
And Remainers out there are far from impressed:
People have made arrangements for the 12th; now you are going to split the march - what a f*** up!
— Anne Hulbert (@anne_imp) August 12, 2019
Absolute amateurism. Do you have any idea how many people will already have booked transport and accomodation ? How that will depress turn out on the revised date and embitter activists sho've wasted hubdreds of pounds ?
— David Morton (@DavidMorton359) August 12, 2019
This is not good. No wonder we are in the state we are in.... can’t even organise a sodding march...🙄
— Wheezylouse (@wheezylouse) August 12, 2019
And you didn't know about this sooner?
— KJ Cheetham ❄️ #FBPE 🔶 (@kj_cheetham) August 12, 2019
I wonder how many people have already booked things...
Loads. Flights, trains, hotels. @peoplesvote_uk really need to pull out all the stops now to get companies to give a free date transfer
— Helen🔸#FBPE #RevokeA50 (@brightsider123) August 12, 2019
Tell you what's missing there-an apology to your supporters, invariably from further away, who have already made arrangements and bought tickets to travel to the event on the 12th. That's pretty shitty.
— Heather Clark (@whiteheather17) August 12, 2019
Please retweet and tag in your travel company and hotel for the October March. Many are saying they can’t afford to rebook to get to the march. Let’s see if we can at least get companies to change tickets for this important event. #PeoplesVote #PeoplesVoteMarch https://t.co/REEoPQuBuS
— Anna #FBPE #revokeart50 #mfl 🔶 (@annagrainger) August 12, 2019
A real shame that it is now AFTER the European Council meeting in Brussels. It would have been far more effective to have made an impact BEFORE that meeting. To be even closer to Oct 31st is a real misstep.
— Ann West 🔸🇪🇺 (@Ann_West1) August 12, 2019
Bravo, you've slashed the numbers who can turn up, turned the protest march into something that's too late - rather Corbynesque.
— Cheshire for Europe #FBPE (@Listen2Cheshire) August 12, 2019
So many of our team, families and friends are angry at this and cannot go on 19th.
Have you checked there isn't a WI jam making clash on 19th?
We made travel arrangements because of the 12th October date and now cannot attend, a very poor decision, what about people who have booked trains, planes or coaches. No wonder leave is running rings around us, we can't even organize a march.
— Jim King (@JimKing34049311) August 12, 2019
Could you not have told us a bit earlier? I’ve just booked to be away on the 19th (it’s half term). I’m not angry; just disappointed and frustrated.
— shelley #RevokeArticle50 or #peoplesvote #FBPE (@zoemum) August 12, 2019
Can't go now. Planned for the 12th, gutted.
— Hayley Bristow 🏴🇪🇺 (@Hayley_Bristow) August 12, 2019
Disappointing news - non-refundable hotel and trains already booked for 12th. Shambolic decision making
— Duncan Ross (@RossDunc) August 12, 2019
For the love of god, that’s AFTER the last European Council before Brexit. https://t.co/ULvas9FuQA pic.twitter.com/UlgstIn6FL
— Steve Bullock (@GuitarMoog) August 12, 2019
Compare the Remain side’s amateurism to how really organised the Leave side was in 2016 and still is today (besides them breaching strict spending limits during the EU referendum, using Cambridge Analytica, etc.) to get their message out, loud and clear, on social media, in the media, and... without organising any march (they know they would never reach even half a million people in the street).
Just a thought... Don’t we call mafia-style groups the ‘organised crime’?
In football, when it comes to a major cup game between a big team and a small team, contrary to popular belief the former does not always win. The smaller team sometimes wins against all odds. And what does it all come to in the end? The winner is generally the one side that wants it the most.
The Leave side wants Brexit at all costs.
The question for the Remain side is not whether Remain can win it, but whether they want it the most!
In their announcement, the People’s Vote campaign also explains:
“The new date of October 19 will give the people of the UK the chance to make their voice heard just 24 hours after the end of the European Council meeting in Brussels – ahead of a tumultuous few days that will have a huge and historic impact on our country’s future.”
The good point of having the march on 12 October was that it was then serving the purpose of showing the EU27 leaders – who were to meet just a week later – that the British people was not behind Boris Johnson’s decision to go ahead with a catastrophic no-deal Brexit, and somehow try to influence their decision on whether to offer a new extension of Article 50.
Having now the march after the European Council, this purpose has become pointless. The march will not influence their decision any longer, neither will it influence Boris Johnson or anybody else to make them stop a no-deal Brexit.
With thousands of people now unable to attend the march on the new date... What is the point of having that march at all now?
No, what is needed right now is a General Election on 24 October with a clear choice between a Tories+Brexit Party’s No-Deal Brexit, a Remain Alliance’s Stop Brexit and a Labour Party Neither-Nor.🔷
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[This is an original piece, first published by the author in PoliticsMeansPolitics.com on 12 August 2019. | The author writes in a personal capacity.]
