Brexitwatch: Get your council to fight for a People's Vote

The Scottish Parliament has become the latest democratic body to support the demand for a 'People's Vote' referendum on any Brexit terms that Theresa May may secure. Other supporters include trade unions and local councils, including a dozen London boroughs. More, including Brent, Islington, Kingston, Redbridge and Southwark are due to decide whether to join up soon. My own council, Camden, is due to take a view on Monday.

Below is the email I have sent to my local councillors. Please note: it is crucial that any vote contains a 'Remain' option. Without it, any referendum will be a sham.

Dear Councillors,

I understand that the council is deciding on November 12 whether to join the many democratic bodies now demanding that there be a 'People's Vote' referendum on any exit arrangement negotiated by the government with the EU.

I trust you will support this demand, and that you will also insist that any vote must include a 'Remain' option. Without that, any vote will plainly be an undemocratic sham.

If I were to list all the reasons why you should support a People's Vote, you would not have time to read them, but here are just a few:

1. Any Brexit will seriously damage the UK, and particularly the people Labour is supposed to care about.

2. The people of Camden are aware of this and overwhelmingly reject Brexit.

3. The Brexit promised by the Leave campaign cannot and will not be delivered.

4. The referendum of 2016 was won by lies, criminality, gerrymandering of the electorate etc.

History will judge very harshly those who supported, facilitated or failed to do their best to stop Brexit. Don't be one of them. Do the right thing.

Yours sincerely

John Withington

The war on drugs - Jamaica

Seldom has the “war on drugs” been seen in more graphic action than on the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, as security forces try to arrest, at the United States’ request, the alleged narcotics baron Christopher “Dudus” Coke. 73 people have now been killed, and, as in so many wars, most of them appear to have been civilians.

The toll is mounting towards that recorded in the island’s worst disaster of the last 100 years – Hurricane Charlie in 1951, which claimed 152 lives.

It is not clear whether Coke is still in his Tivoli Gardens stronghold, but he appears to have support from many in the area who regard him as a benefactor to the dispossessed ignored by the government. Some local people have been shouting “murderers” at Jamaican soldiers.

The battle has revived the question of whether criminalisation is the best way to combat the drugs trade, or whether, however well-meaning, the policy is as disastrous as was the prohibition of alcohol in the United States in the 1920’s.