Members of Hope for Europe met on Zoom for the AGM on 11 November 2024. After the formal meeting we had a talk from Brendan Donnelly, leader of the Rejoin party. We report on this in a separate post.
The Chair and the Treasurer gave reports, and Andy Nash, Anna Smallwood and Jean Hopkin were elected unopposed in the roles of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.
In the Chair’s Report Andy reported on our activities since the last AGM.
” A large piece of the time was spend planning for and supporting the General Election. We have managed to’ change the government to one which is at least trying to rebuild relations with Europe. The Labour stance though, is to undo little of the major damage caused to the country by Brexit, despite the claim to have a growth agenda. Against a background of warm noises about Britain being welcome back in the EU it is unlikely to happen without all the major parties publicly have a more pro EU stance. While many recognise that Brexit is a failure, no one wants to re-open the split in the country that lead to Johnson having a huge majority. We should take heart though, as geo-politics may come to our aid. Ukraine, the Middle East, China’s expansionism and now the election of Trump, mean it will be much harder for the UK to stand alone and we will need our partners and allies to be ever closer. The logic says a closer relationship with Europe, but on the other hand, ties with the US are historic. Trump is unpredictable and we know that tariffs and a withdrawal of support for NATO and Ukraine will not be our or democracy’s best interest.
On the ground, we’ve been busy. Our core group has reset itself with some new and returning members. We have revamped our strategy and website and we have managed to fit in a few street stalls and campaigning activities. These have highlighted opportunities for further activities. Two of our team attended a recent Nish Kumar event in Buxton and signed up 25 new members in a short space of time. We have continued to write letters to local newspapers and to highlight petitions and activities with which members can easily engage without having to attend events.
HFE was represented at the Rejoin March, and although not quite as busy as the People’s Vote marches it was in the tens of thousands so we know that we not alone and Brexit is still not a done deal in many people’s eyes.
Anna has kept us together on the social front with a few house meetings and the regular quiz, which, although sometimes very difficult, does keep us in touch with supporters who do not come to the core meetings.
Looking forward we are branching out into getting more speakers and trying to reach new audiences. Later tonight we have Brendan Connelly from Rejoin EU talking to us and early next year we are running a panel session in the Matlock area with Mike Galsworthy as one of the key speakers. This second activity is run jointly with Scarthin Books who have a very different mailing list to ours so we hope to get a different audience.
We have also continued to keep in contact with SFE. Although we have done little together we have been sharing ideas and resources. Our attendance at the mass trespass celebration in Hayfield also reunited our contacts with Pro-Europeans in that area.
While Anna and I have been secretary and chair of HFE now since its inception nearly 8 years ago and it is likely we will continue in the role for next the 12 months, we find that change does not happen until pushed. We need to flag up that while we will both continue to help and support HFE, we need someone new to step up and take over from next year. One of the activities in the next twelve months must be to recruit or find from our current membership someone who is going to take HFE on into the future.
Lastly I want to thank all the officers and supporters who have been active or just encouraging us forward. We still have a way to go, but personally I have met and made friends with a lot of like minded people and I hope that continues and we all find more and more pro European friends going forward.”
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