Guido hears the rejoiners over at the European Movement campaign are eating themselves over who should take the reins from Andrew Adonis, who stepped down as the group’s chair in December to “devote more time to writing and other public interest initiatives“. A polite way of saying “this is going nowhere”.
The campaign to succeed him is apparently now in complete disarray, with frontrunner Mike Galsworthy privately claiming in a group chat he’ll “take the grassroots away with [him]” if he doesn’t win, and members “at each other’s throats” over the whole thing. Some are “terrified” he will “sink the movement” in a repeat of the 2019 collapse, which saw the rejoin alliance crumble after Open Britain chair Roland Rudd attempted to oust People’s Vote Directors James McGrory and Tom Baldwin, a move Galsworthy backed. Get the popcorn…
The fight for the chairmanship has pitted two sides of the group in a month-long standoff: those who at least pretend they’re willing to exist outside the EU for the short-term versus the remainiacs who wanted to rejoin yesterday. Patience Wheatcroft, a former Tory now crossbench peer and Tom Brake, Director of Unlock Democracy and former LibDem MP, are battling it out to stop Galsworthy taking the crown. Voting closes this time next week…
Fresh from publishing their mad new diet calling for people to eat only one-tenth of a sausage and a quarter of an egg a day – which naturally turned out to be authored by people who didn’t follow the diet themselves and funded by a globe-trotting billionaire with a private jet – once-esteemed medical journal The Lancet has done it again with a new Brexit scare paper this week. It just so happens that almost every author is either a diehard Remain campaigner or has extensive professional links with the EU…
- The lead author is Nick Fahy, now a researcher at Oxford but who previously worked for over a decade in the European Commission. Naturally…
- Next is Tamara Hervey, an EU-funded Jean Monnet Professor of European Law who amusingly describes herself as living in “Sheffield, Europe” on Twitter. Don’t tell her Sheffield voted to Leave…
- David Stuckler is a committed anti-Austerity campaigner who authored a book subtitled “Why Austerity Kills” and has even blamed the rise of the Nazis on austerity. Cuckoo…
- Mike Galsworthy will be familiar to most people as one of the prolific and obnoxious Remainiacs on Twitter, he is effectively a full-time commentator and campaigner and has founded Scientists for EU, Healthier IN the EU, Scientists for Labour and NHS Against Brexit. Literally the last person you would go to if you wanted a balanced and impartial view on Brexit…
- Martin McKee is another full-on Remainiac, his Twitter account is festooned with #FBPE and a giant low-res EU flag. McKee is also a member of the European Commission’s ‘Expert Panel on Investing in Health’ and until recently was President of the EU-funded European Public Health Association. He co-founded Healthier IN the EU with Galsworthy, and to top it off was also a co-author on Stuckler’s paper blaming the Nazis on austerity. Full house!
Naturally this hasn’t stopped the media and smug Remainers like Peston from seizing upon the report like it is gospel truth. It might as well have been a European Commission press release…
The remnants of the Remain campaign have descended into an almighty squabble over their future direction. Britain Stronger In Europe has rebranded as Open Britain, a new lobbying group which has ditched the commitment to freedom of movement, a pillar of Europhile principle. On Sunday, Open Britain’s founders wrote:
“The strength of feeling is clear. Free movement of people cannot continue as it has done. It has to be reformed.”
This has caused other prominent Remainers to kick off. Guido hears a letter is being circulated among pro-EU groups condemning BSE and Open Britain. Signatories include the man in charge of Scientists for EU, previously one of BSE’s main backers. Meanwhile the CEO of the European Movement, Matthew Fulton, says “our red lines are protecting freedom of movement”. When asked whether BSE and the European Movement were still on the same side, Fulton responded:
“At the time we were, but now with their lack of commitment to freedom of movement – I know it’s not popular thing in the country at the moment – but there needs to be people making that argument.”
Soft Remain versus hard Remain…
