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The Grassroots for Europe Conference

Date

25 Jan 2020 11:00 to 17:00

Address

Wesminster Central Hall
LONDON
United Kingdom
United Kingdom

Section

InfoSociety

Event Description

General Election Aftermath

It goes without saying that we are all devastated by the result of the General Election on 12 December.  Clearly, we need to absorb the implications and to discuss the situation with our fellow Remainers, before picking ourselves up and working out how to move forward.

Where Now for Remain?

However, we cannot afford to let the disillusionment of our supporters turn to disengagement.  We have built an extraordinary movement over the last 3 years - the strongest pro-European movement in Europe.  We must preserve what we have built and move quickly, but with care, to providing a new sense of purpose for our campaigners.

The Conference

With this in mind, we have arranged a national day-long conference, to be held at Central Hall, Westminster, London on Saturday, 25 January 2020 - to which all pro-European organisations and individual campaigners are invited - to take stock and start to formulate a strategy for our movement going forward.

We are making contact with all of the other pro-EU campaign organisations, including the European Movement, Best for Britain, the People's Vote constituent organisations - as well as non-aligned campaign groups.  We want to bring all stakeholders together.

Draft Programme Contents

During the conference we are planning to cover the following topics:

What Were They Thinking? – public attitudes to Brexit and Boris Johnson
Learning Lessons – the grassroots view of the post-referendum campaign
The Post-truth Age – can we bring trust & honesty back to politics
A Hostile Environment – defending EU citizens in the UK & UK citizens in the EU
Brexit Isn’t “Getting Done”! – exposing Brexit’s failings
Let’s Stay Friends – building new links & partnerships with Europe
Electoral Reform – can we fix Britain without it?
Getting Ourselves Organised – who is going to lead the fightback
A Pro-European UK Parliament – can we get one by 2024?
Radical Protest – learning from Extinction Rebellion’s methods

The programme is far from set in stone, and we welcome suggestions to improve it, but hopefully the above gives you an idea of the ground that we are hoping to cover.

Speakers

We are carefully selecting speakers, not on the basis of celebrity, but on the basis of their ability to help us to achieve our objectives i.e. contributing insight and practical ideas for the way ahead for our movement.  Speakers confirmed so far include:

Naomi Smith, CEO of Best for Britain 
Dr Mike Galsworthy, Scientists for EU
Henry Stannard, Project Marshall
Professor Michael Dougan, University of Liverpool
Stephen Dorrell, Chair, European Movement UK
Denis MacShane, former Europe Minister
Sue Wilson, Chair, Bremain in Spain

More are being added all the time, so keep checking back for updates.

Ticket Pricing

We are conscious that London is not the ideal venue for a conference for those based outside of the South East.  It can be expensive to get to, particularly if accommodation is required.  However, overall it remains the most accessible destination in the UK for the greatest number of people.  It is also - rightly or wrongly - far easier to attract the participants that we need to ensure that this vital conference achieves its objectives by holding the conference in our capital city than in any other single location.

In order to attempt as best we can to soften the financial blow to those who have the greatest distances to travel we have raised a substantial amount through sponsorship and through our Crowdfunder, which is enabling us to subsidise ticket prices for all conference attendees, with special discounts to those who have the furthest to come.  Tickets are therefore priced as follows:-

Standard Full Price Tickets: £15 each
Discounted Tickets for those based in Wales and the following English regions: South West, North West, North East, Yorkshire & The Humber: £10 each
Discounted Tickets for those based in Scotland, Northern Ireland or outside of the UK: £5 each

More information here