Template for your MP letter
What I wrote today(6th December 2017) to my Conservative MP
Dear ____________________________
The total absence of impact assessments — a practice the UK Civil Service brought to EU Affairs — is not a surprise but its confirmation is shocking. The HMG strategy of asking the voting public to give it the benefit of the doubt in these negotiations has well and truly expired.
Meanwhile, Lady Borwick’s son Thomas (formerly CTO of Cambridge Analytica whose work is now scrutinised by the US Congress & Federal law enforcement and implicated in the potential treason of the 45th President) has rolled back the most menacing Facebook advertisements, but continues to use targeted Facebook advertising to promote an extreme Brexit.
Here is an advert that was served to a Facebook user who lives in Oliver Heald’s constituency. It promotes the Labour MP serving in the adjacent constituency. (Facebook targeting by postcode is not fully precise.) Perhaps you’ll see this (as I do) as clear evidence that loyalty to Brexit trumps party loyalty.
The advert appeared yesterday, in parallel with the DUP debacle and murmurs of a 2018 General Election. In my experience of Facebook advertising, such an advert can be created and placed in a matter of hours.
Call to action
Please can you share the photo and explanation with the Chief Whip and with Damian Collins so that they are aware that expressly political adverts are being purchased, and by whom.
Forgive advice from an amateur but it seems to me: The most honourable thing those Conservatives who wish to distance themselves from the European Research Group and the advice of the Legatum Institute can do is (a) talk with donors and (b) publicly break from ERG/Brexit Ultras.
The strategy David Cameron and you used during coalition (supporting the 2013 Private Members Bill, agreeing to the Referendum) gave the movement oxygen it is now using to kill the Conservative Party.
I will do what I can to build support for any elected Member who acts to halt Article 50 in light of what #WeNowKnow.
Yours kindly,
Dr Kate Hammer
Helpful resources
Best for Britain, Represent Us and European Movement are all campaigning for a Meaningful Vote on the final deal: Amendment 7 to Clause 9 (Dominic Grieve, QC — CON) and New Clause 4 (Chris Leslie — LAB). The debate on these amendments are currently scheduled for December 13. Please act now.
Journalists writing on data driven campaigning and dark money include Carole Cadwalladr (Observer), George Monbiot (Guardian), James Patrick (Byline), Adam Ramsay and Peter Geoghegan (Open Democracy), Tim Fenton (Zelo Street). See also Open Democracy’s DUP Dark Money series.
Concerned about Vote Leave funding? Follow Jo Maugham QC and Good Law Project as they pursue a judicial review.
Concerned we’re boxed in?
Article 50 revocability was not the issue in the Gina Miller case, nor were the Courts of England and Wales asked to determine revocability. Politically EU 27 member state leaders have said repeatedly: Britain can stay.
To show Parliament that they have the duty and the power to revoke if it is in the nation’s interests to do so, the Good Law Project is mounting a legal action that is currently crowdfunding here.
Members of the House of Lords have been scrutinising the European Withdrawal Bill and proposed amendments whilst the lower house debates it. Peers ask people to write their MPs now, and also to write both MPs and Peers if they are leave voters who, in light of events, no longer support the Hard Brexit of the Ultras. If you are or know someone who has changed their mind, #NowWeKnow is a good, non-judgemental hashtag.
