Constituents will be relieved to hear that there is only a week to go before the end of the EU Referendum campaign. I have held a series of ‘Talk to Tim’ meetings around the constituency setting out my reasons for wanting a Leave Vote and on Saturday I will be holding the last of these at the Shoreham Centre from 2.30pm.
My colleague Nick Herbert last week rightly reiterated that this is a vote by the people for the people. It is not for politicians, big businesses or experts though unfortunately he then reeled off a list of so-called experts programmed to warn the people that we should vote Remain. Whichever way you vote make sure you do. This must be a definitive decision one way or the other and we need to end the uncertainty of our relationship with Europe and move on. There will not be another opportunity. There will not be another referendum. The so-called reforms we are voting on are as good as it gets. The EU just isn’t working, it is past its sell-by date. So why would we want to be dragged back into the past and stay part of a failing organisation?
That said the most challenging part of the campaign so far was the ‘Devil’s Advocate Debate’ organised by BBC Radio Sussex at the Farmer’s Pub in Lancing last Friday when Remain Hove MP Peter Kyle and me for Leave had to argue the opposite position. Several listeners called in thinking we had gone mad such was our use of hyperbole. And you thought Project Fear was already bad enough!
It was a great day on Sunday with celebrations for the Queen’s 90th birthday across the patch. I was pleased to open the Adur East Lions donkey derby in Buckingham Park where the star acts were not put off by the decidedly soft going. A special service and BBQ went ahead at St Peter’s Sompting and a very hardy bunch of locals braved the rain to sing along to some all-time patriotic numbers courtesy of the Tony Strudwicke Band and Jayne Strudwicke who organised the royal picnic on Beach Green. I ended the day at a really fascinating talk on the history of silent film with its strong local connections organised as the closing event of the highly successful Worthing WOW festival which now looks like becoming an annual event thanks to the hard work of Melody Bridges and her team.
And don’t forget to have a happy Sussex Day – June 16th.