Urgent message for UK IETM members re Brexit Commons debate next week

Dear Colleagues

WE URGENTLY NEED YOUR HELP

Many people within the What Next? movement have expressed growing concern at the impact Brexit will have on the cultural sector. This has led us to form a sub group to discuss what we can proactively do to protect the work that we all do and ensure it can continue to thrive.

Brexit is a difficult and confusing process to follow and we want to arm you with information which might help you better understand the various options we as a country are facing in terms of Brexit and the impact they will each have on your work.

At the end of June (28th & 29th) the European Council (28 heads of government) next meet. They want workable proposals from the UK Government on the customs union, the Irish border and other unresolved issues left over from the December 2017 draft Withdrawal Agreement.

The draft Withdrawal Agreement is also where provisions for a transitional period (April 2019-Dec 2020) are set out, failure to reach a deal would also mean no transition.

The delay is entirely due the UK government who have not agreed on what it wants on many crucial issues and is delaying Brexit-related legislation coming to the House of Commons for fear of losing votes.

They will soon (next Tuesday!) have to take a vote in the Commons on the 15 House of Lords amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill. Some of these will be very close, depending on the Labour position and Tory rebels.

The Dominic Grieve amendment means that even after (if) they pass the Withdrawal Bill (i.e. adapt British legislation in preparation for Brexit) there will still have to be a vote on the final deal that Davis/May negotiate, expected around October 2018.

Regardless of how you voted, we all are connected by our passion and commitment to the cultural sector and the desire to maintain what we have in order to create great art for our audiences and communities.

We believe it is incredibly important that we act quickly to articulate the impact certain decisions within Brexit negotiations will have on our sector to those who have the power to do something about them.

Serious lobbying is URGENTLY needed over the next 2 weeks to target wavering Tory and Labour MPs to support certain amendments to the Withdrawal Bill

We are therefore asking you to make contact with your local MP and/or your Organisation’s local MP, either via writing or in person and use the crib sheet attached and the two infographics to explain the impact various decisions will have on the cultural sector. We are also attaching the amendments that are relevant to the ongoing prosperity of our sector.

We want to ensure our MPs are fully versed on the impact certain options currently being tabled will have on the cultural sector - it is surprising how many still don’t fully realise the implications and YOU can make a difference.

The more specific you can make your information the better, so concrete examples from you about how certain actions will impact your work and the sector at large are really helpful for MPs to grasp the issues for your sector.

We encourage you to look at the link below so you can find your own constituency and if you hover over each constituency it gives an indication of the percentage vote to leave in the referendum, and whether the MP (as of March 2017, so some have changed) will have voted to trigger Article 50

https://www.buzzfeed.com/marieleconte/more-than-120-mps-voted-against-t…

Here are the links:

https://www.ietm.org/sites/default/files/attachments/meetingpage/brexit…

https://www.ietm.org/sites/default/files/attachments/meetingpage/what_n…

https://www.ietm.org/sites/default/files/attachments/meetingpage/amendm…

With sincere thanks
What Next Brexit sub group

(posted by Judith Knight, Artsadmin)