A tale of two stories, Glasgow Labour member George Laird joins the Leave Campaign in Glasgow as Scots Brexit campaign hit by damaging Labour 'snub', Sunday saw the Leave Campaign deliver an alternative voice to the status quo as unionists and people who support independence campaign side by side on the streets of Glasgow

Dear All

The campaign to leave the European Union has been a bit slow to start in Scotland until yesterday.

What happened yesterday?

George Laird joined the Leave Campaign which was campaigning in Glasgow City Centre.

One of the questions which countless people asked me was, ‘are you in Ukip’?

The answer to that question was no, I am in the Labour Party, this seemed to shock people a bit, but I explained, there are people in Labour who want to leave the EU. When someone asked for my reason, I cited the issue of National and Economic security, which are under threat.

Campaigning in the heart of Glasgow City Centre, the group attracted a decent response and someone turned up to watch the event take place, they didn’t approach and ask questions, they just looked on.

It’s called spying; however they really do need to brush up on their fieldcraft!

So, Glasgow has a Leave Campaign running, after the event the core group sat down and did a post event chat on how it went. The event went really well as I said, in fact during the event 8 people turned up to help, which is more than some political parties are getting out on a campaign day.

Only two people were a tad nasty, but you expect that when campaigning, but in general, the people were glad to see people take the time to explain the case for leaving. One of the things which was interesting was that people stopped by, who were SNP supporters, who said that they were voting leave but because of the way the SNP operated didn’t want to speak out publicly.

They will they said be voting to leave..... rock solid.

Tomorrow the official Leave Campaign will kick off in Port Glasgow, I will not be going, on Tuesday, I am at the BBC for the tax debate, hopefully I will get to ask a question on tax. Vote Leave, which is widely seen as the front runner to become the official Out campaign, it is a campaign which has both people who believe in independence and Unionists campaigning side by side as I mentioned earlier.

Although there is a Euro-sceptic Labour MPs and members group called Labour Leave, I will as a Labour member stick with Vote Leave for this campaign in the main; however I may pop my head in the door to see what the Labour crowd is doing in Labour Leave.

Labour Leave is supporting a rally in Glasgow on Thursday organised by Grassroots Out, people see this organisation as the Ukip vehicle, headed up by Nigel Farage.

The big problem at the moment is that the political focus is on the Holyrood election; that will take up most people’s time; but the EU referendum is equally as important, it is something which I feel that Scottish Labour should back rather than just sit on the fence and want to maintain the status quo.

If you want to find out more information about the Leave Campaign, then check out their website.

http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/

One thing for certain, on Sunday, the Glasgow Leave Campaign made an impression, the event was well run, started on time, finished on time, and the people had a good time, that is what campaigning is all about, and this time, it is a worthwhile endeavour to support.

Finally, as to the ones doing the 'snubbing' and 'arguing', these are the ones who generally aren't doing the campaigning, this time round, this really is a people's campaign. The EU project is falling apart, and it makes sense to see that a successful future is possible outside the EU. 

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University