Steve Grey, of Hill Park, Kellaton, Kingsbridge, writes:
I am pleased with the referendum result, because on April 22, 1997, I was campaigning for the Referendum Party running up to the General Election.
The party was formed by Sir James Goldsmith 19 years ago to fight in the elections for a referendum on in or out of Europe – this is not something new that happened over the past six months.
In fact, on that date my wife woke up in labour at around 5am, and by 9am Bob Sadler’s team candidate for the Referendum Party phoned my house and asked me to gather up some party supporters for a photoshoot with Bob Sadler in a lovely old-fashioned car for the Gazette, which was taken at the Fisherman’s Rest in Aveton Gifford.
The photo was in the Gazette on April 25, 1997, with people holding placards saying ‘Westminster or Brussels?’, ‘Put country before party’ and ‘Bob Sadler’.
This was not about racism then and for the majority of us Leave voters it wasn’t about racism this time. It was about giving all our powers to Brussels and lots of money that we would not get back.
I hear the younger generation blaming the older generation for the Brexit outcome. Well, perhaps we should remind the youth of today that their grandparents and great-grandparents fought two world wars to keep this country British, so why should we pay billions to the EU to be a member of what our country fought so hard to stop twice – ie them from running this country, with this generation all ready to just hand it over on a plate to Brussels and pay billions for the pleasure of doing so.
My wife and I strongly supported the Referendum Party, and just a couple of hours after the photo with the party was taken my wife gave birth to my son.
We bought the photo of Bob Sadler and his team, plus all the Referendum Party supporters, from the Gazette after it was published on April 25, 1997, to remind us of this special day.
The issues of having a referendum to be ruled by, and to keep our money in, Britain were the key elements of the referendum, not racism, as a few would have you believe.
This was not a new campaign – some of us have been voting tactically for 19 years to get this vote, so that once again we could call this country Great Britain. And now we can.
This is not a campaign thought up in the past six months – some of us have been fighting by voting tactically to get this vote on the table for 19 years. Thank you.