People from all over Scotland are pulling out the stops to get to London on Saturday, to join those from across the UK at the People’s Vote: Together for a Final Say march in London at noon.
With MPs sitting in Parliament on Saturday and efforts to force through a deal hanging in the balance, Saturday’s march is set to be one of the biggest and most important demonstrations the United Kingdom has ever seen.
A fleet of coaches has been booked by grassroots campaigners across Scotland to transport people from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. And campaigners from the Scottish Islands are preparing to board ferries and coaches, many of them leaving early morning on Friday to make it down to London in time.
One of the people making the furthest journey down to London is Sorcha Kirker, an Orkney-based student at the University of the Highlands and the Islands.
Sorcha said: “Boris Johnson and his hard-Brexit advisers in Downing Street are tone deaf to the concerns of people and communities like mine. I’m an Irish student studying in Scotland, what part of a hard Brexit that puts up borders, stifles opportunity and threatens our Union is meant to be good news for me?
“That’s why I’m going to London on Saturday to join the People’s Vote march. I will join together with people from every part of the United Kingdom, demanding that the People are given the final say on Brexit. If the Government won’t listen to us when we’re in the Highlands and Islands, we’ll bring our protest right to the gates of Parliament.”
University of the Highlands and Islands student, Flo Jansen will be on the 7am ferry from Lewis this morning.
Flo, a German student who moved to the UK to study on the Isle of Lewis, and now considers Scotland her home, said: “Being able to attend People’s Vote in London is so important for students from UHI, especially island communities. Our futures are at stake, the Government is not giving us answers and doesn’t seem to care about us.
“The journey won’t be easy, it will take two days to get down to London, but I think it’s so important to be there, together with people from all over the UK, to demand that the people have the Final Say on Brexit.
“Being able to study for free on Lewis has been an incredible opportunity to live, work and make friends in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, I want to stay in Scotland for post-graduate study but Brexit could mean I am unable to afford extortionate fees in a year’s time, and that would force me to leave the country I now call home.
“So many opportunities will be lost for so many as a direct result of Brexit and the Government is acting in such an irresponsible way by trying to make out the effects will be minimal.”
Also joining the march will be Sally Campbell, a marine ecologist from the Isle of Arran. She said: “I’m a marine ecologist working with lobster and scallop fishermen all over Scotland. These individuals rely on frictionless trade with Europe for their livelihood.
“The sustainably-sourced lobsters and scallops from the seas of Western Scotland are sold in Europe, and transported live across the border. A hard Brexit of the kind being threatened could spell the end this traditional, environmentally friendly industry.
“Boris Johnson and his extreme Brexit mob in Downing Street are in a different universe from the independent fishermen of Scotland, they are deaf to our concerns and intent on delivering Brexit at all costs, whatever that means for communities like ours.
“That’s why I’m going to London on Saturday, with hundreds of thousands of other people who have been forgotten by this Government: we’re going to march right up to the gates of Parliament, they’ll have a hard time ignoring us then.
“All the promises that were made for Brexit back in 2016 have been broken, the hard-right version being forced on us will harm so many people in this country, so it’s right that before we take this momentus decision it goes back to the people for the final say. On Saturday I’ll be marching in London to demand our democratic right to be heard.”
For more information about the People’s Vote: Together for the Final Say march: https://www.peoples-
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