{"id":145446,"date":"2018-06-23T17:06:01","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T17:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/among-the-blue-flags-views-from-the-pro-eu-march\/"},"modified":"2018-06-23T17:06:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-23T17:06:01","slug":"among-the-blue-flags-views-from-the-pro-eu-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/among-the-blue-flags-views-from-the-pro-eu-march\/","title":{"rendered":"Among the blue flags: Views from the pro-EU march"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  AFP\/Getty Images                                                    <\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Thousands of protesters were in London on Saturday, calling for a vote on any final deal seeing the UK leave the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>But why were the marchers insisting on another say over Brexit?<\/p>\n<p>Before Saturday, Dodo Pearce had never joined a protest in her life. But the 69-year-old decided to travel from South Normanton in Derbyshire to call for a &quot;People&#039;s Vote&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#039;m hoping it&#039;s not too late, but we have got to take the chance for goodness sake,&quot; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;These crowds of people make me emotional. I&#039;ve seen signs about futures being stolen and it brings tears to my eyes. I want to march and I want a vote.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Her husband, John Pearce, carried a placard saying &quot;grumpy old Brits&quot;. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;The first referendum was won on spurious information from both sides,&quot; he said. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;Now we know a lot more, I think people have changed their minds, both ways, and deserve a chance to vote.&quot;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Marchers demand final Brexit deal vote<\/li>\n<li>PM &#039;not bluffing&#039; over no-deal Brexit<\/li>\n<li>Reality Check: Will there be a Brexit dividend?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cinzia Sangiovanni has lived in the UK for 19 years, and lives in south London with her British husband and two children.<\/p>\n<p>The whole family took part in the march, as three of them hold Italian passports - and she fears for their future without a say on the deal. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;I want to march because I feel my rights are under threat,&quot; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;If I was told to, I wouldn&#039;t be able to just turn around and go back to Italy. I just worry for the future.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Jennifer Scott \/ BBC<figcaption>Image caption                                      Dodo and John Pearce travelled from Derbyshire to join the march                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Among the sea of EU flags was Erika Gallacher, who moved from Carlisle to London 11 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I have friends who voted a different way to me, but I also have a lot of friends from the EU,&quot; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I work for a university and I&#039;m worried about the students and what will happen to them. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;But for me, I also worry about my future, starting a family and bringing up children. I cannot see any good to it for them.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Leo Buckley was prominent at the head of the march with his placard, reading: &quot;Brexit has stolen my future.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The 16-year-old from Hampshire said: &quot;I think my placard says it all.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It is stealing it economically - we have already seen the drop in the pound and the loss of jobs - so I will struggle to find employment and be worse off when I do. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;And also socially - look at the rise in hate crime and xenophobia. I don&#039;t want Brexit to become the poster boy of a return to attitudes from the 1930s.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Jennifer Scott \/ BBC<figcaption>Image caption                                      Leo Buckley worried for young people&#039;s futures in the UK after Brexit                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A group calling themselves the &quot;Suffolk EU Alliance&quot; were also out in force carrying placards and plastered in stickers stating their cause. <\/p>\n<p>Christine Speer was one of them - originally from Canada, but a British citizen for 50 years who considers herself a &quot;citizen of nowhere&quot;. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;The EU has its problems, but there are a number of problems at the time of the referendum that weren&#039;t because of the EU - the government was responsible,&quot; she said. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;Some people who voted for Brexit will actually find they are worse off. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;Ideally it would be better if Brexit didn&#039;t happen, but if it does, the public needs to have a say.&quot;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pound remains close to post-Brexit high<\/li>\n<li>How has the economy fared since the Brexit vote?<\/li>\n<li>Have voters changed their minds about Brexit?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Dr Horst-Dieter Haas proudly carried his German flag as he attended the march. <\/p>\n<p>He married a British woman, but the pair spent 30 years in his home country, bringing up their children, before moving to the UK. <\/p>\n<p>He has been working in the NHS since 2005, but says he will quit if Brexit goes ahead. <\/p>\n<p>He added: &quot;It is already impacting the NHS. We haven&#039;t got enough doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, we don&#039;t even have enough money, and that will all be worse if Brexit happens. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;The NHS is not performing and there are too many lies about the benefits. I will definitely be stopping if we leave.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Jennifer Scott \/ BBC<figcaption>Image caption                                      German doctor Horst-Dieter Haas marched with his British wife Lesley                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>The counter march<\/h2>\n<p>But as the pro-EU protest reached its rally point in Parliament Square, another was heading in the same direction. <\/p>\n<p>The UK Unity and Freedom march said it was focusing on &quot;freedom from the EU, freedom from terror, freedom of speech, freedom from Sharia law, and unity of all people, irrespective of race or creed&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>The pro-Brexit march was significantly smaller, but their voices rang out as they walked along Millbank, with supporters chanting for &quot;our country back&quot; and singing Rule, Britannia!<\/p>\n<p>Shazia Hobbs, who was speaking at the event, criticised those on the opposing protest. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;That march is silly,&quot; she said. &quot;We voted to leave so we should leave. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;What do they want, best of three? We voted for Brexit.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Jennifer Scott \/ BBC<figcaption>Image caption                                      Shazia Hobbs is a campaigner and regularly speaks to events                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One woman, who didn&#039;t want to be named, had travelled from Brighton to join the march.<\/p>\n<p>She said: &quot;I&#039;m on this march because I am a patriot. The EU is an undemocratic and authoritarian establishment. We need to be a self-governing nation.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>And a man, who also did not want to be named, added: &quot;I don&#039;t like big government. That is what the EU is.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>Whether either protest will impact the government&#039;s next steps is yet to be seen. <\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Jennifer Scott \/ BBC<figcaption>Image caption                                      Union Jacks were waved at the counter protest                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright AFP\/Getty Images Thousands of protesters were in London on Saturday, calling for a vote on any final deal seeing the UK leave the European Union. But why were<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}