Activity Managers.

Please feel free to send the relevant manager your ideas; all will be considered but "Ask US First" cannot undertake to reply.

LIONEL BELL

Website Manager.

The purpose of the Ask US First website is to support those individuals and organisations who want to play an active part in the campaign, whether on the ground or financially or both. It does this by listing contacts who can be approached with suggestions about particular campaigning approaches, campaigning in particular parts of the country, or ways to make donations.

It will hold downloadable versions of the logo for the use of activists together with texts such as the statement of aims. These can be made into leaflets for distribution in the usual ways.

Latest reports from those responsible for particular areas of activity.

It will also hold reciprocal links to associated sites.

PHILIP LOCKWOOD

Treasurer.

"Ask Us First" is looking for keen energentic volunteers to take charge of organising the Campaign in Regions / Areas / urban and rural locations throughout the United Kingdom.

Philip Lockwood would like to hear from you if you can help the campaign.

Philip will come and meet you by mutual arrangement to outline our plans.

Pressure is mounting on Gordon Brown to honour the Government's word. He is much more likely to respond to pressure from the grass roots and this will only come about through a properly organised team of volunteers. Act now contact Philip Lockwood on by EMAIL or ring him on 01487 815247 or write to him at:
TENTERLEYS
BURY ROAD
RAMSEY
CAMBRIDGESHIRE
PE26 1NE

ROBERT OULDS

Ambassador.

As an ambassador for Ask Us First I am be happy to liaise and build relationships with other like-minded groups as well as the important task of lobbying opinion formers, politicians and the media.

As I have a great deal of experience in taking part in discussions on the radio and television I can also act as a spokesman for the campaign taking part in media debates and interviews. I can also help with getting press coverage for Ask Us First.

I am also more than happy to assist with fundraising, and helping with the production of written material.

MARC GLENDENING

Literature.

For our campaign to succeed we need to do three things in my opinion:

First, we have to persuade voters, particularly those in seats represented by anti-referendum MPs, that the proposed Constitution Treaty is of such political magnitude, that they must be consulted before the government ratify it. And then, that they must do something to defend their democratic political rights. This means communicating the basic fact that the treaty will result in the centralisation of yet more decision and law making powers in Brussels with institutions that are remote and undemocratically structured. Even without this measure, a majority of member state laws passed since 1998 have originated from Brussels directives. The more power is aggregated and centralised the less influence each voter has. Closely related, we must demonstrate that the Constitution treaty will also result in ever more taxpayers' money be handed over to the fraud-ridden budget of the EU.

Second, we will need to articulate an alternative vision of the future for this country. Part of the reason this and other member European countries find themselves on the verge of political extinction is that the idea that there is no realistic alternative to ever greater union has won the intellectual and the cultural war (particularly among the opinion-forming elites). Our task now is to demonstrate that the top-down model the EU represents is itself an out-dated vision from the mid-Twentieth century. The peoples of Europe now need a new model of international co-operation, one that is not restricted to the continent of Europe, that reaches out to countries beyond the narrow horizens of the 'Little Europeans' and which allows voters in all the member states to hold their political classes to proper democratic account. International co-operation, we must say, is entirely possible without the existence of a single suprnational, legally supreme authority. We will need to project ourselves as the truly modern force in this conflict.

Last, our campaign is the really pro-European option. For too long we have allowed our enemies to get away with a campaign of MacCarthyite proportions, one that has portrayed the opponents of an EU state-building as xenophobic philistines. We will need to show that the campaign to decentralise power from the unaccountable institutions in Brussels is in the real interests of all European citizens, not just those living in the UK. It was French and Dutch voters, after all, who initially rejected the Constitution and are now having their wishes outrageously ignored. The original European Enlightenment was about establishing accountable government and liberating subordinate peoples from imperial rule. We stand in that proud tradition and are working for a new rennaisssance for Europe.

HELEN SZAMUELY.

Press/Advertising Manager.

As the long-time press officer of first the Anti-Maastricht Alliance then of the Alliance Against the Constitution, Helen shall be contributing to the campaign by liasing with the media, both old and new, whenever possible. As much of the campaign will be conducted through local and regional events and as the local and regional media is more likely to be interested in it than the national, her role will have to be a co-ordinating and advisory one rather than direct as local people are more likely to know what appeals to the local media than someone sitting in London. A very important part of the campaign will be the internet and the blogosphere. Helen sees it as part of her role to build up a network of supporters through that and to ensure that information is spread through that network.

 

MARK WALLACE

Parliamentary Liaison
 

DENNIS DELDERFIELD

London Event

 

JOHN BOYD

Trade Unions

 

KEITH CARSON

June Press