You Oughta Know

Day 2 of the European Citizens Consultation. They’re all wandering around the room at the moment discussing the various ideas that have come out. What I find encouraging and at the same time dispiriting is the thirst for information and the lack of access to it. The people here are a cross-section of the UK public and even the ones that are most sceptical (in the true sense of the word) about the EU are open to knowing more. One of the proposals being worked on was a freephone number to give advice about the EU. I stepped in and told them that this already existed. They were all suprised. I then went onto the UK government’s website for the public direct.gov.uk – no mention of it or even the European Union. Went to the contacts page. I had links to pages of devolved government, local councils, central government departments – again, no mention of the European Union at all. How can British people be expected to engage with an organisation that their government doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge as part of governance?