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| Southampton Independents Councillor Andrew Pope on BBC South Today About "Devolution" in 2017 Photo: Southampton Independents |
Member of the Independent Network Andrew Pope has had a letter published in the Daily Echo. The wording is below.
Do you agree with him?
Then get in touch and help the campaign for a Referendum. Andrew forced one in Somerset and helped to defeat previous proposals here in Southampton by working cross-party before. He was the ONLY councillor of forty-eight on Southampton City Council to fight the previous proposals and defeat them.
Andrew says in the letter:
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| Andrew Pope |
"Dear Editor, as I have said since 2016, there should be a referendum before any changes are made to how we are governed.
Neither Labour nor Tory governments have stood up to Whitehall mandarins who want to take local democracy away.
I have, both here with Southampton Independents and when I was there for three years, in Somerset Independents. I forced a referendum in Somerset.
We defeated the "Solent Devolution Deal" here in Southampton and in the region before, by my working together across the region with political parties and independents, but it came back from the dead like the vampire that it is.
I disagreed with the former Hampshire County Council leader Roy Perry on almost everything, but he was right when he said that a stake needed to be driven through its heart.
I demand a referendum and ask that residents do the same to save themselves from democracy being watered down.
Regards, Andrew Pope, Independent Network, Southampton Independents"
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