News / Politics
EU referendum: all you need to know
After long months of hot air, red-faced debates and mud-slinging, the time has come to cast your ballot paper in the UK’s EU referendum when the country will decide whether we stay or go.
If the result is very close, it could all come down to Bristol which is likely to keep the country guessing as to the result, predicted to be one of the last to declare at around 6am on Friday.
When?
Polling is open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday, June 23 and you’ll be able to vote provided you are at the polling station before 10pm. After that, the drawbridge comes up.
The most popular time, according to research by the Electoral Commission, is between 5pm and 8pm; head down early if you want to avoid a queue.
Where?
There are 231 polling stations across Bristol but you must vote at your allocated station (printed on your poll card). Beware – some in Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston, Hengrove and Whitchurch Park, Frome Vale, Stoke Bishop and Clifton Down have changed location since the May elections.
Your poll card should have arrived in the post but you do not need it to vote, only to turn up at the right station with your ID. Check Bristol City Council’s website or www.aboutmyvote.com to find out if you’re not sure.
The campaigning machine
Bristol has seen a fair share of Brexit stunts as campaigners attempt to influence votes, almost all fighting to remain. Some of the more memorable have been:
Boris Johnson and Donald Trump locked in an unnerving embrace on Stokes Croft as a warning of what could be to come if Britain votes to leave.
Two nearly naked remain activists body painted themselves with the EU flag and Union Jack to stake their flags in the remain camp.
And the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft used street art to remind us that the immigration debate affects us all:
Undecided? Here are a few views and opinions on either side of the fence to help guide you.
STAY:
Mayor Marvin Rees: ‘Bristol is better off as a member of the EU’
Former Green Party mayoral candidate Tony Dyer: ‘I want to take my country forwards’
GO:
Bristol North West MP Charlotte Leslie: ‘The European Project is dangerous’
‘Former mayoral hopeful Philip Pover: ‘If localism is good, why grow a larger EU?’
Read more: In or out? It’s time to decide about Europe