Our Star - Choosing Our Future

Introduction to ‘Our Star’ - From the 'Our Star Prospectus

The UK'S Star of European Unity and Peace (colloquially called ‘Our Star’) is a totemic symbol, or talisman, designed to galvanise discussion and debate on the future of the UK and its place in Europe. It was conceived by Peter French and Phil Jeanes, supported by Charlie Grosvenor and others, who commissioned the famous artist, Jacques Tilly to make and decorate a 2m tall sculpture of a star. It was christened ‘the UK’s Star of European Unity’.

Its origin lies when the UK left the European Union in 2020. After being made, and with delays due to Covid restrictions, ‘Our Star’ was presented to the European Parliament on May 18th 2022. Terry Reintke (MEP, Germany Alliance 90/The Greens) representing members of the European Parliament, expressed their determination that the UK and UK MEP's will return to the European Parliament in the future and were keen to demonstrate this faith by offering to house and keep safe ‘Our Star’ until the UK again becomes a member of the European Union.

Now, with increasing evidence of changes in public opinion and more active discussion of the consequences of Brexit, the time has come for Our Star to rise, and shine some light on the UK’s future. Its mission is to act as a talisman for a series of public debates to engage a wide cross-section of the UK population in discussions in late 2023, and then, during 2024 and beyond, to instigate and hold a series of Citizens Panels to explore the future directions of what kind of civil society we want our future to be.

We call this campaign ‘Choosing our Future’ and the debates involved, “Forums for the Future’.

Campaign Outline

The campaign in the UK is currently planned to begin in London where it will appear at the ‘National Rejoin March’ in September 2023. Subsequent to that, Our Star travels around the UK, to provide a visual focus for the ‘Forums for the Future’ which are public debates, hosted by local pro-EU groups, to consider the future.

In the first ‘trek’, in late 2023 (see map), we anticipate six debates each two weeks apart, enabling Our Star to be used for other local activities in each place. These should be aimed at engaging local discussion and media coverage. It is vital that we attract young people into this regional and national debate. To that end, a key element of this is the ‘Junior Forum for the Future’ where young people will have the opportunity to debate and share their views. An elected young person from that forum will then become part of the senior forum a few days later. The content and structure of the forums, such as the key points for discussion, will use what we call the ‘FutureScope’ to visualise the issues, and discussion, about our future within a common framework.

The first series of events is planned to be held within a few days of the National Rejoin March in London in September 2023 and provide debates about the Party Conferences as they take place. These debates, which will involve a number of speakers of differing or opposing minds with a moderator, aim to clarify and challenge what has happened in the conferences of that week.

After these sessions, the series of ‘Forums for the Future’ will begin and give the public a chance to discuss what they want for their future. Before each Forum, there will be a Junior Forum, from which will be elected to participate as a speaker at the following ‘Senior Forum’. This pattern will be repeated at each stop on the Trek until the end of 2023.

Choosing Our Future and Backing ‘Our Star’ to get our star back

Become a Star Backer by donating to our ‘activity funding’. This is crowdfunding of actions and activity because, unlike membership fees, your donation is used directly for the events of this campaign, and not for administration or office space, etc. Hence, you know what your contribution does, and the more you are able to give over time, the greater chance you will have on ‘getting our star back’. We recognise generosity by awarding ‘stars’ to you:

1 * Any individual can contribute to our activity crowdfunding and for donations of more than £10, you will be recognised as a 1-Star Backer.

2* Cumulative donations over time of over £25 will qualify you as a 2-Star Backer. This will be recorded by an entry in the ‘Backers Book’ which is a register to be held with the UK’s Star of European Unity and Peace when it returns to its place back at the European Parliament at the successful completion of the campaign.

3* Cumulative individual donations which total over £100 will qualify as a 3-Star Backer and also qualify for an entry in the ‘Backers Book’ which will be maintained. In addition, you will be invited to attend the regional colloquia which will be held periodically to consider the outputs from the Forums for the Future.

4* Individuals’ or corporate donations which total over £1000 will qualify as a 4-Star Backer and provide the opportunity to invite Our Star to one event of their own making, outside any planned OurStar.org.uk campaigns. An ‘association agreement’ on the date, ethical compatibility, logistics and administration arrangements involved in the event(s) will need to be agreed between the event organiser and OurStar.Org.uk.

5* Corporate donations or sponsorship of over £5000 will qualify as a 5-Star Backer and would have the opportunity to host either or both Senior and Junior Stars for up to 5 days for various events and activities of their choice, subject to an association agreement with Ourstar.org.uk.