Leave Means… Tricking Others Into Marching On Your Behalf?

A straightforward question for our latest blog: who has the better Brexit PR campaign – Nigel Farage or Led By Donkeys? They’re campaigning over the same issue but from wildly different perspectives and with markedly different approaches. But which is more effective?

First up, Farage. Man-of-the-people™ Nige has organised a protest march for those who voted leave but are annoyed that they might end up leaving with terms different to those they were originally promised. He’s encouraged Leavers to join him on the 270-mile, 14-day walk from Sunderland to London, which will culminate in an unspecified rally on March 29th to show Westminster that Leavers really, REALLY want the UK to leave the EU and are prepared to walk through drizzle to prove it. Having paid £50 for the privilege.

Seven days after setting off, the number of marchers has dwindled from a few hundred to approximately 70. And would you believe it, Farage isn’t even one of them. Nope, he disappeared after a few hours on day one and hasn’t been back since. Talk about practicing what you preach.

In the other corner, Twitter-based pro-Remain group, Led By Donkeys. To highlight the hypocrisy of the people it sees as responsible for the Brexit fiasco and drum up pro-remain support, the group takes historic Brexit statements made by our political leaders, such as Farage, and displays them on billboards for all to see. They also use giant mobile video screens to display the messages on the go. In this
case, right alongside Farage’s Farage-less march.

So far, pro-Nige/Brexit marchers have been greeted by historical Farage quotes
including:

• ‘
If Brexit is a disaster, I will go
and live abroad, I
’ll go and live somewhere else’, and
• ‘I’m reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum’.

Ultimately, it’s hard to know if there are any real winners here but by highlighting Farage’s hypocrisy, Led By Donkeys has hijacked his own campaign and turned it against him for the good of Remainers everywhere. Since being formed on Twitter last December, the group has quickly grown from a few thousand followers in January, to 111K followers today. In stark contrast to the march, which is losing supporters every day, Led By Donkeys is building momentum all the time.

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