Over the past few weeks, striking billboards have been making an appearance in locations across the U.K., from Scotland to the south coast, and in boroughs that voted to leave the EU last summer and those that chose to remain. Images of four people with their mouths muzzled by black tape declare: “We did not vote for... price hikes... hate crimes... brutal Brexit... deal or no deal... the people are speaking. Is Parliament listening?” The billboards are the work of Stop the Silence, a U.K.-based non-partisan, crowd-funded group, which is hoping to reinvigorate a progressive debate as the government prepares to begin talks to leave the EU.
While the “Brexit bill”, which allows the government to commence discussions with EU partners, has passed unamended through the Houses of Parliament, the public debate has continued, with people in both the remain and leave camps hoping to shape the direction the country takes. However, the country has remained deeply divided since the vote, exacerbated by a right-wing media — and even some politicians — that have treated those who have challenged the government’s approach to Brexit as anti-national “remoaners” hell-bent on defying the “will of the people”.
The people behind Stop the Silence are hoping to counter that, focussing on the fact that the kind of Brexit being touted by the government was not the one many voted for. “The notion of the ‘will of the people’ that is bandied around so much is quite difficult to argue with; so we wanted to introduce new lexicon in a non-combative way,” said Steve Machin, one of the co-founders of the movement. “It’s perfectly fine to say yes the referendum is in the past but no, we did not vote for that. That is really what has resonated with the people,” he said, noting that the language of what people did not vote for was also being embraced by politicians who were challenging the government’s approach.
With the authorising legislation just through Parliament, the campaign’s coordinators are in the early days of formulating its future direction, though they are clear that they will be counting on responses from the public in their strategy, as they did with the billboard campaign. “We have had an extraordinary response on all levels,” said Liz Holmes, another co-founder. “People have felt their concerns were not being listened to and we are breaking through that wall of silence — it’s as if political time stopped on June 23 and this is the will of the people: take it or leave it.” The campaign also hopes to embrace those who voted to leave who are uncomfortable with the direction of policy and political and media rhetoric.
Shaping policy
The issue of Brexit has spawned a strong grass-roots movement, with groups — spurred by social media — forming up and down the country. Thousands are expected to participate in a march on March 25 in central London and other parts of the country in support of Europe. While the government is expected to trigger Brexit talks just after, there will be more opportunities to shape policy through legislation that will have to pass through Parliament. “It’s about shaping the kind of Britain we want,” said Ms. Holmes. “We are really concerned about the rise in hate crimes and the atmosphere of divided communities and of a Britain that we don’t recognise. There are millions of people that don’t recognise that. It would be a terrible shame if people thought Britain had lurched to ring-wing ethos because that is simply not true of the majority. What has changed is the loudness of those divisive voices and we want to raise the volume of the vast tolerant majority.”
