‘Love Jez, h8 Brexit’: billboard graffiti show ire at Corbyn's stance

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/12/brexit-billboard-graffiti-jeremy-corbyn-labour

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Anti-Brexit campaigners have turned their attention to Jeremy Corbyn by erecting a largely blank billboard in the Labour leader’s constituency that invites people to write slogans challenging his position.

Until now, the guerrilla advertising campaign targeted Tory and Ukip Brexiters with billboards depicting Twitter accounts that highlight the past predictions and statements of politicians, including Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

However on Tuesday morning, the Corbyn billboard – complete with stepladder – appeared opposite Arsenal’s Emirates stadium in north London. Young remainers quickly got to work filling it in with slogans demanding another referendum on Brexit.

They included Shakira Martin, the National Union of Students president, who wrote: “You have let down the mandem [slang for a group of friends].”

Martin, who arrived with activists from the For Our Future’s Sake (FFS) campaign, said she felt disappointed by Corbyn, whom she had supported in successive Labour leadership campaigns.

“He needs to go back to the backbenches because at the moment what we really need is leadership and he is not capable of delivering that.”

One of the people behind the billboard campaign, which tweets from the Led By Donkeys account, said they had chosen the location because they believed Corbyn regularly cycled past.

“The idea for the design was one that came up when we were having a discussion about how to direct it at Jeremy Corbyn. We were thinking about what he has said on Brexit and then someone just said that leaving it blank would best reflect what he has done. We mocked it up and then just went with it,” said the activist, one of a group of friends behind the campaign.

The Brexit statements of our political leaders, turned into tweets then slapped up on massive billboards.No. 47: In his North Islington constituency, it’s @JeremyCorbyn. pic.twitter.com/jiZBSUnUrS

“We hope Jeremy will take notice of this, although this is not really a protest against him: we want the leadership to listen the views of Labour members who are largely in favour of another referendum.”

The slogans included “Our policy, our futures” and “Power to the people”. One of the activists, Rosie McKenna, 24, said she had voted for Corbyn twice in Labour leadership elections but now believed he was not listening to the views of the party’s membership.

“He promised to do that and it’s clear now that he is just not doing it. He’s not listening any more.” But McKenna said she was still feeling optimistic and believed that the campaign for another referendum would ultimately be successful.

Passersby on Tuesday morning included two long-term Labour supporters who also happened to be advertising strategists. One of them, Clare Rossi, 64, said she cancelled her party membership days ago in protest at the way in which the leadership was facilitating Brexit.

“A billboard like this is good because at least it gets people talking, although to be honest I would have done it differently. There needs to be a slogan people will remember, something like the ‘Take Back Control’ one which was used so effectively by the leave side,” she said.

Her partner, John Bacon, 70, took the opportunity to step on to the ladder and spray “sEUicide is Brainless.

“The way I see it, the hard Brexiteers want to take us back to the 1950s, while Corbyn wants to take us back to the 1970s. It’s a a time machine that I don’t want to step into and I think that most of his constituents don’t want to either.”

The arrival of the campaign in the Labour leader’s north London constituency came as he faces criticism over his reluctance to explicitly support a second EU referendum. His offer to help May deliver Brexit has prompted accusations that he has undermined the party’s policy of keeping a public vote on the table.