Book - Led by Donkeys: How four friends with a ladder took on Brexit

I was one of the early followers of the @ByDonkeys Twitter account and like these activists, I too was surprised at how quickly they built a large following. The book tells the story of how they put the very first billboard poster up, having paid for the printing themselves and then one night used their ladder to stick it up on a local hoarding illegally, but for very good reason. Then through crowdfunding, more tweets from idiotic politicians were being plastered on billboards everywhere showing all the unkept promises and hypocrisies:

Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice- stability and strong Government with me or chaos with Ed Miliband

The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want.

If Bxxxxt is a disaster, I will go and live abroad. I will go and live somewhere else.

If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.

I’m reaching the point where I’m thinking we should have a second referendum.

I don’t think the UK should leave the EU. I think it would be a disaster for our economy and it would lead to a decade of economic and political uncertainty

 All by politicians who voted leave.

The billboards are brilliant and now that we know the four have marketing credentials, we understand why the whole project gets the nation’s attention. But is it effective?

The Led By Donkeys campaign was good as billboards are seen by everyone whereas, on social media, we are so often preaching to the converted. Those that are wanting transparency, integrity and honesty from their politicians already support the cause. Those who aren’t bothered get lost in swathes of conflicting digital content. 

I’m sure others like me that are so desperately craving a better world cling on to any spark of hope. Sadly, even having politicians lies and broken promises on notices the size of a bus didn’t stop the same incompetent ones getting re-elected in December 2019. After the four guys were about to be outed in the national press they decided to do an interview and reveal themselves. The book followed.

I thought much like the now-defunct The Independent Group/Change UK, this little group would come in and help us change the world. Change UK jacked it in after not having any MPs in the last election (It thought they folded too early) and Led By Donkeys is having trouble finding it’s the way I again now that we don’t have any elections for a while. 

Having initially supported from the start I immediately unfollowed when they started having a pop at non-elected millionaires. We can’t dictate what people do with their money, it’s up to them, even if we think it’s morally or ethically wrong. Politicians that we elect and pay from our taxes to do the job of looking after us all, should absolutely be held accountable. This is the job of journalists and it’s heartbreaking (with my background in the media) to see so few of them doing this and even less having any impact. It’s truly shocking to see the crucial questions not being asked and that’s what little I hear about because I spend most of my days - always have done - avoiding seeing any news. When they do get asked, the journalists accept responses that don’t actually answer the question.

It’s remarkable to see four friends from similar industries have the exact same mindset and seemingly agree with everything. I did love reading about how they started and how they dealt with hiccups and mistakes along the way. Reading this book will teach us all how to paste up billboards - should we ever need to know - and good guerilla advertising can be.