From the 48% to Theresa May

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
At the moment, the Government is railroading its 'Brexit' bill through Parliament. If they get their way, then no one, not parliament, not the people, will be able to have a say – what if they have negotiated a disastrous deal, one that plunges us into recession for years by bringing us out of the world's richest and most stable single market? We need a get-out clause. Our voices will help support MPs working hard to build that safety net into the bill, and will put pressure on those who are wavering – they own't be able to ignore us if our words are staring them in the face.



The image we have used is what inspired this campaign, but this is not what the final ads and billboards will look like. We will be developing the final versions with creative agencies, and all pledgers will be given the chance to comment/vote on ideas.

BACKGROUND
The Government and politicians are not hearing the voice of the people who voted remain. This is your chance to have your say. With the funds we raise we will buy advertising space in newspapers and billboards. We will back this up with full digital campaigns to maximise impact.

This first part of the campaign is to announce to the UK that we exist, that we resist Brexit, and that we are not going to go away. Then we want to talk about deep issues we face in our country as a result of the referendum result, to ensure politicians are held to account during the current process of invoking A50, negotiating the exit and the vote on a final deal.

We will be communicating with you regularly via email so that you know how the campaign is progressing and how the money will be spent. We are working hand in hand with the team at Crowdfunder to make sure this campaign is run professionally and with full accountability.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN 

We are a group of like-minded people with a range of relevant professional skills who met through the 48% Facebook groups, frustrated like so many by the silencing of those who would oppose our current trajectory, and feeling we had the opportunity to do something about it.

We assembled ourselves into a team ready to dedicate our time and skills to challenge the status quo. When one of us got 1,500 likes for a post suggesting a billboard campaign - using the words of yet another 48er - to make our suppressed voices heard, we knew we had hit a nerve and it was time to act. That same night, we launched a Crowdfunder.co.uk project to pay for billboards and ads. In under 24 hours we had smashed our target and the fund is still growing.

WHY DID WE LAUNCH THIS CROWDFUNDER?
We have been increasingly concerned that the voice of the 48% is not being heard anywhere since the Referendum vote. In effect, we - roughly half of those who voted - have been cut out of the debate about the future of our country. Citizens of nowhere, our voices and our rights have become invisible.

Indeed, many of us that voted leave did not vote for the brutal Brexit that the government is railroading us into, all the while chanting the false mantra that they are legitimised by a clear mandate representing the will of the people. In reality, the government almost certainly no longer holds majority support as they lock autopilot into the centre of the political sun and alienate remainers and leavers alike. Brexit is already putting our economy under strain, with price hikes hitting the poorest in our society.

There is a growing level of despair in large sections of the population that media and politicians are choosing to ignore. Down at the grass roots, we see it first hand in social media, where voices are increasingly loud and increasingly action focused, as well as worrying signs that our economy is suffering more than people realise. Small and medium businesses – the backbone of our economy – starting to struggle, losing contracts, laying off staff, but because these are small businesses, their stories don't get told, and the media remain silent.

We want parliament and the world to know we don’t support the brutal Brexit that our Prime Minister is taking us towards at breakneck speed. We want the public to know that we are organising ourselves, we are not disappearing, the resistance of the people is alive and real. The virtual roar of support for our campaign shows that this action represents a large cross section of the community.