It is not entirely original to suggest that, with one look at leading figures in the Leave campaign, any reasonable person ought to be very concerned at the possible leadership of this country should they prevail in the EU Referendum on June 23: blundering Boris Johnson, not-very-nice Nigel Farage, and not-very-frank Michael Gove …
But it’s not just the calibre of the Leave campaign’s leadership that should be a concern.
The little Englanders running the grassroots anti-Europe campaign leave a great deal to be desired, as a leaflet doing the rounds in Croydon this week amply demonstrates.
The leaflet has been printed for the Leave campaign… by a company based in the Netherlands.
The leaflet appears to be the work of local Brexiteers, which judged by those who have been running their street stalls, tend to be a handful of far-right Tories but mainly the same UKIP members who put up such a pathetic performance in last year’s General Election in Croydon Central.
This year, none of them appears to have a reliable calendar, because the leaflet to promote a public meeting was sent to press with the incorrect date “Wednesday 17th June”. Printed twice, on the front and the back.
It seems that some poor Kipper has been given the job of crossing out the “Wednesday” and scrawling “Fri” on every leaflet.
One thing that Croydon’s disorganised Brexiteers cannot erase, though, is the legally required declaration on the form, which also carries proof of printing.
Clearly, the Leave campaigners in Croydon, Sutton and Lambeth were incapable of finding a suitable printer anywhere in the south London boroughs, and so took their work to Vistaprint BV, which has its headquarters in Venlo, on the German-Dutch border.
Thank goodness there’s just one more week of this shambolic nonsense left to endure.
- Still Croydon’s only independent news source, and based in the heart of the borough: 1.97 million page views 2013-2015
- Inside Croydon: Named among best regional media campaigns, 2014
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event to publicise, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
I’m not concerned about the leadership of this country, even if there is a coup within the Tory party – we have another general election in 2020. There could well have been a leadership coup anyway if the Tory right (and the country) hadn’t been offered the referendum.
I don’t know if local grassroots campaigners are really ‘little Englanders’ or anti-Europe, but the Leave campaign leaders are neither in my opinion. What they are is anti-EU, not anti-Europe, and i don’t imagine they wish to boycott Dutch printers, or recommend doing so. Perhaps the Dutch printers in question are also anti-EU. Evidently they were happy to do the printing. After all, 61% of the Dutch who voted in a referendum (and 55% of the French) said ‘No’ to the European Constitution. The only effect of that democratic choice was that the Constitution’s text was all put into new and existing treaties and became EU law anyway. That’s the nature of the undemocratic organisation we are currently members of.
Great headline.