Photographing Brexit

It’s not that often an ordinary guy from Australia gets to be on the ground for what should be a proper moment in world history. With Brexit looming, I couldn’t resist booking a trip from ‘home’ in Sweden to London for some history-in-the-making street photography.

Brexit, as you may know, has been a monumental cluster**** since the day the referendum was announced. It was poorly conceived by David Cameron, poorly campaigned for by all concerned, and has been poorly executed by Theresa May and her ever-decreasing circle of friends.

The only bright side of Brexit (for me, not necessarily for Brexiteers) has been John Bercow.

Brexit Day was supposed to be March 29 and with my birthday falling the next day, I booked an airfare and readied my camera bag. In the weeks leading up to my trip, I didn’t know if March 29 would be Brexit Day or not, though it looked increasingly unlikely as time marched on. I was unconcerned, however. Even if Brexit was delayed (which it was, obvs), I knew there’d be something happening on the 29th. The fact that it was an event full of frustration only made it more interesting.

The Remainers had their rally a week before, campaigning for a ‘People’s Vote’ to choose between The Deal (whatever that ends up being) and staying in the EU. It’s reported that there were a million people from all around the UK at that event.

There were people from all over the UK at the March 29 Brexit event, too. I could hear their accents. There wasn’t even close to a million of them, though. If I were to estimate, I’d guess maybe 20,000.

Observations:

The people: Your stereotypical Brexit campaigner is thought to be 40+, white, and at risk of sounding a little uncomplimentary, a little insular and xenophobic. There were plenty of those types there, including what I’ll loosely term ‘the football hooligans’. There was a UKIP rally as part of proceedings, after all.

That definitely doesn’t sum up those in attendance, though.

There were plenty of business people, labourers, retirees, housewives, and yes, even young people in attendance. It was a real cross-section of British life and while the aforementioned stereotypical demographic (aged, white) was the majority, it was not definitive.

The mood: It was mixed. There was certainly a lot of frustration with the parliamentary process. There were lots of chants and some occasional tense moments, especially when the police showed up (which they were quite right in doing).

I was there with camera in hand, as were many others. All of the people I interacted with were happy to chat and many were happy to have their photo taken. The single exception was a skinhead who blocked my camera with his jacket and demanded to know who I was working for – a question I heard asked of others through the day as well.

UKIP held an event during the afternoon, the main drawcard the double-barrel surnamed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known by his nom-de-, Tommy Robinson.

Robinson’s address was a rather high-pitched diatribe on how the press couldn’t be trusted, primarily because it misquoted him. He played a videotape of him saying one thing and then showed the headlines demonstrating the two words that had been changed (cue sinister music).

Most aspiring politicians with an actual policy platform to share would shrug that sort of thing off and stick to their knitting. Robinson went on and on and on, playing the Fake News card like a cheap violin but without the entertaining finesse of the bullshitter-in-chief, Donald Trump. He didn’t really have anything of substance to say. Still, like Trump, this particular crowd love their figurehead.

While the UKIP rally was going on in Whitehall, there was a second rally being held on the Parliament Lawn, around 200 meters away. This was Nigel Farage’s ‘March to Leave’ gig, celebrating a group that had walked two weeks from Sunderland to Westminster (270 miles – not bad).

The UKIP rally had the stereotypical UKIP crowd – I’m sure my camera-blocking skinhead friend was there.

The March to Leave rally enjoyed a much more general attendance. The speakers that I heard provoked the mood of resentment a little too predictably. They were preaching to the choir.

The reasons for leaving that I heard and saw from people during the day were much more heartfelt and honest. They were concerned with national identity and a genuine dislike of the notion – whether right or wrong – of being controlled by the EU.

My conclusion: It was an interesting day.

Most people reading this can probably guess my position. I’m not a Brit but if I were, I’d have voted to remain.

I’ve been following Brexit quite closely and I’ve even come up with my own understanding as to why sane, regular people want to leave. I can imagine if there was an Asian Union, 95% of Australians would vote to stay out of it. It’s not the same situation, by any means, but it’s demonstrative.

Bottom line: I can understand and sympathise with Leavers, even though I disagree with their position. The Ukippers can go fish.

I’m thankful that the Brits can have a protest about such a passion-stirring issue and keep it civil. It started early and went well into the night and there were only 5 arrests all day. As mentioned, almost everyone I encountered showed goodwill, albeit mixed with anger at the current situation and determination to see things go their way.

More photos below.

Photo nerd notes: All images taken with either the Leica M8 with 50mm Summicron, or an M10 with 35mm Summicron. All processing in Lightroom.