It is all too easy to look at political campaigns, whether they be for elections or for referendums, as monolithic ones. We quite naturally look at the global view of these campaigns, of the sort provided by the news media, with its soundbites and talking heads, as the definitive story of a campaign. Unfortunately this coverage, even when it is factually accurate, sometimes leaves out the more human stories that any political campaign encompasses.

I found one such background story on the Gab platform earlier today. The Gab user Lizzy @welshdragon has recounted her experience of working for the Leave campaign in the run up to the 2016 EU Referendum. I have been given permission by Lizzy to republish her piece and I have to say that it gives a fascinating insight on how in one particular area people from across the spectrum of political and social views came together to get the Leave voters out of their houses and into the polling stations. This is an excellent article and not only is it a valuable ‘slice of life’ piece on how the biggest political shock in recent British political history happened, but also shows the increasingly high calibre of writing that Gab is helping to publicise.

Lizzy said:

MY BREXIT STORY

Getting the leave vote was like a war. I mean you are in camps,running a campaign. There are tactics,strategies etc.. I was part of the ground troops and we were fighting on numerous fronts,debates,social media, polling,betting and so on.

It was a cross party coalition led by a green party member ironically. I actually thought they had the best concept with branding. Green leaves.

The first meet it was 30/70% for remain. We all agreed to go down fighting.

Six weeks before the vote we were out and leave signs were going up in gardens and fields across the country. The remainers were nowhere to be seen

The initial propaganda onslaught came down on us like a rain of arrows. It caused a dip in the polls but we resisted and bounced back a little. As the campaign went on it became clear we were winning, beating them hands down.

2 weeks before the vote the remainers got out of bed and started to campaign. They were arrogant, condescending,called us names, had no good argument for staying in the EU.

In fact the best argument i heard for remain was better the devil you know and that was from a couple of Irish ladies that didn’t have the vote

We were killing it on the ground. We had the biggest betting weekend as i remember and everyone put their money on leave except the big banks of course. There was one poll showing us 10 points ahead. We had the momentum

We knew there would be an establishment response and discussed what they might do. Cause a war with Russia was my own theory here but no one could have predicted what happened next.

The Jo Cox killing was like a cannon from  the broadside just knocking us for six. It effectively stopped the campaign dead and was by far the worst time for us. We thought wed lost it. Had to rally round for the last few days and suffer open hostility from those who blamed us for the ‘divisive’ campaign

As bad as it was for us we knew it would be worse for remain having lost one of their campaigners but by then it was over. The last few days we did the dawn leafleting and our final street poundings. Remain looked defeated out on stalls but their window flyers made it look like they had a lot of support

One of the best things i did was shore up the vote,which involved going to pub in a local leave area and encouraging them to go and put their cross in the box. South Wales is for leave I told them (bearing in mind I’m in Yorkshire), every votes a winner, we can do it, put a bet on. Well you could have heard a pin drop and that would have gone round like wildfire

It was sad hearing the old guy tell me how their communities have been ruined by immigration. They want it halted yesterday

By the day of the vote it was roughly 50/50 in the polls. I’m very proud of what we achieved. We delivered the referendum to the people and said its there if you want it. A two horse race,every vote counts

When the results finally came in it was so beautiful. A gift that just kept giving. The people repayed us in spades. We were like a Duracell bunny that just kept going. While remain ran out of steam every little town and village was for leave, for leave, for leave. Like trickles of water running into every valley. One of the best days of my life

We were totally,utterly elated. It was overwhelming for leave. The vast majority of regions and constituencies went for leave. Only Scotland, Northern Ireland and London went to the dark side

A word about the postal votes, they were extremely heavy for remain. Much more so than the rest of the voting. Thought it was odd. Also no one knows what happens to the postal boxes or where they are kept.

A magnificent win for the people that they will never be able to take away