Confusion as NO ONE turns up for 'huge' pro Brexit demo in Doncaster

[T_i_B]

https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/confusion-no-one-turns-huge-pro-brexit-demo-doncaster-825135

Leave campaigners had called on thousands of protesters to gather outside the Civic Offices in Sir Nigel Gresley Square in the town centre at 10am this morning in anger at Britain’s failure to leave the EU by Boris Johnson’s October 31 deadline.

But the square was deserted and the event appears to have been pulled at the eleventh hour with organisers blaming the postponement on a lack of donations, protesters and the forthcoming General Election.

Former Vote Leave campaigners were planning to stage protests in Doncaster, Sunderland, London and Boston at 10am as part of a day of civil disobedience which also includes a mass cancellation of TV licences, lighting of beacons across the country, blockades of fuel depots and motorway go slows.

But organiser Jay Beecher admitted on Twitter that the protest had been called off due to a lack of funding and shortage of protesters.

[Soph0571]

1. And they said there would be riots??

Where are the ptchforks.. hehe

[T_i_B]

2. We are all still waiting for Mark Francois to explode.

[Soph0571]

3. Well there is that

maybe on the 5th?

[Denzil_DC]

4. A pro-Brexit demo in Westminster did go ahead yesterday,

though if you'd blinked, you'd have missed it:

Link to tweet

Jonathan Spink @jonathan_spink

Police move huge Brexit protest along on Whitehall.

[Twitter video]

(For those who can't view the video, it shows a very generous estimate of two dozen union flag-brandishing demonstrators ambling along the road while the police, who seriously outnumber them, herd them like ill-trained sheepdogs.)

Some of the replies on that tweet are pretty good:

Link to tweet

Peter Simms 🇪🇺🇬🇧🔶 pro-EU pro-FoM @peterrsimms

One policeman with a broom would have done the trick.

Don't tell him Pike
🇬🇧
@Kaltenjay
Replying to @peterrsimms @jonathan_spink

One policeman waving a Wetherspoons discount voucher would have worked too

The scenes prompted the Washington Post to run a roundup:

On day Britain was supposed to leave E.U., no riots — but plenty of jokes
...
“I think if we don’t leave on 31st of October, this country will explode,” Mark Francois, a hard-line Conservative member of Parliament, told BBC Politics Live in mid-September.

“Civil unrest could happen. I’m not saying it will — or that it’s even likely — but it is possible,” Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly said at an event in late September.
...
There was no carnage. No Brexit riots. No mass protests. Just thousands of tweets from people sharing sarcastic tales and snapshots from all the ways the country had (or had not) exploded.

While some people had run out of tea bags, others tweeted images of their cats fast asleep in tranquil homes. On one road a lone traffic cone had fallen on its side; on another, a handful of leaves had fallen from the branches of a rather naked-looking tree.
...

Link to tweet

Dai Lama @WelshDalaiLama

The day is upon us.
Mark Francois warned us all.
It's October 31st and Britain has not left the EU.

This country has exploded.

Please share your images of TOTAL CHAOS AND ANARCHY using the hashtag #BritainHasExploded

DevonDad @Hutch_and_Sons

I awoke to discover a fork in the knife section... absolute scenes here!#BritainHasExploded

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/31/day-britain-was-supposed-leave-eu-no-riots-plenty-jokes/

[LeftishBrit]

5. There is certainly much less turnout at Brexit than Remain events

I had thought this was partly due to Brexit voters being less likely to live in places with good links to London; but it seems to be just as true when the events are held in Leave areas.