By Will Charley, Comment editor
The official campaign bus of Our Future Our Choice (OFOC) arrived in Bristol yesterday (5 March), parking outside The Hawthorns, with campaigners distributing flyers asking, ‘Hate Brexit?’
OFOC, a group created to vocalise young people's opposition to Brexit, co-ordinated with For Our Futures’ Sake (FFS) and Bristol SU to bring the bus to the University of Bristol.
OFOC aims to get students to understand ‘what it means to be an EU member, what it means when we leave’.
Johnny Lucas, Deputy Director of Communications and Events, stated that: ‘Education is…a large part of [OFOC]’ but the group’s central message to students is to ‘look beyond the headlines [and] to find things out for themselves’. For OFOC, ‘education is a strong word, outreach and engagement is better’.
As well as handing out flyers, the OFOC campaigners got students to sign their names and write on the side of the campaign bus, which itself has a slogan stating that, ‘77% of us don’t want Brexit. Please stand up for our future!’
Students were also invited to participate in an informal poll, with responses decisively favouring a People’s Vote. Just four students supported Theresa May’s current deal, whilst only one student supported leaving the EU without a deal, at the time of writing.
Sally Patterson, SU Equality, Liberation and Access Officer, helped to organise the event. She said: 'I’m delighted to host the Battle Bus today. It’s so important to engage our students in what’s going on politically, and the devastating consequences of Brexit on our futures. Let’s make a noise- it’s our voices that deserve to be heard!'.
Also present at the campaign was the South West Coordinator for OFOC, Amy Heley, a fourth-year languages student at the University of Bristol and head of Bristol’s GreenSoc.
The bus tour by OFOC is part of the People’s Vote campaign, a national movement calling for a second referendum and the collaboration of this group with Bristol SU is one of several events planned, all of which oppose Brexit on behalf of Bristol students.
A People's Vote march is planned for 23 March in London. Epigram reported on University of Bristol students present at the last march.
Featured image: Will Charley / Epigram
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