10 Yetis Insight Blog – Brexit: The (Probably Intentional) PR Disaster of the EU Referendum

The question of whether or not the UK will remain in the European Union is the big debate of the moment; a potentially historical moment that our country is facing, with the fate of the UK in our hands. You can’t open a paper, a website – hell, a social media network – without being confronted with a host of headlines on the subject. It’s consuming our media, in all its many forms.

You would think, much like you would assume for political votes, that in the interest of democracy the arguments would be clearly and simply communicated. The ruling bodies would be under tight regulations; there would be a responsibility and accountability to ensure the general public is well educated and prepared to tick whatever box, when the time comes.

Of course, as we all know, politics doesn’t quite work like that.

The huge, conflicting mess of agendas on every forum has created a bizarre, tumultuous political landscape; one that the average Mr and Mrs Smith has no idea how to navigate. For instance, let’s start off with our agriculture – our own industry is surely an important consideration if we’re going to stand alone. British farmers are funded by the EU, the ‘stay in’ party insist, without the EU they would be desolate. British farmers would be unaffected, the ‘leave’ party counter, and actually better represented if they weren’t lumped in with European farmers with their own interests.

For the average Mr and Mrs Smith, the NHS is probably another one of their leading concerns, so how does that fare? Leaving the EU would free up our funds, according to the ‘leave party’, who has decorated their bus with claims that the £350million that Britain reportedly pays to the EU could well be better spent in our own country, particularly on our healthcare. But can this really be trusted? Breaking headlines today reveal that a Tory MP, Sarah Woollaston, has defected to the ‘remain’ camp with exactly two weeks to go over this very pledge, stating that it’s a ‘fundamental untruth’ and that the NHS is safer if we stay in.

So when even the MPs are switching camps, who can we believe? Who should we trust? The media reports are deemed to have their own agendas and biases; all the conflicting discourses are exhausting the public. It’s been shown before that, when a public is confused, frustrated and overwhelmed, they opt out altogether.

Perhaps this confusion might result in people deciding to just trust the government – an unlikely fate, but as most the leading parties seem united in wanting to remain in the EU, perhaps they are the ones that know best. Perhaps it might lead to people deciding it’s better the devil they know in the face of all these risks. Could this all be a game played by the united political parties, to stay in? Or the leave party, to conflict and complicate the stats so much in the hopes that voters will go on their gut instinct – likely based around immigration and border control, a massive concern in the current climate?

In the midst of this very complicated game of PR chess, it’s interesting to see that there are those who have benefitted by providing less of a biased view. After the political broadcast failed to present reasoned arguments, with Farage criticised for disrespectful treatment of the audience and Cameron for avoiding the opportunity to go head to head with Farage and allow the public to see the discourse between them out in the open, some fantastic piggybacking PR was deployed by none other than the Money Saving Expert himself.

Martin Lewis has hit national headlines after providing a concise and balanced argument; entirely independent of bias. This has come as a breath of fresh air to consumers and is a wise and undoubtedly self-interested strategy; Martin Lewis was reportedly voted the UK’s most trusted person in November last year, so he’s seen as a man of the people and somebody that can be relied upon. Jumping aboard this topical debate will only further his influence, not to one side or another, but in general as a trustworthy sounding board. The message received by the public is clearly - Need advice? Go to Money Saving Expert.

Nobody can predict the outcome of the poll or what will happen as a result. All we can do is wait. If we want to see logical and reasonable cases for both the ‘leave’ and ‘remain’ arguments, they are out there – not put forward as they should be or by the people that should be taking responsibility for them, but they are there if the public wants to find them. And in the meantime, it’s going to be interesting to watch the PR game unfold over the coming weeks. In all of this, the real winners here will be the parties’ vast PR machines.