Our Future Our Choice

Our Future Our Choice

OFOC's Logo
Abbreviation	OFOC
Formation	19 October 2017;7 years ago (2017-10-19)
Founders	Femi Oluwole Calum Millbank-Murphy Lara Spirit Will Dry
Type	Campaign group
Purpose	Pro-European Union advocacy group for young people
Location	Millbank Tower, 21–24 Millbank, London, England, SW1P 4QP
Spokesman	Femi Oluwole
Spokesman	Calum Millbank-Murphy
Co-president	Lara Spirit
Co-president	Will Dry

Our Future Our Choice (OFOC) was a British pro-European Union advocacy group for young people. ^{[1] [2]}

History

The Twitter account for OFOC was created 19 October 2017. ^[3] OFOC was incorporated as a company on 19 February 2018. ^[4] Its four founding members were Femi Oluwole (spokesman), Calum Millbank-Murphy (spokesman), Lara Spirit (co-president) and Will Dry (co-president). ^[5]

Activities

OFOC heavily criticised the government's approach to negotiating Brexit. In July 2018 it protested outside Chequers during a cabinet summit, holding a banner which read 'Your Brexit Deal Screws Our Future: Explain Yourselves'. ^[6] In June 2018 OFOC and For our Future's Sake (FFS) unfurled a banner which read "Stop backing Brexit" at a festival event organised by the Labour Party nicknamed "JezFest" after the party's leader Jeremy Corbyn. ^{[7] [8]}

In the same month OFOC produced a host of billboard advertising targeting frontbench Labour Members of Parliament (MPs), accusing them of "being in the pockets" of hardline Brexiteers. The adverts were similar to those produced by the Conservative Party for the 2015 general election which suggested that the then Labour leader, Ed Miliband, was "in the pocket" of the former leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond. ^{[9] [10]}

Left-wing outlets such as the Red Robin have claimed that OFOC was funded by centre right donors. ^[11] OFOC's website stated that it was "powered by: Best for Britain, Open Britain, and The European Movement". OFOC have advocated the view that Corbynite radical change would be inhibited by Brexit due to a lack of political bandwidth and the potential negative economic consequences. ^[12]

OFOC later hosted, along with FFS, a number of "Parliament Takeover" events ^[13] where a large group of young people visit Parliament's central lobby and meet with their local MPs to discuss a people's vote. ^[14]

OFOC's founders were regular speakers at anti-Brexit events up and down the country. This includes the People's Vote march and later the Put It To The People march on the 23 March 2019. ^[15] The People's Vote campaign claimed the latter was attended by over 1 million people, although independent fact-checkers actually suggested between 312,000 and 400,000 attendees. ^{[16] [17]}

See also

• Opposition to Brexit in the United Kingdom
• European Union Withdrawal Agreement (Public Vote) Bill 2017–19
• 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum
• For our Future's Sake

References

1. Embury, Tom (14 February 2018). "'Our Future, Our Choice': Campaign launched for young people who want Brexit stopped". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
2. Morley, Nicole (16 February 2018). "Campaign launched for young people who want to stop Brexit ruining their future". Metro . Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
3. "@OFOCBrexit". tweettunnel.com. Tweet Tunnel. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
4. "OUR FUTURE, OUR CHOICE! OFOC! LTD". companycheck.co.uk. Company Check. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
5. "About us". ofoc.co.uk. Our Future Our Choice. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
6. Bloom, Dan (6 July 2018). "Every single Tory Cabinet minister refuses to meet young people against Brexit". Daily Mirror . Archived from the original on 5 August 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
7. Sanusi, Victoria (17 June 2018). "Labour Live: Protesters held up a 'stop backing Brexit' sign as Jeremy Corbyn spoke". i (newspaper). Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
8. Williams, Zoe (18 June 2018). "Jeremy Corbyn, take note: leftwing remainers won't stay silent on Brexit". The Guardian. Opinion. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
9. Bradley, Sorcha (18 June 2018). "Senior Labour MPs accused of 'being in the pocket of Jacob Rees-Mogg' over Brexit stance". Sky News. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
10. Williamson, David (19 June 2018). "A massive billboard poster will show Llanelli MP Nia Griffith literally in the pocket of Nigel Farage". walesonline.co.uk. WalesOnline. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
11. "The Tory, Liberal and New Labour donors involved with anti-Corbyn 'stop Brexit' youth group". The Red Robin. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
12. "Our future, our choice: Labour must listen to young people on Brexit". LabourList. 27 June 2018. Archived from the original on 5 August 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
13. "Parliament takeover sees hundreds of young people lobby their MPs". Our Future Our Choice. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
14. Curiel, Joshua. "Politics is changing whether the gatekeepers like it or not". The New European. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
15. "PUT IT TO THE PEOPLE MARCH ANNOUNCE FIRST TRANCHE OF KEY SPEAKERS FOR SATURDAY". People's Vote. 21 March 2019. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
16. Marsh, Sarah; Quinn, Ruth (23 March 2019). "Brexit march: '1 million' rally for people's vote – as it happened". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
17. "Full Fact People's Vote March Count". Archived from the original on 26 March 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2019.

Further reading

• Oluwole, Femi (5 February 2018). "Dear Jeremy Corbyn, young people need your help to halt Brexit". The Guardian . Opinion. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
• De Peyer, Robin (17 February 2018). "'Let's take back control of our futures': Young campaigner Femi Oluwole's plan to overturn Brexit". standard.co.uk. Evening Standard . Retrieved 26 July 2018.
• Owen, Cathy (13 February 2018). "There's a lot of love for this man and his views on young people and Brexit". WalesOnline . Retrieved 26 July 2018.