The creator of a new Brexit-themed museum has appealed for item donations and support, as the charity hopes to bring their exhibition to life.
Lee Rotherham, who helped set up the Museum of Brexit, said they want to be “there to tell the story” of Britain’s exit from the European Union, and the history of the EU itself.
Appearing on GB News, Rotherham told host Martin Daubney that after realising how many items from the Brexit era were being “binned and lost”, he decided it was a “subject matter that was really important” to the British people.
Rotherham told Martin: “The idea came from a conversation I had with some old friends and colleagues, who decided that between us, the subject matter that was really important.
Lee Rotherham has set up the Museum of Brexit to ‘tell the story’ of the UK’s exit from the EU
GB News
“Things were already being binned and lost, and we decided that things need to be preserved for future record and for the debate to be recorded.”
When asked by Martin how difficult it has been to get the museum set up, Rotherham admitted it has been “quite the project”, but they are not fully set up yet.
Rotherham explained: “It’s taken much longer and much more effort than than I thought at the time, but we’re progressing.
“We’ve clearly got enough range of material from across all those various phases in history, tracking the making of the nation state from Julius Caesar to the modern day and the whole history of Europeanism and US Euroscepticism and the story of Brexit.”
Lee Rotherham shared many of the items which would be on display in the musuem
GB News
Rotherham also shared a selection of items with Martin on GB News which the charity has collected so far, including both Pro-Brexit and pro-Remain material. He claimed: “It’s not just about the Britain and the UK, it’s about the wider vision across all the parts of the political spectrum.”
Rotherham then revealed: “We’re there to tell the story of both sides and all the opinions associated with that, because that’s the way you can understand the arguments, the issues, the concerns and how people’s views changed over time.
“We have a massively forgotten interview with Jimmy Goldsmith, sold out to the consumer that with the Big Issue back in the day. And by contrast we have a book by James Ellis, who is a very pro-European, conservative pro-EU MEP.”
Sharing his own story of EU memorabilia, Martin revealed that he had “stolen the Union Jack flag” from European Parliament, before being urged by Nigel Farage to return it.
Martin told GB News: “There was something which I would have donated – I stole a flag from the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Martin Daubney admitted that he stole the EU Parliament flag, before being told to return it by Nigel Farage
GB News
“We called it ‘Operation Liberate Jack’. I found out that all of the flags in all of the European Parliament were being put into storage in an underground vault, and I wasn’t having that. I had a couple of sherbets, so I must confess I took that flag.”
When asked how the public can donate items to the museum, Rotherham told Martin that there are two drop off points for items to be sent to, and called for others to get in touch via social media if they would like to support the set up of the museum.
Rotherham concluded: “We have two central drop off points in the West Midlands and in London. If you’ve got something, get in touch with us via the website, or you can contact us directly on social media and we’ll sort something out.
“We’ve got to have a little bit of pruning of material also, as we don’t want 10,000 leaflets saying the same thing.”
Source Agencies
