The founding members of Led By Donkeys granted a public interview last Thursday at a theatre in Walthamstow. They were questioned by Guardian columnist Zoe Williams.
Seated on squashy sofas, the four men looked like an ageing boyband who met at public school.
James Sadri, suave and handsome, seems to be the boss. Ollie Knowles is the ebullient charmer. Ben Stewart, who scowls as he talks, is the grumpy technical wizard. And Will Rose, who says very little, seems to be the token northerner. The Donkeys specialise in harmless political pranks. Their approach is new but their content is stale. In their latest stunt, they projected a short film about Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein onto the wall of Windsor Castle during the American president’s state visit. They were arrested and charged with causing a public nuisance. On stage, the story was told by Ollie Knowles, who cracked jokes about the bungling cops and the inept judicial system. Williams seemed shocked by his nonchalance.
‘You could end up with an actual prison sentence,’ she said. Stewart chipped in gruffly. ‘Yes, public nuisance carries ten years inside.’
‘But you don’t look that worried,’ said Williams. ‘Why are you not that worried?’
‘We do take good legal advice before we do these things,’ said Stewart. He didn’t disclose who pays for these consultations. All four were once members of Greenpeace, but they appear not to work for a living. Williams uncovered some further oddities. She asked about the advance preparations for the Trump/Epstein stunt, and Stewart explained that they swung into action as soon as the state visit was announced. ‘The first thing we did was get a train down to Windsor and have a day out,’ he said. It all sounded marvellously relaxing. She praised them for correctly guessing the date of Trump’s arrival at the castle.
‘He could have gone straight to Scotland or to Buckingham Palace,’ she suggested. Stewart corrected this impression. ‘Someone told us early on exactly what his schedule was, to be honest,’ he said. An awkward silence followed, and Stewart hastily changed the subject. ‘So. That was great. And I think we were next going to move on to, um…,’ he said.
‘Sorry. That’s my job,’ said Williams, rebuking herself for some reason. She asked about their humiliation of Liz Truss last year at a public meeting in Beccles, Norfolk. Truss’s speech was interrupted by the unveiling of a banner showing a lettuce above the caption, ‘I crashed the economy.’ To arrange the prank, they hired the meeting hall in advance and recorded a fake music video while their ‘action co-ordinators’ secretly installed the banner. An expensive operation. They travelled to Norfolk with musicians, costumes, lights, cameras, microphones and other props. James Sadri admitted that their resources are extensive. ‘People ask, how do you pull this off, part-time, four of you? We don’t. We have this incredible crew of amazing people who make all of this stuff happen. They like to live in the shadows. You might be sitting next to one of them right now.’
Stewart, who masterminded the Truss operation, said that she was targeted because she appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference in America alongside Steve Bannon. When Bannon said ‘obliging things’ about Tommy Robinson, Truss failed to upbraid him in public. ‘She was using her platform as a former prime minister to support the far right,’ said Stewart. ‘And she’s on Twitter far too much,’ he added – an odd remark from a free-speech advocate. His intention was ‘to remind people that this is someone who shouldn’t be taken seriously’. But Truss was largely forgotten until the Donkeys revived her career for a few hours. They seem devoid of common sense. Stewart sees Truss as an active threat to the left. ‘If the Conservative party goes MAGA then this country is in really, really big trouble.’ Is he unaware that Truss resigned three years ago and that the Tories are facing electoral extinction? Someone ought to let him know that the Labour party, under Keir Starmer, is busy pinching its immigration policies from Reform. If MAGA influences anyone in Westminster, it’s the government. But Stewart is fixated by Truss, whom he describes as part of the ‘radicalised elite’. Social media damages the neurology of right-wing politicians, he said. ‘It’s scrambling their brains and turning them a little bit mad.’ Ollie Knowles agreed and called for tighter regulation. ‘We do have to deal with social media and control it better.’
‘Good stunt. Obsolete message. Blaming Putin for the rise of right-wing politicians was out of date during the Brexit campaign in 2016.’
Who are the Donkeys? They describe themselves as ‘a private company limited by guarantee’ – the formula used by charities. But their name doesn’t appear on the charities register. Their website has no photos or personal information. ‘We refuse major donors,’ they say, although they accept gifts of up to £1,500. The site invites visitors to buy their hardback (£18.04) or to attend one of their forthcoming appearances in Manchester, Canterbury or Bristol. These are student towns. The Donkeys are big on campus, clearly.
In August 2024 they disrupted a Nigel Farage speech by lowering a banner of Putin alongside a caption, ‘I love Nigel.’ Good stunt. Obsolete message. Blaming Putin for the rise of right-wing politicians was out of date during the Brexit campaign in 2016.
James Sadri spoke about his political journey. ‘Ethno-nationalism is on the rise all over the place,’ he said as he sipped a can of Gaza Cola, whose profits are reserved for Palestinians. ‘It’s massively concerning.’ Sadri is part British and part Iranian, and he campaigned against Brexit in order to improve the travelling conditions of his relatives. ‘Half of my family have Iranian passports and have to pay people-smugglers to cross borders,’ he said. He wanted them to travel freely like ‘the other half who have golden British passports.’ The phrase ‘golden British passports’ is rarely used by opponents of Brexit. He described his work with the Donkeys as a mission to cheer himself up. ‘What can we create that can make us feel less miserable about the state of things?’ he said. He made it sound like Valium.
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