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Led by Donkeys gets it wrong (again)

Photo by Justin Tallis - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Good old Remainiacs: where would be without them? It is eight years now since the UK voted to quit the EU and nearly five since we actually left – but a small band of Hiroo Onoda-impressionists are still refusing to accept those basic facts. Chief among them is ‘Led by Donkeys’, the self-identifying ‘satirists’ who claim to bravely be speaking truth to power.

Now it hasn’t escaped Steerpike’s attention that the group is extremely selective in who it judges to be the powerful. The group tends to pick Tories as its targets, such as ex-MP Liz Truss, rather than, er, the actual Labour government who run this country today. Still, at least they could get the ‘truth’ part right eh?

Sadly not, it seems. For the latest Led by Donkeys campaign takes aim at the monarchy. The group released a video of the RNLI lifeboat station in Sennen Cove, Cornwall, following a Channel 4 investigation about the Royal Family’s finances. The video claimed that the King is ‘rinsing’ the RNLI by charging it to ‘launch its boat because he owns the beach.’

So, how much exactly is our heartless monarch ‘fleecing’ the RNLI by? The grand total is a whopping £600. Yes, £600 – and not just for the Sennen Cove site but across six sites overall. The sum of £100 a year is a peppercorn rent, i.e a small token amount that allows the RNLI’s occupancy to be enshrined in a contract which brings tenancy rights.

As the community notes on Twitter/X pointed out: ‘This is a beneficial contribution to the RNLI, the opposite of the exploitation claimed.’ Led by Donkeys indeed. Better luck next time eh lads?

Steerpike
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Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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