British Celebrities and the Brexit
This week, I saw a video of Keira Knightley which is called #DontF**kMyFuture (** I left out two letters here). In this video, she invites the British people to vote in the EU referendum. This video of her made me think and I started to look for other celebrities who involve themselves in this political aspect. Apparently, there is a huge amount of British celebrities who made their opinion on the Brexit public. There are over 300 famous British people that signed a letter which says that the UK should stay in the EU. Examples for these celebrities are Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Benedict Cumberbatch or Paloma Faith. Nevertheless, there are other celebrities who made clear that they want the UK to leave the EU. In addition to that, one can find quizzes in the internet in which you have to guess which celebrity votes for or against the Brexit.
I don’t think that the majority of the British people relies on them. However, celebrities can influence the people — in one way or the other. Fans of these celebrities might stick to what they would vote, either remain or leave. But there are also others who reject the ideas of them and are fundamentally opposed to what some celebrities would vote for. One example is the very sarcastic comment on this video of Keira Knightley: “Celebrities understand our lives and can do the thinking for us”.
Apart from influencing people either on voting for leave or for stay, I asked myself: Should celebrities use their fame to openly present their point of view on important issues like the EU referendum at all? Is it useful? Should the British people rely more on what “their” politicians say?
