It has been just over a year since Scram launched. Working from a basement in east London, we set out to campaign and cover news from an anti-Brexit, progressive standpoint while taking on the raging forces of right-wing populism at home and abroad.
We’re incredibly proud of our achievements. In a year punctuated by several Brexit deadlines, a general election, the prorogation of Parliament, and a global pandemic, we have:
- Forced an investigation into the Brexit Party’s fundraising system.
- Helped to kick far-right figures off Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
- Revealed the links between the UK far-right and Russia.
- Handed in an open letter with over 56,000 signatures to Guy Verhofstadt, telling the EU that Brexit is not in our name.
- Exposed Islamophobia and anti-immigrant hate at the heart of our political system.
- Exposed the hypocrisy and manipulation of right-wing media outlets.
- Raised funds to supply care workers with protective equipment.
- Campaigned against Dominic Raab – including crowdfunding for ads seen by nearly 15,000 people in his constituency during the 2019 general election.
- Put pressure on Facebook to clamp down on hate adverts.
- Challenged fake news in an age of online misinformation.
- Exposed questionable working practices during coronavirus.
- Helped to force the government to close a furlough loophole.
- Revealed the hate suffered by female MPs.
- Exposed the real views of populists about the NHS.
However, the realities of the current crisis mean that, for the foreseeable future, we will have to close our doors.
As media observers will be aware, coronavirus has severely reduced the revenue of many outlets. Sadly, jobs have been cut at BuzzFeed, the Economist, VICE, Quartz and several others.
Unfortunately, our revenue streams have also been impacted, and until the pandemic passes, we cannot envisage a situation where our finances are where we need them to be.
Therefore, we have taken the difficult decision to close our doors from 1st June, for the time being.
So we’re taking a break, but we hope one day to be back.
Indeed, the fight against populism has never been more important. It’s crucial that coronavirus doesn’t cause a backlash against foreigners, but instead that we celebrate the role of immigrants in our workforce. We must ensure that austerity isn’t once again imposed on the poorest as a way of paying for a crisis. And we should encourage more international cooperation as we mount a collective scientific and policy response to the greatest challenge the world has faced in 75 years.
We finally want to pay tribute to the countless people who have joined our campaigns, shared our stories and given us invaluable advice and encouragement over the past year.
We hope to take up the fight again soon.