Thoughts for freelancers who don’t feel able to turn work away at the moment. Today, I was booked for a 10am voiceover session. At 9am the scripts arrived. It was a “prepare for Brexit” PSA to be broadcast elsewhere. I am anti-Brexit. I didn’t want to do it. 1/8

My septuagenarian parents/stepparents have devoted the last few years to fighting Brexit. They’ve marched, sung in Brussels, waved banners outside Parliament. My sister @mrhmltn stood outside HP with a banner EVERY DAY before uni for months. Being European means a lot to us. 2/8

My parents are not radical lefties. They’re teachers and academics – highly intelligent and slightly off the wall at times, but otherwise ordinary people. Not riotous lunatics. They saw something happening which they felt was wrong and used retirement to protest against it. 3/8

(I’d like to have done more, but since Brexit happened I’ve been dealing with the fallout from my husband’s death and then breast cancer – so I've done MUCH less than I otherwise would have done, and I’m conscious of how little I’ve actually helped.) 4/8

When I saw the script, I panicked. I didn’t want to put my voice to something I simply do not stand for. The ad will be aired elsewhere but I didn’t want to be The Voice of Brexit. Equally, I knew *someone* would voice it. I canvassed opinion around some VO friends. 5/8

One said that if I didn’t do it, there would be a Brexit-supporting FVO recording an ad she wasn’t cast for, walking off with £££ to spend on Amazon. I didn’t want that. And I remembered my disgust last night when 322 Tory MPs (including my own) voted to leave kids hungry. 6/8

So, decision made. I recorded the ad and am donating the fee to my local food bank at @EmmausBolton. I can hold my head up high and know that this tiny fraction of the billions wasted on Brexit will go directly to feed the local hungry children which my MP refuses to support. 7/8

I know how hard it is for freelancers to turn down work, so this might help my dear friends in VO or beyond to deal with the quandary of having principles but still feeding your kids in the middle of a pandemic. MY kids won’t get fed from this ad – but someone’s will. 8/8