A far-right rampage sweeps the country. Their targets? Muslims, mosques, refugees, asylum seekers and the hotels that house them. Police and public who dare to intervene, often become collateral damage. 

Britain is burning, just one week after the far right spread false information that the perpetrator who stabbed three young girls to death in Southport on 29 July was a Muslim immigrant. 

Though untrue, the rumour spread like wildfire – stoked by the usual suspects, Nigel Farage, co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL) Tommy Robinson, even Andrew Tate – all taking to social media and fanning the flames. 

Keir Starmer yesterday held an emergency COBRA meeting condemning “far-right thugs” to the full force of the law, as over 400 arrests have been made nationwide. 

On the evening of Saturday 8 August, a “Stop the Boats” protest came here, to Bristol. The Cable witnessed the events as they unfolded. It began with angry clashes in Castle Park, and culminated with a showdown outside a Redcliffe hotel known to house asylum seekers – the focal point of an evening of unrest. 

All in all, it could have been worse. The far right were well outnumbered by counter-demonstrators – about four to one by some counts. “We are many, you are few,” so the chant went. 

On a weekend of far-right violence, asylum seekers in Rotherham were attacked, the Holiday Inn in Tamworth was set ablaze. It could have been a very different story here. But, thanks to the fearless protestors who linked arms across the entrance of the hotel, the far right were not able to get to it.

The show of solidarity seen outside the Mercure hotel has been hailed as a local symbol of hope and defiance against hatred. And Bristolians are preparing to do it all over again, as the far right are planning to target Gya Williams Immigration centre in Old Market in the city on Wednesday.

For now, we – like the rest of the country – try to make sense of the evening’s events and what it means for race relations in our city. 

Questions for police

In Castle Park, about 700 hundred counter-demonstrators gathered at about 6pm to show that the violence fuelled by racist, islamophobic hatred that far-right thugs are bringing to cities across the country was not welcome here.

After a series of speeches near St Peter’s Church, they turned to face a scattered group of ‘Stop the Boats’ protesters littered across the grass below. “We are many, you are few,” they chanted, as the smaller, angry group began to mobilise and make their way up the church steps to confront them.

“I’ve been getting angrier and angrier about this, seeing everything that’s going on around the country,” Emma, one of the counter-protesters in Castle Park, Bristol. “It’s disgusting that these people feel they have the right to enter the city, intimidate people.”

“But [the far-right] were outnumbered from the beginning, and us being here to take a stand gives them something else to focus on, so they can’t just rampage around,” she adds. 

Her partner, who stepped in to support a Black man being attacked in Castle Park, was among those who suffered the consequences of stepping in – not just by putting himself in harm’s way, but by being arrested for it. 

He was one of 17 people so far arrested for their involvement. Three people have been charged and 13 have been released on bail, including Emma’s partner, conditions that include not to enter the city centre while a police investigation continues.

Clashes broke out, with the police struggling to keep the protesters and counter-protesters separate. Emma’s partner, who is Kurdish, stepped in to stop a group of far-right protesters who were advancing on and swinging punches at a Black man, only to be arrested himself. 

The main culprit got away. Footage of the incident was widely shared on social media.

Emma’s partner and the man he tried to defend were pinned to the floor by officers in riot gear, their heads pushed into the grass. A protester they had been clashing with was also detained, but the force used against him was notably less severe.

Legal observers, witnesses who had footage of the incident, tried to reason with the police officers, who shoved them backwards. Emma’s partner asked an officer where Emma was, and an officer, in a strikingly aggressive tone, told him she had gone home.

She hadn’t. She was just a few metres away, shaken and tearful.

“Given that the guys who attacked [them] weren’t arrested – I saw one of them in footage from outside the hotel later in the evening – shows the priorities of the police,” Emma tells the Cable. “They’ve got a racist mob, they should not attack the victims of the hate crime, you should take the attackers.”

Questions were also rightly raised about why the police took so long to arrive at the Mercure hotel, given the warnings and the clear indication that it would be a target for the far right. The ‘Stop the Boats’ protest material stated that their march would lead to Redcliff Hill, where the hotel is located.

The focus for the police, clearly, was the outbreaks of violence in the park, which eventually reached Bristol Bridge. Officers used dogs and horses to drive them back over the bridge, south of the river.

‘We were ready to do what was needed’

Five minutes up the road, though, the Mercure hotel in Redcliffe would soon become the focal point. And an organised group of counter-protesters knew it.

“We linked arms together, the woman to my right must have been about 60, to my left was a young person,” says Joe, who along with a group of fellow counter-demonstrators created what was effectively a human shield at the entrance of the Mercure shortly after 8pm.

In the days and hours leading up to the local far-right demo on Saturday, one of many across the country, there had been warnings – worried messages shared by anti-racism and refugee rights charities –  that the building, just up from St Mary Redcliffe Church, would be targeted.

“People were determined, there wasn’t fear, they were just ready to do what was needed,” he tells the Cable. The group formed several lines of defence, to the left, right and across the doorway of the building’s entrance, taking punches, kicks and verbal abuse from their attackers.

The counter-demonstrators held their lines outside the hotel for more than ten minutes before police arrived in enough numbers to intervene successfully.

“There were more of us, they were not breaking through,” says Joe, adding that asylum seekers, who are being held at the Mercure waiting to find out if their claims for asylum or refugee status will be granted, were watching from their hotel room windows as the scenes unfolded.

Eventually, after officers on horseback charged at the smaller but angry and violent group of far-right rioters, driving them away, Joe was able to take stock of what he and the others had achieved. He looked up and waved at those in the windows of the hotel above them, and they waved back. 

“I was feeling happy we managed to keep them out, but at the same time, how can you feel happy when what’s happening here and across the country is just absolutely awful,” he says, referring to the unrest by far-right mobs, full of rage informed by misinformation, up and down the country.

Misdirected anger 

After officers on horseback stepped in to separate the counter-demonstrators who were blocking the hotel’s entrance, charging at their attackers, the smaller group of far-right protesters backed off towards the other side of the road. They stood, talking amongst themselves, outside Redcliffe Sixth Form College.

The Cable spoke to some of them about why they were there clearly trying to intimidate the asylum seekers inside. Most said that those arriving in this country were taking homes away from British people, leaving them homeless. But why could they not instead direct their anger at the government, or wealthy, corporate landlords: the powerful whose policies and practices are what’s really fuelling the housing crisis, we asked? 

“Listen, I blame the Government more than anything. They’re a shower of shite – they brought our country to our knees!” says Mark, who is from Bristol. “That is what this is really about, it’s about the homeless people in the country. We’re saying why are all these people in the hotels and not the homeless people?.. I know someone who committed suicide because he couldn’t feed his children!”

We were soon joined by another passerby, who agrees with Mark: “It costs £5,000 to put our elderly in a home, carers only get paid like £80 a week, you got people sleeping in tents just to get on the property ladder – it’s outrageous!

“No-one listens, no one really listens,” he says, adding cryptically, “this is only the beginning of much bigger problems.” 

Mark says: “Bristol City Council’s motto these days – we can’t help you, we’re helping the boat people.” The passerby adds: “Labour have just said they’re going to stop winter fuel for pensioners – you can eat or keep warm. People are very angry at the moment!” 

Desmond Brown, former chair of the city’s commission for race equality and now independent chair of the region’s police force’s Lammy Review Group, was in the crowd, also spending time talking to those on the far right side of the divide. 

“I think there’s a lot of frustration and misunderstanding,” he tells the Cable. “The far right are dabbling in things people are unhappy about in their lives. The problem is working class people have been led to believe that the problems in their lives are caused by migrants – we think we are losing cus other people are gaining.”

It captures the essence of our conversations with the far-right – cost of living, defunded social services, homelessness are all legitimate concerns. Placing the blame at the door of asylum seekers is not. 

Reflections on a night of violence 

Saturday evenings events, and the far-right violence that’s spread across the country in the past weeks, has laid bare the divisions in our society. Two sides shouting chants across a police lined gulf – the embodiment of the rifts in society.

It’s hard to know how to characterise these “two sides.” Those from the Stop the Boats side comprised a mixture of recognised EDL activists, football hooligans, and racists. They were called fascists, Nazi scum, thugs, perhaps many were, but there were also people – like Mark and the passerby who disagreed with the tactics to go to hotels, who condemned the violence. 

But racism was laced in their arguments – black drug dealers, Turkish shopkeepers, asylum seekers as “scammers” – all well worn racist stereotypes. “People are worried this is going to become a Muslim state,” one said, another Islamophobic comment. 

On the other side are a coalition of people loosely called ‘the left’. Bristol Anti-fascists, Easton Cowfolk, Stand up to Racism, anarchists, anti-facists. One tells the Cable: “We can’t just ignore this, we need to show that there’s more of us than them, and that they [the far right] are not welcome here”.

The Labour Government, just one month old, now has their work cut out. This is the aftermath of 15 years of Tory rule – privatisation, austerity, and a culture war against migrants and “woke.”

Back in Bristol – the show of solidarity seen outside the Mercure hotel was a hopeful sign that people standing up against hate is working. A fundraiser was set up to raise money for toys for children staying there, “to show them they are welcome here.”

And Bristolians are preparing to do it all over again, as the far right are planning to target Gya Williams Immigration centre in Old Market in the city on Wednesday.

“Far-right fascists have once again called a demonstration in Bristol,” read a message from campaign group Bristol Against Hate. “Saturday showed that Bristol is anti-fascist. Let’s stay strong together and do it again!”