Opinion | Bristol stands up to racist hatred

By Alex Creighton, Deputy Opinion Editor.

This afternoon, a rag-tag group of about 50 UK Independence Party die-hards planted themselves on Colston Avenue, calling for “mass deportations”. Front and centre was party leader and self-proclaimed “defender of masculinity, Christianity and Conservative values”, Nick Tenconi (try saying that with a straight face).

Soon after, a sea of 500 anti-racist demonstrators surged in, hemming the group inside a cordon of police and placards.

Today’s far-right turnout was small, but don’t be fooled by their headcount. This protest shows that racists feel increasingly emboldened to parade their bile in the open. Indeed, from last year’s nationwide wave of far-right rallies to a government that is obsessed with anti-migrant rhetoric, the drumbeat of hate is growing louder.

Now, I could tell you that migrants are less likely to receive state benefits or tax credits than native Britons, that a fifth of NHS workers in England are migrants, or that higher migration has a net positive impact on this nation’s debt. I could show you through statistics and data that migrants are the backbone of this country’s economy.

I could tell you that migrants are an indispensable part of our communities. I could ask you to look around at the University of Bristol’s academic staff, student body and non-teaching staff, and imagine what that community might look like without migrants.

But I won’t do any of this, because people should not have to earn their right to safety, dignity, or belonging by proving their economic worth or waving around payslips.

What we’re seeing, on Colston Avenue, in Parliament, and across the front pages, isn’t a debate about numbers. It’s about narratives. It’s about who gets cast as a threat, and who gets to belong. Migrants are being used as scapegoats for the structural failures of a country that has been hollowed out by years of austerity, successive government failure and widening inequality.

So no, I’m not going to rattle off more stats to convince you that migrants matter. I’m going to say what should be obvious: migrants are people. They deserve to live, work, and thrive in this country without being turned into political punching bags.

This should go without saying. But until it truly does, we have to keep saying it. Louder, together, and without apology.