Counter protest against Bristol Patriots

7 March 2026

07 Mar 2026

So we went to the counter demo to shout “fascist scum, off our streets” at, well, at some fascist scum who were on our streets and it was a very lively protest. Ah-ha-ha!

Most of the protests I’ve been to are just a lot of standing around, listening to some talks, maybe a slow march. This was quite a different story. The official numbers from the BBC are that there were 40 Bristol Patriots outnumbered by about 200 counter protestors. I’ve seen estimates up to 500. Initially, the police had us on opposite sides of the Cenotaph, while a line of police vans (including from the wider area) lined the marching route. They tried to march down to Castle Park along the centre side of Primark and Cabot Circus, but the mass of counter protesters blocked them at every junction and eventually they had to turn back.

At one point I managed to get ahead of the march, but there were very few of us there and I got scared staring down the mounted police so I ended up just flattening myself against the wall until the march had passed and I could join my own side again. I’m sorry, I’m not very brave!

I was trying hard to stay out of the scrums because I’m scared of fighting, but then we got kettled and the police charged the crowd with horses to pack people in more tightly and I was right by the cordon anyway.

That kettle was a mess, though. We were just outside Cabot at that point so lots of shoppers and bystanders had joined the crowd or were just checking out to see what was going on.

There was a short, black woman nearby the cordon where we were standing, and she was shouting that she was scared, that she was not OK, that she didn’t feel safe as a black woman (packed tight in a crowd of people surrounded by police, go figure). Eventually, the white protesters around her told the police to let her go as she was having a panic attack, and they finally let her out.

Kettling is such BS. They pinned us down while the “patriots” turned around and walked back to the cenotaph. After being held for a while, the crowd outside the kettle (protesters and bystanders) started chanting “let them out” and there was a break in the cordon, after which we could flow out.

We grabbed a late lunch at that point and hung around a while as the counter protesters were still singing and hanging around. I met people who had been pepper sprayed and batonned. The general air was victorious, but I went home feeling thoroughly intimidated.

...

Since Saturday, I’ve been watching footage from the protest, including the video (Bristol Post) where Ryan Ferguson shouts “Heil Hitler” and makes the salute at some Jewish counter protesters. I saw him through the line of police vans at the front of the march, throwing his fist like a fake Nazi salute. I couldn’t hear what he was shouting because we were all holding up a “fascist scum, off our streets” chant the whole way. Rumour is he was arrested.