Over this past weekend, we saw two protests that should have us all on very high alert - one in Dover and one in Portsmouth. I wrote about these yesterday, so I will not be labouring the point on how this coordinated act of intimidation should be ringing alarm bells in all our security services.
What I would like to look at today rather is a particular piece of fallout from these protests that, while happening largely online, could result in serious danger to life for a group of people.
That group of people are the volunteers who work with the RNLI, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.
Now, the RNLI has been a longstanding issue of great consternation to the far-right, and we’ve seen many times over the years various different movements against them. There have been calls for them to abandon boats in trouble and let the occupants drown. There have been aspersions cast that they work on behalf of the home office and are now a de facto smuggling ring. George Soros has, apparently, at times also been involved.
My usual tactic when this crops up is simple - I donate to them. Last year, I donated over £100 to the RNLI when they came under criticism again. I was very lucky to be able to afford to do so a the time.
This time around though, there is a new, insidious angle to the online rows that happen.
On X, over the past 24 hours, photographs of two volunteers have been circulated with calls for these two men to “face justice.” To be “prosecuted” under a Restore government. Wishes of serious harm to them and their families. These men have, apparently, now been identified by name, and their details are currently spreading like wildfire to a group of people that have just this weekend shown that they are very willing to take their Twitter fights from the online realm into the real world.
This is, to put it mildly, fucking disgusting.
It is dangerous, it is malicious, and there are very, very real risks to these two people now.
In addition to this, there is also the steady hum of blatant misinformation that’s being spread around - all with the intent to make content-consumers tumescent with rage. To make them seethe at the injustice.
I want to take a moment to address some of these misunderstandings.
They are funded by British Taxpayers
This delightful misunderstanding comes as a response under a post on X by Kay Burley today, where she pointed out quite sensibly that:
“The RNLI Saves Lives. That’s the Whole Point.
Would-be London mayor Ant Middleton says the RNLI should be defunded, arguing that would stop it saving lives in the Channel.”
Nev, and many others, have pushed back with the idea that the RNLI, as a taxpayer funded organisation, should be bowing to demands that they stop any sort of rescue operation involving migrant crossings.
The rather large issue, of course, is that the RNLI is not funded by the taxpayer.
In total, about 90% of the total income that the RNLI receives is from donations. About 10% comes from things like trading and investment. Government support? Negligible if at all.
This particular argument, that Nev and people like her put forward, seeks to personalise and connect their readers. They want you to think that at least a portion of the PAYE that gets listed on your payslip each month goes towards what they consider to be aiding and abetting migrants - despite the fact that it is patently untrue.
The RNLI is a Taxi Service
Benonwine, an account run by ex-Waitrose wine-man Ben Woods, pitched in with another good old trope - the RNLI being a “taxi service for invading migrants”.
Except, that’s an utterly moronic stance to take if you had even a vague idea of what the RNLI actually does, and how they operate.
Because contrary to popular belief, the RNLI crews don’t get to decide who gets rescued or where they end up. Every launch by the RNLI is tasked and coordinated by HM Coastguard, and it’s Border Force and the Home Office that do the processing once ashore.
Looking at the laws that govern how the RNLI functions, under UNCLOS Article 98 and the SOLAS convention, any vessel or crew that becomes aware of people in distress has a binding legal duty to help them. It starts and ends there.
Any refusal done on the basis of nationality, skin-colour or immigration status would be a direct breach of maritime law.
I think it’s also worth just touching on the proportion of rescues the RNLI were involved with - a mere 5.7% in 2025. The other 94.3% of rescues were largely done by Border Force and other agencies.
The RNLI is Funded by George Soros
This particular gem of a brain-fart is a response that was left under a post by Dan Hodges, in which he pointed out that:
“A further example of the activity of the right-wing thugs behind the Dover and Portsmouth protests. They've begun posting on-line photos of members of the RNLI lifeboat crews bringing the migrants to shore. Targeting working men who are risking their lives to save others.”
Now this one is pretty easy to check - because as a UK charity, all of the RNLI’s accounts are public and independently audited, being filed annualy with the Charity Commission for England and Wales and the OSCR in Scotland.
As already mentioned, over 90% of funding comes from donations with 10% coming from trading and investment. There is no Soros finger in the pie here. There very rarely is.
You are very welcome to review the RNLI’s own published accounts if you were inclined to do so.
The RNLI is a pull factor, encouraging more crossings
This post, from Mr Paul Dale-Smith, is one that I was genuinely hoping to find - because it’s been so thoroughly and completely debunked.
Research published by Sanchez et al in Nature in 2023, as well as separate research from the Global Public Policy Institute and the European Council on Refugees and Exile have shown that there is no statistical relationship between the presence (or absence) of rescue services and crossing numbers.
What they found to a very large extent is that conditions in origin and transit countries and smuggling-gang logistics and pricing play a far greater role.
It’s also worth adding here that the RNLI has no sort of discretionary choice to “not encourage” crossings through declining rescues as that would, as already mentioned, be not only a moral failure, but under international law, a criminal one.
The increasing levels of misinformation we’ve seen online have gone beyond fever pitch and are reaching their tendrils straight into the real world now. Two volunteers, who are doing good, honest work, have been put at risk.
The facts I’ve chosen to discuss here won’t, unfortunately, do very much to lessen that risk to these men - however, I do hope that it provides at least one or two people with the actual information they need to combat the misinformation being spread that leads to incidents like these.
If you are so inclined, you can also donate to the RNLI to support the amazing work they do in the waters around our country at the link below:
Replying as a now too old hobby sailor, the RNLI is a fantastic group of local expert seamen who turn out day or night to the sound of a cannon, get in their boat and set out regardless of the weather conditions and are then told who is at risk and where. They are VOLUNTEERS who do it for the sake of whoever is in trouble on the sea. If these people diminish their numbers, hundreds of victims of the sea will die each year, including children just playing on inflatables at the beach. This evil disinformation must stop. Purveyors of this hate should be prosecuted for potentially endangering life. The RNLI like the NHS is a uniquely British institution of which we should all be proud.
Given that this is a relatively small island, whose occupants seem to enjoy spending time in and on the surrounding water, I have always been quite surprised that the RNLI IS run as a charity, rather than as an organisation like the fire or ambulance services.
I think they're wonderful and am a long time supporter.
Asking them to check the 'status' of someone in need of rescue is ridiculous and puts everyone involved at more risk. The ONLY way to operate is to rescue everyone (if possible) & sort out the admin later.