I'll wear my RNLI gilet and let the far-right try to stop me, writes Matthew Wright

For starters, there’s an awful lot of ominous far-right activity for yours truly to take on and secondly, while I’ve done ok, I’m not as rich as Elon Musk, an immigrant, who for some twisted reason has decided to use his billions to amplify voices that threaten, intimidate and bully voices that invariably target minorities, often other immigrants who have little or no voice to defend themselves.

This week, though, it wasn’t the relentless hate, the out-of-control fury directed at refugees by Musk and our very own billionaire non-dom newspaper owners that slapped me into action. No, it was the same relentless hate and out-of-control fury that did it, but this time directed at Royal National Lifeboat Institution volunteers of all people!

One poor RNLI volunteer, the kind who goes out in all weathers to save lives risking their own in the process, was singled out for doing just that, branded a ‘traitor’ by far agitators who then callously shared the names and addresses of RNLI heroes online, giving the masked men in black (most of fighting age but displaying more paunch than punch) fresh targets to aim at. The RNLI was so worried that the charity urged its volunteers to stop wearing RNLI-branded clobber.

And that’s when I decided it was time for me to take a stand, a personal one.

I decided to back the RNLI with my cash - if only I had Musk’s billions, they’d be going to sea in gold-plated lifeboats! At first, immediately after I heard of the argy-bargy volunteers had been subject to down at Portsmouth, I decided to give a donation. I’ve given money to the lifeboats before, the RNLI is big where I live on the Devon coast, but never as a show of solidarity against the outrageous lies and smears the far right were hurling at them. Then, after reading that volunteers were being urged not to wear RNLI-branded clothing, I decided to buy some for myself.

I shared both these moves on my Bluesky social media for all the good it might do and was surprised, blown away frankly, by how many of my followers decided to likewise. Giving money to such a fantastic charity as the RNLI is always a worthwhile thing to do; the lifeboats are run almost entirely on charitable donations and not taxpayers’ cash as the far right falsely claim to stir up more hate and fury. I felt chuffed to have encouraged a flurry of donations, but huge respect to all those who’ve decided, like me, to start wearing RNLI garb, a decision not entirely without risk.

If I get punched in the face by some ignorant thug while wearing my rather dandy RNLI gilet, then so be it, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let racist thugs dictate what clothes I wear and which fantastic British charities I’m proud to support.

____________________

Listen to Matthew Wright on LBC weekends from 7am.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk