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22nd Mar 2021

Alex Beresford calls out Nigel Farage for trying to link Black Lives Matter to Bristol protest

Danny Jones

The GMB weatherman is at it again, this time calling out Nigel Farage

Alex Beresford was recently applauded for challenging Piers Morgan live on-air, calling out the polemicist in chief for “continuing to trash” Meghan Markle.

And he has taken yet another ‘says it how it is’ merchant’s name by responding to the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage.

Farage posted video footage of the protests turned violent in Bristol yesterday evening. In typically problematic fashion, he shared a caption that insinuated the Black Lives Matter movement were a part of it, inciting “all-out anarchy and street violence.”

For anyone that needs the obvious pointing out, the protests were nothing to do with BLM: they were #KillTheBill demonstrations protesting against the government’s troubling Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill. You know, the one which essentially bans the right to protest?

Thankfully, quick to voice what any well-meaning, right-minded person was thinking, Beresford responded. It seems the bigoted Brexiteer is determined to make everything about race.

Again, the ongoing protests are about ensuring the government and the police do not abuse their power; that people can exercise their democratic right to protest. It is also about making sure law enforcement are held accountable for actions, such as Oliver Banfield, who attacked a woman walking home, and the police officer suspected of killing Sarah Everard.

If institutional racism is a part of that – which we know it is – it is not through the fault of any racial equality movement, BLM or otherwise. It is the police and the UK government’s responsibility to do better; it shouldn’t be lain at BLM’s doorstep to defend themselves over matters that impact them, however directly or indirectly.