The far-right organisation planning a demonstration at the empty plinth of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol next weekend have announced they have called it off.
The organisation, which recently welcomed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - aka Tommy Robinson - as a member in March, had announced it was calling for people to come to the plinth in The Centre in Bristol to demonstrate against Black Lives Matter, calling Colston 'a famous son of Bristol'. The demonstration sparked a backlash in Bristol, with a range of campaign groups and organisations starting to plan their own counter-demonstration at the plinth which was due to start two hours before.
But in a banner headline at the top of For Britain's website on Saturday evening, the group said the demonstration planned for April 9 had been cancelled, although its leader, Anne Marie Waters, said they 'still will protest against Black Lives Matter in Bristol'. There were no further details, and the posts and press releases announcing the demonstration were still up on the website on Saturday night, however in an interview on a livestream, For Britain leader Anne Marie Waters said the demonstration was postponed.
Read more: For Britain plans to rally in support of Colston in Bristol
In a livestreamed interview with the 'Voice of Wales' website, For Britain's founder and leader Anne Marie Waters said: "I'm having a bit of a frustrating time at the minute with a protest. We wanted to, and still will, protest against Black Lives Matter in Bristol. "We decided on a date, the 9th of April, and we will still go there, but it is looking increasingly like that won't be the day we go there," she said.
"I have seen evidence on social media of the very vilest of Antifa planning and plotting to disrupt this. We were going to do this protest at the plinth of the Edward Colston statue, but they are planning to be there two hours before we were planning to be there.
"The council is now talking about covering up the plinth on the day. The police have not guaranteed us in any way, or given us any detail as to how they intend to police this. And the answers we are being given are essentially 'well, so-and-so isn't in today, so we can't answer that'. They are give us the brush off, and you know you're not going to get the police support that you need.
"It is being portrayed as a celebration of slavery. Once again we are in the position where peaceful protest by us risks descending into violence and chaos. I do not want anyone to get hurt by this. We will go there. When you do this, much of this is to test the water and see what happens. We know now what's happening, and it isn't safe.
"It's remarkable to me - I wouldn't dream of doing anything like this. Our side never does stuff like this. The left-wing has its protests and has its events, and we never try to disrupt them. We never try to get them cancelled, we never threaten violence or threaten to organise a mob, which will descend into violence - we know it will.
"We never do this. So it's once again proving our point, which is that if you have the wrong politics, you cannot protest in this country," she added. Later in the interview, Anne Marie Waters said it was 'tough' to be painted as the bad guy.
"I think people think we just glide through this stuff without impact. It's bloody tough. It's really hard, to know that you're telling the truth, you have a legitimate political point to make, but to be subjected to mob violence or the threat of mob violence and then treated as the bad guy, by mainstream society," she added.
"But I will be straight, there's a lot of apathy on our side. Over the last few years, we've gone from the early days of my party being full of enthusiasm and on all sides in all elements of our movement, people are, I think, backing away in huge numbers, actually.
"And the support that was there, isn't there to the same extent. People are, I think, intimidated, and also a lot of people expect us to solve the problems overnight, and if we don't and we can't, and things get worse, which they are, people think this is pointless, I'm no longer supporting this, I'm no longer putting my weight behind it," she added.
In 2017, at the time she was running an ultimately unsuccessful campaign to be the leader of UKIP, Anne Marie Waters was the main speaker at a rally in Bristol organised by a range of groups, including Gays Against Sharia and British and Immigrants United Against Terrorism. It prompted a major police operation to keep counter-protesters apart from that rally.
Back then, police kettled counter-demonstrators in Castle Park, and escorted the Gays Against Sharia demonstration from Temple Meads to Queen Square, which was fortified with a ring of 6ft high steel fence. Around 65 people took part in that demonstration in Queen Square.
Last week, Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said he would 'prefer not to have' the demo by For Britain happening. "I am not sympathetic to far right messaging," he said. "I would prefer not to have far right demonstrators rolling around the streets of Bristol, that is correct."
In the livestream on Voice of Wales, Anne Marie Waters pledged that For Britain would go to Bristol. "We are going to Bristol, but we're going to be going at a time when Antifa don't know we're going," she said.
"I want our members and supporters to keep an eye (out) because we won't be publicly saying what we're doing, now., on new plans for that. And I'd ask people not to give up on this," she added.
The organisation Stand Up To Racism Bristol, one of the groups that had called for a counter-demonstration next Saturday, called it 'a victory' in a post on social media. "The fact that they have published their intention to cancel is a victory and a credit to all those in Bristol who have pledged to oppose For Britain and their attempt to bring racist poison to our city," a spokesperson said.
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