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A councillor from Ceredigion has revealed that she faced a wave of hostility after sharing a video of an RNLI lifeboat on social media. Elizabeth Evans, who represents Aberaeron and Aberarth, posted footage on Facebook showing the New Quay RNLI lifeboat leaving its station during a routine training exercise. The video quickly gained attention, amassing around 30,000 views.
However, the response to the post was overwhelmingly negative, with Evans describing the incoming messages as “pure hatred.” The comments included harsh accusations such as labeling the lifeboat crew as “traitors” and referring to the RNLI as providing “taxis for migrants.” Evans noted that these were among the more mild remarks, and some comments even hinted at violence, which she chose not to repeat publicly. The volume and intensity of hostile remarks required considerable effort to manage, with Evans spending about half an hour removing the offensive responses.
This backlash follows recent protests against RNLI volunteers in Portsmouth, who were targeted after assisting migrants arriving on a small boat earlier in the month. The RNLI maintains that its mission is solely to save lives at sea, irrespective of the individuals they help. Evans expressed her shock at the severity of the reaction to her post, emphasizing that it was not a small number of comments but a continual stream of hateful messages.
After deleting many of the offensive comments, Evans faced criticism from some who accused her of silencing conversation. She firmly denied this, explaining that her intention was to suppress hate, not to prevent discussion. “I wasn’t shutting down discussion because there was no discussion available to be had,” she stated. “I was shutting down hatred.”
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