Well, that didn’t last long. The far-right gang formerly known as Bristol Patriots which announced only last week it was shutting up shop, has rebranded as Bristol Rises and emerged attaching Union flags to lamp posts outside a major Bristol hospital. Without permission, of course.
Members of the group were filmed and photographed climbing a ladder to fix four flags to lamp posts outside Southmead Hospital, claiming the action followed requests from long-stay patients and was intended to “bring a sense of pride, comfort, and a lift in spirits to those spending time there.”
Unsettling
North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT), which runs the hospital, removed the flags within three hours.
In a statement, the trust said it only displays flags “on recognised occasions and in line with our established protocol,” adding that “unexpected displays like this can feel unsettling.”
The trust expressed disappointment that staff had been burdened with “the additional workload and cost of dealing with this situation.”
And it confirmed that no permission had been sought or granted for the display.
Plain intent
Bristol Rises claimed some patients and staff were “disappointed” at the removal, and that the flags “represent the NHS.”
But the real intent was plain enough: with one of the principal objections to the far right’s anti-migrant campaign being the proportion of overseas-born staff who keep the NHS running, the gesture was clearly directed at them.
Bristol Patriots was active from August 2025 and staged a series of anti-immigration protests outside Bristol hotels housing asylum seekers.
The group’s “March for Unity” in March 2026 was attended by individuals with links to the neo-Nazi Aryan Front, as well as a convicted bank robber and a registered sex offender.
Outnumbered
Counter-demonstrations consistently outnumbered the group’s own turnout, with protesters estimated at 400-500 against a core Patriots membership of around 10-15.
In February, they had tried to attack an anti-fascist fundraiser in a Bristol Pub.
Last week, in response to adverse publicity about neo-nazis being present on their March demonstration, Bristol Patriots announced it was suspending its activities to “reset” and make “significant changes.”
The reset didn’t take long, and doesn’t appear to have involved much change.
