Nigel Farage discusses UK’s Net Zero targets

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Anti-slavery campaigners are calling for the public to boycott Thatchers cider after claiming it has links to a shameful chapter in the UK’s past. A Bristol-based pressure group called Countering Colston has asked people not to buy the popular booze brand following a recent tweet naming Martin Thatcher, the company’s director, as a member of the Society of the Merchant Venturers.

They describe the organisation as an “elite private members club,” a once prominent member of which was notorious 17th century slave trader Edward Colston – whose statue was toppled by protestors into the River Avon in June 2020.

Speaking on GB News on Wednesday evening, Farage, 57, said that the group is taking the issue to a “ludicrous degree.”

He said: “That is clearly taking the thing to a ludicrous degree, as I think we would all agree that there are perhaps some graves in the burial grounds where perhaps the tributes and perhaps what gets left is a little bit over the top but there is no reason to absolutely ban all personal memorial.

“And I do think churches like this one in Kent go utterly over the top and frankly get this wrong.”

Countering Colston announced its campaign against Thatchers in a tweet, which read: “Martin Thatcher, director of the company, is a member of the Society of the Merchant Venturers.

“The SMV has deep roots in the historical slave trade in Bristol, and its members were responsible for the suffering and death of tens of thousands of human beings.

“They are a powerful unelected elite who have significant influence on political and civic life in Bristol.”

Martin Thatcher has been a member of the philanthropic organisation, in which Colston himself was part of, since 2012.

Mr Farage likened the incident with the Colston case where a statue was torn down and thrown into the Bristol docks, followed by a trial where four people, known as the Colston four, were accused of criminal damage.

He said: “The jury decided they had not committed criminal damage, and clearly these people now think that they are the masters of the universe.

“So having succeeded with that they now want to decolonize the city and they have put out this Advert today ‘Don’t buy thatchers cider’ and this is all because the fourth generation boss of thatchers ciders is part of the society of merchant venturers and that is a charitable organisation dedicated to education and care of the elderly.

“But that doesnt matter because if you go back centuries into the society of merchant venturers, you will find they help fund expeditions and that they had links with slave trade.

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“So any family, any individual, any building, any company that has any association with history that takes us back to periods in the past that the Colston four dont approve of, they are telling you to ban it.

“I have to say it is I think it is completely over the top utterly ludicrous that an innocent summerset cider manufacturer should be singled out in this manner.

“It is very worrying and very disturbing and in a moment I will just have a pint of Thatchers cider.”

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