The Nearest Boat

Stay in the Room Podcast · Sep 13, 2026 · 8m

A volunteer named only as Neil was photographed and put on social media as a traitor.

He told the BBC what his crew had actually been doing. They had been tasked to Langstone Harbour to light the beach - not for anyone in a dinghy, but for the safety of the protesters, some of whom had gone into the water. He said he would like the people calling him a traitor to know that he isn’t one.

The whole argument is inside that. The crew being abused had been called out to keep the people abusing them from drowning.

Since the Portsmouth landing and the disorder after it, the Royal National Lifeboat…