Simon Harris and the RNLI

No human is illegal.

The very brave people at the RNLI who go and rescue those who would otherwise drown are heroes, every single one of them. Stopping human beings from drowning should not be a political issue, and it saddens me immensely that it has turned into one.

I wish that people would stop entering the UK via unseaworthy dingies, solely because it’s so dangerous to do so and so many people have died doing so. I wish there were no refugees, solely because I wish that every country in the world was safe to live in.

I am incredibly grateful to the RNLI for everything they do.

If you are reading this you no doubt know that Simon Harris has been fundraising for the RNLI for a number of years. Money to charity in my mind is always a good thing. Unless it’s for something sponsered, like you are doing a sponsered back wax or something like that, then collecting it via a third party platform is fine. If you are doing a sponsered something then seeing how much you have raised is great. Other than that it should go direct to the charity, no third party.

I’m pretty sure i’ve mentioned this in the past about how some of what is donated via Simon will go to Gofundme and not to the charity, this is of course true, but it’s not the only way that using a third party can lessen the amount of money a charity could receive. Here is the direct link to donate to the RNLI

https://rnli.org/support-us/give-money/donate

Here is what you are met with when you follow that link:

You see that button to the right? That’s as important as the one on the left. £5 donated to Simon’s gofundme is £5 (minus what gofundme take). The donator donates that £5 and then goes about their day, their week, their year. All without thinking about the RNLI. They may get updates from Simon via Gofundme but a lot of the times they are him trying to get you to donate to another one of his fundraisers. Been there, done that.

The button on the right is important, the donate monthly button. It gives people the option to donate monthly, long term, which is what is most important, it brings in more money to the RNLI. Your £5 donation if you press that button becomes £60 after a year, £300 after 5 years. You’d only need 1000 people to sign up for that and in 5 years the RNLI will have the £300k that Simon has raised. More importantly, they will have that £300k again 5 years after that. They can plan their finances better with regular donations than they can with bulk donations. If they know 1000 people are donating a total of £5k a month, they know they have at least £5k that month. Clearly they need more than that, but i’m no good at complex sums and it’s not as if any of us have a calculator in our pockets

He takes away the ability of people to even know you can give monthly, it’s possible that if he’d always posted the direct link to the RNLI and encouraged people to sign up for the monthly donation, he would have helped raise a hell of lot more.

24k people have donated to Simon’s gofundme link. If just half of them had signed up for a £5 monthly donation that would be bringing the RNLI £60k a month. Hell, if just 10% of them signed up it would be £12k a month in donations.

Just £1 a month for everyone who has donated to Simon’s fundraiser would be £24k a month.

He’s been doing this for 5 years and has raised almost £400k. Not knocking that amount at all, but so much more could have been raised if he’d been sharing the direct link to RNLI from the start. The £400k would still have been raised, but so much more on top of that with those who chose to donate monthly.

What Simon is doing to raise money is spreading discourse, it’s disgusting and it’s stirring up hate. He presents no facts, no figures, no statistics, he’s just causing discourse. It’s all about him.

Then he posts things like this:

If i’d been able to I would have been there standing with them. They already know they are putting themselves at risk by protesting. We always need more people at protests, where were you Simon? Yes you have kids but you are a two parent family with at least one set of grandparents still living. If you’d wanted to be there you would have been. You’d rather be on the internet causing trouble and calling yourself a hero for doing so.

I’m not begrudging the amount of money you’ve raised, more money to the RNLI means they can keep being the heroes that they are but why not use the direct link? Why keep a tally? Why keep putting yourself forward as a hero? All the media stuff, why? Why should you be the figurehead? Why don’t you ever post any statistics regarding refugees?

Why don’t you ever post any statistics to refute what the far right say about who it is who commit the most crimes against women and children. Spoiler: It’s white British males. Statistically i’d be safer in a room full of refugees than I would in a room full of white British males, so would my children.

This is the kind of crap that Simon is posting:

Why? Why cause even more hatred than there already is? Is it really worth a few internet points to make things even harder for the RNLI? The more you wind up the right the more you put those at the RNLI in danger.

Reform just got £72m in donations, that isn’t going to hurt them, not even a little bit.

This is why you donate straight to the organisation you want to receive the money:

As I just said, this is why you should only donate directly to an organisation. What are those other amounts? Where did they come from? Are they donations from other fundraisers where people donated for other non RNLI causes and Simon has just added them to the RNLI fundraiser to bump up the total? When Simon was adding those sums to the RNLI appeal the total raised wouldn’t be as high as it is today.

What has he done here?

Simon just stirs up hate and hides behind his keyboard. He has done nothing but stir up hate. The only protest he has ever gone to was the library protest, and that was only because he could give a speech. Ever been shouted at by the far right in real life Simon? No. I have yet nobody knows my name because I just do what needs to be done. It’s not about me, it’s about thems i’m fighting for.

I hate the far right, I hate everything they stand for, I also hate Reform and do not chat with them openly on social media, unlike you. You whine and moan about people attacking you and then you post things with just enough identifying information that you effectively dox them.

“@mandy havant” is what I put into the search bar to find her profile. Took 2 minutes. If anyone thinks of messaging Simon and having him keep your name confidential, forget it, he will happily repost your private message while leaving enough identifying information in.. Not a great look for someone who handles the private facebook information for companies.

I find what she wrote abhorrent, but doxxing when you are also in control of other Facebook groups/pages is not a good look at all.

The man talks a lot but here are two words you will never hear Simon say:

Anyone else find it weird that Simon hasn’t spoken out about the genocide of 20,000 children? And don’t forget that number goes up daily.

It’s nothing to do with Simon being Jewish, plenty of Jews are anti-zionists, and very vocal about it. You can be Jewish and use your 300k followers to help condemn the genocide being committed against the Palestinian people, it would be a great platform for it actually.

In fact i’d call it using Facebook for good.

I’ve seen comments made regarding the genocide made by others on his Facebook page, those comments then mysteriously disappear.

The only thing that comes up on his page when searching for anything to do with what is happening in Palestine is this:

The only mention on Simon’s Facebook account of anything to do with the genocide that has ended the life of 20,000 children is that he’s described it as “the current climate”.

You set up fundraisers and I believe Facebook pages when the Ukraine war broke out, so we all know you are political and more than willing to have your voice heard when it comes to politics and innocent people at risk of death from bombs, yet you are silent on Palestine.

I can guess what ginger haired pussy is on your playlist Simon.

Your silence speaks volumes.

Vocal on Ukraine, vocal on the far right, vocal about absolutely everything that could be considered left wing yet utterly silent on genocide. Not a single word.

Zach Polanski, your Jewish Green Hero, condemns the genocide, you’ve shared a lot of what Mr Polanski has said over the past year, but failed to mention his stance on Israel. Why is that Simon? Is it because you don’t agree with him regarding the genocide of Palestinians? You don’t agree with Polanski when he says that 20,000 children murdered by Israel is a terrible thing?

This is the only major thing you’ve never given your opinion on. 20,000 dead children need as many voices as they can get, are you going to remain silent?

Is “current climate” going to be the extent of your commentary on an ongoing genocide, children getting blown apart and all you, with 300k followers, can refer to it as is “current climate”.