Others said the campaign had a darker side and stirred up fear of newcomers. Some backers of the Piddington referendum compared their fight against the asylum accommodation to the 1940 Battle of Britain against Nazi Germany.
Villager Herbert Owen, 76, said after voting on Tuesday that the independence referendum “isn’t just about Piddington,” adding: “It means everything our grandparents, our parents fought for. Today is the Battle of Britain.”
Comparing unauthorized immigration to an invasion has become increasingly common among politicians including Nigel Farage of Reform UK, and far-right groups that have been active in organizing and attending anti-immigrant protests.
What a bunch of assholes. From earlier in the article:
Residents of Piddington, which has a population of about 350…
That makes sense. Small town people need to have no say over issues pertaining to classes of people who are “different” from themselves. They’re too insulated and lack exposure to those who aren’t like them to properly recognize that they’re human beings in all the ways that they’d recognize if they knew someone from said class.
Brief story: decades ago, while I was on excellent drugs at a rave, my homophobia (thanks, Mom!) instantly disappeared when I realized the hilarious gay guy, in a group of us smoking cigarettes, was no different from me. “He just wants to take his drugs and have a good time on Saturday night,” I realized. He was no different from me!
Small town people need drugs and a good time with people unlike themselves.
I get that this is ridiculous, but I have to ask how a town of 350 will accommodate 1200 more? I don’t know about small towns in UK but is there enough housing? If more is built, is there a proper infrastructure? As in when I lived in a small town in US, roughly 600, everyone had well water and septic tanks; there was no city like plumbing.
I bring this question up because where I live now, the city keeps building giant apartments and car washes; yet sewage is being dumped in the water. There is a “drought” so plenty of water restrictions. And despite the heatwave this has never been an issue 15 years ago. They okayed all of these buildings, but the entire infrastructure is completely outdated, like don’t be surprised if you’re showering with sewage or reclaimed water and the lights flicker often sigh. A lot of people that have lived here their whole lives aren’t happy about this and there is no possible way this will be fixed even in my lifetime. But hey they just keep increasing bills and taxes.
They don’t have to accommodate anyone, as the article explains the asylum seekers are being housed on a self-sufficient former army base half a mile away. They’re just racists.
I see, as long as they don’t have shitty living conditions then I don’t see what the problem is. I will say if it’s anything like certain bases I’ve been on, like Camp Blanding in the US which was an Internment Camp in WW2… I would feel pretty bad for them.