Earlier this month, women in the sleepy Oxfordshire village of Piddington released a video protesting plans to foist at least 1,250 male asylum seekers onto their tiny village of 350 people. It was viewed millions of times.
“To the women of Parliament, we are the women of Piddington. We are mothers, we are grandmothers, we are widows, we are workers. We are worried. We will be outnumbered, ten to one,” they pleaded. “1,256 men to over 3,000 – and could rise again – right next to our homes. We won’t be safe, we’ll live in fear. You’ll destroy this place – you’ve got the power to stop this plan. We are begging you, we know you can. If you stay silent, you’ll be to blame.
“Stand up, speak out, make your voice heard. To our fellow women – give us your word.”
Such is the swell of opposition on the ground in Piddington that residents this week organised a symbolic referendum asking whether Piddington should seek to leave the UK and become independent.
It was partly inspired by the 1949 comedy Passport to Pimlico, where residents of the London neighbourhood discovered they were not technically part of Britain, declaring independence.
The result was resounding – 285 out of 312 people voted for independence, with residents subsequently putting up a sign declaring the “Principality of Piddington” in revolt against the Government’s obscene asylum accommodation plans. So the results are in, and ninety-two per cent of voters in Piddington have voted to leave the UK.
Now, of course the vote is merely a symbolic gesture, and there is no legal mechanism for the fed-up villagers to leave the UK. But it means that the people have categorically no confidence or belief in its Government.
Piddington is a perfect example of what the political class has done to the UK – it is a relatively affluent village with a substantial professional and middle class population now fighting against the dumping of young, unvetted small boat migrants.
It also exemplifies a certain hypocrisy. Liberal, well-off women will happily vote for liberal politicians and back mass migration as long as it’s not in their own backyard. Piddington shows you can’t have it both ways.
Left-leaning, wealthier communities, while they may say they are pro-immigration on paper, are just as opposed as the rest of us in reality. Piddington is, after all, a Liberal Democrat seat, both in Parliament and on the Council, and the majority of these women, as is the case with women in general, and in a secular place like Britain, are on the left. What is happening on their doorsteps is a wake up call.
There is another ironic development in the Piddington saga. And it is that the migrant camp may be stopped. Wait for it – because of NEWTS. There is another ironic development in the Piddington saga. And it is that the migrant camp may be stopped. Wait for it – because of NEWTS.There is another ironic development in the Piddington saga. And it is that the migrant camp may be stopped. Wait for it – because of NEWTS.There is another ironic development in the Piddington saga. And it is that the migrant camp may be stopped. Wait for it – because of NEWTS.There is another ironic development in the Piddington saga. And it is that the migrant camp may be stopped. Wait for it – because of NEWTS.There is another ironic development in the Piddington saga. And it is that the migrant camp may be stopped. Wait for it – because of NEWTS.
“Migrant camp newt-ered,” one headline writer may have had too much fun writing for the Sun on Thursday.
Forget the efforts of all of the women and the running of the referendum. Forget the interviews with children on the street who, along with their parents, say they fear they won’t be able to go out. The newts are going to come to the rescue!
The Daily Telegraph reported: “Great crested newts could scupper plans to build a camp near an Oxfordshire village to house as many as 1,256 asylum seekers.
“Campaigners in Piddington, which voted to leave the UK in protest at the proposed camp, have unearthed records showing a plethora of protected wildlife next to and on its site.
“In an apparent blunder, the Home Office’s ecological assessment of the area, submitted as part of its planning application, claimed that there was no evidence of protected newts, bats or reptiles.
“Campaigners are claiming that unless the Home Office redoes its ecological assessment, and introduces protective measures possibly including moving the newts, it will be open to a legal challenge that could thwart the asylum camp.
“The errors form the basis of a High Court challenge to the plans launched on Wednesday night. Dr Claire Brenner, a resident with a zoology degree who uncovered the evidence, said: “If the Secretary of State determines this application with this materially incomplete information, that’s open to legal challenge.
“If they proceed to work on the site without a licence, then potentially it’s a wildlife crime.”
The insane thing is that the voices of British men, women, and children mean very little to their own State. But newts do, and the Home Office’s Ecological Appraisal assessment does. Now that protected newts are present there, the assessment is likely wrong and the Government will have to carry out further ecological work and get permission to proceed.
Essentially, there are newts, and therefore, the asylum centre cannot proceed. Of course, campaigners have used every single other argument in their local revolt – but the only one likely to actually stop the camp is the presence of newts.Of course, campaigners have used every single other argument in their local revolt – but the only one likely to actually stop the camp is the presence of newts.
It is astounding that newts are a protected species, but not women, women and children who call Piddington home. How can bats and newts carry legal weight, but not people?
The local parish, which has rallied against it, doesn’t matter. None of the residents matter. But a God-forsaken great crested newt changes everything.
There are many Piddingtons in Ireland. We know this scenario all too well. Think of Lisdoonvarna, which has 800 people and where 93 per cent of local people attending a village meeting said they were against accommodating asylum seekers.
Or Dundrum in Co Tipperary, where heavy-duty Gardai were brought in against ordinary, decent people who protested their village being swamped.
These communities have not been listened to. And maybe Piddington proves that people have to learn the hard way that progressivism isn’t so peachy when you’re on the receiving end of it.