𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

It was delightfully and quintessentially English. No large, angry men clad just in black. No balaclavas. No shouting at brave RNLI crews. And no pushing police officers from their motorbikes. Rather, a result read outside a village hall by the vice-chair of the local Parish Council.

But its impact has been felt around the world, as reporters from Toronto to Tokyo flocked to the tiny Oxfordshire village of Piddington to spread the news of its vote in a referendum with a turnout of 92 per cent to seek independence from the rest of the United Kingdom. And while the harsh reality is the vote cannot actually result in any form of independence whatsoever, the message it sends to the Government resonates around so much of the country.

The country is sick to the back teeth with thousands of people, mostly young men, arriving here illegally and often throwing any documentation they might have into the English Channel as they are ferried here so they can ‘game’ the system.

Challenged over the Piddington vote, Prime Minister Andy Burnham talked about the number of crossings being down year on year and while that is undeniably true, it is also to blithely ignore the problem of the tens of thousands already here awaiting judgement on their claims for asylum and the impact housing them has on local communities.

In the case of Piddington, the local population is a mere 358 and it is proposed a disused military base just the other side of the village park should accept 1,250 male asylum seekers. To put that into context, if you applied the same ratio to London around 30 million would be housed there.

Suddenly it’s easy to see why they are so desperately “peed off” in Piddington, but the government to date responds by making sympathetic noises and pointing to statistics that have no bearing on the actual argument.

It’s also no coincidence the vote last week took place just three days after Essex County Council launched security patrols in three towns following continual reports of petty crime, harassment and intimidating behaviour by migrants who loiter there all day. The residents of Braintree, Colchester and Chelmsford have said they no longer feel safe and attribute most of their concerns to the new arrivals in a scenario echoed up and down the land.

Just as meaningless slogans such as “Stop the Boats” or “Smash the Gangs” have floundered, there is an alarming lack of any initiative coming from the Home Office. Asylum cases that take six months to be dealt with in France and nine in Italy, are still taking an average of 18 months here.

Risible and bogus practices like fake claims of being gay or having slept with the daughter of a powerful Sheikh set on revenge are nodded through with no rigorous interrogation.

The solution is unpalatable to many, but necessary. For those already here claims must be processed within weeks, not months, and appeals only allowed on strictly set criteria.

Once rejected, the claimant is deported to their country of origin, or in the case of a miniscule number of countries deemed unsafe such as Afghanistan, to a separate country with which we have a deal to take them. As for those new arrivals getting here illegally, they fund their own case or are instantly deported – and if you justifiably think this is excessively harsh, a growing number of European countries are exploring such measures.

Piddington has styled itself as “the village that roared.” It is dangerously unacceptable the Government’s response has been a deafening silence.

A row rippling across the sisterhood concerns images such as this of Hollywood star Sydney Sweeney from a marketing campaign for a sports betting company. Sweeney, 29, poses seemingly stark naked save for strategically positioned sports kit and even a basketball hoop!

A group of leading female athletes are livid with one describing it as “a kick in the face” and another saying “I absolutely f-ing hate Sydney Sweeney’s new sports ad.”

While my knowledge of feminism is somewhat limited, I thought the essential mantra was something like: “My body, my choice.” So why might that not apply here?

Surely not…

President Trump says he is the “guardrail” to control AI. Now I really AM scared…

Oh the irony

Another Last Night of the Promos with an irony as delicious as some of the performances. Presumably the Promenaders vigorously waving their EU flags in the Royal Albert Hall have never actually listened to the words they are belting out in songs such as Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia?

Who’d a thought it?!

It seems rather strange that having once said he felt he couldn’t guarantee his children’s security if he were to return to the UK, Prince Harry would not have appeared to have tested out the school run for them prior to the start of term.

And as for there being “excessive traffic” on the school run according reportedly to his security team, well who’d a thought it!

Just an idea

As Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “welcomes” the idea of Canada becoming an Associate Member of the EU, another piece of the jigsaw as to why Brexit was never properly achieved falls into place as at the time of the referendum, Carney held the hugely influential position of the Governor of the Bank of England.

Perhaps instead of sycophantically addressing the EU Parliament, Carney might like to focus on issues at home such as soaring youth unemployment and the opioid crisis.

How could this possibly end?

The government is really not that smart when it comes to its reaction to the £72 million donation to Reform UK. If it seeks to introduce retrospective legislation forcing the party to pay the money back, it will underscore Nigel Farage’s claim of being “them versus us” and cement their role as the anti-establishment underdog.

And we all now has this nation loves an underdog, don’t we?