𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The idyllic Oxfordshire village of Piddington is an unlikely hotbed of political rebellion. But this week residents heroically defied Britain’s arrogant and blinkered ruling class by voting overwhelmingly to secede from the United Kingdom if the Labour Government presses ahead with plans to open a huge asylum hostel with a capacity for 1,250 migrants – more than four times the population of the village.

Secession will not happen. The Piddington referendum has no legal status. It has, however, tremendous political significance as a symbol of the public’s sense of betrayal over mass immigration. Without any electoral mandate, successive governments have foisted a social revolution on Britain that has transformed our neighbourhoods, eroded our national identity, burdened our welfare state, and shattered our cohesion.

Throughout Britain, mounting anger at the establishment’s contempt for local concerns is compounded by fury at the injustice of having to provide support for newcomers who may have no right to be here because they arrived illegally or their claims to asylum are bogus. The vote in Piddington was a heartfelt cry for freedom, justice, respect and security. Yet the Labour government, consumed by its worship of open borders and cultural diversity, refuses to change its despised approach. Cabinet minister Lisa Nandy even told the BBC that “we all have to do our bit,” as if it is a civic duty to help the state deal with the migration mess that the government has wilfully created.

The Cabinet’s refusal to pay any attention to the wishes of Piddington graphically illustrates the emptiness of Andy Burnham’s rhetoric about “listening to the people”. This aloofness stems partly from Labour’s moral superiority which sees any opposition to migration as a form of bigotry and partly from the belief the village is too small to have any real influence. But such an outlook is dangerously complacent. In the current febrile atmosphere, Piddington could be the spark that inspires democratic protests all over the country. Moreover the government’s pro-immigration strategy that so alienated Piddington voters is itself destroying the union, just at a time when the three nationalist parties now in charge of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are stepping up their campaign for independence.

By coincidence, as Piddington prepared to hold its referendum, the Celtic trio of leaders – John Swinney of the SNP, Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein and Rhun ap Iorwerth of PlaidCymru – met in Cardiff to discuss coordinating efforts to break up the United Kingdom.

With portentous solemnity, the three leaders signed the so-called Cardiff Agreement, pledging a “new era of co-operation”. Although the Government dismissed the idea that there would be any independence referendums soon, the Cardiff pact set off alarm bells within the establishment about the potential demise of the union. Some of this fear is justified. The advance of Celtic nationalism has undoubtedly made the political landscape more favourable to the fragmentation of the UK.

But the ruling elite would have greater credibility as the union’s defender if it had not done so much damage to our country through its attachment to corrosive woke ideology. The greatest menace to the integrity of the union is not the SNP or Sinn Fein, but fashionable dogma that despises our flag, trashes our heritage and portrays our island story as a narrative of shame. This doctrinaire poison, which can be seen in the fixation with identity politics and the hysteria about the “decolonisation”, is made all the more lethal by open door policies which mean much of Britain is no longer a nation but just a land mass inhabited by disparate minorities.

It was the lack of effective immigration controls that shaped the Piddington result. That same strategic failing is weakening the very foundations of our country.