Seceding from the United Kingdom

"[We will] look at the issues raised by the community and in the referendum, [but the] vast majority [of British people backed a government plan to stop housing asylum seekers in hotels and it was] fair [to locate holding centres around the country]."

Prime Minister Andy Burnham

 

"For people who have fled war and violence and come to the UK to be safe, being accommodated in such remote and unsettling environments only exacerbates their sense of insecurity."

"And as we’ve seen from other sites, they’ve undermined social cohesion."

Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst, Refugee Council  

Residents of Piddington, which has a population of about 350, voted overwhelmingly for secession in a non-binding referendum. Source: AAP, Press Association / Joe Giddens

 

"[Going forward, the village will identify as the] Principality of Piddington." 

"For us, it's about proportionality. How does a small village of 350-odd people assimilate with 1,250 males?"

"[The government is] trying to rush this whole plan through."

"What we're doing is a very British thing - we're voting."

"Because this is a really important topic... not just in this region, [but] across the whole of the United Kingdom. We're just ground zero."

Piddington Parish council chair Tim McNally

 

"I think what this result shows is that Piddington campaigners have done an incredible job to highlight their concerns about the proposed asylum centre."

"[The government has proposed the plan] without engaging with local people."

"[The planned centre] will be a lightning-rod to the far right, who come here to protest [and] potentially attack [asylum seekers]." 

Leader of Oxfordshire county council, Tim Bearder   

Piddington is home to about 350 people and has few amenities or facilities to speak of

 

The vast majority of the citizens of the English village of Piddington reached a consensus and announced that the vote they cast in an 'independence referendum' that was staged to protest the British government's plans to house over 1,200 migrants in a nearby facility, was rejected by the community. The referendum validated concerns of the residents that their small rustic enclave would be overwhelmed by the presence of so many individuals -- a migrant population consisting of men from North Africa and the Middle East whose numbers were such that adequate vetting did not take place -- would present an intolerable burden to the village.

 

The culture, heritage and religion of these men from Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran and Somalia, war-torn countries with unstable governments and rife with terrorist groups, so radically at odds with the bucolic British landscape and the people living there, they represent a threat of great cultural-heritage dimensions, alongside the problem of values at great variance to those of the British themselves. Located in central England, Piddington is a hop-and-a-skip from the university city of Oxford.

 

Other towns and villages in the British countryside will also be targeted by the government to receive their share of the migrant influx. For the present, it is Piddington and its rejection of the government's migrant-housing plan which will totally disrupt village life, that has garnered the attention of the British public. Declaring itself prepared to secede from Britain rather than agree to the plans to house asylum seekers in a disused military site, their symbolic vote has no legal basis, but its message is loud and clear. 

 

Local residents pose with a "Principality of Piddington" sign in the village of Piddington, Oxfordshire, England -- PA Wire

 

Of the 312 ballots counted, 285 had voted for secession. Each of the village's residents were given a ballot paper with the statement: "I support Piddington seeking to secede from the United Kingdom and pursuing self-determination". Defiance of Whitehall to this degree sends a message impossible to avoid.

British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, speaking to the press, stated that a former military base "is a better option for housing asylum seekers" than hotels or rented accommodation.

 

"We do have to house people somewhere while we get a grip on the asylum chaos ... and that base will go ahead", she stated unequivocally. Elsewhere around Britain frequent protests have been staged against the housing of asylum seekers in hotels and other facilities in various towns and villages. According to 76-year-old Herbert Owen of Piddington, it felt to him as though the government did not 'care' about his village, which persuaded him to take a stance: "I voted to leave the United Kingdom".