NIMBYism (plus a dash of racism) alive and well in Oxfordshire

Depends on what your qualifications and skills are and what the situation you are leaving is like. If there’s no diplomatic representation in a country it’s difficult for its citizens to get a visa, same thing if there’s eg postwar social and political disorganisation.

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Piddington, Piddlington…

Legitimate concerns is great though as it’s the easiest dog whistle to spot. As soon as you hear those two words you know exactly what you’re dealing with and if you know that it makes life so much easier. Legitimate concerns about black or brown people, legitimate concerns about lower class people, legitimate concerns about LGBTQ people, legitimate concerns about foreigners, legitimate concerns about the disabled… It’s always a sign that we must have legitimate concerns about those saying it.

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Yup.

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There are more enlightened places in the Uk, ( can’t find the article at the mo’), that welcome them in their communities. Many become volunteers in local projects especially working on the land and helping produce food for local communities. It helps everyone integrate and understand each other better. Personally I love meeting people from different cultures, over the years they’ve taught me many things and enriched my life.

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This also needs to be seen against a backdrop of invasive development, with plans for at least 2 theme parks expecting over a million visitors every year each, transport hubs and a couple of other countryside-gobbling developments that I forget the details of in the north Oxfordshire area. Quite seriously, there is so much development already going on that it’s hard to recognise the area we moved to in 1990, and this will have affected the village feeling. Not the asylum seekers, but all the rest of it has made me want to leave the area already, and I’m not alone in that.

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As I said, I know a number in Bicester: Iranian, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Ghana.

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Aaahhh. A knee jerk reaction motivated by fear. Fears no doubt stirred up online by trolls and negative media.

No one expects the village to actually secede. They couldn’t live without the UK national services like NHS etc. Clearly, they feel threatened and this paper vote is all they can think of to be heard and counted. Could happen anywhere that faces a large influx of strangers. Colour is probably not the issue. Culture clash is more likely. I blame the authorities for so poorly introducing their ‘solution’ and not having presented it in all transparency ages ago.

It really is a sad affair all round.

You left out the scientists. They be calling you a bigot next.

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Obviously not, and I agree with your final point. My anger is directed at the likes of Farage and Lowe who whip up suspicion of asylum seekers such that people start to act like the villager that I head saying she would be too afraid to go about her daily business if they “moved in”. Yet the presence of a category B prison nearby does not seem to phase her?

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Does no-one remember ‘Passport to Pimlico’? Margaret Rutherford at her rumbuntious best. :rofl:

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Not wanting a thousand people we know nothing about being placed in your village isn’t racist, it’s common sense.

Anyway, nice to see the pearl clutching liberals that encourage this madness have to live with the consequences of their suicidal empathy.

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It isn’t, and that’s another phrase abused and manipulated by the right wing.

All too often “common sense” means the knee-jerk reaction without engaging brain having been propagandised by the anti-immigrant brigade.

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Common sense is not inviting the foxes into the henhouse.

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We’re back to those preconceptions Farage has been working hard to get lodged into your brain.

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Oh, I pay him no attention as he’s the Managed Opposition.

Tell me, O Great Oracle, what enormous benefits has the recent wave of immigration brought to the UK?

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What wave - numbers are down across the board for the last three years as we keep showing what a welcoming and inclusive place we’d like to be.

Some figures, if you’d like

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/stay-informed/explainers/top-facts-from-the-latest-statistics-on-refugees-and-people-seeking-asylum/

I’m supposed to accept figures from propaganda arm of the NGO responsible for this mess?

Good day to you, Sir.

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Oh, FFS :facepalm:

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I can sympathise with you there, the ridiculous amounts of building without much thinking , going on is unbelievable.
They want to build more estates near here but totally ignore the lack of jobs and infrastructure.

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