There’s 2 prisons nearby (Bullingdon and Grendon Underwood) and the area has had many thousands of military personnel, though dwindling considerably over the last few decades.
Possibly worth mentioning, quite a few meejah types live in the area, and it’s possibly getting more publicity than if some little village near Sheffield declared independence.
Bullingdon is the more pertinent though as it’s only across the road from the barracks and houses 1100 prisoners - so a similar number. Admittedly the asylum seekers are not supposed to be prisoners and can come and go more freely than the inmates but the incongruity stands - that one 1000 strong population of “undesirables” passes without mention while the other gets national news headlines.
I recognise and agree it appears incongruous. If a centre for asylum seekers were established and operated trouble-free there over decades I’m sure it would become a non-issue. I’ve played a few gigs in the prison, and as a member of the public going in, you wouldn’t normally be concerned with people escaping.
As much as anything, I have to think this has been very badly managed by government.
IIRC Grendon is full of sex offenders.
I could see that being the case.
But I didn’t know it was Lowe’s patch - now that I do I suspect he’s been s**t stirring.
Looking at Goggle Maps the barracks is surrounded by barbed wire so I doubt any inmatesresidents will be much better off than in Bullingdon next door.
I would have said the Left could do better than the above (it’s like playing Left-wing Bingo, though neither of you used “Bigot”) but I no longer think that’s possible.
The suggestion seems to be that
an entire village has become racist
you two are privy to a truth that anyone who disagrees with you is blind to
you are the only people who are reasonable and kind
That sort of self-delusion (which includes a belief that you don’t need to persuade anyone: it’s enough to call people names to make yourself feel good) is one of the reasons for the inexorable rise of the Right across the world.
To be honest, the Left has lost its way and a period out of power will do it a lot of good.
I think I know the site, and it’s like any military installation.
I’d not been aware Lowe was around this way, but as you say, hard not to see a cloven hoof with that knowledge.
It didn’t do any good last time.
Or the country!
Indeed, suggesting that the left has had any significant sustained power in recent years is rewriting history. The whole thing is a function of years of planned failure by recent Tory governments. They deliberately threw sand in the machinery and this is the result.
Indeed, and let’s be real, the left isn’t in power now,the centre with the odd hint of left and regular hint of right is. Labour stopped being a party of the left when New Labour was created, and it’s served them well politically but it’s definitely centre with a nod to the left. Corbyn tried to pull it back to the left and we all saw how that unfolded.
It is YOUR government that brands the ‘small boat people’ as illegal. I am only quoting how they are branded by your country so please do not say that Farage is in my head, or suggest what disabled might be called..
Would Piddington like 1200 squadies in there? I can categorically say no, they would not! My wife lives in Burford, far enough away and she would not like it! Now, if you had asked what the reaction might be to a battalion moving in, maybe quite different…
You go on to ask why the objection to (help you stay calm) those seeking asylum, and not to the prison nearby? Again, I can tell you not all residents do like the prison there as it has recently had a few issues and is known to be rife with drugs sailed in on drones. But it is there and has been for some time and has a security infrastructure.
I am only telling you why the residents might feel as they do, and knowing it cannot be fought, created a novel idea to make themselves heard. I care not a jot where your government put these people. I am just as sorry as you for their plight but do not like to see them on overloaded ribs. If it were me, I would charter an aircraft and deliver them safely if it is where they want to be.
Again, all I am saying is that your government sold it badly in their inimitable way, allowed Lowe to pop up the road to whip up a frenzy, and here you are 
Yet your delusion prevents you from noticing that you sound like a fully paid up excuse for Farage.
I might start…
“The Left” has been back in power for two and a bit years after 14 years of Tory rule which completely fcked the country, what are you talking about.
Burnham is certainly to the left of Starmer so we might see the party itself swing to the left a bit under his premiership.
Generally government spokespeople get it right and it is mainly the right wing that insist on calling asylum seekers illegal. They like to keep hammering that message home so the hard of thinking stop differentiating.
But they didn’t organise a mock referendum because of it, did they?
One thing I think you are all getting wrong is the presumption that my anger and disappointment is directed at the villagers - it (largely) is not. I don’t have complete sympathy because NIMBYism almost grew up in this part of the world but Oxfordshire is not itself a Reform stronghold (it’'s Lib Dem) - what is getting my goat is seeing just how much Farage’s message is cutting through and leading to hysteria like this even in non-Reform “middle England”.
The problem is, I think, we’ve always been closet xenophobes and it does not take much to bring it out.
Asylum seekers have to be housed somewhere. They cannot work while their claim is processed and get a pittance of an allowance (under fifty quid a week if they have to buy their own food, less than a tenner if not) and the public have made it clear that hotels are unacceptable - again Farage’s message cutting through that they they were being housed in luxury whereas the truth is many were housed in establishments that would have been bankrupt were it not for use to house asylum seekers and have the years of lack of property maintenance that goes with a slowly failing business.
More name-calling.
You lefties need to up your game!
I doubt that’s true, even for you.
Having concerns about immigration is neither racist nor xenophobic, save in the minds of those who have swallowed the self-loathing pill.
Time for a Stella recipe and I don’t mean the Artois one!
Come on guys, take a step back please, this site is better than that.
Always the best bit of Scooby doo.
Well, that and when Velma loses her glasses and stumbles round going “MY GLASSES!” as if she doesn’t manage to lose them every single episode. They really should have clubbed together and got her laser eye surgery for her birthday, would’ve solved so many issues.
Not all English persons Billy, though maybe a few Scottish…
Though when I lived in (south) England, the phrase ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ sometimes popped into my head. Yorkshire people weren’t too bad mind 
Well as a Yorkshireman by birth I’m flattered
Careful, you’re starting to sound like your old da on Facebook.
It was funny in 1949, now it’s pathetic.
Susannah Parden, Vice Chair (very impressive 
) of the Parish Council loves the sound of her own voice. Audrey fforbes-Hamilton would relate to her.
The Valley of the Squinting Windows.
BTW, what are those kids doing off school?
A link to a newsletter about the proposed centre popped into my inbox today, and I thought it might be interesting to post a different perspective. I know Rebecca (the author) fairly well, and she’s very serious about her work helping asylum seekers to settle in the UK and integrate. I appreciate many may not especially appreciate the Christian perspective, but it’s a key reason what she and many others care about these people.
