A small village in Oxfordshire, England, has drawn inspiration from the United States and has voted in favour of holding a referendum to secede from the United Kingdom over government plans to dump over a thousand supposed asylum seekers in their midst.
The leafy Oxfordshire village of Piddington has found itself at the epicentre of the battle against the Westminster establishment’s open borders ethos after the Home Office recently announced that it would be converting a former Ministry of Defence storage facility on the outskirts of town into an asylum seeker accommodation that is set to house some 1,250 “single adult males”, many of whom likely arrived in the country illegally on small boats across the English Channel before claiming asylum once on British soil.
While many other similar sites selected by the government to house migrants have seen locals rise up in protest, the parish council of Piddington has come up with a novel way to push back, holding a referendum on whether the village should secede from the country. Earlier this month, a meeting was held on the Fourth of July — on the 250th anniversary of America’s independence — to decide whether to hold a referendum. By a margin of 178 to 7, the residents backed the idea of holding such a vote.
According to a Daily Mail report, residents are currently debating whether to seek independence as a principality or petition the U.S. to become the 51st state.
Piddington Parish Council leader Tim McNally told the paper: ‘The MP held a meeting where lots of people said they are not happy about all this. But no one is coming up with a plan… So we have come up with one ourselves.”
McNally added that if the village votes in favour of seceding from the UK, they will send a delegation to the American Embassy for talks, saying: “We want President Trump to know about this.”
Speaking to the Oxford Mail, the Parish Council leader went on to claim that he is working on a constitution for Piddington in the event that it leaves the United Kingdom.
“George Washington brought change about. I am going to make the change and then give away the power like he did,” McNally said.
Many Piddington residents have expressed concern for the safety of the women and girls in the village, noting that the site borders the local green where kids play and people walk their dogs. Critically, the alleged asylum seekers will be free to leave the MoD site and wander throughout the area without supervision.
One local woman told Sky News that if the proposed asylum site goes ahead as planned, there would be 50 men per every nine women in the area.
A local father of an 18-year-old girl said that his family was concerned about allowing her to walk freely in the village and said they may rent her a flat away from the proposed asylum site for her safety.
For its part, the Home Office has claimed that it is necessary to use former Ministry of Defence properties as it seeks to end the use of hotels as asylum seeker accommodation.
“We are closing every asylum hotel and moving asylum seekers into basic accommodation, including ex-military sites. This is an important step in ending the perception you can arrive in the UK illegally and be put up in a hotel,” a spokesman said.
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