‘We wun’t be druv’ is the motto of the county of Sussex. It proudly asserts that Sussex people have minds of their own and that they cannot be forced against their will or told what to do. It applies perfectly to the Sussex town of Crowborough, which is currently engaged in a fierce battle to prevent c.600 illegal asylum seekers being placed in an army training camp next to the town. A camp which until now has been in constant use by local air and army cadets for training.
As information re the proposal for the camp has gradually and belatedly been forthcoming from the local Wealden Council and the Home Office, shock at the news has morphed into a coherent and organised opposition to the plan. Outrage at the incoherence of the whole idea has been exacerbated by the amazingly inept pronouncements by the joint leader of Wealden District Council – aka Rachel Millward, who is also deputy leader of the Green Party. She has veered wildly between official – but half-hearted – council opposition to the plan to supporting her party’s line, and assertion that migrants are welcome but must be allowed to work because amongst their number are “doctors, surgeons and…barbers”. At the last in a number of public meetings in the town, the audience erupted with joy when Kim Bailey, the feisty leader of Crowborough Shield (a grassroots protest group) pointed out to Ms. Millward that said doctors etc., don’t come to the UK in rubber dinghies, throwing their medical degree documents into The Channel en route.
The latest incarnation of the growing dismay and anger in the town was a march on Sunday morning. As the mist cleared over Crowborough Beacon, the second highest point in inland Sussex, 2000 people – including small children and dogs – gathered to march through their small town centre. There was an atmosphere of calm and cheeriness, but also determination. As they walked amongst a sea of flags, they chanted ‘Crowborough says no’ and ‘Get Starmer out’. There will be another march next Sunday and the Sunday after that. Meanwhile crowdfunding is in place to fund the cost of hiring a KC to fight the plan.
As the protest has intensified under the stewardship of Crowborough Shield and other grassroots protest groups, it has become abundantly clear how communities are betrayed by those who are elected and paid to serve them. Wealden County Council – which operates out of offices down towards the Sussex coast – has 45 councillors, the majority of whom have not uttered a word re the proposal. A Green councillor has unhelpfully sought to rubbish the idea of overturning the HO proposal, while an Independent councillor and resident of Crowborough, Andrew Wilson, is fighting to get it rejected.
Only a handful of councillors have raised their heads above the parapet to comment on the matter. What are all the other councillors thinking or doing? The same may be said of the local Town Council – whose rank and file sat silent on the stage at a recent public meeting. What do these layers of bureaucracy, for which the electorate pays, offer in return? At the apex of these layers sits the Home Office, whose Asylum Accommodation Delivery Director has stoically responded to questions posed at three meetings.
His focus on the wellbeing of the camp’s residents has evoked amazement (this is to include ‘activities’ – ping pong? darts? crafting?), as has the fact that the camp residents will be free to exit the camp at any time and may stay away for up to seven days – at which point they will be presumed to have made other arrangements. In other words, they will have disappeared and the HO will have no idea where they are. There was zero overt discussion regarding the safety of Crowborough’s women and children, other than the indication that camp residents will be given advice on how to conduct themselves outside the camp. Jolly good.
Over the weekend, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has proposed measures that will be taken to impede the flow of illegal migrants. Is that a consolation to the residents of Crowborough? Hardly. Today the sun shines down on the Sussex countryside, meaning that in all probability a few hundred more men are en route to our southern coast to enter our country illegally. Their fate? They will be processed at Manston and then dispersed to hotels or whatever other accommodation the Home Office can throw cash at; provided with every possible facility completely free of charge.
The fate of Crowborough? To be decided – but if it has anything to do with the people of Crowborough, they will not be the victims of past and present government inertia and gross incompetence in the face of uncontrolled immigration. In other words, they certainly wun’t be druv.
Madeleine Gillies is a Crowborough resident with a career in language teaching in the UK and abroad.
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(Photograph: Robin Webster / No Public Admittance)
Elected and appointed officials of all types are interested primarily in only one thing – their own advancement, this inevitably means being at odds with those of us saps who vote for then and pay their wages.
The only answer I can imagine is full Libitarianism, unfortunately many of the saps are still willingly tied to nanny’s apron strings and fall for the emotional tug of ‘the poor/disadvantaged’ who must be helped, despite them not helping themselves (except to others’ money).
“Today the sun shines down on the Sussex countryside, meaning that in all probability a few hundred more men are en route to our southern coast to enter our country illegally. Their fate? They will be processed at Manston and then dispersed to hotels or whatever other accommodation the Home Office can throw cash at; provided with every possible facility completely free of charge.” (Madeleine Gillies)
That’s the whole problem. “Their fate” should not require a question mark but should BE that they are turned right around and sent back to their countries of origin. I am so sick of this; we get a fine, quite a hefty fine, if we break the driving speed limit and if we commit any other crime we are charged and tried in court. Yet these people, who are by definition, criminals, are treated like celebrities.
Unless everyone, but everyone, refuses to vote at the next election after protesting outside the polling stations, the politicians will not get the message. That’s a wild guess, since they’re not getting the message coming to them in fairly mild protests and over the radio airwaves during phone-in sessions when plenty of ordinary people ring in with their concerns and anger at the Government. The politicians don’t care. We can protest all we like – they don’t care.
So, best of luck to the people of Crowborough. They’ll need it.