An English village has taken NIMBYism to unprecedented lengths after they voted to leave the UK over plans to house asylum seekers at a nearby former military base.
The small settlement of Piddington in Oxfordshire took to the polls on Tuesday (15 September) to vote on becoming independent from the UK.
By Wednesday morning, the results were announced, revealing that the village had voted to leave the country by a landslide.
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Out of 312 votes cast, 285 voted to leave, while there were 26 no votes, and one ballot paper was spoiled.
The population of the village, as per the 2021 census, was 358 people.
The vote remains entirely symbolic, however, because – of course – villages, towns and cities cannot just vote to leave the UK.
The referendum was organised in protest against Home Office plans for around 1,200 migrants at a former military base nearby.
Speaking to the BBC after the result, council chair Tim McNally said: “This is an example of democracy in operation.
“We went into this village hall as the underdogs – we had a plucky idea. We have given a message to the world.”
MoD Bicester is known as “Site A” and has previously been earmarked for an asylum seeker accommodation centre all the way back in 2005 – although these plans were abandoned.
The current proposals have caused a stir, being weaponised by the far-right, but has also drawn criticism from Lib Dem MP for Bicester, Calum Miller.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy dismissed the referendum, telling BBC Breakfast that the government would not be reconsidering the proposal.
She said: “The alternative would be to ask communities who have already seen their local community quadruple in size to take more of the load – and I think that’s deeply unfair.”
She continued: “I do really understand that when changes are made that affect your community it can be very distressing.
“We inherited an enormous asylum backlog, we are processing claims much more quickly, we are removing people who don’t have the right to be here.
“Small boat crossings fell this summer for the first time in many years because of the action we have taken.
“While we get a grip on the asylum chaos that we inherited we do need to make sure that we live up to our obligations and house people coming to this country seeking safety.”
A public consultation on the plans is now running until midnight on 17 September.