Which of the following are most deserving of protection?
- The residents of Crowborough
- Illegal migrants
- Winnie-the-Pooh
All three will be familiar to most people. The first two have become inextricably linked as the town’s residents and its leaders and MP continue to fight the Home Office’s plan to place 600 illegal male migrants in an Army training camp next to the town.
Last Sunday, for the fourth weekend in a row, around 4,000 people marched through the centre of their small leafy town. As with the three previous marches, the protest was orderly, amiable and overwhelmingly comprised local residents. Such is the growing public and media interest in Crowborough’s fight that even Australia’s Financial Review carried a piece designating the town ‘ground zero in Britain’s immigration row’.
‘Ground zero’ or not, Crowborough has been fighting not only for the general protection and wellbeing of its town but specifically for the Army Cadet Force: a long established force which morphed from the ‘Volunteer Forces’ formed in 1859 in response to the threat of invasion by France. Cadets, reservists and serving troops have met and trained at the camp since it was built in WWI.
The Home Office has now indicated that the cadets will not be able to continue to use the camp as of tomorrow as there are concerns about their safety alongside the ‘service users’. Given that the residents of Crowborough will also be required to live alongside the ‘service users’, aka illegal migrants, we may assume that their protection is not of specific import to the authorities.
Pictures continue to be posted of various types of fencing being erected around the camp, in spite of the Home Office having indicated that use of it is being delayed. So they are delaying while accelerating – in other words prevaricating and procrastinating – and whatever the reasons for the delay it is reasonable to assume that those reasons are not connected to the safety of the residents of Crowborough, nor of the nearby towns of Tunbridge Wells and Uckfield to which the migrants will be bussed as an enrichment activity.
Residents speculate about the need for additional robust fencing. After all, the camp residents will be free to roam wherever, whenever they please. Is it to deter deer, with which the adjoining Ashdown Forest is replete? No, probably not: the fencing and the guards with dogs are there to bar entry to the wild savages who reside locally!
Then we must consider Winnie-the-Pooh, A A Milne’s fictional bear who played with his friends in the Ashdown Forest. His wellbeing is also important – and it is his centenary next year. Wealden District Council, which is run by a Green and LibDem alliance, has therefore decreed that £450,000 will be allocated to celebrate this event. Yes, money will be spent on a programme of events and to ‘build a lasting legacy for Ashdown Forest’ (courtesy of Rachel Millward, joint leader of the council and deputy leader of the Green Party; she is now well known for espousing the idea that a proportion of illegal migrants are ‘surgeons, doctors and . . . barbers’).
So the bear is well catered for and let’s hope his celebrations go with a swing – though maybe he shouldn’t get too near the periphery of the camp.
Then we come to the residents of Crowborough. Even as the grassroots organisation Crowborough Shield and local Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani fight to get the plan cancelled, the Home Office acts by stealth. It claims no final decision has been made and yet, as indicated, contractors work continuously on the site and staff are recruited.
In the meantime, residents learn that the CCTV hasn’t been working in their town for some time, nor is there an operational police station. Unlike at the camp they are left to install their own security systems and fencing. Unlike Winnie, they are not going to get any public funding, nor compensation for the fact that their houses have plummeted in value since the plan was announced and have become virtually unsaleable.
Never mind. Wealden DC has declared one of its priorities to be ‘Building strong, mutually supporting communities which are actively engaged in their own future’.
Nor should we forget the Home Office’s central remit – that of maintaining the safety and security of the UK.
Fine words but, as things stand, Crowborough’s residents are left to second guess and hypothesise re the arrival of 600 unknown foreign men into their midst. This week? Next week? Before or after Christmas? All in one go – or none at all?
Residents might be forgiven for having lost all trust in the government’s will or commitment to keep them safe and secure. In treating a town and its residents in such a cavalier manner, the government treats those whom they are paid and appointed to serve with disdain. They wilfully distort and deceive and, as we increasingly observe, lie with impunity.
The prospect of hundreds of unknown young men arriving we know not when hangs over Crowborough like the Sword of Damocles, and the fact that their needs are blatantly prioritised over those of British citizens is so offensive and unpalatable.
That aside, we may wonder what the soldiers who, over many decades, passed through Crowborough camp en route to train or to fight for their country would make of what’s happening there now?
I think we all know the answer to that, too, don’t we?
