LONDON: An English village of around 350 people announced on Wednesday that a vast majority of residents had voted yes in an ‘independence referendum’ staged to protest plans to house over 1,200 migrants in a nearby facility.
Piddington in central England, 25 kilometres from the university city of Oxford, has grabbed headlines with its tonguein-cheek breakaway vote.
The village’s parish council announced that with 312 ballots counted, 285 had voted to secede from Britain over plans to house asylum seekers in a nearby disused militarysite, in a symbolic vote with no recognised legal basis.
Residents were handed a ballot paper with the statement: ‘I support Piddington seeking to secede from the United Kingdom and pursuing self-determination.’ The local parish council chair Tim McNally said that the village will now be known as the ‘principality of Piddington’.
McNally told Sky News: ‘For us, it’s about proportionality how does a small village of 350 odd people assimilate with 1,250 males?’ He accused the government of ‘trying to rush this whole plan through’.-AFPsite, in a symbolic vote with no recognised legal basis.
Residents were handed a ballot paper with the statement: ‘I support Piddington seeking to secede from the United Kingdom and pursuing self-determination.’ The local parish council chair Tim McNally said that the village will now be known as the ‘principality of Piddington’.
McNally told Sky News: ‘For us, it’s about proportionality how does a small village of 350 odd people assimilate with 1,250 males?’ He accused the government of ‘trying to rush this whole plan through’.-AFP