I am a white British 70 year old. Yesterday, standing in support of the families in the local asylym hotel I was verbally abused and called a pr....k by a man who is more of a threat to me than any future citizens waiting for their legal asylum claim will ever be. He wasn't alone. About 10 Labour party, Green party and other locals who knew that the residents were no trouble were celebrating the diverse history of this land, while white, mostly male, opponents of asylum seekers swaggered across the road with their ignornance and aggression. If the police had not been there blood would have been shed. They claimed only 1 child was in the hotel, which suggests that they were not local or informed So they were there for trumped up reasons and just wanted shout and show off and cause trouble -just like the Taliban and other brutes who have forced so many people to seek aylum.
The presence of theese avowed Tommy Robinson supporters was threatening enough, but what was additionally depressing was the seeing so many young children being brought out to learn hate and hearing so many beeping motorists spilling out that hate, that xenophobia. In addition, our local MP, Lewis Cocking is fueling that hatred with his speeches in and out of parliament. Shame on him.
I have long known that Broxbourne is a racist area, the hidden tension mostly lie beneath the surface but sometimes they erupt. The tiny group of pro refugee supporters were completely outnumbered by the bullies so retreated to avoid being hurt but that meant leaving the poor aylum seerks stuck in the hotel will a threatening mob outside, which must have felt awful.
At home I turned into the Proms, famous of course for being the bastion of Britishness, but actually it was a celebration internationalism with performers from north and south America. That an the allotment has reduced how stressed I feel bbut if an hour facing these thugs has left me feeling so bereft how must it feel to constantly face them.
