AA: Asylum
Any Questions? and Any Answers?
The episode explores the intense local controversy in Oxfordshire, where a village has declared independence to protest the government's plan to house
Key takeaways
- A village in Oxfordshire voted for independence following news of 1,200 male asylum seekers being housed near Piddington.
- Annie Shelbourne argues that right-wing media focuses disproportionately on crimes by asylum seekers to create fear.
Main topics
- Asylum seeker housing in Piddington
- Integration of immigrants into UK society
Notable quotes
Actual true integration really means being accepted for who you are, valued for what you bring.
Conclusion
The episode serves as a microcosm of the broader UK debate on immigrat
Transcript preview
Speaker 4 (0:00) This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Welcome to the Haunted Library. Have you come in search of a tale? This podcast invites you to browse the shelves and find stories that will linger long after you've left this place. From gothic masterpieces to pulpy penny dreadfuls, join me, Colin Morgan, with new episodes twice a week. Find The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (0:38) Welcome to Any Answers. So a village in Oxfordshire has voted to declare itself independent this week from the rest of the United Kingdom. Now, its residents say this is a protest, it is not a stunt. The government wants to house more than 1,200 male asylum seekers at a former military base near Piddington. And people there say, well, who asked us? Ministers say every part of the country must take its share. So where should asylum seekers go? Are we still able to love our neighbour? 03700 100 444. The amount you can earn before paying income tax has been frozen for years. As wages rise, more and more people are being pulled over the line into paying tax or into a higher band. Now, this week, one of the big unions said the freeze should end. With the budget approaching, should the personal allowance go up? If your pay has crept up but your money isn't stretching... Give us a call. 03700 100 444. Power is being handed out of Westminster. Andy Burnham has put devolution at the very centre of his government. In Cornwall, one of the poorest parts of the country, people have been asking what kind of devolution might be right for them. Cornwall has its own language, it has its own recognised national minority status. Some call it Britain's fifth nation. So should Cornwall, for example, run more of its own affairs? And if you live somewhere that feels forgotten by Westminster, would handing power closer to home... change anything for you. 03700 100 444. And finally, shall we talk about AI, artificial intelligence? It's moving into our schools, into our hospitals, into our workplaces. The people who build it talk about teaching it human value. So if a machine learns its ethics and its moral code from us, us humans, should that reassure us or does that keep you up at night? Do you trust the handful of companies building these systems? And do we trust ourselves? to get it right. 03700 100 444. You can WhatsApp, you can leave voice notes, you can email any.answers at bbc.co.uk or text 84844. Let's talk about the thing that most of you want to discuss this afternoon, and that is the independence declaration from Piddington and all that it entails. Annie Shelbourne is our first caller from Carnforth in Lancashire. Good afternoon, Annie. Oh, hi, Anita. Speaker 6 (3:02) Hi. Well, I have to say the framing of this debate makes me quite angry. You were saying, you know, can we still love our neighbours? It's increasingly difficult when you have right-wing politicians and right-wing corporate media sort of telling us basically all the time that asylum seekers are a threat. It's almost like straight out of the Trump playbook, you know, that... People coming over the Mexican border, oh, well, they're all rapists and murderers, and some of them are nice people, I expect, or whatever Trump said exactly. But it's the same kind of thing. You know, if ever an asylum seeker commits a crime against a woman or a girl, it is plastered all over the media, all over the broadcast media, the papers. We all hear about it. But women in this country are being attacked and the sexual violence is so ubiquitous, really, and has been for centuries and, you know, still is. In fact, I'm 70 now and I feel that possibly things are worse than they were when I was younger. But that doesn't make the media. You know, you don't hear about a woman in Carnthus was sexually assaulted by her partner. Because 90 % of... sexual harassment and sexual violence is committed by people that women, not people, men that women know. Right. Partners, family, work colleagues. Yeah, okay. Speaker 2 (4:38) So can I ask you this? I mean, there are going to be people who are going to say, look, Annie, you know, it's easy for you to say this because it's not happening on a Carnforth estate, if you like. It's not happening near you. What would you say to them? Speaker 6 (4:52) No, I do agree. I mean, actually, I don't agree with putting large numbers of asylum seekers all in one place, especially in rural areas where there's nothing for them to do. Very little way of getting away from where they are, because if it's anywhere like around here, because I don't live in Carforth, I live on the outskirts of the next village. There's very few buses. And I don't suppose asylum seekers would even be able to. Ford buses because they get very little money at all. So I do actually agree that it's not suitable. I think asylum seekers should be housed in houses of multiple occupancy in All different areas, but not in huge numbers like a thousand or whatever the number is. I wouldn't mind them over the road to me. We live on a bungalow estate and then over the road there are some terrace houses and then some of them are houses of multiple occupation. I wouldn't mind two or three of those being turned into houses for asylum seekers. But obviously a thousand people in one place for any small village. That is too much. Can you just Speaker 2 (6:04) stay on the line? Because, you know, this is a debate that has been raging this week, crystallising in this referendum of Piddington. Philip Anderson calling us from Newcastle-under-Lyme. You've just heard what Annie Shelbourne has said. She's still here. She's still listening. And she's saying, look, the problems are being magnified by a political agenda. They're not real. They shouldn't frighten us. What do you say to that? Speaker 1 (6:34) Well, it's a very interesting debate, I must say. Good afternoon to you. Good afternoon. Where I stand on this, and I think things have to be cleared up, well, from my perspective, I think there's a bit of confusion when we talk about asylum seekers and when we talk about illegal migration. Because the small boats, I think, is the big issue that really is enraging people at the moment. Because people are part of... these rather illegal gangs, and they're entering the country illegally, usually without identification. And it's, I think, those that are really angering people more. So when we speak about loving thy neighbor and accommodating people, for those who went to the country like the Ukrainians did, they came over here through the legal channels. Now, some people might argue, well, there are not enough. Speaker 2 (7:32) Some people argue that there aren't safe routes. Yes, that's Speaker 1 (7:35) what I was about to say. There aren't safe routes for them to come here. But my real big point is, unless you want to break it up, because I have a point on loving thy neighbour and integration. So please stop me if you want to come on. No, no, no. Speaker 2 (7:51) You carry on. Finish your point and then we'll see where the conversation takes us. Speaker 1 (7:57) Absolutely. OK, thank you. Speaker 1 (8:00) Okay, so for those of them who come here legally... I think, and they're looking to be properly integrated. The question was raised on the panel last night, and I think it was scoffed, laughed at, but we need to have a wider debate around what true integration means. And I speak from somebody who has sight loss. Now, I don't say it's my defining characteristic. I'm not defined by my blindness, but I'm using this because... Actual true integration really means being accepted for who you are, valued for what you bring, and for someone to be able to participate without surrendering any part of oneself to earn their place there. Now, we claim to live in a multicultural country. Speaker 1 (8:57) But I wonder how many people actually feel that true sense of belonging. Speaker 2 (9:04) Okay. Philip, I'm grateful for your call. Just a question that you've raised, which I'll put back to Annie, who's still listening. Annie, Philip's point about, look, the problem is these are people who've entered illegally, and that is the issue. They haven't come through legal methods. And therefore, that is the sticking point for most people, that if you've broken... The law, in effect, why should you be given housing, hot water, warmth, medical treatment, all of the above? Speaker 6 (9:35) But it's not against the law to claim asylum. And there is no other way for them to get here. And in the past, they were doing exactly the same thing, but in a different way. They were coming over in the back of lorries and sometimes dying in the back of lorries. But we didn't see it so much because it wasn't visible. Now it's visible. And people like Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson can use this to turn. you know, people against each other. And that's politically useful to them. Speaker 2 (10:05) Okay. Annie, thank you. Philip, thank you. Lots of calls on this. 03700 100 444. James on email says, listening to your panel's debate on integration and how it's done got