Principality of Piddington

Because a family who want a better life, and who have no prospects in their home country, send their young strong men out to search for a better life for them all. It’s how it’s always worked, because the young and strong have the best chance of success.

Peacelilydilly

What kind of man would leave their women, children and old people behind in a country so awful they have had to flee it. Why not stay and make your home country better and look.after your family or are they just interested in themselves probably. In WW1 and WW2 men.fought for their country and their families.

Am sure you will have read what Casdon has posted, which pretty much sums things up, but just to add, the channel crossing in overcrowded dinghies is not safe for the strong young men clinging on for dear life, they don’t want women and children or older people taking that risk.
And they can’t do much in war torn/economically wrecked countries where inflation is so high and jobs so scarce that they struggle to put food on the table.

As far as I have been able to determine, the nearest part of the old MoD Bicester site is 0.5 miles from the nearest point of Piddington. It is, depending on the exact start and finish points, a 2.3 mile journey by car, at most.

I can see the disruption and worry that could be caused to a small community like Piddington with all that testosterone so close, if the mostly young men aren't given sufficient incentives to stay on site. Even if 95% of the "new neighbours" were well behaved and respectful towards the locals the other 62 would-be immigrants could cause a lot of problems in the village if they got fed up and went looking for "entertainment".

They could catch the 108 bus to Bicester or Oxford from Piddington but it only runs some days at a couple of buses per day, apparently. There isn't even a coffee shop in Piddington and if the asylum seekers are Muslim they probably won't be attracted to the pubs scattered around the area.

The Base being fenced and gated is, I think, irrelevant as we "can't" lock up Asylum seekers by law, unlike America where even the children have been put in cages.

The site covers 12 square miles Aely, so without knowing exactly where the accommodation units are, where the gates are (which does matter if there are high fences which are designed not to be climbed over), and whether there are any restricted access zones, which many MOD sites have, it’s not possible to say exactly how far away from Piddington, or any other settlement they will be.

Any women that have a chance to come over on a boat are left by the wayside.
Saw a clip of two woman & a child being pushed back by the men. They ended up paddling back to shore😩 FS

Casdon

The site covers 12 square miles Aely, so without knowing exactly where the accommodation units are, where the gates are (which does matter if there are high fences which are designed not to be climbed over), and whether there are any restricted access zones, which many MOD sites have, it’s not possible to say exactly how far away from Piddington, or any other settlement they will be.

Yesterday, I did post a link to the planning documents about this which have comprehensive drawings and sections of maps showing the layout of the site and its relationship to Piddington. Here ig is again:

www.gov.uk/guidance/urgent-crown-development-application-mod-bicester-site-a

The transport assessment is a very useful document. It explains what facilities will be on site and what access here will be for the men accommodated there. It discusses the shuttle buses that will operate. Note it says:

It is acknowledged that from the point of view of accessibility by sustainable travel modes, the location of the site is not ideal as there is limited pedestrian and cycling infrastructure near the site. However, given the temporary nature of the proposed use, the infrastructure planned to make the site as self-contained as possible and the provision of sustainable forms of transport for essential off-site trips, it can be concluded that the proposed development adheres well with national and local policies.

A 2 km walking catchment from the site access is shown in Image 3-1 on the next page and Figure 2. This demonstrates that the outskirts of Piddington, Arncott and Bicester are within reasonable walking distance. However, given the absence of any pedestrian infrastructure serving the site, it is recommended that Service Users access facilities in these areas by the minibuses that will be provided by the Home Office.

As I have said before, there is nothing much in Piddington. I wouldn’t describe it as a picturesque village by any stretch. It’s just a couple of roads with houses along. There’s no shop, no post office, no cafe, no pub. There’s no obvious gathering place and no schools for men to hang around outside which seems to be a concern of protesters in other places.

There's a village hall where not much goes on and certainly not for young people.

Oxford, Aylesbury, Bicester and Thame could be easily reached by mini bus and that’s probably what will happen, just as men at RAF Wethersfield, which accommodates a similar number, are bussed into nearby towns and cities for the day.

Peacelilydilly, I think you might find that those men who fought, left their wives and children behind, and went abroad. 🤔

MT62

Yep Cossy, left behind in war torn countries we are led to believe 🙄

As I said earlier, pointless discussion, those of you who just don’t want these people here, for ANY reason, refuse to believe the many charities and government stats which prove this point.

Peacelilydilly take a quick peek at the top 5 countries of people claiming Asylum, and you might just see why.

It’s nothing like WW1 & WW2!

. Refugee Family Reunion Visas (Applying from Abroad)This route allows the immediate family (spouses, partners, and children under 18) of someone granted refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK to apply from another country to join them.According to data compiled by the House of Commons Library and GOV.UK, 90% (nine in ten) of all family reunion visas are granted to women and children.

Ok, l give up!

Whilst I’m aware some of aren’t interested however;

Daily life in the top countries of origin for small-boat asylum seekers—predominantly
Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iran—is marked by severe socioeconomic instability, conflict, or repressive governance.

Eritrea; Totalitarian Governance:

Daily life is heavily militarized under an authoritarian regime with indefinite national service that often equates to forced labor.

Infrastructure Deficits:

Residents face chronic shortages of reliable electricity and running water, alongside a tightly restricted internet and media landscape.

Economic Hardship:

Widespread poverty and limited private enterprise push citizens to seek unauthorized exits despite strict laws against leaving.

Sudan; Active Conflict:

Daily existence for millions is disrupted by severe civil war, displacing communities and destroying urban infrastructure.

Humanitarian Crisis:

Acute food insecurity, collapsing healthcare systems, and hyperinflation define the daily struggle for survival.

Safety Risks:

Widespread violence and lawlessness make basic personal security nearly impossible in affected regions.

Somalia; Insecurity and Insurgency:

Ongoing conflict, terrorism, and clan-based violence create an environment of constant physical danger.
Fragile Infrastructure:

Lack of stable governance means minimal public services, leaving populations vulnerable to extreme weather, drought, and waterborne diseases like cholera.

Displacement: Millions live internally displaced or reliant on informal support systems and international aid.

Afghanistan Severe Restrictions:

Under Taliban governance, women and girls face total exclusion from secondary and tertiary education, most employment, and public spaces.

Economic Collapse: Widespread poverty, compounded by sudden influxes of returning refugees from neighboring states, has strained local resources to a breaking point.

Environmental Pressures:

Frequent droughts, floods, and earthquakes aggravate daily food and housing insecurity.

Iran Economic Strain: High inflation, currency devaluation, and international sanctions severely degrade the purchasing power of the working and middle classes.

Social Restrictions: Strict state control over personal freedoms, expression, and dress codes heavily impact public and social life.

Political Climate: Dissatisfaction with governance and limited avenues for legal or political dissent drive continuous outward migration.

Are you getting the picture?

Maybe, just maybe, be grateful for where we do live, purely by an accident of birth, or perhaps because your parents or grandparents quite legitimately were allowed to leave their own country and come to ours.

As my husband’s parents did, from Eire in the 60’s.

The answer very clearly is no. Sorry but for very many it is just no and the be kind stuff stopped working quite some time ago . So what now.

Thanks for the info Cossy. Much appreciated.
Sadly as this world becomes more unstable and economically depressed, taking into consideration that climate change will also cause yet more deprivation and deaths, there will be more people seeking stability and basically a piece of what we have by dint if our birth.
And if there are some migrants who we believe are not toeing the line with regard to the freedoms we hold dear, consider how our governments in the west have regularly trashed the freedoms of so many poor beggars who now end up in our country.
What goes around comes around.

I’m afraid they will just have to suck it up, the government is not going to change its mind on this. The cost of doing so would be enormous, to a less appropriate facility, and for what? To go somewhere else that they weren’t wanted?

People of Piddington are going to love you graphite, putting their village down.
What I’ve seen of it, it looks lovely.
I think lack of pavements isn’t going to stop them going for a walk now is it 🙄

Galaxy

The answer very clearly is no. Sorry but for very many it is just no and the be kind stuff stopped working quite some time ago . So what now.

Would you like to give us a clue what you are talking about?

Casdon

I’m afraid they will just have to suck it up, the government is not going to change its mind on this. The cost of doing so would be enormous, to a less appropriate facility, and for what? To go somewhere else that they weren’t wanted?

There is a history with the site. The NAO explained what happened.

Overview

The Home Office spent some £28 million on plans to create a purpose-built asylum centre in Bicester, Oxfordshire, following its announcement in 2001 of a major overhaul of the asylum system to speed up the processing of applications from asylum-seekers. In 2005, in the light of improvements to the handling of asylum applications, reduced numbers of asylum applications and rising costs of the project, the Bicester project was cancelled by the Department because it was no longer economically viable.

Detail

In October 2001, the government announced that it would build ten asylum accommodation centres, which would accommodate 3,000 people. The Home Office planned for these sites to house a proportion of first-time asylum seekers from the time of their arrival in the UK through to the point where the outcome of their application was decided.

The first centre was to be built in Bicester but, in the face of significant local opposition, the success of other initiatives to speed up the processing of asylum applications and a fall in the number of people claiming asylum in the UK, the programme was cancelled in June 2005, four years after its inception.

This strength of public opinion led to opposition, which elongated the planning process, caused the start of work on site to slip by 14 months, delayed the centre’s inception and so raised costs.

In planning for the centre, the Home Office was working in a dynamic external policy environment, whereby the number of people applying for asylum could fall and, hence, the demand for such facilities would therefore reduce. The number of applicants seeking asylum in the UK halved between October 2002 and September 2003.

Although the number of people arriving has reduced significantly this year, it is still much higher now than in 2001. As of June 2026, there were still 32,401 asylum applications waiting for a first ruling and many more appeals waiting to be heard.

You are right Casdon. The people of Piddington will just have to accept this and resist being manipulated by the hard right. I doubt any of them want Yaxley Lennon or Danny Thomas and his balaclava thugs marching through their village. Seeing as 112 of their compatriots have been convicted of serious sexual offences against women and children, supervised asylum seekers are a safer option.

All the countries you mentioned in your post yesterday Cossy at 19 46pm all have one common denominator...they are all mainly Muslim countries. So the religion of peace is not so peaceful.
The population of all these counties amounts to millions of people we can't help them all without sinking ourselves.
We live in peace not because of an accident at birth...it was paid for with the lives of brave people who fought for it.

Cossy

“Meandrogrog“

I live in Essex, this story was extremely detailed and published in our local area.

Whilst not “deliberate” in terms of “murdering” them, it was avoidable (I fully expect some of you to state it was the fault of those dying, as they chose to be smuggled in);

The Discovery and the VictimsThe Scene: Emergency services were called to the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, Essex, at around 1:40 AM. The driver, Maurice Robinson, had collected the container from the port of Purfleet-on-Thames and pulled over to open the doors, discovering the bodies inside.

Due to the scale of the crime scene and to preserve the victims' dignity, the entire lorry was towed under police escort to BBC News' report on Tilbury Docks.

The Victims: The victims consisted of 28 men, eight women, and three teenage boys (including two 15-year-olds), all of whom were Vietnamese nationals.

Many hailed from the impoverished Nghệ An and Hà Tĩnh provinces.

Cause of Death: They died from suffocation (asphyxia) and overheating (hypothermia).

The airtight container had been shipped from the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium.

Temperatures inside the sealed unit reached an excruciating 40°C (104°F) as oxygen levels depleted over a 12-hour journey.

Forensic evidence showed desperate, unsuccessful attempts to break through the roof using a metal post.

The Smuggling Ring and Trial

The migrants had paid a human-trafficking syndicate upwards of £10,000 to £13,000 each for what was advertised as a "VIP" entry into the UK.

An international police investigation quickly dismantled the sophisticated Irish-Romanian organized crime gang responsible.

The ringleaders and drivers were prosecuted at the Old Bailey and received significant sentences:

Nica (co-conspirator/organizer) was jailed for 27 years.
Ronan Hughes (smuggling ringleader) was jailed for 20 years.
Eamonn Harrison (the lorry driver who delivered the container to Zeebrugge) was sentenced to 18 years.
Maurice Robinson (the driver who opened the container in Essex) was sentenced to 13 years and four months.
Marius Draghici (another key coordinator arrested later in Romania) was sentenced in 2023 to 12 years and seven months.

A horrific way to die.

Yes it was horrific but not deliberate as no one knew they were there.

"The Home Office spent some £28 million on plans to create a purpose-built asylum processing centre"

This is the scale of creative incompetence we are fighting against, how did they spend £28 million without achieving anything.

However, migrants had to be managed somewhere Bicester wasn't a logical place, in the end Manston became the place used and was at least logical and close to Dover

And I live within a ten minute drive from Manston. It seems to be working perfectly satisfactorily.

Many of the electorate are saying no to the pleas to be grateful that we live in Britain ( not surprisingly as at the same time they are frequently being told what a terrible country it is, Empire, racism, etc) they are more than likely going to vote yet again to express their view on immigration, of all types I am afraid. So we can do the whole be kind, suck it up stuff but I dont for one moment think it will work. I am becoming increasingly concerned what happens when yet again voting fails. Currently I am grateful that Reform exist, a second rate deeply dodgy Johnson ( which is what Farage is) is a much better alternative than what could happen next. I dont mean to sound like the voice of doom, there have been many people ( some on the left) much more articulate than i am saying for years where this would lead.

I'm not sure what "be kind stuff " is. If we lose our humanity we truly are sunk.

Meandrogrog
yes it was horrific but not deliberate as no one knew they were there
So who informed them where the lorry was. Who let them into the lorry. Who took the money from the migrants 🤷‍♀️
The clue is in the names posted by Cossy.