Migrant Camp Protest Village Votes to Secede From Britain

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Piddington in Oxfordshire, England, voted by an overwhelming majority to leave the United Kingdom and become an independent “Principality” in a local referendum on Monday, according to results announced on the doorstep of the village hall on Tuesday morning. Of 312 votes cast — a turnout of 92 per cent — some 285 voted to “secede from the UK and pursue self-determination”, with 26 against.

Tim McNally, the chairman of Piddington parish council, said: “It is a message to the Government that you are going to have to change. You are going to have to grow into our way of thinking… We are formerly the village known as Piddington. Today we are to be known as the principality of Piddington and we will be putting up a sign to that effect”.

It has previously been reported that the villagers have made representations to U.S. President Donald Trump for aid, and the village has offered to rename itself “Trumpington” if the U.S. will accept it as the 51st State. The decision to hold the referendum was announced on July 4th, and it was held on September 15th, Battle of Britain memorial day.

The village said they are now considering issuing their own I.D. cards and electing officials for the government of the Principality.

The symbolic vote — self-called independence referenda have no legal weight in the United Kingdom — is in response to the government’s revived plan to convert a former British Army garrison next to the village, Ordnance Depot Bicester, into a camp for newly-arrived self-professed refugees and other migrants. Officially, the camp would be for 1,256 male arrivals, but recently unearthed government planning documents state that capacity has at times been considered as high as 3,500, ten times the population of Piddington.

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