Piddington... 'The Mouse That Roared'
More than 500 parish councils have indicated a willingness to conduct similar referendums, knowing full well that these are not binding on the government, but desperate to show how they feel about the immigration impositions
Published: 05:09 PM,Sep 26,2026 | EDITED : 09:09 PM,Sep 26,2026
‘The worm has turned,’ and the population of the tiny hamlet of Piddington, in Oxfordshire, has struck a blow in reaction to the Labour government’s plans to house 1,256 asylum-seekers in the former military base at nearby Bicester.
The ‘worm,’ characterised by John Heywood in 1546, was a quiet, submissive, downtrodden group that found its confidence, its voice, its strength, and was galvanised when pushed beyond reason and respect. Certainly, the citizens of this town, that traces its origins back to the ‘Doomsday Book’ of 1086, have demonstrated their ire as the prospect of this massive influx of single foreigners, all males, within walking distance of their town looms ever closer. “We must be heard,” posted one on Meta, “and although it’s ‘tilting at windmills,’ we won’t be bullied.”
Christened by the UK media as the ‘Piddington Revolution,’ their community referendum, notably, was held on September 15, the annual observance of ‘Battle of Britain Day,’ when victory in the battle for air supremacy during WWII is celebrated, and ironically the ‘GBNews’ invoked an appropriately emotive reaction, calling this the beginning of the ‘Battle for Britain.’ Conducted by the Piddington Parish Council, under Chairman Tim McNally, the referendum resulted in a healthy 311 votes being cast, from a total population of 358, or 87 per cent, with 285 votes for independence and only 26 votes AGAINST; a stunning 92 per cent FOR verdict saw a landslide win against the immigrants.
Both the turnout and the result indicate absolute dissatisfaction with the government’s plans for managing the asylum-seeker crisis, not just in Piddington, but across the heartland. Callum Miller, the LibDem MP for the Bicester and Woodcock electorate, is an outspoken opponent of the government’s plans and points to a much smaller 2003 planning application being rejected due to ‘unlit roads,’ which the government suggests will be resolved now as the asylum-seekers would be “issued with high-visibility vests and ‘strongly encouraged’ not to walk on the local roads and verges.”
Critics also point to there being no current accommodation, utilities, roading or services infrastructure, and the cost of establishing these as being disproportionate to need. Tim McNally, chairman of the Parish Council, rejects Home Office documentation as ‘unrealistic,’ as the former ammunition dump is advocated as a solution to one part of the ongoing immigration dilemma, with its evident shortcomings ‘the tip of the iceberg.’ However, their indignation centres on the ‘dumping’ of the 1256 young, single men in their vicinity, and they ask, “How would you feel if it was happening to you?”
Residents in Colchester, Essex, 108 miles south, have shared their experience of having the ‘immigration overflow’ accommodated at the nearby former RAF base at Wethersfield, saying their once ‘joyous’ town centre has become a ‘no-go’ area for local women, intimidated by being photographed, whistled at, stared at, and told to ‘cover up.’ “They’re bringing their way of life, and that’s not right,” voiced a pensioner 83 miles further south, in Crowborough, Sussex, apparently very much reflective of national perspectives, it seems.
More than 500 parish (town) councils have indicated a willingness to conduct similar referendums, knowing full well that these are not binding on the government, but desperate to show how they feel about the immigration impositions. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has proven tone deaf to the electorate, commenting, “asylum accommodation should not be concentrated only in poorer communities in the north, but also in the wealthier areas in the south.”
‘The Mouse that Roared,’ a 1954 political satire by Leonard Wibberly, mirrors the Piddington experience, as the folly and arrogance of ‘do-gooders,’ the ‘woke’ element, the perpetually sycophantic civil service, and weak-kneed politicians dismiss communities as inconsequential. Eventually, they must bow to the ‘right-ness,’ the electorate, that is the ‘mouse that roared, or the worm that turned,’ otherwise, PM Burnham’s reign could prove short, entirely due to an ill-thought response to the migrant/asylum seeker-problem.