Regarding the response of members of South Holland District Council to the suggestion that accommodation in the area be purposed for the housing of asylum seekers (Voice, May 28, p3).
I utterly condemn the immoral rejection of this proposal by particular council members.
On September 13, 2025, I was in London, part of a small counterdemonstration to the then Unite the Kingdom demonstration.
During that day we were illegally surrounded by a bunch of racist thugs egged on by the likes of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) and Elon Musk.
On March 28, 2026, I was in London as part of a much larger and more peaceful Together Alliance protest. During the latter protest I carried a banner which read: “All refugees have legal, moral and human rights.”
I contest that no-one can refute that statement.
Anyone coming to this or any other country claiming asylum has a legal and moral right to claim asylum, and the implications for their presence during the period in which their application is being addressed have to be dealt with.
As things stand, under law in this country, asylum seekers are obliged legally to be dependent on taxpayer assistance while their case is considered.
Personally I would like that changed, suggest that it would help to resolve current difficulties, and know for a fact that many asylum seekers with whom I have spoken (unlike a number of white British people of my acquaintance) would like to work, support their families, and earn their keep.
I would also observe that when significant numbers of refugees from Ukraine started arriving in this country in 2022, the then government made an exception and they were allowed to work. I would suggest the authorities’ failure to make a similar exception in the case of refugees from non-majority white countries is racist.
In the context however of this illogical framework, to suggest that asylum seekers should not be accommodated in Sutton Bridge, or any other location in South Holland, because local councillors supinely want to indulge a sense that the area is a little hard done by (sort of thing) is not an adequate moral or rational response.
To end on a personal note. I was abused as a child, and the capacity I summoned, in the face of my (white British) family’s resistance, to leave my family home enabled me to get out of that abusive environment.
Therefore I am also a refugee, I had to and did flee my home, and it saved my life, and if anyone wants to ask me if I would house refugees in my own house, I would say absolutely yes, I would much rather live with a refugee than certain members of my white British family.
G Kent
Pinchbeck
