Winford is a small village on the edge of the dividing line between North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset, but firmly within the historic county of Somerset. The main part of the village is kept busy by traffic seeking a shortcut to Bristol Airport, but the Winford Manor Hotel is effectively part of its own hamlet that no one would normally go through, yet it has been chosen as an hotel to house illegal, or, as the government prefers to call them, irregular migrants.
It is about five miles from where I live, nestling on the edge of the Mendip Hills in the Chew Valley, a desirable place to live, but without the amenities you would find in a town or city. The hotel has seven and a half acres of landscaped gardens, and its website makes the facilities inside sound just as pleasant. A delightful place to stay at the taxpayers’ expense, and undoubtedly the prospect of this and similar accommodation across the country is part of the incentive for people who wish to enter the UK outside the law.
This is beginning to become insufferably irritating for the British people, as has been shown by the protests at the Bell Hotel in Epping, which has become famous and the centre of legal action, but it is not just seaside resorts or places near the Channel that have been affected. Winford, which is 200 miles from the Channel, proves that it is a problem that covers the whole country, and has an impact on local communities almost everywhere.
Nationally, there is a fiscal issue, as the cost is £5.77 million per day, or £2.1 billion pounds each year. This provides rooms for over 32,000 illegal immigrants. These numbers provide a problem for the government, as the Home Secretary has a legal obligation to house them, and the standard of housing is potentially subject to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which bans ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’. However, it is hard to see what would be inhuman about using empty army barracks or even tented areas, rather than luxury hotels.
Locally, the problem is one for the people living nearby, who are concerned about the behaviour of some of the people who have arrived, especially the young men. I have spoken to some local people near the Winford Manor Hotel and their experiences are concerning.
When immigrants were first placed there in 2022, they were told it would be for two years, and it is already three, but the type of person has changed in that period. Early on, families were placed there, which, considering its location and setting, seems more sensible than the young men who are there now.
Since the families have gone, many people have been affected by low levels of trespass, farmers finding strangers in their barns but, more seriously, harassment of local women, especially younger ones, has been reported. The police have been called, but are reluctant to visit the premises, claiming that the migrants are under the Home Office's auspices, and, according to one policeman, they might, “alarm” the occupants. Fortunately, one exceptionally intrepid PCSO did help a lady who had been intimidated by a group of men and stopped the problem reoccurring. There is also a recent, albeit unconfirmed report, of a stabbing inside the property. Naturally, this makes the people nearby worry.
In a remote rural area, where few police are on duty, this is understandable as residents who do not feel safe, especially the women who have been surrounded by young men, or the local pub staff who have been abused, do not feel that there is any chance of a rapid police response if they are in danger.
Crime is only part of the story because an airport hotel, which is what Winford Manor used to be, brings business into the district. Visitors used local services, hospitality, taxis, and so on, which are now left without customers. In addition, if supply is removed while demand remains constant, prices of hotel rooms for passengers of Bristol Airport must rise. There was previously another hotel nearby which housed over 100 illegals; the reduction in airport hotel room space must have had a negative financial effect on travellers.
Then there is the feeling of unfairness, people pay taxes and receive poor services; the roads in North Somerset are full of potholes; there are no driving tests available for months and HMRC will not answer the telephone, but migrants are housed in plush hotels. What is more, they are even given bicycles to travel around the local area, and ferried into Bristol to receive dental treatment that locals have to pay for. This is made worse by a minister telling a court, in relation to the Epping Hotel, that the rights of illegal entrants trump those of local people.
This is creating, and has created, anger, and the feeling that the governing class is entirely out of touch with the people. Apparently, at a heated meeting of the parish council, one council representative basically accused concerned locals of being racist, which is the insult du jour of incompetent officialdom.
The anger is not unreasonable, as each government in turn promises a solution which it fails to deliver. Sunak was going to stop the boats and Starmer smash the gangs. Neither has happened, or shows any sign of happening. Instead, the government goes to court to keep the hotels open, even though it has promised to close them. The hypocrisy is astounding.
The excuses are mainly based on the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights, but these are both under the control of Parliament. There is no higher law than an Act of Parliament, but MPs simply do not wish to pass it. When I was still in the Commons, there was no Labour or Lib Dem MP who wished to leave either Convention, and regrettably, about one third of Conservative MPs preferred international conventions to the interests of their constituents as well. This meant that there was an overwhelming Commons majority against solving the problem.
This is not democracy, but oligarchy, where an elite decides what is good for the people and then enforces it without regard, or no more than lip service, to the views of voters. It is how we were governed before the 1832 Great Reform Act, except the very lack of a mandate politicians enjoyed in those days made them more sensitive to the public mood.
It has to change. In 2016, people would not put up with the bossy bureaucracy of the European Union and voted to leave. Now, it is the inertia and arrogance of the domestic political class that has to be broken.
This is why Nigel Farage's proposals this week are so important. He will not be bound by the politesse of the current rulers. Not only does he show willingness to adopt tough policies, many of which, as Kemi Badenoch has said, were Conservative ones first, but he also is willing to adopt the means necessary to implement them.
This is the hard part, because it is the ultimate challenge to the Blob that brought down Margaret Thatcher, and to which all leaders since either have bent the knee or, as in the case of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, been removed.
Could it succeed? The answer lies in the United States. Donald Trump reduced illegal migration by 91% across the Mexican border in April, and he has done so by tearing up the niceties of cross-party politics. The British Constitution is much more adaptable than the American one. So if Trump could do it with those constraints, it ought to be much easier for us. However, it will be a huge fight against the ruling class.
Fortunately, the people will be on side. They have had enough of living in fear of crime, seeing economic damage, and paying high taxes for the benefit of lawbreakers. As Winford shows, it is harming the whole country, not just ‘other places’. When the British, moderate and easy-going as they tend to be, have had enough, then it is time to be aware that action will follow if change does not happen.
This verse from Kipling’s poem ‘Norman and Saxon’ sums up the mood of the nation beautifully:
"The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite.
But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.
When he stands like an ox in the furrow – with his sullen set eyes on your own,
And grumbles, 'This isn't fair dealing,' my son, leave the Saxon alone.
It is time for all of us to be left alone by illegal migration.
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