Wisbech is a strange little town, to be sure. Always on the
back foot, struggling for political and educational scraps, with one of the
highest deprivation levels in the country. In local elections the voter turnout
is pathetic. The local Conservative Party have a very effective campaign
strategy which pretty much cements their candidates into place, despite
frequent – albeit petty – scandals involving abuse of social media, nepotism
and accusations of incompetence. The Labour Party is as close to non-existent
as makes no difference, despite widespread poverty of opportunity, prosperity
and aspiration in the town..
Pro EU activists know that Wisbech is one of the strongholds of Brexit and are
well rehearsed in their “can’t hear you…” chorus when faced with widespread and
genuine discontent about what Freedom of Movement has meant for the town. The
huge influx of people from Eastern Europe has, of course, been manna from
heaven to some. At the legal end of the spectrum there has been an unending
supply of adults – many who are ridiculously over-educated for the task – who
will bag potatoes, grade carrots, clip roses and harvest cauliflowers. Over on
the dark side are the people who own modest properties which they rent out to
house double-figure occupants: employment agencies who trade on the desperation
of migrants from broken economies.
But surely, immigration and diversity bring new life,
vibrance and a fresh dawn to tired and stale communities? Well, yes, or so we
are told. For every decent working family from Poland, Bulgaria or the Baltic
States, there is a broken and desperate man – and it usually is a man – who is
rarely in work, probably has had his passport confiscated by some gangster and,
because he shares a bedroom with four other people, spends the daylight hours
drinking cheap lager and debasing himself in some public place in Wisbech’s
town centre.
All gloom and doom? Not a bit of it! Wisbech’s demise has
provided a rainbow of opportunities for some. There are always predators who
feast on a corpse. The vultures circle, and smaller slimy slithering things
burrow into dead flesh. Away from the metaphor for a moment, I am talking about
those who have made a tidy living offering various shades of redemption to
Wisbech people. With local politicians nicely embedded within the deception, we
have consultants and advisors assuring the gullible that there will soon be a
railway link between Wisbech and March; a new secondary school is only two
strokes of the pen away from fruition; our virtually derelict High Street is
about to be rejuvinated with (wait for it) the construction of a viewing
platform that will enable thousands of tourists to have a birds’- eye view of
…. the rest of the derelict town.
I am glad that Wisbech provides a decent living for some people, even though
they may be small in number. Fraudulent politicians, dodgy landlords, rapacious
gangmasters, peddlers of illegal smokes and knock-off booze. Thank you for your
hard work. Bless you for your faith in our little town. God send you a fair
wind and a favourable tide for your next endeavour.
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