Letter to Editor: On Harlow Labour and The Bell Hotel asylum seeker protests
Politics / Thu 3rd Sep 2020 am30 11:12am
Sir,
I write this letter on behalf of the hard working taxpayers in this country.
A recent article in the Epping Forest Guardian focussed on the Bell Hotel in Epping and a protest against racism.
150 plus Labour supporters attended including several Labour councillors.
Harlow’s very own Labour councillor Jodi Dunne (Bush Fair) even took the mic and gave a speech.
The vast majority of people that disagree with hotels being used to house illegal immigrants and a minority of genuine asylum seekers are not far right or racist as typically labelled by left wing supporters.
We all watch the news, see posts and videos showing the gravity of this national issue.
We are also very aware that well organised criminal gangs are behind the vast majority of illegal immigrants coming to the UK. These gangs are making huge sums of money which we the taxpayer’s are paying for.
The costs of the hotels, the authorities and transportation are also at our the taxpayers expense.
The Labour supporters and anti racism groups that attended this event are openly condoning the support and financing of these criminal gangs by their ridiculous actions and speeches at this protest.
Their incessant rants, missuse of the word racism and accusations of being far right of those who disagree with them, is nothing more than a vain attempt to muzzle the majority of people in this country.
Kindest regards
Richard Holloway
Article in Epping Forest Guardian
Alison
2020-09-03 11:29:34
Richard Holloway is spot on we have huge waiting lists for Our own born and breed kids wanting social housing. These people are ecominic migrants who travelled through endless other Countries to get here.
martin
2020-09-03 11:52:04
sorry to say but send them home and house our own children and rough sleepers many who are ex servicemen
Michał Szpakowski
2020-09-03 13:43:19
I've met Mr Holloway so I don't know if he personally is a racist. He does here devote considerable energy to defending views which certainly have been and are associated with racists. What is undeniably the case is that he lacks even the most basic empathy or compassion for people who, putting themselves in peril, flee war or persecution only to find themselves harassed in Epping on an almost daily basis by the knuckleheaded thugs of the far right. Shame on him. If, unlike Mr Holloway, you do have compassion and fellow feeling you can help to make the lives of the Bell Hotel residents more tolerable by getting in touch with the charity Care4Calais in Epping to offer donations or other support. The contact e mail is [email protected]
C Vickers
2020-09-07 13:50:33
Madam/Sir I write this letter on behalf of the hard working taxpayers in this country. Oh no, wait, I don't as that would be presumptuous and inaccurate. The only person I can legitimately speak for is myself. I attended the protest as a local resident and am not affiliated to any party. Indeed several of the people I met in attendance were simply Epping residents. I went because I wanted to show the asylum seekers that Mr Leppert and his followers do not speak for me. I welcome these people as I would anyone in immediate need of assistance. Mr Leppert's videos and the comments arising from them are full of inaccuracies that should rightly be challenged. Mr Holloway is entitled to his opinion and I would not 'rant' at him or call him a racist and I certainly would not want to muzzle him. It is vital in fact that we shine a light on this issue and debate it on a factual basis. Mr Holloway claims that he is speaking for the 'majority of people in this country'. How does he know? Is he even speaking for the majority of people in Epping and immediate towns? Of the 37 people I have spoken to regarding the Bell Hotel residents since seeing the videos, all but 3 have been supportive of their presence. 2 of these had been misled by false information and have since sent me donations to pass on. The 1 remaining is a Walthamstow resident and is citing concerns there. I intend to continue to canvass as I like to establish my own statistics to test the strength of my own opinion and compare numbers to those on other sides of the debate. I have a met a number of the Bell residents; they are intelligent and friendly people but also terrified and hopeless. The children are beautiful, as all children are. They are human beings. Conflating their desperate needs with the criminals who have abused them is merely a distraction from the real issue. Genuine asylum seekers are fearful for their lives. While they are being assessed, the least we can do in our over privileged country is give them a modicum of comfort and compassion. I am happy for a fraction of my tax to be set aside for this purpose. Yours Faithfully C Vickers
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