Talking without listening ...

What is remarkable about Boston Borough Council Leader Peter Bedford’s statement on the planned protest march about the level of migration in Boston, is not that he almost avoided mentioning it at all - but that he failed to choke on the sand in which his head  was apparently so deeply buried.
We accept that this is a contentious issue – as on previous occasions when we have blogged about it, reaction has been either to agree wholeheartedly or to send offensive e-mails branding us as racist.
Unfortunately for Councillor Bedford, and his cabinet crony Mike Gilbert – who for his sins holds the poisoned chalice of portfolio holder for community development – they are determined to be seen as what they consider to be politicians, and pronounce accordingly.
Councillor Bedford’s contribution to the debate was to tell us what it was he never said**  
He had never said that the increase in Boston borough’s population by the appearance of migrant workers had not presented the council with challenges.
EU citizens had a legal right to be here, and they came to work. Boston Borough Council worked hard to deal with the issues their presence generated. A minority presented difficulties. Councillor Bedford had met our MP, Mark Simmonds, to discuss immigration and the impact on Boston, and the council continued to press the government for more resources.
Councillor Gilbert played Little Sir Echo to his leader.
Individuals had a right to be here and, with only a few exceptions, made a positive contribution to the town - which had experienced waves of migration over the last 700 years.
The pressure on resources was real, and affected us all and - in the face of national and European policies - the council did what it could to ensure the government had the facts about Boston.
See what we mean – two archetypal political responses – heads in the sand,  answering without listening, voices coming from … who knows where?
There is no attempt to empathise with local feeling.
We believe that most people in Boston agree that our new arrivals are hard working and pull their weight in terms of the contribution that they make.
Unfortunately, those that are not and do not, make their presence felt more emphatically than those who do.
What the politicians cannot seem to understand is that people who have spent their lives in Boston are finding it hard to come to terms with the pace of change that has occurred in the past few years.
The arrivals from Europe have come at a speed and in a volume that has often left locals bewildered and scared.
This is not a wave of migration – it is a tsunami!
Obviously, more resources would help, as it has already been said that such a sudden and vast increase in the local population has stretched resources such as health care, housing, benefits and education.
But what politicians seem unwilling to accept – or choose to ignore – is the cultural aspect of all this.
Boston has always been a relatively isolated, and therefore a close-knit community, and consideration has to be given to this.
Try as they might, councils and government cannot change deep seated, almost hereditary attitudes amongst local people overnight.
Nor should they confuse what are often inarticulately-expressed emotions with charges that the proponents are intolerant or racist.
Granted, some of the language  we are seeing is forthright  colloquial Bostonian, but reading between the lines, many people are expressing genuine fears, and  asking questions which if properly answered would do much to ease tensions.
And don't forget for every one who takes the time to contribute to something like a Facebook page, a dozen more may well feel the same but do not  or cannot add their three penn'orth.
Some sympathy might help if nothing else, but it seems as if it will not be forthcoming from the government, as Boston Borough Council may have hoped.
When the migration protest featured on BBC TV’s Look North on Monday, Prime Minister David Cameron was asked if he sympathised with the concerns of some residents.
“There are a lot of jobs that are done in Lincolnshire that people come over from Europe to do that frankly, British people can, could and should do,” he said. “We are reforming welfare so that it’s no longer going to be an option to sit on the dole when there’s work available for you. So if we want to try to reduce the level of migration into Britain from Europe - then do it by getting British people into those jobs.”
Thanks, Prime Minister – for holding out the dismal prospect of jobs on the land for all as the best he can offer the people of Boston.
Have a piece of cake while you’re about it.
Meanwhile, the Facebook page Boston Protest March – which had 1,641 members when we mentioned it on Friday, had 2,538 at 5-30am ... and with the march not due to take place until Saturday 19th November, who can say what sort of following it might have amassed by then?


** See the Clevinger court martial scene in Catch-22, chapter 8 "Lieutenant Scheisskopf" - p88 Corgi paperback edition.

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