Far-right nationalists protest against housing refugees in Skegness hotels - BBC Newsnight

Protest in an out-of-season coastal holiday town this weekend, far-

right

nationalists

descended on the Lincolnshire town of Skegness to exploit local Anese over

hotels

housing

asylum seekers, a head office policy that has caused friction with locals who feel their concerns are being ignored in At Saturday's march, some locals were among the 200 to 300 people who marched through Skegness to organize a demonstration in a local park under the watchful eye of police , but it was clear that some in the crowd did not appreciate our presence. The march was well attended. -Right wing groups outside Skegness, one of them was a patriotic alternative, a small group led by a former prominent British National Party activist and the group made notable speeches at the event at this time of year, there shouldn't be much going on on the coast.

Skegness resort facing the North Sea, this coastal town becomes even more lively at the end of February, but Skegness is one of several towns and cities, including resorts, that the head office is using to house asylum seekers. There are around 220 asylum seekers housed. in a city of 22,000 inhabitants. Some locals and businesses are concerned about the effect the use of this seafood lodge could have on the local economy and the city's image. The three 33s look towards the local Social Club where the punters are chasing a full house, but the accommodation of asylum seekers is something everyone knows about, we think they are bothering us with this with the number of asylum seekers we have, We're not saying we don't want any, but there's a lot of this that should be shared a little better and that sounds terrible, doesn't it?

No I'm serious. The problem has been brewing locally for months in November. There is generally little attendance. The council meetings became very noisy. I'm the mayor's chaplain. so I showed up to bless the council and there were usually 15 to 20 people in the public space and there were considerably more than that and it very quickly degenerated into people just shouting and crying and being quite unpleasant, so the meeting was abandoned. and the mayor, the city clerk and the councilors left, but the majority of the people at that meeting, I would say, were not locals. I know a lot of local people and there were accents and people I had never seen before in the venue.

Parishioners at Saint Matthews Anglican Church are celebrating the beginning of Lent, but it seems like everyone in town is aware of the asylum controversy. The peace of the Lord be with you always. Skegness rector Richard Holden has seen tensions develop in recent months. On the other hand, I think if it's going to hurt local businesses, I think that's a legitimate concern, so our economy is based on tourists, so if that gets hurt, that hurts the city, so I think what is a legitimate concern and what is not legitimate, I think it is not legitimate to say. who come and stand outside the school gates, who go to the local nightclubs and are a nuisance or who are unpleasant to anyone.

I've never found them unpleasant, you see them walking and walking in twos and threes and I think when people have really been aggressive with them and I think it's probably sensible to walk in twos and threes, applicants for asylum seekers we spoke to did not want to speak on camera, one told us that the police visited them. in the

hotels

to inform them before the

protest

the companies in

skegness

want to rethink politics it is the government's problem here they made a huge mess they should not have done what they have done and it is costing the amount of money it costs for The day is ridiculous when you have a cost of living crisis, but we're spending all this money in hotels to buy Asylum cigarettes when you have all these old mod sites that are empty.

I mean, you know it's crazy, the biggest belief. and who benefits from all this, there are companies of individuals from London and Birmingham, no one can find out exactly who they are, everything is cloaked in secrecy, etc., so they are the ones who earn the money they suddenly bought. these hotels and we've made this deal with the government outside of Circle or whoever and they're getting ridiculous amounts of money and we know what's going to happen as soon as the government decides to push them away these guys will suddenly disappear and we'll never say them again and then these hotels They will be ruined and ruined.

The local MP has spoken out against outsiders marching through Skegness and fueling the problem. I share many of the concerns Nissan locals across the country have about usage. of hotels for people seeking asylum does not seem to me to be the

right

place for people seeking asylum and it does not seem to be the right place eh, the right thing is not what can be done with the hotels themselves, but the same thing they say that people with those concerns have the same ambitions and agenda as people like the far-right patriotic alternative for some people in cities across the country there are concerns about the impact on local services and businesses Asylum seekers in hotels, but such as saturday's march in

skegness

showed that genuine concerns can be exploited by those seeking to incite hatred, sometimes with conflicting results.