POLLS APART
Least and most Euro-friendly areas
IN the shadow of 14th century St Botolph’s Church, affectionately known as the Stump, a fiddler plays European anthem Ode to Joy to mark the momentous referendum result.
Nowhere is the celebration at Britain’s exit likely to be more heartfelt because this is Boston – dubbed the UK’s migrant capital and the town many Brexit voters feared was a vision of what their own would become like.
Migrant workers have flooded the Lincolnshire town in their thousands, making it home to the highest proportion of Eastern Europeans in the UK.
Many take on back-breaking work picking flowers, fruit and vegetables on the surrounding fertile Fenlands.
But locals claim the influx has driven down wages, forced up rents and fuelled crime problems – with Boston becoming the UK’s murder capital, going by a per head of population.
Now, it holds another unenviable title as Britain’s most Eurosceptic town after 75.6 per cent of residents voted to leave the EU. And the issue that galvanised almost everyone’s opinion was immigration.
Residents insist they welcomed European workers but t hey believe the market town, which has had a 15.9 per cent population surge since 2001, has suffered greatly.
Ex-market trader Colin Stones, 68, said: “This town can’t take any more. We have more murders, shops are closing, businesses folding and too many jobs are being taken by Eastern Europeans. I don’t have anything against immigrants, I just want Boston to go back to the way it was, primarily for Boston people.”
And he insists the influx is not down to locals being reluctant to work in the fields, a claim disputed by farmers.
One in six of Boston’s 65,000 population was born elsewhere in Europe, many arriving after 2004 from new EU members like Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. While businesses seem to be thriving, the average hourly wage is £9.13 compared with £13.33 nationally and £12.25 across the East Midlands. Locals blame migrants accepting lower wages.
One British worker, who asked not to be named, said: “I’m picking cabbages, I’m not qualified for anything else. We only get £7.20 but that’s a lot of money for the young Polish and Latvian men who come over.”
Just two years ago, Boston was rated third in a table of the most unaffordable places to live in the East Midlands.
Angela Schaffarckzy, 52, whose father-in-law was Polish, said: “There’s not enough council houses and rents are too high. I live in a caravan but I’d like a house. I told the council I was selling my van for a property and they said I’d be making myself homeless and entitled to nothing. Yet migrants come in and are given everything.”
UKIP supporter Lindsey Beighton, 32, said: “I’m not racist but there’s just too many people. It’s the pressure on local resources that annoys me.”
Boston has a Tory MP, Matt Warman, and is considered a safe seat. But UKIP got 34 per cent of the vote last year, its second biggest success of the election. And locals snubbed Mr Warman’s call to back Remain.
UK voting trends show a gulf between young and old but even the young feel Boston is at breaking point. Jessica Ed Edgoose, 27, who runs a brow bar,ba said: “Something need needs to change when yo you can’t see a GP a and schools are f full.” Her shop u used to be in West Street, dubbed ““Little Poland”, but s she claims she left af after hassle from mi migrant men. Sin Since the vote, Nigel F Farage hash admittedd the claim that £350million of EU funds could go to the NHS will not happen. But Amy Littlechild’s ordeal with her daughter Holly, five months, persuaded her that Brexit could still be a tonic for the NHS.
Holly got meningitis at three days and had an emergency op – without the help of junior doctors, who were on strike. The mum-of-three, 26, said: “The hospital saved Holly and if even £100 of the cash sent to the EU goes to each hospital it’s worth leaving.”
But auxiliary nurse Nijolz Glazauskaite, 55, who works at the Pilgrim Hospital, said: “I tra trained in Lithuania, I’ve been here 1 11 years. The NHS doesn’t have e enough staff. What happens if nursesnurs from abroad leave?”
Most migrants say th they still feel welcome but on one from Latvia, who did not wantwan to be named, said: “I’m looking at people’s faces and I know most don’t want us he here. I’m scared wha what might
happen now.”
by Lewis Panther
RED and blue Remain posters still adorn the windows of the terraced houses and flats in Rathcoole Gardens.
The horseshoe- shaped street in North London is part of the borough that had the fifth biggest vote in favour of staying in the European Union.
It’s not surprising. Hornsey has been a magnet for students and immigrants settling into what was for decades a cheaper part of the capital.
While the N8 postcode has been gentrified in recent years, the four-bed homes that are now worth up to £1million sit easily next to council and housing association flats and bedsits.
It is international, multicultural and represents the kind of areas getting stick for being out of touch.
But residents don’t deny they are different from other parts of the UK.
Communications executive Tamzin Caffrey, 42, the daughter of an Irish immigrant who has lived and worked in France, said: “We live in a little bubble where we welcome people and enjoy everything that has to offer.
“I feel it’s a vote against the UK government instead of the EU. It’s a divided country and it’s upsetting. The thing I’m most upset about is that I’m living in a country that doesn’t extend a hand to neighbours.
“And we are now a country t hat doesn’t e mbrace our differences.”
Local government worker Jon Hill echoed her, saying: “We do live in our own little bubble but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the country is right.
“What angers us even more is that the PM used the referendum as a piece of opportunism to get votes at the election. Now he has destroyed the UK. Scotland is going to go and what have you got left? They have crashed the country into a brick wall.”
Mr Hill is thinking of emigrating with his Portuguese wife, adding: “Who knows what will happen?”
It’s easy to see why there was such a strong showing for Remain here – life is good and residents take pride in their integrated community.
Hornsey councillor Adam Jogee, 24, said he was pleased that Hornsey was so strongly for the EU and shocked that Leave won.
He said: “In my view that shows the benefits of multicultural London. I’m a product of this part of the world.
“We are now in very uncertain times, from the economy to our role on the world stage.
“My younger brother and sister and their friends have said they are upset they might not be able to go abroad to study – or go Inter-railing.” The borough has a real sense of village life, tucked away from the rest of London.
People answer the door, nod and wave hello to their neighbours, though not always in English.
Trade unionist Steve Hart, 64, said he was “appalled” by the result as the borough was such a tolerant place.
He said: “It’s London: we live together, work together and love together.
“It’s a terrible time for Britain. I’m really bothered by the working-class people who have voted for Brexit.”
Here and across Britain, the cry from many in the younger generation has been: what about our future?
Teaching union rep Celia Dignan said: “My two daughters wonder what their future is. They see themselves as being very European.
“All the people under 25 voted for Remain. I think 16 and 17-year-olds should have been given the vote because the outcome affects them more th than many others.” Pe People here are worried no now the vote has gone a against them. They ask, what will happen to communities like this in the future?
Retired mechanical d design engineer Stavros N Nicolaou said: “I come fro from Cyprus and I think we wouldw be better off in E Europe. WhatWh t the long term means, I really don’t know. But judging by how the pound and shares have fallen, the short term is bad and we don’t know if that will correct itself or not.
“It depends on if the Germans and the French want to be vindictive.”
It’s not just European immigrants who populate the area either.
Canadian- born animator and lecturer Charles MacRae said: “I’m already a couple of grand down on a scheme I was doing with the EU.”
Then he quipped: “I’m a Canadian, but I’ve been here for 31 years and they haven’t started getting rid of the Commonwealth countries yet.”
Many couples here are truly European. Mother-of-two Melanie Gooding, 52, said: “My partner is French and he didn’t have a vote. I never thought people would go for that option. I find it quite shocking.
“I work as a translator and it might impact on my business because I work for companies in France and Spain and some earnings are in euros.”
The true effect is yet to be seen but if the Remain voters’ fears come true, streets like this may well be very few and far between in the future.