An astonishing suggestion

Earlier this month, Wokingham town held its first Lunar New Year celebration event.

Hundreds of people attended, and it was wonderful to see so many new arrivals from Hong Kong and elsewhere enjoying the Lion Dance and the other activities.

Not all our Borough is quite so welcoming. In fact, there are some who would say that new arrivals should stay away. Cllr Murray, at a council meeting on November 29, made a ‘practical suggestion’ that the councillor responsible for education talk to local estate agents with the following message: to say that there is pressure on school places and to pass on this on to those arriving from Hong Kong that their children ‘ain’t getting a place in our schools’.

Of course, this is arrant nonsense as a practical suggestion because it doesn’t matter where new arrivals come from; there are houses, and people with children will buy or rent them. If the purchasers or renters are not from Hong Kong, then they might be from Ukraine, from France, from London, Reading or Bracknell. Those arrivals will have children too.

Lack of logical thinking is the least problematic part of Cllr Murray’s astonishing suggestion.

Recent new arrivals from Hong Kong come overwhelmingly through the Hong Kong UK Welcome Programme.

This route to the UK opened on 31 January 2021, and has widened since then, providing those who hold British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) passports, or who have members of their families holding BN(O) passports, with a pathway to citizenship. They are British Nationals.

Furthermore, Cllr Murray’s suggestion seems to involve asking estate agents to racially profile potential purchasers. Why should (apparent) recent arrivals from Hong Kong be singled out for special conversations with estate agents?

Why should they be told that there are no places for their children in Wokingham schools?

What Cllr Murray suggests is against the Equality Act, and therefore unlawful.

I therefore hope that, in the spirit of good community relations,

Cllr Murray will withdraw his suggestion, acknowledge that his suggestion is unlawful, and apologise to Hong Kongers for his unwelcoming attitude. Cllr Murray, in his role as a Borough Councillor, should know better.

Editor’s note – see page 4 for Cllr Murray’s comments on this letter