Stoke Poges is a Buckinghamshire village with a population of 4839, 93.3% of whom are white, and it is the very epitome of the phrase "Middle England." Over 20% of the population work in the real estate industry and the average price of a three bedroomed semi is over £369,000. Unsurprisingly it has been a Tory stronghold since the year dot. What voting Tory actually means, however, has been quite forcibly brought home to these people over the last few months. They have suddenly discovered that plans are afoot to build a very large secondary school in a village with more pensioners than children and that right in the midst of their sacred "Green Belt." Worse yet the school was to be one of Michael Gove's "Free" religious schools - for Sikhs. The attack of apoplexy could be heard as far north as Carlisle as the residents of Stoke Poges contemplated the invasion of a turban-wearing ethnic minority and envisaged the cliff over which the value of their houses was about to plunge. Their apoplexy turned to dismay when they subsequently discovered that the planning laws that they thought protected them from such outrages had been repealed by the very party that they had voted for. Nor could they find any support from their local Tory MP, Dominic Grieve. In fact they couldn't find him with radar. "I thought I lived in a democracy," one shocked resident told the BBC after finding out that he didn't. With their choices limited the residents of the village turned to protest which, as the rest of the country has already found out, was quietly ignored by the powers that be. What the local residents are about to find out to their cost is that there are even fatter cats than themselves in Britain and those fatter fat cats neither live in Stoke Poges nor give a damn about it. The market rules according to the Tory party and Stoke Poges is up for sale to the highest bidder. I wonder which way Stoke Poges will vote in 2015?
Tuesday 20 August 2013
Tory Voters Get A Dose Of Their Own Medicine.
Stoke Poges is a Buckinghamshire village with a population of 4839, 93.3% of whom are white, and it is the very epitome of the phrase "Middle England." Over 20% of the population work in the real estate industry and the average price of a three bedroomed semi is over £369,000. Unsurprisingly it has been a Tory stronghold since the year dot. What voting Tory actually means, however, has been quite forcibly brought home to these people over the last few months. They have suddenly discovered that plans are afoot to build a very large secondary school in a village with more pensioners than children and that right in the midst of their sacred "Green Belt." Worse yet the school was to be one of Michael Gove's "Free" religious schools - for Sikhs. The attack of apoplexy could be heard as far north as Carlisle as the residents of Stoke Poges contemplated the invasion of a turban-wearing ethnic minority and envisaged the cliff over which the value of their houses was about to plunge. Their apoplexy turned to dismay when they subsequently discovered that the planning laws that they thought protected them from such outrages had been repealed by the very party that they had voted for. Nor could they find any support from their local Tory MP, Dominic Grieve. In fact they couldn't find him with radar. "I thought I lived in a democracy," one shocked resident told the BBC after finding out that he didn't. With their choices limited the residents of the village turned to protest which, as the rest of the country has already found out, was quietly ignored by the powers that be. What the local residents are about to find out to their cost is that there are even fatter cats than themselves in Britain and those fatter fat cats neither live in Stoke Poges nor give a damn about it. The market rules according to the Tory party and Stoke Poges is up for sale to the highest bidder. I wonder which way Stoke Poges will vote in 2015?
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