The Scampton Scandal

Walking into R.A.F. Scampton village, my eyes were greeted by a sublime sight: quaint, prim houses, neatly ordered down clean streets; luscious gardens, carefully arranged by cheerful retirees; and the sound of birdsong. It is, in every way, a quintessentially idyllic slice of rural Lincolnshire. Unlike other villages, though, the R.A.F. airbase at Scampton is a historical and internationally famous landmark. On May 16th, 1943, the 24-year-old Wing Commander Guy Gibson led 617 Squadron on an air raid out of Scampton behind enemy lines to blow up the German dams in the Ruhr valley. This would be achieved thanks to the tremendous innovations of Barnes Wallis and his “Bouncing Bomb,” all of which was immortalized in the classic film, The Dam Busters (1955). Scamptonians evince a fierce reverence for the brave men of 617 Squadron and the historical heritage of the airbase.

It is therefore a disgrace and injustice to the residents that for over a year now they have found themselves in the crosshairs of the British government's schemes to use the base to house some eight hundred illegal immigrants. Upon my arrival, there was a banner that read: “They fought for us in 1943. Now it’s our turn! Save the £300,000,000 Scampton investment deal.”

Prior to the UK Government’s plan to utilize the air base to house eight hundred illegals, the residents of Scampton had just been awarded this nine-digit deal to attract tourism to the area, thus invigorating the story of the dam busters while providing around a thousand jobs for the local community. Yet instead of the locals being blessed with this cultural renaissance, merely a few days later, that entire deal was put on indefinite hold, as a village of six hundred locals was told that they would instead have the first proposed number of two thousand “asylum seekers” placed on the heritage site.

One of the locals I spoke to, Terry, complained of the bipolar character of the Conservative government, which had made a flagship pledge to “level up” towns and communities across the country:

“Why would you give that up? Why would you give that up in the face of some local entrepreneur who says this three-hundred-million pound [deal], I want to regenerate it, we’ll keep the history, we’ll keep the runway active, we’ll keep the airspace alive. [...] All this leveling up nonsense! It [wouldn’t] cost the government a penny.”

In another twist of irony, however, those taxpayer’s pennies that the government wouldn’t have had to spend are now being poured into the government’s plan to accommodate the illegals, which has gone wildly over budget. What had at first been a five-million-pound plan to make the base fit for habitation for the new arrivals has now exceeded twenty-seven million. All of this before a single illegal immigrant has arrived on site. With the locals enduring this year-long fiasco, Terry tells me: “I think that with hindsight the government wishes they’d never gone down this route.” It's hard to disagree, given that in its present condition the base—hitherto abandoned—remains unfit for even the foulest squatter. Asbestos is rife throughout its derelict rooms, and its only present tenants are the bats that roost there. These faults alone should have saved Scampton from its now precarious future.

Alas, it seems that it is the nature of governments that the only plans they’ll never u-turn on are the bad ones. The locals are united in wishing to save the heritage of the base and secure the investment deal; however, their immediate safety is of more paramount importance. R.A.F. Scampton village has two schools, a nursery and a primary school, the latter being adjacent to the perimeter of the airfield. Nothing more than a standard metal ringed fence divides them. It was my impression speaking to locals that, whether it was the original two thousand or the more recently revised eight hundred illegal migrants, there is a very real concern for the safety of the local children. It’s “outrageous,” Terry lamented to me, “It’s just all wrong. It’s all wrong on every level.”

Here in Britain, after failing to stop the boats that have been illegally arriving ashore for a few years now, the perverse priorities of the Tories have left the British public burdened with living amidst the result of their failures. Social tensions have been inflamed where the unlawful arrivals have been put into hotels, such as in Knowsley, Liverpool, last year, when one such hotel was surrounded by furious locals. This was in reaction to video footage emerging online of one illegal migrant accosting a young 15-year-old girl. Such stories and incidents are now common knowledge to the public at large, and it is no less the case in Scampton. The locals are all too aware that their newly enforced neighbors will be mainly “fighting age men.” They have rallied with all conviction to prevent their lives from being upturned in such a way; they have seen what’s happened elsewhere. Yet several told me that their desire to protect their children and preserve their peace has been met with outrageous smears in the mainstream media that they are “far-right” and “xenophobes,” a tired tactic that seems to have a significantly more blunted effect these days.

It is at the entrances to R.A.F. Scampton that the strongest displays of resistance present themselves. Entire makeshift lodgings have been set up: tents, caravans, even watchtowers in two instances, that will allow the residents to peer into the base. I spoke to a kindly lady named Sarah, who was keen to emphasize that her campaign is an apolitical endeavor. Sarah will happily work with anyone who can raise awareness of the injustices she feels have been thrust on her community: “As many directions as we can attack the home office from the better,” she explained. She worked with the nearby Labour MP for Lincoln, who organized a petition to save the site, gaining 77,000 signatures, as well as attending meetings with Sir Edward Leigh, the local Conservative MP for Gainsborough. My arrival there and request to interview her was one of countless that she has now done across TV and radio (as far as Peru and Australia) to raise awareness for the plight of the local community.

Further down the road, I met Carol, an impassioned retiree who lives in Lincoln. Like many of the other resident sentries, she and her friends were staying in a caravan at the side of the road. Locals had made generous donations of timber, banners, and flags. Carol explained to me: “We are community. We are genuine. We built [the camp] to save the space and its history and heritage.” Speaking on behalf of her friend, she said: “Gwen’s here because she’s got children and grandchildren and she doesn’t want them [the illegals] for their security.” In defiance, Carol’s camp was adorned with the St. George’s flag. Yet in an age where flying the English flag in England is seen as a divisive affront to the current regime, it was sadly no great surprise to hear how weeks earlier, two of Carol’s friends had been attacked in the dark of night. That had put an end to staying in the caravan. Nobody knows who the assailants were or where they came from, but the personal risk became too great for locals like Carol. They will now only protest in daytime.

Still, even Lincoln would be far from a sanctuary for the locals. “Two thousand men walking around are soon going to find their way to Lincoln,” Carol went on. Lincoln is situated six miles away from the airfield and ordinarily Carol’s concerns for these men reaching that far afield would be unfounded, were it not for the fact that upon arrival the illegals would be provided with phones, bicycles, and free bus journeys to several points in the surrounding area, Lincoln included. Even down to the minutiae, every detail is a slight against the locals: with the migrant buses to Lincoln being three times more regular than the ones provided for residents, which come every hour. All this before even mentioning the fact that should they not return to the base before the 11 p.m. curfew, they will not be retrieved. The system will be based on trust. The skeptic in me wonders just how much trust can be put in such men, given that their first introduction to our island home was to break into it.

The scandal at Scampton village is a microcosm of all that is wrong with the current political climate. The British have become second-class citizens in their own country. Their concerns and pleas fall on deaf ears while the interests of illegal criminals are prioritized. Furthermore, there is a profound lack of judgment from those in the House of Commons about just how much history and heritage matter to the average folk of England. There is every likelihood, with the recent Labour victory, that the residents of Scampton may at last see this horrid business put behind them. For all their failings, I doubt the Labour party will continue to push this upon the local community. This plan was exclusively the brainchild of the Conservatives, and they must own it. It is clear that much like the Tories’ Rwanda policy, they simply would rather see Scampton gripped in a state of paralysis rather than be seen to back down on the issue entirely.

Here and now, however, I will say this: a great evil has been inflicted on these people. Stresses and anxieties in the heart of their community should have been as foreign to them as the people they were threatened to put up with. I sincerely hope that they are able to push through and gain their £300 million investment deal. It is the least that can be awarded to them after what they have been put through. The people of Scampton should be proud of their heritage, and they should also be proud of themselves today. With what little power they have had at their disposal, they have organized, they have resisted, and they have obfuscated the will of an insensitive government that has looked on them as nothing other than an inconvenience to be overcome. It is but one case study of crime committed against the people—out of many thousands that have mounted over the years—as to why the Tories lost the most recent election. I am pleased to say, however, that even if virtue and decency were non-existent qualities amongst our elites, it still appears to burn imperishably in the good people of Scampton.