The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - The People’s Republic of Piddington ｜ Interview with Tim McNally

00:00:00.000 Well, it's my pleasure now to be joined by Tim McNally, who is the chairman of the local Piddington Parish Council.

00:00:06.140 Tim, quite a colossal event that you've had on here in terms of getting the public attention.

00:00:11.240 Can you tell me how it all began?

00:00:13.160 Well, very simply, on the 26th of June, the government decided to publish a proposal.

00:00:18.140 They were going to show an intent to publish a proposal for the intention of putting 1,258 single men

00:00:24.740 at a basically a logistic site.

00:00:28.880 It's an MOD logistic site just about a mile down the road from here.

00:00:33.380 And we had to think about what that meant.

00:00:36.760 When we read the details, it was exclusively men.

00:00:40.520 So the first question was, why is it only men?

00:00:44.260 And the MP at the time I was connecting with him,

00:00:46.840 so why is it only men?

00:00:47.960 And he said, well, security.

00:00:49.460 I think, okay, that's okay, but not.

00:00:53.760 So what security do we get?

00:00:56.840 We still don't know today.

00:00:58.720 But on the 26th when that came out, we called together meetings with our regional parish councils to come and join us.

00:01:06.280 And I went into that meeting with a detailed plan, a professional plan for a rejection, a what if.

00:01:12.860 And sadly, it wasn't well received.

00:01:15.960 It was too big. It was too complex for them to understand what we'd need to do to actually confront this and deal with it.

00:01:23.700 So I left that meeting and had to go and work away for three days, three nights.

00:01:27.420 And I didn't sleep for those three days, three nights.

00:01:29.760 Whilst I had to come up with a plan.

00:01:31.420 But on the way down to where I was working, I went down past Swindon.

00:01:34.640 And on the M4 was this little sign that said, Jeremy Clarkson for King.

00:01:39.080 And in my moment, it was six o'clock in the morning.

00:01:40.880 And I just felt, I thought, I chuckled to myself.

00:01:44.340 You know, Jeremy Clarkson is a man of common sense.

00:01:46.920 He's always like Jeremy Clarkson for prime ministership.

00:01:48.980 It has always been a funny thing, because actually it resonates with everyone.

00:01:53.560 If I just have someone with common sense representing us,

00:01:57.200 why isn't the government thinking the same, just common sense representing us?

00:02:01.220 And then the aspect of the King piece, you know, about...

00:02:04.660 And immediately I thought of the movie, that was a 1959 movie,

00:02:08.000 The Mouse That Roared.

00:02:10.900 It's a black and white movie with Peter Sellers and Benny Hill.

00:02:13.640 And it's probably one of...

00:02:14.440 Classic character.

00:02:14.960 It's a classic.

00:02:15.500 Peter Sellers is one of his best movies ever.

00:02:16.920 And it was about the smallest country in the world, the smallest principality went to war with America because they stole all their wine.

00:02:25.820 And so these guys in this little principality got on their horses in 1959 and rode into New York City whilst they were going through an air raid practice drill for nuclear practice.

00:02:37.420 And there was no one on the streets.

00:02:39.160 And all they found was this Benny Hill bloke who was a mad professor.

00:02:42.460 And they befriended him and took him back to their principality.

00:02:47.340 Little did they know that Benny Hill was the mad professor

00:02:50.080 that made this thing called the super bomb.

00:02:52.500 And suddenly the American realised that this little principality

00:02:56.020 had got the most powerful bomb in the world.

00:02:58.880 And they started having these situations

00:03:00.800 where all the diplomatic channels were starting to open up

00:03:02.980 and they started talking to them.

00:03:04.680 And eventually the Americans surrendered.

00:03:07.460 And that's the story of The Mouse That Roared.

00:03:09.820 This is a comedy thing, so it's a really nice story.

00:03:13.320 But from that concept, I then thought about,

00:03:16.200 right Piddington the village that roared and then Piddington roars is our x account which I feature

00:03:22.380 every day put something out about what's going on and how extraordinary this whole process has been

00:03:26.960 so I had to get that into the village hall on the third of July and explain to them people who've

00:03:34.920 never people haven't been in work for 20 years right and they don't know what you know this is

00:03:40.420 like a cross-section of community here from retired to workers to young people and just

00:03:45.900 lately, the shape of our village has changed quite dramatically. We used to be quite a lot of

00:03:50.580 retirees, but now we've got a lot of children. So we've got 46 children here. But I'm still working

00:03:56.820 with people who quite haven't understood the concept of the world today. We're in 2026. And

00:04:01.960 their beliefs were very simply, well, we can just write a letter. Surely that will work. I'll write

00:04:06.940 a letter. I'll pen something up as an objection. And although that's the right thing to do,

00:04:11.860 it doesn't work and it implies that the the government would naturally just listen if they

00:04:17.920 could only hear your voices listen to reason that they would be on on your side and i suppose one

00:04:23.460 one question that i naturally have for you is that in um so in view of this is you know um

00:04:29.560 independence referendum which has been wonderful for drawing national attention to it of course

00:04:34.380 we've had all sort i can see all sorts of news outlets just off camera as well that are here as

00:04:38.900 well as our own how has the media attention and the constant newspaper articles and the visitors

00:04:44.660 has this changed at all the dynamic of the government have the government been reaching

00:04:48.860 out to you trying to have a dialogue to reach a settlement or are they still quite obstinate and

00:04:53.780 you know just saying well this is happening uh all the same whatever you do here today

00:04:58.560 well they're going to be living be damned by that because all that press content has woken people

00:05:05.540 across this great country. People are alive. They're engaging with me and saying, you know,

00:05:11.460 they're saying, Tim, I've had 100 emails saying, Tim, we want you to be prime minister. I can't

00:05:15.780 do that. I've had a thousand people saying, Tim, you must be the MP. I can't do that. But they

00:05:21.200 said, you know, I've had 10,000 messages saying, don't stop. That I won't do. And that's such a

00:05:28.200 message to go back across everyone. But more importantly, I've built a blueprint, which

00:05:32.200 people have actually now started to understand what they can do in their local communities

00:05:37.680 to bring the grassroots political structures alive.

00:05:41.880 Because of the way the politicians behave in Parliament, people have disengaged from partaking

00:05:48.940 in the process.

00:05:49.940 And the minute that happens, you get fringe governments in control.

00:05:54.580 And when that happens, you're broken.

00:05:57.340 And we are broken.

00:05:59.160 So we're broken because if I elect an MP, I expect him to go to Parliament and represent

00:06:07.020 me.

00:06:09.140 If that MP gets into government, he's then told, or she's told, you can't have these

00:06:15.640 career-ending discussions.

00:06:17.820 The whip determines your future.

00:06:21.340 So the whip is controlling the dictatorship of our country.

00:06:25.540 Is that democracy?

00:06:27.400 I think that's broken, broken democracy.

00:06:31.100 That's a dictatorship.

00:06:32.440 I would like to ask you as well, on the subject you mentioned, I think quite rightly,

00:06:36.940 the idea of using Piddington as an amplifier, as a megaphone for the larger national issue

00:06:43.280 that is, of course, pressing England right now and squeezing it

00:06:46.080 when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration.

00:06:49.000 I have, however, seen a number of people, and I'd just like to voice the devil's advocate here,

00:06:54.720 who, of course, mentioned the fact that there are certain articles circulating around the press

00:06:59.600 that suggest that, actually, if only these people would not be on the military of defence base by Piddington,

00:07:05.960 just NIMBYs, put them in someone else's backyard.

00:07:08.980 Is that the view that you subscribe to?

00:07:10.920 It's just the pragmatic logistics of it being at Piddington,

00:07:14.740 or is this a much more principled issue of, no, on a national level,

00:07:19.260 these people, wherever they've come from, shouldn't be housed in our country

00:07:22.820 because they've obviously broken into it via the channel.

00:07:26.400 Yeah, I mean, it's a whole number of all of those things in one.

00:07:28.900 Ultimately, we've got to look at the source of the problem that we're creating for ourselves.

00:07:32.320 We've got an £8 billion cost for managing the asylum process, right?

00:07:39.380 £8 billion.

00:07:40.340 That's as much as our defence sector.

00:07:43.140 That's huge, right?

00:07:45.080 And we're just letting that flow out.

00:07:48.060 So that's the first thing is managing the numeracy of that.

00:07:51.500 If 1% of those asylum seekers are genuine, we should respect that.

00:07:56.060 Which, according to the whistleblower, is about 1%.

00:07:58.760 If they're genuine, absolutely.

00:08:01.480 We should be looking after people who need looking after.

00:08:04.780 And when I sort of turn the tables on that and say, well, what is an asylum seeker?

00:08:08.400 An asylum seeker is somebody who's had to leave their war-torn country or their country because of the oppression the government puts upon them.

00:08:15.000 What do you think is happening to Pittington?

00:08:17.020 We've got no self-determination.

00:08:18.840 They're oppressing us.

00:08:19.740 They're doing this, making us want to be asylum seekers.

00:08:23.200 Think of it like that.

00:08:24.620 And then the other aspect of that, well, nimbyism, as you want to use the word nimbyism, not

00:08:28.700 in my backyard.

00:08:29.700 Well, actually, if there were 1,258 priests or vicars, that still wouldn't be appropriate.

00:08:36.500 It doesn't matter what they are, who they are, it's about proportionality.

00:08:41.900 So we will need to assimilate into their life.

00:08:46.020 That's not going to happen.

00:08:48.020 They're not going to assimilate into ours.

00:08:49.980 There's going to be confrontation of some kind.

00:08:53.400 There's no doubt about it.

00:08:54.400 We're not looking for it, but there's going to be a problem.

00:08:56.820 If the size and the proportion of the share was reasonable, then that could be tolerated.

00:09:04.320 But reasonable and legal.

00:09:06.260 If they're illegal in the first place, shouldn't be here.

00:09:09.060 They should be retained and locked, just like I would be if I tried to go into Australia,

00:09:14.240 Japan, America, Poland, right?

00:09:19.020 But no, I have to accept the risk of 1,258 men,

00:09:24.600 not a proportionate risk, the full risk,

00:09:28.240 three and a half times the size of our village.

00:09:30.820 Is that fair and proportionate?

00:09:33.220 Is that Pennington doing its part?

00:09:35.380 Well, the government would say, wouldn't they,

00:09:36.980 that this is part of their role in equalising the distribution

00:09:41.460 throughout the country itself.

00:09:44.240 Though I have heard, and you might be able to shine some light on this,

00:09:47.520 that actually there is no official barracks at Site A, as I'm led to believe.

00:09:52.440 It's actually storage for ordinances and stuff.

00:09:56.040 So actually there would have to be as well an inordinate amount of money spent on it

00:10:00.320 just to get it up to a point of habitation as well.

00:10:03.540 So it's not just, it's the entire process and the uncertainty that is going to go on for months,

00:10:09.860 maybe even a year, whilst all of this is done.

00:10:12.020 Yeah. I mean, it has no barracks, but it is still an operational site. There is a business running off that site. The army actually could only do certain things on that site and nowhere else, apparently. So it's not a barrack site. And it has no water, has no sewage, has no power. The power will be stripped by the MOD. They will not allow the power to that site to be shared for this purpose because of protecting the infrastructure of our defense of our country.

00:10:39.500 so the other thing is it's low-lying and it floods for large periods of time months at a time

00:10:47.440 so how that has that going to work and we have floods here all the time but it makes life very

00:10:53.520 difficult for us but we work around that i don't think these guys will tolerate that no one more

00:10:59.160 question if i may um obviously we're right now in the middle of a liberal democrat constituency

00:11:04.000 Now, I understand that your particular MP, is it Callum Miller, has, you know, been quite a strong supporter of you.

00:11:12.560 He's spoken in your defence on a lot of these issues.

00:11:15.620 But, of course, he is just one gentleman.

00:11:17.920 And the wider Liberal Democrat Party itself is quite in favour of, you know, continuing to put people up at the taxpayers' expense.

00:11:25.680 I was just wondering if you see this episode here in Piddington reflecting on perhaps whether or not it would change voting intentions if the problem continues to persist.

00:11:37.880 I don't doubt that people's opinions will change. Absolutely. There's no question about that.

00:11:43.340 And when you look at where Piddington sits in that constituency, so Piddington is just a part of Bicester and Woodstock.

00:11:50.260 And it was a new created constituency for 2024.

00:11:54.260 It was a real realignment of boundaries.

00:11:56.460 So it was a new constituency.

00:11:58.260 At the time in 2024, if we look at the history,

00:12:01.120 we had challenges with the Conservatives not being a great representation at the time.

00:12:04.920 Reforms of the sort of didn't really have a presence of any kind.

00:12:08.300 And Labour wasn't an option.

00:12:10.120 So what seems to be the outcome is 9,000 majority for Liberal Democrats.

00:12:17.160 But how Piddington could impact on that?

00:12:20.200 I didn't vote for that.

00:12:21.720 We're only 198 whatever votes.

00:12:24.320 How could we impact against the 9,000 majority?

00:12:27.480 Wonderful.

00:12:28.120 Well, thank you very much for your time.

00:12:29.880 It's been a pleasure to speak to you.

00:12:31.540 Is there any final message that you would like to give people who are listening

00:12:34.740 and perhaps the government as well, seeing as they seem quite determined not to hear?

00:12:39.740 Very simply, what have you done to people to make them want to do this?

00:12:45.440 that is the that's the real question ask your conscience what do you think you're doing to make

00:12:52.120 people want to do this back to you all right and Andy Burnham has only been in parliament three

00:12:57.800 days right since he's been in position someone under since the 20th of July he's about to lose

00:13:03.760 a part of his United Kingdom who wants to leave his wonderful country that he's creating he needs

00:13:10.680 to do something. He needs to step up and be the statesman that he's supposed to be. And I don't

00:13:15.500 believe he's got the capability, but he needs to do it. Angela Rayner, you've been in the position

00:13:20.920 for the asylum site product. You are, that's your minister role. You haven't visited one of the

00:13:26.540 sites. Not one. Do your job. Get out. Come and see us. Understand what we're managing. We're easy.

00:13:34.380 I've been polite to you. We have differing opinions. She can come. We'll be polite. We've

00:13:38.960 have politicians here now senior politicians from opposing parties have all arrived and they're all

00:13:43.120 coming they know what's going on here and they know that this is ground zero and it is the battle

00:13:49.160 for britain well tim thank you very much for your time sir it's been an absolute pleasure and a good

00:13:54.680 look out there thank you very much thanks for coming

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - September 16, 2026

The People’s Republic of Piddington ｜ Interview with Tim McNally

Episode Stats

People

Transcript