Piddington’s very English revolution Westminster has radicalized the shires

At a packed village hall meeting in picturesque Piddington, parish council leader Tim McNally railed against the British state. “The Government has stacked all of the odds against us,” he said: “They won’t let us see content. They made that content illegal. They won’t let us oppose them. And if they do, the stakes to try and take it are so high, they want to exhaust you, bankrupt you, so you don’t even attempt it.” The fact is, McNally added, standing in front of the Piddington Home Guard Centre sign, “We’re in a political structure which is not healthy right now. Let’s go for the political jugular because that’s really what counts. That’s the thing where pain can be felt and the embarrassment is felt.” Tiny Piddington is “the seed, it’s the soil, it’s the fertilizer” for a “Battle of Britain”, he told the audience, before asking them if they still wanted to proceed with their referendum on seceding from the United Kingdom. They did, and they cheered and clapped as they said so. If the delivery was polite and matter of fact, the rhetoric was revolutionary.