The Mirror’s Real Britain columnist Ros Wynne-Jones says the way people came together to protect a refugee hub being attacked by Far Right thugs shows most people really do love their communities
Two miles from the ACC conference centre on the Liverpool Docks where the Labour faithful are gathered this week, is a Victorian presbytery which is a hub for the local refugee community.
On August 5 last year, Asylum Link Merseyside, in Toxteth, boarded its windows after becoming the focus of Far Right protests during riots that set city centres alight.
The refugees and people seeking asylum and sanctuary at the centre had nothing to do with the horrific murder of three little girls 20 miles north in Southport, but they became the focus of public anger all the same.
“People we know were spat at, called horrible names,” says Emma Leaper, National Coordinator at the charity. “Somebody from our community was attacked.”
But even as staff were boarding up the windows, locking the doors and trying to secure records inside the building, they looked out and saw something incredible – thousands of people converging on the building, not with flaming torches or hate-filled chants, but with placards declaring love and support.
“Thousands of people came together to protect the building the night that the fascists were going to attack us,” Emma says.
Now the boards that were used to seal up the building have been painted by refugee art groups and are proudly displayed at the building. “Now these boards are messages of hope and support. There is more love than hate in this city, ” Emma says.
For the last 12 months, our Mirror Real Britain team – including Claire Donnelly and film-maker John Domokos – has been across the country, from Merseyside to Teesside, Yorkshire to South Wales, talking to communities in the aftermath of last year’s riots for a special video series called “Island of Strangers”. The Giga Poll data shows the lessons we have learned. Most people love their communities and consider them peaceful and friendly.
Only 16% would not want to know their neighbours better. Two thirds of people (67%), believe the Government should do more to improve community cohesion in some of our most divided communities – and half (48%) would support a local campaign to promote Britain’s multicultural society and help people from different backgrounds connect.
Since the Southport riots we have let a small minority of Britons and powerful voices from abroad loudly define us as a country. Our politicians have weakly ceded ground to the Far Right and the siren voices of Reform UK whose only plan is division.
Working class communities are tired of being demonised and characterised as hostile and racist. The British working class has been multi-ethnic for centuries. Every corner of our country has been shaped by waves of immigration from across the globe.
These communities are in trouble. Spending time in some of Britain’s poorest places makes it easy to understand people’s anger, and lack of faith in politicians, as the broken carcasses of their once proud industries loom over a lack of progress in modern times.
Deep down, most people know immigrants are not the problem – these are places which need real solutions not fascist snake oil. They need power put back into the hands of the community – Labour solutions, if only Labour would govern as itself.
READ MORE: Nigel Farage FAILS with major move to ‘divide Britain’ in bombshell Giga Poll
We hope our Island of Strangers films, shown over the weekend at the Labour Conference, and across the Mersey at Future Yard in Birkenhead, give a voice back to real Britain.
On the St Mellons estate in Cardiff, we found over-60s from a mainly white Welsh community enjoying music and entertainment from people of all backgrounds, Black, brown and LGBTQ+. In Stockton-on-Tees refugees were helping to create a beautiful garden in an area plagued by anti-social behaviour.
In Rotherham, South Yorks, we visited the Unity boxing gym, where people of all backgrounds come together. And in Liverpool we were moved by the friendships formed at a climbing hangar near John Lennon airport.
A year later, we can definitely report we’re an island not of strangers, but of friendship, community and solidarity.
You can follow our films on YouTube, on the Mirror site and on social media using #IslandOfStrangers