No, not you, lovely people! Please do stay. But goodbye and good riddance to the bookshop which chose to come to the area to peddle its far right, white supremacist wares in the village where I live, as posted about a few weeks ago here. The bookshop presented itself as merely promoting 'common sense' but a few glances at their Twitter posts in particular revealed levels of hatred, contempt and arrogance which were far more blatant and concerning.
The reason for leaving given by the proprietor is that they'd experienced too much hostility locally and didn't find the place welcoming, so they're looking for somewhere more friendly. I'd suggest that openly displaying large Union Jack flags with the words 'Remigration Now' on your frontage is neither welcoming nor friendly, nor is publicly mocking online the neighbours and visitors who disagreed with them, but what do I know. They also wrote in a social media post that the village should now 'brace itself' because a couple of 'foreigners' had enquired about renting the premises here. Really? What year are we in?
Anyway, the news of its sudden departure absolutely made my day and the more I thought about it, the more I realised that, in a way, it was even better to have had undeniable proof of local objection to its rhetoric by way of it ever having set itself up in the first place. We wouldn't have known the strength of opinion against it had it not tried to function here, so it was almost like a test - and we passed. I know that's not the end of the business overall, it will undoubtedly pop up somewhere else and not everyone will be opposed to it either - but I'm so relieved it's gone from here at least, thanks to its unpopularity in this particular community. Looks like they are just going to have to experience 'remigration now' for themselves.
Congratulations to you and your fellow residents for being very unwelcoming, thereby beating them at their own game.
ReplyDeleteExactly. They misjudged the place - at the heart of our community are two extremely popular long-established Indian restaurants and a much-loved Asian family running the Post Office. These are the businesses which quietly get on with bringing pleasure, grace and courtesy to the place, not that horrible bookshop.
DeleteGood riddance indeed!
ReplyDeleteI was overjoyed, I can tell you!
DeleteThat's great news, C. I wouldn't worry about them opening up somewhere else - they'll get run out of town wherever they fetch up.
ReplyDeleteIt is, isn't it? We were hoodwinked too, thinking it was simply going to be a great new bookshop with coffee, cake and literature event evenings - but now its reputation will be out there. The proprietor is clearly very proud of what it stands for and has thousands of online followers but perhaps its physical presence in any town will always be a problem. Hope so.
DeleteGood news!
ReplyDeleteSuch a relief!
DeleteExcellent! Some good news!
ReplyDeleteSwiss Adam
Yes - it does feel like a triumph! Nice to have some good news at last.
DeleteI am always amazed that people are worried and frightened by the presence of foreigners in their communities. The history of England for the last two millennia is that our communities have been refreshed by people from elsewhere bringing in new skills, ethics and attitudes. There are only a few decades when this did not occur usually due to war and pestilence.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if the bookshop was replaced by another one with a more welcoming ethos.
Me too, Ben agree with all you say. Looking through posts, reposts and responses to others from the shop's proprietor (some I find frankly shocking) has made me seriously question what's going on in their mind, what happened to them? - to make them so actively hostile and full of such bile and hubris. I don't get it.
DeleteYour village did well in showing them they had pitched up in the wrong location (although sad that they will no doubt pitch up somewhere else now). As you say, what has happened to them to make them so hostile? Hope they lost money on the lease of the shop!
ReplyDeleteI'm so pleased it went that way. The shop seems to see itself as a victim of the village's 'hostility' now - oh, the irony! But it really is a friendly place, and quite touristy, so to see those flags on blatant display and the shop's social media posts and arrogant responses to even the politest of complaints was abhorrent. Indeed, I doubt there'll be much sympathy if they lost money on it. I can't help wondering if/where it'll rock up again, and what other communities would make of it, but for now I'm just relieved that it's no longer a blight on this one!
DeleteI'm thinking too that the proprietor may have became more and more radicalised the more momentum and confidence they gained from extreme far right supporters online - becoming increasingly complacent about displaying their prejudices so brazenly - which, in the end, was their downfall.
DeleteVery good news C, and I take my hat off to the steadfastness of your village and would wish to hear such good news from Germany.
ReplyDeleteThanks Walter, it may only be one small victory against the promotion of prejudice and division, but it feels really good! I hope we'll all start to see more signs of positive change here and for you too in Germany and around the world.
Delete