Wisbech Community Forum

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THE DAY THE SKY FELL IN. OR NOT. In the last 72 hours, Facebook and Twitter have been hosting an almost delirious tweetfest of complaints and outrage over UKIP's election successes last week. "I feel as if I have woken up in Nazi Germany," said one. "I have a friend with racist views. If he looks out of his window, he can see the house of someone who voted UKIP", said another. Thank heavens that locally there has been some common sense. Defeated candidate Virginia Bucknor is hoping to set up meetings with new UKIP councillors to see how they can help the campaign to restore the derelict buildings in Wisbech. Samantha Hoy put on her best frock and announced that she was off to have a nice day in the sun.

Good for her. Dave Patrick expressed his disgust at the whimpering from the defeated with this put-down.

MY OWN VIEWS? Well I have to admit I voted UKIP. Yes. There it is. I have come out of the closet. Every minority has its day, its parade, its week, its month. Gay Pride have marches and parades round the world. Is there the remotest chance of an 'English Pride' march ever being held? No? Thought not. I expect it would offend too many stakeholder in our awesome rainbow nation.
BUT HOLD ON FOR A MINUTE. Do I not spend two hours a week teaching a mixed bunch of lovely Eastern European people how to speak English. Are they not unfailingly polite, and always grateful? Do I not come home from these sessions feeling they have given more to me than I have given to them? I also give guitar lessons. Two of my pupils are quite talented. One is from Lithuania and, apart from being musically talented, she has a wit and wisdom far beyond her years. She has a sharp tongue, and does not suffer fools gladly. The other is from Latvia, and she has a smile which could melt icebergs. She plays and sings like an angel, and how she puts up with an elderly has-been as a teacher, I simply don't know. Both of these young ladies, with a young local lad,  will be performing on May 18th, at our International Children's Festival. Trust me. They will be awesome.
SQUARING THE CIRCLE. I have been bettered and enriched by meeting so many of the people from eastern Europe who have chosen to come and live in Wisbech. But we are full. There are no more jobs. There are  no more decent houses. We love you to bits., but we cannot cope any more. I, for one, will continue to work hard at persuading the migrants in Wisbech to integrate and to learn our language. We need to remember that this town, for all its faults, is their home now, as well as ours.