Real Britain: Neighbours, Not Strangers

Almost two miles from the ACC conference centre on the Liverpool Docks where the Labour faithful are gathering this week, is an old Victorian presbytery which acts as a hub for the local refugee community.

On August 5th last year, Asylum Link Merseyside, in Toxteth, had to board up its windows after becoming the focus of far-right protesters during a summer of riots that set city centres alight.

The refugees and people seeking asylum and sanctuary at the centre had nothing to do with the horrific murders of three little girls 20 miles north in Southport, but they became the focus of public anger.

“People we know were spat at, called horrible names,” explains Emma Leaper, National Coordinator at the charity. “Somebody from our community was attacked,” she added.

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 with placards declaring love and support.

“Thousands of people came together in the city and actually came to protect the building the night that the fascists were going to come and attack us,” Emma says.

Now the boards that were used to seal the building have been painted by refugee art groups and are proudly displayed as messages of hope and support. “There is more love than hate, in this city,” says Emma.

For the last 12 months, the Mirror ‘Real Britain’ team – including Claire Donnelly and the film-maker John Domokos – has been out across the country, talking to communities in the aftermath of last year’s riots for a special video series called ‘Island of Strangers’.

The Giga Poll shows the lessons we have learned. Most people love their communities and consider them peaceful and friendly. Only 16 per cent 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 the most divided communities – and 48% would support a local campaign to promote Britain’s multicultural society and help people from different backgrounds connect.

Since the Southport riots and beyond, we have allowed a small minority of Britons – and powerful voices from abroad – to loudly define who we are as a country. Politicians have weakly ceded ground to the far right and 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.

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.

But 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.

We hope that 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 people from the local refugee community were helping create a beautiful garden in an area plagued by anti-social behaviour.

A year later, we can definitely report that we’re not an island of strangers – far from it. We’re a nation of neighbours. This is our Britain: friendship, community, solidarity. And we want our country back.

Follow the films on YouTube, the Mirror site and on social media using #IslandOfStrangers