On 22nd June 2023, the BBC aired a “Brexit Episode” of its popular political program. Due to being the second highest majority for Brexit, Clacton was chosen as the location for their production. We were deeply troubled by the way in which Clacton, a place that we love and cherish was poorly reflected. We felt it was imperative for us to reach out to our constituents via the Gazette newspaper.
Our Letter reads
The BBC question time on Brexit has caused a controversial view of Clacton across social media, predominantly Twitter. As the constituency’s Labour Party, and ultimately a party seeking for a better Clacton, with more investment and opportunities, we felt we needed to speak up about our dismay over the posts, and the running of the show on Thursday.
We feel the people of Clacton, having the second highest majority for Brexit in the UK, were intentionally used as a scapegoat to cause “drama” on our screens and this may have caused an inaccurate negative view of the whole of Clacton. We believe it portrayed the residents of Clacton as racist, ignorant and xenophobic folk, which are not adjectives we believe to be representative of our constituents.
The program traditionally asks for questions to be submitted ahead of time and so we struggle to understand why they accepted a question which made a statement about a migrant going “straight for the benefits office”. Why was this allowed? There’s no factuality to it either prior or post-Brexit, nor does it have anything to do with Brexit, moreover he should have been challenged by Fiona herself, or a panel member. This seems to have caused the majority of the negative views of Clacton on Twitter.
Twitter Posts
Then there’s the fact that the Tories in a staunch conservative seat didn’t send a minister, comparatively, Labour sent the ex-shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman, we think this, whilst not in the BBCs control, shows the lack of care the Conservatives have for Clacton, and also the lack of backbone they have for delivering Brexit for the people that voted for it.
To sum up; the show, we believe will have brought the national view of Clacton down, this disgusts us, as we know how amazing a place Clacton, is, can and will be without a Tory party that hasn’t cared about its constituents in years
Newspaper Artical
