I have lived in Wisbech for 30 years or so and have watched its gradual decline.
It was never a pretty place, apart from a few decent buildings, but it had a rough charm.
Then came a wave of (legal) immigration from Eastern Europe, thanks to Freedom of Movement.
We weathered that, more or less, mainly because most of the immigrants were honest family people, looking for a better life for themselves and their families.
But there was a downside.
Along with the families and children were a few desperate men and women whose lives deteriorated into drunken homelessness and – in several notorious cases – violence and murder.
Meanwhile, parts of the town descended into deprivation and poverty, to the extent that the area is now high on the list of the most deprived areas in Britain.
All the while, we had a town council and district council dominated by a well organised and ruthless Conservative Party.
They are not responsible for the downfall of Wisbech, guilty only of complacency as they watched it decline.
My complaint is this. Where are Labour? Where are the Liberal Democrats?
Political parties with huge financial backing and slick electoral machines have simply looked the other way, leaving the task of challenging the Conservative hegemony to a disparate group of well-meaning but underfunded and naive “independents”.
Will Labour and the Lib Dems stand up and be recognised?
