2026年7月30日 / 美国东部时间上午11:21 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：西蒙·埃勒里
伦敦讯——英国一个小村庄的居民因计划在附近一处废弃军事基地安置数百名寻求庇护者而感到愤怒，他们正准备举行一场象征性公投，呼吁所在社区脱离英国并加入美国。
这场公投在英国法律中不具备任何法律效力，是皮丁顿村民发起的抗议活动。当地居民强烈反对英国政府在距村庄约1英里处的国防部所属地块安置男性寻求庇护者的计划。
2026年7月25日，英国牛津郡比斯特和伍德斯托克选区议员卡勒姆·米勒在社交媒体上分享的一张图片，与反对在皮丁顿村附近废弃军事基地安置寻求庇护者的抗议活动相关。图片来源：Facebook/卡勒姆·米勒
当地议员卡勒姆·米勒表示，比斯特军营地块的安置计划最多可容纳1250人，是皮丁顿村人口的三倍多。
皮丁顿教区议会主席蒂姆·麦克纳利是这场抗议运动和公投计划的主要推动者之一，他将村庄的抗争和自己比作为脱离英国而战的乔治·华盛顿。
“华盛顿带来了变革。我也要促成变革，之后再像他那样交出权力，”麦克纳利在接受《太阳报》采访时说道，“如果我们投票选择脱离英国，我们就会前往美国大使馆，把我们的独立宣言交给他们。”
2026年7月20日，皮丁顿教区议会主席蒂姆·麦克纳利在当地村庄大厅外拍摄的视频截图，他将该视频分享至X平台。图片来源：X/蒂姆·麦克纳利
7月4日美国独立日当天，皮丁顿居民就是否举行脱离英国的公投进行了投票。据哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的合作媒体BBC新闻消息，96%的参与者支持举行公投的提议。支持者称，这只是一场象征性行动，旨在吸引全国关注他们的反对声音，而非真正的分裂尝试。
支持者认为，政府公布安置计划前并未充分征询社区意见，他们表示这场公投旨在凸显民众对中央政府决策过程的不满。
本月早些时候，“反对种族主义站起来”组织牛津郡地区分支的简·科尔斯告诉BBC新闻，她反对在比斯特军营这类地点“非人道地囤积”寻求庇护者。
“这里会成为右翼煽动者的聚集地，会对当地民众造成严重的分裂影响，”她说，“我们认为政府最好把资金投入内政部，确保难民申请审理系统更加高效、快捷，这样这类安置用房的需求就会大幅减少。”
即便这场尚未确定举办日期的抗议公投尚未举行，该计划引发的政治表态已在全球引发反响，得到美国科技亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克的支持。马斯克经常就欧美移民问题发表言论。
“像皮丁顿村这样什么都没做的小镇遭遇的一切，终将在全英国上演，除非发生根本性的政治变革，”马斯克在其社交媒体平台X（原推特）上发文称，“这不对劲，一点都不对劲。”
英国内政部为其整体战略进行了辩护，该战略旨在利用前军事基地，减少将酒店作为 asylum 申请人住宿的依赖。
无论结果如何，皮丁顿不同寻常的公投提议已将这个牛津郡最小的村庄之一，推到了全国移民辩论的前沿，这场辩论围绕政府在做出直接影响居民的决策前，应在多大程度上征询当地社区意见展开。
Tiny England village plans referendum on leaving U.K., joining U.S. to protest migrant housing plan
July 30, 2026 / 11:21 AM EDT / CBS News
By Simon Ellery
London — Residents of a tiny English village furious over plans to house hundreds of people seeking asylum in a nearby disused military barracks are preparing to hold a symbolic referendum calling for their community to declare independence from the U.K. and join the U.S.
The referendum, which would carry no weight under British law, is being organized as a protest by villagers in Piddington. Residents there have overwhelmingly opposed the British government’s plan to house male asylum seekers at the site about a mile away, on a Ministry of Defense property.
An image shared on social media by Calum Miller, the local Member of Parliament for Bicester and Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, England, on July 25, 2026, refers to a protest campaign against plans by the British government to house people seeking asylum on a disused military barracks near the village of Piddington. Facebook/Calum Miller
Calum Miller, the local Member of Parliament, said the plans for the Bicester Garrison site could see as many as 1,250 people — more than three times Piddington’s population — housed at the facility.
Piddington Parish Council chairman Tim McNally, one of the leading voices behind the protest campaign and referendum plans, compared the village’s struggle, and himself, to George Washington battling for independence from Britain.
“Washington brought change. I am going to make the change and then give away the power like he did,” McNally told The Sun newspaper. “If we vote to leave, we are going down to the U.S. Embassy and bring our declaration to them.”
Piddington Parish Council chairman Tim McNally is seen in an image from a video he shot outside the local Village Hall, July 20, 2026, which he shared on X. X/Tim McNally
On July 4, as the U.S. marked Independence Day, Piddington residents voted on whether to hold a referendum on leaving the United Kingdom. According to CBS News’ partner network BBC News, 96% of participants backed the proposal to hold the referendum, which supporters call a symbolic act designed to draw national attention to their objections rather than a real attempt at secession.
Supporters argue the community was not adequately consulted before the housing plans were announced by the government, and they say the referendum is intended to highlight frustration with decision-making by the central government.
Jane Coles, from the regional Oxfordshire branch of the “Stand up to Racism” organization, told BBC News earlier this month that she opposed the “inhumane warehousing” of asylum seekers at any sites like the Bicester barracks.
“It would become a magnet for right-wing agitators and it will have a really polarizing effect on the population,” she said. “We believe the government would be better putting the money into the Home Office to ensure the system for processing asylum claims is much more efficient and much quicker, so the need for this kind of housing will be very much reduced.”
Even before the protest referendum, which hasn’t yet been scheduled, the political statement made by the plan has echoed around the world, drawing support from American tech billionaire Elon Musk, who often adds his voice to debates over immigration in Europe and the U.S.
“What has happened to towns who did nothing to deserve it, like little Piddington village, will happen to all of Britain, unless there is fundamental political change,” said Musk in a post on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “It’s not right. Not right at all.”
The British Home Office has defended the wider strategy of using former military sites to reduce reliance on hotels as accommodation for people applying for asylum.
Whatever the outcome, Piddington’s unusual referendum proposal has thrust one of Oxfordshire’s smallest villages to the forefront of a national debate over immigration and the extent to which the government should have to consult local communities on decisions that have direct impacts on residents.
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