I’m from an English working-class town. When will society stop looking at us through the rearview mirror? | Beth Steel

The migration debate reflects deep uncertainties about the realities now facing these communities. That feels perilous to meSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreIn 2016, on the day after the Brexit vote, my home town’s pub opened early and celebratory pints were drunk underneath union flags. I was in a rehearsal room in London surrounded by the shellshocked and outraged. The media I read on the tube home reiterated what I’d heard all day: these leave voters were ignorant and racist. My town voted just over 70% for leave. Three years later the constituency voted Conservative for the first time in its history. In a recent council election it voted Reform. There comes a time when the unthinkable becomes inevitable.My town is in the East Midlands. Where it was once coal mining and manufacturing that provided work for many people, it is now a huge distribution warehouse for Sports Direct. Many eastern European people have made Shirebrook their home and work at the warehouse. I have been thinking about towns such as mine – and there are many of them – with the recent outpouring of anger and xenophobia towards asylum seekers and migrants. Continue reading...

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