As Susannah Parden, the vice-chair of Piddington Parish Council, triumphantly declared the result of the village’s independence “referendum” to leave the UK, there appeared a mischievous glint in her eye.
Stirred up by a plan for a nearby camp housing 1,250 asylum seekers, this sleepy Oxfordshire community has achieved what no other mainland village, town or city had done before – albeit a status that is merely symbolic.
