“I am shocked to think that people can be so forgetful…”

“Dear Polish Express

strajk imigrantów

I have just seen how abusive some of the remarks made in response to a news article in a British newspaper have been towards Polish people working in the UK. I am shocked to think that people can be so forgetful about the very great service Poles, past and present, have made in the UK.

Perhaps my age partly explains my attitude as, at just over 60 years of age, I was raised to acknowledge the debt owed to Polish pilots in WW2, to know that Poles in my hometown funded their own club (no grants from anyone in the fifties/sixties!), courageously started the process of ending the Cold War in the seventies with Solidarity, and finally came to the UK prepared to work hard and to pay into the state not to take from it.

I am personally very grateful for everything that Poles have done in and for the UK – it may not be any big deal, a thank you from a middle-aged nobody, but it is truly meant from the heart.”

S L Hobley