🤝Barnsley, Belonging, and Basic Decency

A personal reflection on how my hometown, Barnsley, is changing - and why I believe in letting people live without fear, division, or blame.

I’ve lived in Barnsley all the 25 years of my life. I’ve seen it change, stall, struggle, and survive.

I’ve seen the town centre full of empty shops, the high street slowly hollowed out as chains left and independent businesses couldn’t stay afloat. I’ve seen friends stuck on zero-hour contracts, working full-time hours without full-time rights. I’ve seen services cut back and public spaces neglected, while the same promises of “investment” get rolled out every election cycle.

But I've also seen The Glass Works development come to life - not because of some miracle government push, but because of local pride. It worked because the community backed it, because traders, workers, and residents kept turning up, putting in effort, and making it ours.

That’s Barnsley. We don’t give up - we graft, we get by, and we look out for each other. That’s the version of Barnsley I believe in. But lately, something darker’s been creeping in.

And it’s worth remembering: during the miners’ strike, it wasn’t just locals looking after locals. Gays and lesbians - many of them from cities like London - raised money, collected food, stood shoulder to shoulder with working-class mining communities like ours when the government turned its back. That solidarity went both ways. Our town didn’t ask who was helping - just that they showed up. That’s what real support looks like.

Solidarity has no borders. When miners needed help, the LGBTQ+ community stood with them. That’s the Britain I believe in.

There’s a growing wave of anti-immigrant, anti-trans, anti-gay rhetoric rolling through the country - and it’s loudest in places like ours. Reform UK and others like them have latched onto real frustration and redirected it at the easiest targets: people who look different, live different, love different.

It’s not just politics anymore. It’s day-to-day life. It’s blokes in the pub muttering about “them lot.” It’s eye-rolling at pronouns. It’s shouting down refugees who’ve got nothing. It’s hate, dressed up as “common sense.”

Let’s be real:

• The gay couple down the road? Not your enemy.

• The trans woman using a changing room? Not hurting you, or your partner.

• The immigrant working a job you wouldn’t do? Not the reason the NHS is stretched.

The people pulling the strings don’t live on your estate. They don’t shop in Aldi/Asda or wait three weeks for a GP appointment. They just need someone else to blame - and if we’re not careful, we’ll keep falling for it.

And here’s the thing: I’ve got friends who are Polish, Romanian, Iranian and all sorts of backgrounds. They live here, work here, want a peaceful life - just like the rest of us. This is a patch of land we were randomly born on. Who am I to say they don’t belong? Who am I to ostracise someone for not being born within the same set of imaginary borders assigned to us at birth?

One of my closest mates is a maths whiz from Poland. He’s now an actuary working at a large pension firm, earning good money, building a career, and investing in the UK economy. Should he be deported because he wasn’t born in Barnsley? That’s what some of these parties are openly suggesting.

It’s a madness - and honestly, it’s a sad reflection of what can happen when certain generations hold onto deeply outdated views. I’m not saying every older person thinks like that, but some of these prejudices run deep. They’ve been normalised for so long that a lot of people don’t even question them anymore.

I’m not asking anyone to become an activist. I just want people to get on and live. We’re on this planet for maybe 80 years if we’re lucky. Why waste it making someone else’s life harder?

This isn’t about left or right. It’s about basic decency. You don’t have to understand someone to leave them alone. You don’t have to like someone’s life to let them live it.

I want to be clear - I’m not putting my fellow residents or citizens down. I respect where I come from. In fact, what I’m standing up for are the British values I was raised on: transparency, tolerance, mutual respect, and understanding. I’m not trying to force anyone to think like me. You're absolutely entitled to your own views - just like I’m entitled to mine. This is mine.

I care about fairness. I care about truth. And I care about the fact that towns like mine are being dragged into culture wars that don’t help us, don’t feed us, don’t house us, and don’t reflect who we really are.

We used to stand together. That was our strength.

Somewhere along the line, we started turning on each other.

Maybe it’s time we stopped.

This post is a bit different from my usual tech content - but I felt it needed to be said.

I’m not asking anyone to change what they believe, vote a certain way, or start marching at Pride. I’m just asking for a bit of space - for people to live their lives without being harassed, politicised, or blamed for things that have nothing to do with them.

You don’t have to understand someone’s identity to leave them alone. You just have to recognise that being different isn’t a threat. It’s just life.