Parish magazine apologises over poems about migrants and fat people

A parish church magazine has been forced to apologise after a contributing poet left 'woke' readers spluttering over verses on illegal immigrants, benefit scroungers and fat people.

Until recently, few batted an eyelid at the work of Diana Hunt, which featured regularly on the pages of the Uplyme Parish News, a monthly freesheet for a village of 1,700 residents on the Devon-Dorset border.

Tucked between updates from the horticultural society and news from the bellringers of St Peter and St Paul Church, her poems were reliably a whimsical reflection on local affairs.

But the fragile sensitivities of the local readership were shattered when Ms Hunt recently took the unexpected decision to pivot into fiery political discourse.

Churchgoers flicking through March's edition found themselves confronted by a poem - 'Know It All' - taking aim at illegal migrants, benefits cheats and fat people who cannot afford to eat.

It went: 'From politics to climate change and other world events, to how much money in benefits to scroungers have been sent.

'There's always one who pitches up to say they can't heat their homes, they fail to see the irony as they clutch their expensive mobile phones.

'Then the great big fat ones who say they can't afford to eat, many could live quite easily on their body fat for weeks.

'Boat loads of illegals who are flocking to our land, possibly one woman to every 10 of man.'

Having warmed to her new subject, Ms Hunt followed it up with a poem called 'Broken Britain' for the April edition.

She wrote: 'The high street where drug users deal drugs in public places, they know there's no police around no need to hide their faces.

'Boat loads of illegals flooding to our shores, step this way for hotel rooms and benefits galore.

'What about the people already sleeping on our streets, not for them the promises of warm beds with clean white sheets.

'Everyone who's come that way the story's all the same, if it costs so much to get here why not come by plane?'

The backlash was immediate. With three complaints in his inbox, Robin Hodges, editor of the Uplyme Parish News for 25 years, had a crisis on his hands.

He soon apologised - accepting it was not an appropriate subject matter for a church magazine and promising to publish a statement addressing the controversy in May's edition.

Yet despite culling the offending editions from the church website and vowing to stop publishing Ms Hunt's poems with immediate effect, Mr Hodges insisted he was not censoring anyone.

He said: 'It was a lapse of judgement on my part which I regret, we are going to put something in the May edition.

'I have been in contact with Diana via email and she was really sad that people took it the wrong way.

'Maybe it was not the right thing to go into a church magazine, I take full responsibility for it and I don't blame her at all.

'It is not censorship, she was just sad that people took it the way that they did.'

It is understood that Ms Hunt wrote the poems as a 'bit of fun' and they were meant to be tongue-in-cheek rather than a reflection of her own opinions.

One of those who complained about her poetry was resident David Michael.

He said: 'There is no place in a Christian parish magazine for the sentiments expressed in the poem. I don't subscribe to the magazine, it comes free through the door each month.

'I read it merely to know what's going on in the community.

'People are indeed entitled to their own opinions and mine are that uncharitable poetry and sentiments don't have a place in a parish magazine.'

Another resident, Martin Satherley, posted online: 'Whether you agree with the author of the poem or not it's not something I personally would expect in a parish magazine.

'I guess it's not really the place to discuss highly controversial opinions or that type of life's experiences although I do respect the author's right to have those opinions.'

But others took to social media to defend Ms Hunt and her poetry. Lee Saunders wrote: 'Actively demonising and persecuting a member of your very small community…you should be ashamed of yourself.'

Matt Harrington said the 'Broken Britain' poem 'sounds pretty true to me', while Paul Reader was quick to identify what he thought might be the real issue, writing online: 'Woke complained?'