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    After the Windrush

    The UK is threatening to deport people who have lived in this country for many years but never formalised their citizenship.

    There is one of those parliamentary petitions about it.

    Meanwhile, for reasons that completely elude me, the BBC is going to broadcast a high-production values version of Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Snot' speech, which will be a nice boon for anyone wishing to sample it and set it to stirring music.

    #2
    Heard about this on the news earlier, an absolute disgrace. Signed the petition, good work DM for flagging that up, thanks.

    Comment


      #3
      This is an absolute fucking disgrace and I'd heartily endorse signing the petition. The idea of childhood friends' parents being shipped out on some stupid paperwork oversight is just beyond belief.

      Enoch Powell was an insane carpetbagger whose 'Stately Roman reluctantly deploring the decline of the Republic' act was forensically designed to appeal to the kind of life deficient shit hammer who gets ahead in News International/the BBC even now. Christ, even Kingsley Amis thought that he was deranged.

      Comment


        #4
        THere's been a lot of good comment on Powell including this by Ash Sarkar

        She quotes the mighty Stuart Hall

        Powell took great care to stress that there is “nothing is more misleading than comparison between the Commonwealth immigrant in Britain and the American Negro” as the black population in the United States had been there “before the United States became a nation.” Commonwealth migrants are, by contrast, alien interlopers. The reasons for a person or a family wanting to travel halfway across the world remain strangely opaque; despite the Greco-Roman inflections to Enoch Powell’s oratory, the words “imperialism” and “empire” do not make an appearance once in the speech.

        Here we see the double-voicedness of nostalgia. First, as the impossible longing for Britain as it never was – a homogeneously white sovereign entity, geographically and socially contained to a drizzly archipelago in the North Sea. And secondly, as the pain of homecoming – the trauma of immigration not as invasion, but of prodigal children returning. As Stuart Hall wrote of postwar, postcolonial migration: “We have been there for centuries. I was coming home. I am the sugar at the bottom of the English cup of tea. I am the sweet tooth, the sugar plantations that rotted generations of English children’s teeth… That is the outside history that is inside the history of the English.”

        Comment


          #5
          I've signed the Windrush petition. It's one of those which I actually think might persuade the government to change it's (transparently despicable) position.

          Comment


            #6
            https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-wolverhampton

            The guardian has today picked up on a debate that has been going on for months in wolverhampton's express and star - about whether to put a blue plaque on powell's old house in the city.

            Comment


              #7
              Signed too, this is following on from the same generation that is being refused NHS treatment such as the man who's been billed for £54k for cancer treatment and is no longer being treated until the bill is paid. Theresa May has refused to get involved.

              Comment


                #8
                Yes, signed this one a few day ago. It's shameful behavior by our government and by the Home Office.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Wasn't allowed to sign as (despite having a UK passport) apparently I have to be a British resident.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Jon View Post
                    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-wolverhampton

                    The guardian has today picked up on a debate that has been going on for months in wolverhampton's express and star - about whether to put a blue plaque on powell's old house in the city.
                    I'll contribute if you want to crowdfund burning it to the ground.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I think it's worth quoting my father on Enoch Poxwell (I am keeping that autocorrect).

                      "I hear that he used to pride himself on wearing a suit even on the hottest Sunday in summer. What an idiot."

                      Comment


                        #12
                        He also liked to deliver speeches with a full bladder, to give edge or something. Maybe unwise his saying "rivers".

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Made me think of the debate currently going on in Bristol about the Colston legacy. If people are happy to celebrate an actual slave trader, they'll have no qualms about a minor racist.

                          Come to think of it, there's a statue of Robert Clive in Shrewsbury that's in need of vandalising.

                          Petition signed btw.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by MsD View Post
                            He also liked to deliver speeches with a full bladder, to give edge or something. Maybe unwise his saying "rivers".
                            So it wasn't just shit that he was full of.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Petition has reached 100,000 signatures. Hopefully the Home Secretary and Prime Minister are present when this is discussed in parliament.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                Wasn't allowed to sign as (despite having a UK passport) apparently I have to be a British resident.
                                British citizen or UK resident is how it was worded when I accessed it. I just ticked the box and it was accepted without any problems.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Same here, ticked the box and entered Germany as my location, that worked fine.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Well done all

                                    Some personal stories here- shocking. people being expected to find 4 itmes of proof for every year they are here.

                                    What miserable fuckers The Home OFFice are. and wont meet Carribbean High Commissioners who should know their place.

                                    Amber Rudd happy to use Caribbean tax havens FFS

                                    Gary Yonge excellent as ever

                                    He has violated no law; it is the law that is violating him.
                                    Last edited by Nefertiti2; 15-04-2018, 17:23.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      I think the residents of Wolverhampton have more pressing concerns and it isn't as big a deal as some of the journalists make out.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        My post above was in relation to the Plaque which have surfaced in the local press periodically. I live in Wolverhampton and never heard one person refer to it or Enoch Powell.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Patrick Vernon, who started the petition, is originally from Wolverhampton. He lives in Hackney now, is married to my friend. He's been active in the debate about the Black Country flag, and has posted about the plaque, was due to take back in a debate about it but pulled out as a UKIP councillor was present.

                                          The plaque and flag are probably huge deals to activists on both sides, but it's interesting to hear that it's not a general concern.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            https://twitter.com/guitarmoog/status/985589168024801280

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Good blog post on the law that led to this.

                                              The Labour Party abstained for the most part

                                              No voters

                                              NOES

                                              Abbott, Ms Diane

                                              Durkan, Mark

                                              Galloway, George

                                              Hopkins, Kelvin

                                              Hosie, Stewart

                                              Lammy, rh Mr David

                                              Leech, Mr John

                                              Llwyd, rh Mr Elfyn

                                              Lucas, Caroline

                                              MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan

                                              Mactaggart, Fiona

                                              McDonnell, John

                                              Ritchie, Ms Margaret

                                              Skinner, Mr Dennis

                                              Teather, Sarah

                                              Ward, Mr David

                                              Williams, Hywel

                                              Wishart, Pete

                                              Tellers for the Noes:

                                              Jeremy Corbyn

                                              and

                                              Jonathan Edwards

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Also this thread is very good.

                                                https://twitter.com/colinyeo1/status/985786563333369861

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  "Deported in error."

                                                  https://twitter.com/cathynewman/status/985831260516945920

                                                  Comment

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