Windrush

That's life mate...........

 

This isn't something that has just happened. It has been bubbling for years under successive Governments.

There have to sensible rules and procedures in place otherwise the country will be full to bursting with people coming here for a better life.

Unfortunately, as with any rules and regulations, this may mean some people have inadvertently broken the rules - yes, often without knowing.

Alas, it also brings to our attention the odd case of the Bradford girl who now lives in Cumbria. On the surface it seems unfair, but as you did deeper it seems her parents have put her in a weird position by not completing paperwork correctly. Hopefully it will get sorted in a positive way as she she seems like the kind of person we need in this country.

But how would you feel if a friend or relative was killed by someone who didn't have the correct papers - in fact didn't have ANY papers - to say they could live in this country.

How would you feel if 40,000 Pakistans came to join relatives in Bradford and didn't bother with the proper paperwork.

I totally agree that the Windrush generation may need a lot of leeway and I hope they get it, but at the same time we must start to become stronger and more efficient at ensuring rules are followed.

 

I have done some reading and I MASSIVELY empathise with the people involved. It just doesn't seem right as these are good people who have been hard working and contributed hugely in so many ways.

Alas. We have to have rules and rules have to be followed otherwise it would be a free for all and we would have anarchy.

I have a friend who, for various reason, won't apply for a passport. He thinks he has been here all his life and he is over 50 now. It isn't his fault that he is in this mess, but equally it isn't the Government's fault that his parents seem to have not done things by the book. It also not the Government's fault that he had his buried his head in the sand his whole adult life. Should he have spoken up sooner and tried to sort it out? Tough call.

 

Labour are pushing this agenda ( even though they are complict with it ) to detract from the anti semitisum rife in their party driven by the hard left momentum think tank . Nobody is saying the Wlndrush situation isn't wrong, but it is getting addresed . Past government's of both parties have swept it under the carpet .

 

How do you decide who is illegal and who is not?

Successive Governments have totally dropped the ball on immigration and citizenship and this is why we have ended up in this mess. It isn't because of the current government. It is just them who are now having to try to sort the mess out.

My hope would be that we are, as a nation, firm but fair. Where there is a clear case of blamelessness (e.g. someone who arrived as a four year old sixty years ago) then we have compassion and understanding as a default.

The problem is that is very hard to have blanket rules as there are so many scenarios.

Hopefully, going forward, we will have a much more 'grown-up' immigration policy that is fair, equitable, compassionate and achieves our objectives as a nation.

 

Interesting reading. Thanks for sharing that. I learned something.

 

Here's some interesting information for all those who blame that 'twatish' Tory government.

"Both Labour and the Conservatives have accused each other of being responsible for the destruction of Windrush landing cards. The decision to dispose of them was taken in 2009 under Labour (although the then-Home Secretary says he didn’t sign it off). The actual destruction of the documents took place under the Conservatives, when Theresa May was Home Secretary. The documents were destroyed as part of the UK Border Agency’s legal obligations under the the Data Protection Act. At the time, the Border Agency didn’t consider the documents to be of sufficient value to keep hold of."

Source: https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-who-destroyed-the-windrush-landing-cards​

So mistakes all round I'd say - and that is coming from the left-wing biased Channel 4.

It is getting a bit tedious that when anything happens Corbyn and his groupies point their finger at the Tories and start calling the cold-hearted callous twats, or similar. Truth is that successive governments have messed up BIG TIME on immigration and none more so than the Blair's time in office, and Brown after him, under which the decision to dispose of these records was made.

 

You're right. Alas, things change all the time and that can have a knock on impact on decisions made in the past.

Three related points:

1. Had the previous Government not emptied the treasury's coffers and left the country in massive debt, there may have been sufficient funds available to pay for digitisation.
2. The technology to do mass digitisation has existed since the start of the century so why was this not done before 2009 then this mess could have been avoided completely.
3. If the previous Government had not messed up so very badly on immigration over so many years then the kind of tough measures now having to be imposed would not have been necessary.

So the conclusion being that it isn't acceptable to put all blame on this Government for a mess that was quite clearly (in a major part) caused by the previous Government.

The most important thing now is to recognise that mistake have been made and to get them rectified as quickly and efficiently as possible, and let these poor people get on with their lives in the knowledge that they ARE valued members of our community and always will be.

 

Being rational is not your forte is it lad...?