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Empire Windrush


Gardian
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I usually don’t involve myself on here over ‘political’ matters. Prefer to try to confine myself to subjects over matters / questions on which I may have some knowledge.

However ........... this business is a complete scandal and I doubt & sincerely hope, that nobody on here would think otherwise.

Of course, illegal immigration should be dealt with ...... and immediately. But, people who fetched up in the UK decades ago, often as children of previous legitimate immigrants ....... !

To me, this whole charade beggars belief - how on earth could these cases have got beyond the middle level of ‘Immigration Management’ in the Civil Service without somebody saying “This ain’t right”?

If I was the PM, I’d want somebody to swing for this.

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"My nasty mind says that this is a set up to embarrass the PM. "

Well even the PM is not denying the facts, so I don't see how the facts can be a set up.

The revelation itself is a different issue, so are you saying that it has only been brought to light to embarrass her, and it would it have been better to sweep it all under the carpet? I think not because now it has hit the headlines she has been obliged to change her tune and apologise, and there is a chance something might be done about it.
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and apparently the Home office shredded the evidence of when these folk came to the UK back in 2012. And who was in charge of the Home Office then?

I don't think anyone needs to embarrass TM, she seems pretty good at doing it herself.

And to think she is in charge of Brexit - dog help all Brits.
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My guess is that some old boxes were found, the contents examined and not thought to be of any value and the whole lot junked.

Noone could have thought that the Home Office would later go on a witchhunt to ban British citizens from being in the EweKay. There have been a few cases in the Press besides the Windrush people, suggesting that they are being targeted rather than some others who might be got rid of without loss, but who will cost a fortune to get rid of as they will appeal, appeal, appeal etc at public expense; one example being members of the gangs who were abusing young girls in places like Rotheram.
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Another of Mrs May's "errors":

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/theresa-may-falsely-tried-to-blame-labour-for-the-windrush-fiasco-to-deflect-jeremy-corbyns-questions_uk_5ad74773e4b0e4d0715c25b1?utm_hp_ref=uk-homepage
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[quote user="woolybanana"]My guess is that some old boxes were found, the contents examined and not thought to be of any value and the whole lot junked. [/quote]

That would be a wrong guess then, the landing cards of millions of immigrants have to be carefully stored and indexed taking thousands of working hours and I know where that is.

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I agree that this is a scandal and that, IMO, official paperwork MUST be kept for at least 100 years. So this should not be a problem.

I am wondering how all the people involved dealt with their paperwork, ie passports, NI numbers etc etc.  Surely at some point, something would have come up that things were not as they thought.

And maybe I just lived in France too long and think that people should keep up with their official paperwork.

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NI numbers - proves nothing. I have German and French Social security numbers as well as my UK one. They would have requested and been legitimately given NI numbers.

Passports - for the first 20 years or so they would have requested and got UK and Commonwealth passports - just like the rest of us at that time. I think there may well have been a "remark" in the passport, but that would have had no major influence until the TM legislation. It is quite possible that some of these folk never had a need for a passport, if they had no real links back to their place of birth.
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[quote user="andyh4"]NI numbers - proves nothing. I have German and French Social security numbers as well as my UK one. They would have requested and been legitimately given NI numbers.

Passports - for the first 20 years or so they would have requested and got UK and Commonwealth passports - just like the rest of us at that time. I think there may well have been a "remark" in the passport, but that would have had no major influence until the TM legislation. It is quite possible that some of these folk never had a need for a passport, if they had no real links back to their place of birth.[/quote]

I was born in a UK Colony, came to the UK at the age of one, and none of my British passports from 1955 onwards, had a "remark" of any kind in them until after the events of one day, in 1968, when  I was refused entry at Heathrow, on arriving from work in the Middle East.

To say the least, I was very upset and embarrassed, and can understand the reaction of the non-existent people who TM says have not been affected by the incompetence of the Home Office.

After a heated argument I was allowed to enter for long enough to see my mother, the purpose of my visit, and on returning to the ME I had to produce my Birth Certificate, and that of my father, to the local Consulate, who put an exemption certificate in my passport.

Luckily, after experiencing the random requirements of various other countries I had worked and lived in, my wife and I had become used to dragging sheaves of personal documents with us around the world. One country even demanded Baptismal Certificates, presumably to prove we're not Jewish.

My subsequent passports had printed on them that I had the "Right of Abode" in the UK, and, later, including today, they simply say "BRITISH CITIZEN"

Our son and daughter were both born outside the UK. When they renewed their passports one year, even though both I and my wife are British Citizens, and they were living in England, the rules had changed yet again  and they had to supply both my and my father's Birth Certificates.

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[quote user="andyh4"]Terrible situation Nomoss, but the fact that you were "pulled" on arrival at Heathrow says to me that there was something on your passport that identified you as not UK born or some such status.[/quote]

Yes. The page opposite my photograph shows the town and country where I was born[:D]

Now on the same page since the maroon passports.

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I have just watched the video interview with Albert Thompson, the poor man that is being refused treatment on the NHS for his prostate cancer, it has truly sickened me. As he states in the video he has been working and paying his taxes since 1974 in the UK, yet under May's Britain because he does not have a passport, he could well die of the awful disease due to lack of treatment.

This man could well be dying and all the tories are concerned with is trying to shift the blame away from themselves, truly disgusting. For God's sake May for once in your life show some compassion, why has this poor man had to go to the press to try and get the treatment that may save his life? Sadly I think that May must run everything past Lord Snooty and his Brexit buddies to see if it is acceptable, although in this instance I cannot for the life of me think that anybody would refuse the Windrush people their rights, just because they are immigrants. But hey it's the tory party that we are talking about.

For anybody interested, here is the link:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/19/civil-servants-union-boss-dave-penman-hits-back-at-rudd-windrush-blame

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Like Nomoss, Mr Betty had a passport saying he had "right of abode" in the UK until relatively recently. In fact, born in a (then) Commonwealth country, he didn't even find out he wasn't British till he was 22. By that time, he had been issued with a British Visitor's Passport (remember them?) and was studying at a UK university and getting a grant and generally believing he was British. Only when he applied for a 10 year passport did he discover he wasn't. This was in the 1970's, though, and he was able to apply for citizenship and get it with ease. I'm not sure it would be at all straightforward now...
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Excuse me.

People born in the colonies were not "immigrants" when they came to the UK, up until some time in the late 1960's. They were just as British as most people on here.

EDIT: And still are.

EDIT: No-one suggested I wasn't British when I registered for National Service, nor when I joined the armed forces.

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