If Theresa May won’t resign over #WindrushGeneration, there should be a vote of ‘no confidence’ in her government
I just posted on Twitter: “We should tweet every Conservative MP and council candidate, and say: “Treatment of the Windrush Generation by Theresa May was racist and homicidal. Do you support a vote of ‘no confidence’ in her government or are you also a racist?”
Too soon?
I don’t think so.
It is a message that could be used on any social media platform where Conservatives – and, for that matter, DUP MPs – have a presence. And it would be worth asking Liberal Democrats as well – they were in a coalition government with the Tories when the Windrush landing papers were torched and when the Immigration Act 2014, which caused the harm, was passed. It might even be worth sending it to some Labour MPs – only six of those in Parliament at the time opposed the Act (including Jeremy Corbyn).
Jeremy Corbyn speaking at rally against regressive and hateful #StopTheImmigrationBill pic.twitter.com/iWQ2TW59Iq
— Jennie Formby (@Jennieformby1) October 22, 2013
That’s why he was justified in speaking about her in the following way, during Prime Minister’s Questions on April 18:
At #PMQs, I asked @Theresa_May about the treatment of the Windrush Generation.
Responsibility for this shameful episode lies firmly with the Prime Minister. pic.twitter.com/S48dgyfkVM
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 18, 2018
And what did Mrs May do?
She lied.
She said: “The decision to destroy the landing cards was taken in 2009 when, as I seem to recall, a Labour Home Secretary was in position.”
We all knew already that the decision was taken in 2010 – when Theresa May herself was Home Secretary – and implemented in October of that year, at her command.
A Point of Order by @DawnButlerBrent has just confirmed that Jeremy Corbyn was correct at #PMQs, and Theresa May misled Parliament today. The #WindrushGeneration records were destroyed under a Tory Government in 2010, when Theresa May was Home Sec. She is an utter disgrace. https://t.co/pscIQbkFE8
— John Shearman (@JohnofThorney) April 18, 2018
For further information contradicting the narrative the Tories have been attempting to create, see this article.
And for some of the effects on the Windrush Generation victims, see this one.
At the time of writing, according to Evan Davis on the BBC’s Newsnight, Mrs May is now trying to pass it off as an act by Home Office employees rather than government ministers – but this is another transparent lie; civil servants don’t do anything of the sort unless it is demanded by a member of the government.
Mrs May also said: “I will not take an accusation of being callous from a man who allows anti-Semitism to run rife in his party.”
That’s called “whataboutery”.
She actually responded to an important issue with a “what about Labour” whine.
Everybody who has been involved in the anti-Semitism debate to which she was referring will know that referring to similar faults in an opponent in no way excuses one’s own. The fact that Mrs May had to stoop to such a tactic demonstrates her inability to mount an effective defence (although I admit this would be defending the indefensible in any case).
It seems current Home Secretary Amber Rudd is under pressure to resign over the racism shown by the Conservatives to the Windrush Generation. Here‘s an article about that, by The Independent.
But Theresa May was the Home Secretary who created this scandal. She came up with the racist policies and she enacted them into law.
And now we know that at least one person has died as a result of this.
His name was Dexter Bristol, and I’ll let The Guardian tell his story:
“Dexter Bristol, who was 57 when he died, moved from Grenada to the UK when he was eight in 1968, to join his mother who was working as an NHS nurse, and spent the rest of his life in the UK. He was sacked from his cleaning job last year because he had no passport, and was denied benefits because officials did not believe he was in the country legally.
“He spent the last year of life trying to untangle his immigration situation, repeatedly attempting and failing to get the Home Office to acknowledge that he was not an illegal immigrant. Until he was sacked, he had no idea there was any problem with his immigration status.
“He was born a British subject in Grenada, but had never been able to get a British passport, and struggled to gather the extensive documentation required by officials to prove that he was not an overstayer. On 31 March he collapsed in the street outside his home and died. Ahead of an upcoming inquest, the cause of death is unknown.
“His mother, Sentina Bristol, said it was hard to articulate how angry she felt. “I think Theresa May should resign. I don’t enjoy saying that. This situation has to be amended,” she said. “My son is British. We didn’t come here illegally.””
Mrs May also supports racists in her Parliamentary party. Remember Anne Marie Morris, the Tory MP who had the party whip suspended after she spoke about a “N*gg*r in the woodpile” during a meeting about Brexit?
Theresa May lifted her suspension last December – without explanation.
Now consider this:
Far from being sorry about what has happened, the Conservatives are going to use the same legislation to victimise the children of EU-born citizens.
Here‘s Left Foot Forward:
“The unfolding scandal is stoking concerns among EU nationals in the UK, who also exercised freedom of movement to come to the UK – and who are being asked to produce retroactive proof of their right to remain in the emerging post-Brexit scenario.
“A new study at the Institue for Research into Superdiversity – EU families and “Eurochildren” in Brexiting Britain – shows that EU citizens and their family members living in the UK are at risk of falling through the cracks during UK-EU withdrawal negotiations.
“Their rights to future residence and citizenship would be thrown into question after Brexit, particularly for children, whose status depends on their parents.”
It would be a typical Tory strategy – apologise after one persecution becomes public but use the same legislation to inflict another persecution on someone else.
I agree with Sue Jones, below:
— Revolution Breeze (@SueJonesSays) April 18, 2018
The relevant part, for me, is: “We should all be vocal about it because if we are not we run the risk of nobody being left to be vocal.”
Remember when I quoted Martin Niemöller’s famous “first they came” statement, in an article about the plight of the sick and disabled at the hands of the Conservative-run Department for Work and Pensions? Here‘s just one example.
Well, we could add a few lines to the modern version, describing life in Tory Britain:
“First they came for the sick and disabled,
“and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t sick or disabled.
“Then they came for people whose families had come here from Commonwealth countries,
“and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t one of them.
“Then they came for the families of EU-born citizens,
“and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t one of them.
“Then they came for me,
“and there was no one left to speak for me.”
This Writer has been speaking out ever since the Conservatives slithered back into office in 2010, especially for those who are vulnerable and do not have anyone else to represent them.
If you’ve never tried it, don’t you think it’s time you joined me?
Theresa May is a racist whose policies of hatred and division have tormented many people – we don’t even know how many because her government has not kept records – and killed at least one. She must be removed from power and if she won’t go willingly, she’ll have to be pushed.
At the top of this article is my first move towards this.
What’s yours?
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Well Jeremy I hope you’re ready to takeover as PM anytime soon..
Who the hell would want to be an MP? I mean sitting at a desk and trying to decipher what the ordinary people (like me) are tryin to say?
Yep it would be a tough job with a salary of 50 60 70k or more plus
expenses ? they even have to drag themselves to the HOC & get their £300 expenses.. then go into one of the restaurants for a slap up (subsidi
by our taxes) posh meal & Champaign? Yes it’s a tough job but someone has to do it…
PS can I claim for my electric bill to keep my stables warm for my poor horses?
Sorry I’m probably in the wrong section but so annoyed at this woman creature, so many lies & no one gives a damn about it as she gets away with it all the time.. Ive heard the expression that she’s not above the the law but, she is as she gets away with it all the time…
Like you Mike, I’ve been banging on since 2010, we’ve had a couple of agree to disagree moments but our sentiment is the same, Conservative are not fit for office, any office, and we must see that they are never allowed to wield any power over this country again.
These people have absolutely no shame. Hatred, bigotry and division is in their DNA, so don’t expect any resignations. A vote of No Confidence would be a good outcome, but I suspect the Tory bigots and the Ulster bigots would unite to defeat it.
Yes, I think so too. But then we would know that everybody who voted to support the government is a racist.
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP05-52/RP05-52.pdf This is where the legislation came from.
i am thinking someone somewhere has developed a type of invisible and secret super superglue which is holding her fingers on the edge of the precipice which she should have fallen into a long time ago. how she has stayed glued to the job for so long is beyond me. if she had been a normal citizen like you or me she would have been tried found guilty and slung in jail a long time ago
She’s been caught out, again;
Former May Aide’s Attempt to Defend Her Undermined by Email Leak
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-19/former-may-aide-s-attempt-to-defend-her-undermined-by-email-leak
“Far from objecting to the plan, May’s only objection at that point was that it might look too soft on illegal immigrants.
“The Home Secretary has commented that it is right to advertise enforcement action but we should not be advertising that we will pay people to leave, which is the effect of the proposed advertisements,” he wrote. “Please can officials consider how the material can be revised to get the messaging right and not expose the Agency to criticism for giving tax payers’ money to illegal migrants?”
On March 25, officials sent revised publicity images “in response to the Minister’s and Home Secretary’s steers.” May’s office continued to be copied in on emails about Operation Vaken up to and after its launch.”
Ruining their track record from how they dealt with Grenfell. Oh wait . . . . . .