Windrush Ooh Aah

[PaphosAL]

My Mum always bought coal in the Summer, when it was much cheaper. And it was delivered to your door! Her forward planning and economy measures became ingrained into me...

AL

[Rita Sherry]

The truth is that there has been a monumental cock up, by all the parties, which is now being redressed...I am sure that there will be some form of "enquiry" in order to prevent such an event happening again but at the moment it is action that is required....action which the Government is taking.

Not sure it will be redressed in the way it should be. Please read the small print of what politicians say. Yes, the documentation, including passports will be addressed but according to the government financial compensation will be given "where (financial) loss has occurred" and only in "appropriate" circumstances.
No mention of financial compensation other than where loss has actually occurred and who will be deciding whether financial compensation is APPROPRIATE. Will it be the same group of people that were originally immorally deporting those poor unfortunates.
Before fanfaring that the government is taking action, at least let's make sure it is sufficient and correct action.

[Loxely Man]

My Mum always bought coal in the Summer, when it was much cheaper. And it was delivered to your door! Her forward planning and economy measures became ingrained into me...

AL

Sheffield coal was used for steam and not allocated for domestic use we had to queue in the 1940s at the canal wharf for the coal barges to come in with lower quality coal from other regions.

[Loxely Man]

My Mum always bought coal in the Summer, when it was much cheaper. And it was delivered to your door! Her forward planning and economy measures became ingrained into me...

AL

Sheffield coal was used for steam and not allocated for domestic use we had to queue in the post war 1940s at the canal wharf for the coal barges to come in with lower quality coal from other regions.

[Varky]

Compensation should only be apportioned where appropriate and where there is evidence of financial loss, not just dished out....I can't really see a problem with that can you? And yes I agree the proof is in the pudding and I sincerely hope the Government gets this right.

There are other types of loss that are not directly financial. In some cases this could be difficult to prove without documentation. I do hope it is not the same group of people who will decide if financial loss is appropriate as those who were going to unilaterally deport immigrants whose landing cards as proof of arrival were destroyed by the Home Office. Their track record is not the greatest.

[STELIOSBWFC]

One thing makes me laugh(And laugh at the government not the people involved) about this. The people came over invited and worked bloody hard to help the English economy yet we let any Tom dick and Harry in through the Blair and Brown flood gates that never had a pot to piss in. It is heart breaking and sad they have lost homes and jobs. Yet if you marry your cousin from Pakistan you can bring your wife over that has not done a tap. They have been loyal to the crown and contributed the same as us.

[Devil]

I was born in Sheffield in 1943,

So you remember nothing of the war, nor the immediate post-war years, so why pretend? I am 11 years older than you and I remember what really was going on during and after the war. My father was a mechanical engineer working for the then Renold and Coventry Chain Co of Wythenshawe, covering Scotland as a consultant. In the school holidays, I often went with him when ha had to visit breakdowns. He had to prioritise companies with problems. The top ones for the war effort were breweries and munitions factories; paper and textile mills etc. often had to wait for replacement parts. I left school in July 1948, at 15, and started an apprenticeship with Ferranti in Edinburgh, which were making gyroscopic gun sights for bombers, yes, three years after the war ended, and this was precision engineering with top quality machines (no overhead transmission shafts and belt drives, as you describe, but I had seen plenty of those elsewhere). Also, one of the 'pleasures' of my youth was spending the nights in the air-raid shelter with shrapnel falling audibly every night during the Clydebank raids. Do you remember when a single orange became available about the end of the war in Europe on presentation of a blue (child's) ration book? Did you trudge home from school, sometimes in the snow, in the blackout because the trams stopped working (have you walked into a lamppost in the blackout?)?

[Loxely Man]

I was born in Sheffield in 1943,

So you remember nothing of the war, nor the immediate post-war years, so why pretend?

I remember bring in Hospital for a hernia operation in 1946 (an immediate post war year) when I was 3 years old my brother was in the next bed he was 4 years old, one of the things that still sticks in my mind was the tray of sweets which were on ration that were brought round every morning. please don't be offensive.

[Loxely Man]

They came over for a better life, none of them wanted to return to their indigenous roots, Africa, where they were forcibly taken from by rich slave owners not working class British people.

[WHL]

They came over for a better life, none of them wanted to return to their indigenous roots, Africa, where they were forcibly taken from by rich slave owners not working class British people.

I think we all get were your coming from.

[Dominic]

I was born in Sheffield in 1943,

So you remember nothing of the war, nor the immediate post-war years, so why pretend?

I remember bring in Hospital for a hernia operation in 1946 (an immediate post war year) when I was 3 years old my brother was in the next bed he was 4 years old, one of the things that still sticks in my mind was the tray of sweets which were on ration that were brought round every morning. please don't be offensive.

Sorry, not having that. You were posting earlier as if you were working in a factory that would have been affected by the Windrush-era arrivals. It turns out you were just starting school at the time. I had my appendix out at the Cambridge Military Hospital in the late 70s. I must have been about 10 at the time. I remember the food was pretty grim, and that my family went to Norfolk for a wedding. I don't remember anything about the politics of the time though, or what the job situation was like. Remembering you had a boiled sweet, while quaint, doesn't turn you into an ace late 40's era sociopolitical pundit.

[Steve - SJD]

One thing makes me laugh(And laugh at the government not the people involved) about this. The people came over invited and worked bloody hard to help the English economy yet we let any Tom dick and Harry in through the Blair and Brown flood gates that never had a pot to piss in. It is heart breaking and sad they have lost homes and jobs. Yet if you marry your cousin from Pakistan you can bring your wife over that has not done a tap. They have been loyal to the crown and contributed the same as us.

Agree with most of that Stelios but on the wife from Pakistan bit that is not correct - it's pretty dificult to get them into the UK. I was recently working with a chap that was trying to bring his wife in (not cousin) and he was going through the process. He had to be able to show that he was able to support her by providing wage slips over a good length of time above a certain limit (can't remember off the top of my head what the annual wage had to be but it certainly wasn't minimum wage). There were lots of other hoops that needed to be jumped through and the process was not a short one. He was working two jobs in addition to the community work he was doing through the mosque.

Personally I don't want to see layabouts and spongers taking from the system but that applies equally to those born outside or in the UK. I'll always welcome those that want to work and contribute to the economy as with an ageing population they are an asset.

Cheers

Steve

[Loxely Man]

So you remember nothing of the war, nor the immediate post-war years, so why pretend?

I remember bring in Hospital for a hernia operation in 1946 (an immediate post war year) when I was 3 years old my brother was in the next bed he was 4 years old, one of the things that still sticks in my mind was the tray of sweets which were on ration that were brought round every morning. please don't be offensive.

Sorry, not having that. You were posting earlier as if you were working in a factory that would have been affected by the Windrush-era arrivals. It turns out you were just starting school at the time. I had my appendix out at the Cambridge Military Hospital in the late 70s. I must have been about 10 at the time. I remember the food was pretty grim, and that my family went to Norfolk for a wedding. I don't remember anything about the politics of the time though, or what the job situation was like. Remembering you had a boiled sweet, while quaint, doesn't turn you into an ace late 40's era sociopolitical pundit.

I started work in 1958, in the late forties we shopped in Sheffield market on Saturdays and bought sweets from the boiled sweet stall. I have many memories of that first house that I lived in I have a photo taken outside that house when I was 3 years old, we moved from there when I was just 7 years old. I started school in 1948 in the class above me was Roger Taylor who went on to become a well known tennis player.

As I said earlier I queued in the snow with my mother and brother at the canal wharf in the winter 46 going into 47 for a sack of coal I and my brother caught such bad colds that the coughing resulted in a second hernia for me and a first for my brother we both had to be taken into hospital for surgery.

[WHL]

I remember bring in Hospital for a hernia operation in 1946 (an immediate post war year) when I was 3 years old my brother was in the next bed he was 4 years old, one of the things that still sticks in my mind was the tray of sweets which were on ration that were brought round every morning. please don't be offensive.

Sorry, not having that. You were posting earlier as if you were working in a factory that would have been affected by the Windrush-era arrivals. It turns out you were just starting school at the time. I had my appendix out at the Cambridge Military Hospital in the late 70s. I must have been about 10 at the time. I remember the food was pretty grim, and that my family went to Norfolk for a wedding. I don't remember anything about the politics of the time though, or what the job situation was like. Remembering you had a boiled sweet, while quaint, doesn't turn you into an ace late 40's era sociopolitical pundit.

I started work in 1958, in the late forties we shopped in Sheffield market on Saturdays and bought sweets from the boiled sweet stall. I have many memories of that first house that I lived in I have a photo taken outside that house when I was 3 years old, we moved from there when I was just 7 years old. I started school in 1948 in the class above me was Roger Taylor who went on to become a well known tennis player.

As I said earlier I queued in the snow with my mother and brother at the canal wharf in the winter 46 going into 47 for a sack of coal I and my brother caught such bad colds that the coughing resulted in a second hernia for me and a first for my brother we both had to be taken into hospital for surgery.

But what has this got to do with the Windrush?

[William Morris]

Ditto, WHL, what has any of Loxleys posting got to do with Windrush??

Please refer to my first reply of page 2.
D
Born in 43, started school in 48, first job in 58. By the time 1964 rolls around he would have been 21. National Service stopped in 63 so might have just got caught there. Remind me of the "Likely Lads" scenario. Sound like the perfect life compared to previous generations. Never had it so good, who said that??

As an East End lad, many of my friends were from the West Indies. Either as youngsters brought over or second generation, born in Britain. We grew up side by side. Never ever had any issues. As I said before, my father worked with immigrants on the buses and father in law did the same at Fords. It was perfectly normal for my generation.

I think the argument about under funded factories is well and truly lost.

[galexinda]

The baby son of a former British High Commissioner was denied a UK passport after he was born in a Caribbean state where his father was in post.

Former UK diplomat Arthur Snell, who served as British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago from 2011 to 2014, said he was left feeling “powerless and nervous” after the Home Office refused to grant his newborn son a passport in 2011.

Mr Snell said this was often the case with individuals from the Windrush generation living in the UK, many of whom have been denied jobs, homes, medical treatment and even been threatened with removal because they have not had the right documents.

“They were always British,” Mr Snell continued. “It’s not about what the rules say, because the Home Office is so often getting the rules wrong, as they did in the case of my son, but also with so many others.

“The reason they’re getting the rules wrong is because there’s clearly a cultural priority within the Home Office to reject wherever possible.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/h ... 21056.html

[MacManiac]

There are elements of this thread that resemble http://cmoore.com/funstuff/humor/mp.scr ... sopoor.php

[Loxely Man]

I think the argument about under funded factories is well and truly lost.

Did you work in any of those factories as me and my late father did? Only reply if you did and know what you're talking about from personal experience and not blathering on just to be one of the in crowd.
The truth is the Empire Windrush people were brought her as a cheap alternative to reinvestment whether you like it or not.

[Dominic]

You didn't work in a factory at the time though! You've already established that you were eating boiled sweets at the time, and just starting school.

[TLR]

There are elements of this thread that resemble http://cmoore.com/funstuff/humor/mp.scr ... sopoor.php

The same thing crossed my mind!!