{"id":16342,"date":"2018-09-25T16:28:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T15:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16342"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:12","slug":"stand-together-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16342","title":{"rendered":"‘Stand together now’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>Unite delegate Lenford Vassell told the Labour Party conference today (September 25) of his own experience as a ‘Windrush baby’.<\/p>\n

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Both his parents were invited to the UK to help the country in their capacity as a nurse and a steelworker \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as UK citizens.<\/p>\n

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Years after coming to this country, Lenford was forced to pay for his UK citizenship \u00e2\u20ac\u201c something he found out only recently was totally unnecessary.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat does it mean to be a citizen in this country?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he asked conference as he spoke in support of a composite on the Windrush scandal.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat does it mean that working people \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who have lived here for decades \u00e2\u20ac\u201c can lose their homes, lose their jobs, lose their pensions, lose their health care?<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat does it mean that they can be hauled from their homes and imprisoned in a detention centre and wait to be deported to a country they may have never even visited?<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMake no mistake,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Lenford added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Windrush scandal was no accident. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the result of some oversight or administrative error.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis was planned. This was calculated. This was intended.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Lenford told of three UK citizens who died before they could be repatriated from the Caribbean back to the UK following the Windrush Scandal revelations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey died in a country which was not their own,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe fact that Whitehall bureaucrats in the Home Office thought it was their home \u00e2\u20ac\u201c simply because of the colour of their skin \u00e2\u20ac\u201cwell, conference, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a word for that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lenford called on delegates to \u00e2\u20ac\u015breflect the finest traditions of our movement\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s close ranks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c UK citizens, European Citizens, Citizens of the World who have chosen to call this country their home,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he concluded to applause. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet us stand together now. Our collective strength is more powerful than hollow promises.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0Unite delegate Lenford Vassell told the Labour Party conference today (September 25) of his own experience as a ‘Windrush baby’.   Both his parents were invited to the UK to help the country in their capacity as a nurse and a steelworker \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as UK citizens.   Years after coming to this country, Lenford was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[872,1022],"wps_subtitle":"Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lenford Vassell calls for solidarity in face of Windrush scandal","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25843,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16342\/revisions\/25843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}