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David Lammy @DavidLammy
, 5 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
What is this @theresa_may @AmberRuddHR? I thought this was a joke but @ukhomeoffice have actually produced a “Coming home to Jamaica guide”. Eg “Try to be Jamaican”. How can someone do that when they are British and their home is in Britain? #Windrush gov.uk/government/pub…
This document harks back to “repatriation” campaigns. This document was published when Theresa May was Home Sec, promoting her hostile environments policy – the starting point for the injustices that we are seeing writ large for the Windrush generation. theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/a…
Hard to believe this document was written and published. The fact that the Govnt feels this is an appropriate way to treat the ancestors of those Caribbean pioneers who were invited to Britain as citizens tells its own sad story about the treatment of immigrants in our country.
How exactly can someone pretend to ‘be Jamaican’ when they are British and have lived here all their lives? What is going on @AmberRuddHR @theresa_may @ukhomeoffice? theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/a…
Deported Windrush children and others told to "be Jamaican" and put on a Jamaican accent. What a hideous, despicable document, what a tragic indictment of the Home Office and hostile environments. Callous and hard to believe this was ever published. theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/a…
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More from @DavidLammy see all

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If true, this is an unprecedented and historic humiliation for Theresa May. After two years of negotiations with the EU, she is not even prepared to let MPs vote on her deal.
The truth is that it's unlikely any form of Brexit could command a majority in this House. It is impossible to deliver on the 2016 referendum result because it was based on lies, false promises, and fantasy. No more negotiations in Brussels will change this fact.
Our politics is now well and truly stuck. The way to unblock it is to go back to the public with a People's Vote, which will either offer a mandate for a specific form of Brexit, or to remain in the EU.
Read 3 tweets
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This report confirms the grim truth we already knew. The Home Office failed to protect Windrush citizens' "rights to live, work and access services" and "discharged its duty of care." It is a national disgrace.
bbc.co.uk/news/education…
The Home Office ignored warnings and recommendations for years. Rather than admitting its wrongs, it subjected British citizens to the brutal Hostile Environment. We still don't know how deep this goes. So far just 18 have had apologies.
Even after the scandal broke, the Home Office has shown a "surprising lack of urgency to identify other groups that may have been affected." The department is more interested in covering its own back than uncovering the truth.
Read 3 tweets
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The audacious idea of European Integration was motivated by fear. But it was made possible by shared ideals: democracy, human rights, equality, freedom, and a refusal to submit to the tyranny of fascism, ever again.
The Brexiteers say we lost control because of the EU. But in reality they are still mourning Suez, Britain’s last fling of the Colonial dice.

Today we need to build a new image of Britain. One that brings this country together after years of division. Empire 2.0 is not it.
Our country’s story of renewal through Europe is a story of immigration.

Over their lifetimes, EU citizens pay in £78,000 more than they take out. But their contribution has not only been financial: our culture, our art, our music, and our food have been permanently improved.
Read 4 tweets

Related threads

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Out today! My new, chart-rich paper on trade, globalization & US public opinion:
cato.org/publications/f…
So now a thread on why I wrote this paper - the data for which were surprisingly difficult to gather (thanks, @pewresearch, @Gallup, @ChicagoCouncil, etc for the help!) - and what it reveals /2
The malleability of US public opinion on trade is something I first noticed years ago (and briefly discussed in this paper from 2011: cato.org/publications/f…). Trade polls have long fluctuated depending on politics, rhetoric & the economy. /3
Read 20 tweets
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Home
no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath

#home #warsanshire #poems
#WhereAreTheChildren
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied
Read 8 tweets
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Some notes on the coming home to Jamaica booklet:

- it was funded by British high commission in Jamaica, through the aid budget

- it is handed out to deported persons on arrival, many of who are disoriented
- it is part written by deported persons, many who spent most of their lives in the US.

- this doesn’t validate it. It might make it more insidious, but we should recognise that the advice is based on experience
- That experience is people get robbed, extorted, excluded and stigmatised. If you think Jamaica is paradise go and speak to the urban poor

- this is not lawlessness (don’t be racist) but it is about social insecurity and absence of state (all legacies of British colonialism)
Read 17 tweets
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There are a lot of prominent people, who claim to be principled anti-war activists, who led us to believe that Hillary was the *real* threat, that should be absolutely ashamed to show their faces right now. Yet they're all pretending like it never happened.
None of this is surprising if you were paying attention & weren't looking to confirm your biases that #actually Trump might not be so bad (not as bad as Killary). Most of us saw the threat in real time & called it out. It wasn't subtle.
It's just so incredibly frustrating bc it was all so predictable. You demanded that every journalist & pundit who predicted the election results incorrectly be disgraced; yet this was infinitely more consequential. And yet, you've taken zero responsibility for your actions.
Read 6 tweets
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So I’ve been wanting to be play this game..Finally going to do it...
1. (#Damon & #Elena) #Delena |You want a love that consumes you. You want passion and adventure, and even a little danger..#TVD
2. (#Liam & #Steffy) #STEAM | No one can stop us. You know why? Because we are written in the damn stars.
Read 134 tweets
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Reza Zarrab watchers: We're less than an hour away from Day 2 of testimony. On Weds., we heard of a "45 to 50 million" bribe to Turkey's economic minister and "a few billion" in complex bank transactions. Day 1 recap here, & some thoughts/updates to follow courthousenews.com/turkish-gold-t…
* ex-economic minister - I ran out of room in the tweet for additional context, even with 280 characters. Lots of revelations.
This appeared on the docket yesterday: Halkbank manager Mehmet Atilla's attorneys "object vigorously" to a future expert witness's testimony on the rationale of U.S. sanctions against Iran - replete with references to terrorism documentcloud.org/documents/4315…
Read 113 tweets

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