[TV] "Sitting in Limbo" BBC1 Disturbing drama about the Windrush Scandal

[marlowe]

This dramatisation of the Windrush Scandal was very aptly timed given what is going on at the moment with Black Lives Matter.

This dramatisation focusing on one family caught up in the scandal really brought home its devastating effects on people's lives.
I found it truly disturbing that this actually happened in Britain and even more disturbing that it happened in Modern Britain just two years ago. What the fu(k has this country come to. I felt utterly ashamed to be British.

It was like something out of a Kafka novel. If I had been unaware that this had truly happened and watched this I would think I was watching a fiction about a dystopian future.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jz0g/sitting-in-limbo-prewatershed-version

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[Eeyore]

I'd love to see the BBC screen 'A respectable trade' again.

Folk will see why the slave trade and Bristol sit uncomfortably.

I was thinking of sending them an email. It was a fantastic period drama. I had to pay a lot of money to get that imported a few years back as there were only VHS versions available. I was a bit of a fool as the import was a bootleg.

 

[arewethereyet?]

The very fact that all their landing cards were destroyed by the Tory government in 2010 is nothing short of a national disgrace in itself.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

It was excellent, and really brought home the lack of humanity of it all. I have never seen anything on TV that has made me feel so angry and, like the OP, ashamed to be British.

How a government can use the words and the concept "hostile environment" is beyond me.

 

[NooBHA]

I'd love to see the BBC screen 'A respectable trade' again.

Folk will see why the slave trade and Bristol sit uncomfortably.

I was thinking of sending them an email. It was a fantastic period drama. I had to pay a lot of money to get that imported a few years back as there were only VHS versions available. I was a bit of a fool as the import was a bootleg.

I haven't seen the BBC programme yet.

However, I remember when the news story broke. I was shocked that the Home Office had been throwing people out of the country for a couple of years before it even made mainstream news.

Can you imagine if the Spanish Government was to go and round up all the British white people who have retired to Spain and hound them out of Spain ?

It would have been headline news within weeks. And this is the sort of thing that these current marches are trying to bring to our attention.

It is not always individual people who choose to be ignorant about "Racial Injustice" - It is about Governments and the Media choosing to keep people ignorant for fear that they might think for themselves.

And you get these large Media Outlets claiming "Fake News" from sources other than their own. Providing no news is just as culpable.

 

[lawros left foot]

These people are still being treated disgracefully.

2 years after the Government was forced to apologise, and only £360,000 of a compensation pot of 500 million has been paid out.

Any MP who voted for the 2014 Immigration act should hang their heads in shame.


It is also the third anniversary of the Grenfell fire this Sunday, there are still families in temporary accommodation.

 

[Hotchilidog]

A national scandal that is utterly sickening. It puts the debate about whether to be upset about a flipping statue into perspective. The crocodile tears from May, Rudd, Patel and Johnson do not wash with me. They knew what they were doing and are just sorry they got caught.

 

[johanngull]

The very fact that all their landing cards were destroyed by the Tory government in 2010 is nothing short of a national disgrace in itself.

Bit more complicated than that


FactCheck verdict

Both Labour and the Conservatives have accused each other of being responsible for the destruction of Windrush landing cards. The decision to dispose of them was taken in 2009 under Labour (although the then-Home Secretary says he didn’t sign it off). The actual destruction of the documents took place under the Conservatives, when Theresa May was Home Secretary.

The documents were destroyed as part of the UK Border Agency’s legal obligations under the the Data Protection Act. At the time, the Border Agency didn’t consider the documents to be of sufficient value to keep hold of.

Only later – in 2013 – was the “hostile environment” policy introduced by the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition. Additional changes in 2012 added to the pressure on migrants in the UK.

Had they not been destroyed, the landing cards could now be used alongside other documents to help someone threatened with deportation to build their case for staying. It gets trickier when we talk about people who have no other record of their time in the UK.

The number of people for whom a landing card would materially alter their status now is very low – but not zero.

Nevertheless, it seems likely that the destruction of the landing cards would not be a significant problem for the Windrush generation if the “hostile environment” policy hadn’t been introduced.


https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-who-destroyed-the-windrush-landing-cards

 

[Bold Seagull]

Everyone should have the right to be illegally deported by the government.

 

[arewethereyet?]

Bit more complicated than that


FactCheck verdict

Both Labour and the Conservatives have accused each other of being responsible for the destruction of Windrush landing cards. The decision to dispose of them was taken in 2009 under Labour (although the then-Home Secretary says he didn’t sign it off). The actual destruction of the documents took place under the Conservatives, when Theresa May was Home Secretary.

The documents were destroyed as part of the UK Border Agency’s legal obligations under the the Data Protection Act. At the time, the Border Agency didn’t consider the documents to be of sufficient value to keep hold of.

Only later – in 2013 – was the “hostile environment” policy introduced by the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition. Additional changes in 2012 added to the pressure on migrants in the UK.

Had they not been destroyed, the landing cards could now be used alongside other documents to help someone threatened with deportation to build their case for staying. It gets trickier when we talk about people who have no other record of their time in the UK.

The number of people for whom a landing card would materially alter their status now is very low – but not zero.

Nevertheless, it seems likely that the destruction of the landing cards would not be a significant problem for the Windrush generation if the “hostile environment” policy hadn’t been introduced.


https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-who-destroyed-the-windrush-landing-cards

The basic fact of the matter is that they were destroyed in 2010 by the Tory government, it doesn’t matter who or when it started, this decision could and should have been reversed. Since when do legal documents get destroyed?

 

[Beach Hut]

Think the UK Government at the time was desperate to reduce numbers therefore picked off an easy target, the whole process was utterly deplorable beyond belief.

 

[beorhthelm]

Bit more complicated than that

add to that an anacdotal story there were supposed to have been digitised in previous years, but for unknown reasons the programme wasnt completed. the DPA story slightly contradicts this and could be viewed as a coverup for a almighty cockup.

 

[WilburySeagull]

The programme was superb in terms of drama and content. To be honest it made me ashamed at what our govt would do to try and redeem a political pledge that should never have been made
. This just reinforces my belated realisation that in terms of race discrimination I need to listen to those affected by it and not formulate some kind of "impartial" view based soley on my own understanding as someone without any experience of the realities.