No, Hannah.
New Labour has had no role in matters concerning 'Windrush'. No party has until now.
'Windrush' has been a labour of love for the late Sam King and me. We financed our initiatives, sometimes with awards from Heritage Lottery Fund. Windrush70 received funding in 2018, after three failed applications to HLF in 2016.
Sam and I have been visiting Lambeth schools to give talks about WWII and 'Windrush' schools for many years.
Arthur
From: The Black and Asian Studies Association <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Hannah Lowe <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 24 June 2018 14:53
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Tony Blair, Labour Party and Windrush'50I haven't read the The Week article, but my sense is that New Labour did have role to play in Windrush's ascent, in a broader sense, in that it set a different agenda in terms of multiculturalism and the promotion of Black History - quite different from Thatcher's mono-cultural vision of Britain. This isn't underplay the role of the Windrush Foundation, but to indicate that the involvement of the BBC, Radio 4 and other public funded institutions was a response to this change in government agenda.
If anyone's interested, I wrote about the 'rise' of Windrush, and the different factors that account for it's 'fame', not least the work of the Windrush Foundation and the Philips' brothers. The focus is on literary evocations of the ship but I try to give a sense of how different societal factors coalesce
I'd like to read the article in the Week if anyone can send a link.
My dad arrived on the SS Ormonde, which sailed from Jamaica to Liverpool in March 1947. There were far fewer passengers than the Windrush, and this was before the passing of the 1998 Nationality Act, which is one of the reasons Windrush is so important - it was the first ship to sail after this status was conferred on colonial citizens.
best wishesHannah
On Sun, Jun 24, 2018 at 3:21 PM, arthur torrington <arthurtorrington@hotmail.com> wrote:
I checked on whether Tony Blair and the Labour Government assisted Windrush50 (in 1998). No, they didn’t. Whoever reported this, is incorrect. Windrush Foundation organised the celebrations and one of the events was a reception at St James Palace hosted by Prince Charles. No Heritage Lottery Funds were awarded to us at the time; the late Sam King and I were the ones to fund what our organisation did. The BBC funded Trevor Phillips’ four-part Windrush TV Series.
In 2006, Tony Blair and the Labour Party openly supported the 200th anniversary commemorations of the transatlantic slave trade’s abolition act of 1807.
'Government' is not only MPs but Civil Service departments, and the latter asked Caribbean men and women to stay/return to help the mother country. I have seen also documents from individuals in Government.
I am surprised that anyone would believe The Week without checking with Windrush Foundation.
Arthur
From: The Black and Asian Studies Association <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Kathleen Chater <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 24 June 2018 10:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: WindrushThe publication The Week carries a summary of the Windrush anniversary in its Briefing column. As this very well-researched summary shows, the Windrush was not the first ship to bring migrants from the West Indies and did not do so because the government wanted to rebuild the British economy - actually they were horrified - but there were organisations and government departments that did need migrants.
No government likes to admit it had no idea what was going on. I didn't know, but was not much surprised, to find that it was Tony Blair's New Labour who created a fuss around the Windrush and celebrated its 50th anniversary to promote its multicultural agenda. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with doing this, just that, as in so many other areas, they manipulated facts to their own advantage. Just remember, the aim of the journalist is to find out why the lying bastards are lying. And that applies to the people we agree with.
For those of us who are of the cock-up rather than the conspiracy school of history, this is a really good example of how myths are created around accidents!
Enjoy
Kathleen
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