Windrush victims still waiting in vain for recompense
DOUBLE standards, better known as realities or brutal truths, are everywhere in our society.
For example, Tory MP William Wragg can hand over the personal phone numbers of other MPs – compromising their safety – to someone on a dating app and receive widespread sympathy.
Yet the same arbiters will set the hounds loose on Angela Rayner, the Shadow Deputy Prime Minister, over questions about a capital gains tax bill.
Diane Abbott was vilified for her attempt to articulate the concerns of those who feel there is a hierarchy of racism in this country.
She rightly apologised to those she had offended, only to find huge sections of the political and media class indifferent to that disgusting insistence from the Tories’ largest donor, Frank Hester, that she should be shot as her appearance made him want to “hate all Black women”.
Over 33,000 Palestinians can be killed by Israeli fire in a disproportionate, six-month response to the October 7 atrocity condemned by the international community. Yet our politicians’ red line in the UK is the killing of three British aid workers out there.
Last week, this column reflected on the disparity – complete with apologies from police in specific cases – in efforts in finding missing Black boys, girls and adults compared to their white counterparts.
Now, as we reach the six-year anniversary of the Windrush Scandal, the families of those who have died without redress are the latest to discover the brutal truths about our society.
Remember the indecent haste with which our politicians stampeded to Westminster to demand justice and for the victims of the Post Office following the TV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office?
It is entirely right that the shamed Post Office boss Paula Vennells should be pushed as to whether she lied to Parliament after damning tapes revealed she may have known about issues with the
‘‘ Thousands were told they were illegally living here and lost their jobs
faulty Horizon system. Where, though, is our red line with Windrush? Why is it that, despite more than 7,500 claims for compensation, fewer than a quarter have received any kind of financial recompense?”
Families continue to be wrecked and traumatised by the Windrush Scandal, which only came to the public attention in 2018 after intensive investigative work by the media. By then, thousands of people were wrongfully designated as living illegally in the UK, despite being British citizens, paying their taxes and contributing to society.
Thousands of people, mainly of Caribbean origin, also lost their jobs and access to healthcare and housing. Hundreds were detained and deported.
The Government insisted as late as the weekend that it is “committed to righting the wrongs of the Windrush scandal and making sure those affected receive the compensation they rightly deserve”.
That said, we do know that they say one thing and do another.
Remember earlier this year when the Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch was forced to deny an order had been made to the Post Office to slow down the rate of compensation payments?
Makes you think, doesn’t it?