Windrushed
This year is the seventy-fifth anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush in Tilbury carrying 500 people from the Caribbean. TV schedules are full of documentaries revealing little known details like the fact that it was the owners of the ship who offered a rock-bottom fare back to England because they did not want the expense of an empty ship back to Blighty. More interesting was to learn of the PANIC amongst British politicians when they found out about the ship. Secret memos reveal worries about Black people taking up their RIGHT to settle in Britain. It showed that the British were happier taking people who had fought against them as SS officers and spoke no English than Black men who had fought FOR Britain, had been fed 'British culture' all their lives and believed they were going to help 'the motherland'. 'The Windrush Scandal' grew out of the Tory "Hostile Environment" strategy which suddenly required people who came to Britain before 19