Latest news with #Windrush
Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Telegraph
I told Ellis Genge: ‘If I can overcome adversity, so can you'
The sign on the gate at Bristol Bears' training centre is unequivocal: 'You are entering Bear country.' It conjures images of wild beasts roaming loose. And 'wild' is an adjective that Bristol prop Ellis Genge has freely admitted pertained to him in the past. As an untamed teenager he was fiery, unruly and unfocused, a product of his background in the Bristol suburb of Knowle West and someone who could easily have gone off the rails if he hadn't been introduced to rugby while he was still at school. 'I like the abrasive part of the game,' Genge explains. 'I wear my heart on my sleeve. Rugby has done a good job of channelling that emotion, giving me an outlet. 'It has also shaped me as a man. Character means a great deal to me. Rugby has brought out my best traits.' The fact that he was able to get his life on track is due in no small part to him meeting Lloyd Russell, a first-generation son of Windrush immigrants from Jamaica, when the latter was a community worker at a secondary school in Bristol. Russell may be small in stature but he has a giant reputation. 'Lloyd played a massive role in me growing into a man, to be honest.' Genge explains. 'I first came across him when I was 13. The biggest impact he had on me is how you can carry yourself. When I was young, I wanted to show how hard I was, how nasty I was and that I was a bit of a villain. 'Lloyd was very good at breaking down that barrier and showing me that you don't have to carry yourself in that way to show what you are about.' Genge was reunited with Russell as part of the Gallagher Touchline Academy initiative, for which the Bristol prop has been named as an ambassador. The programme is designed to empower teachers to teach rugby lessons in schools by providing them with training and ready-made lesson plans. Created in partnership with Gallagher Premiership Rugby clubs, Gallagher Touchline Academy aims to get more children playing rugby in schools and usher in the next generation of players. Making the game more accessible to young people is a cause that is close to Genge's heart, which is why he supports the initiative. 'Rugby has a brilliant way of bringing out the best in people: the way it drives you, the positions it puts you in. 'Discipline, honour, respect, teamwork, the sense of value it gives you because everybody has a role to play. What that can do for kids, if they are going off the rails, is priceless. It gives them a sense of belonging and sometimes that's all kids want and need. I know from my experience – I felt comfortable at a rugby club, not so much at school.' Genge was being interviewed about the project when his former mentor Russell, crept up unnoticed and tapped him on the shoulder. The surprise was complete, the embrace warm and touching. Russell himself had been a talented sportsman in his youth, especially at rugby, but came up against discrimination and barriers. He was determined to overcome them and when he did, he pledged to use his experiences to help the next generation. His personal journey ensured he had credibility with those like Genge who lived on the edge. 'I fact-checked everything through people who knew of him. It soon became apparent he was the real deal, so it was easy to open up with him about things. Stuff I wouldn't talk to anybody else about,' Genge says of Russell. 'He didn't bat an eyelid, whereas before I had teachers who had breakdowns in front of me because they didn't like the way I was making them feel. 'I think I could be quite intimidating, but Lloyd didn't feel any of that, he was used to being around people like me. I was a fiery, fiery teenager going through a very hormonal period of my life. Lloyd was a very calming presence.' After attending a predominantly all-white school Russell had become an apprentice with British Aerospace at Filton, until he realised that sport and coaching gave him a greater sense of fulfilment. 'At that time of my life I was always fit, always training, always doing some kind of sport. For a good while, I was disillusioned with rugby because it seemed to be so selective, so I went to karate and that propelled me into taking sport seriously and sport putting a stamp on me as an individual [Russell became an English and British karate champion]. 'I set up a karate club for young people. I was committed to helping young people by then; it's what I wanted to do. In 2000 I left British Aerospace to get into education to help young people. 'I was particularly concerned for young people of ethnic background. My philosophy being that if I can do it, so can you. Sometimes you have to put things aside, disadvantages and just get on with your journey.' He met Genge through his role as the senior mentor with the Caribbean Learning Federation which worked in many schools across Bristol. One of them was the John Cabot Academy which is where he came across the angry young man that was Genge. 'As the weeks went on, I got him to trust me. I told him about my life story and background in a tough inner-city environment. He identified with that,' Russell says. 'That was the start of a good relationship. He started to trust me and that's a big part of his background; he has to trust you to believe in you. 'I showed him some old photographs of my family and friends when I was his age and used my favourite line, 'If I can do it, so can you.'' Genge was playing for Old Redcliffians juniors at the time, a club to which he and Russell pay considerable tribute for their part in developing him as a player. Russell continues: 'There was a lot of anger bubbling close to the surface. Every weekend it seemed he would be getting into some kind of scrape and he would have a black eye here, a black eye there. 'It became a kind of stepfather and son relationship. Above all else, he trusted me as an adult. As an adult, you haven't got a God-given right to be trusted by a youngster. ' Genge progressed to join Hartpury College, going on to play for Bristol, Leicester and England. Returning to the Bears was, in Russell's opinion, a significant turning point. 'I've always been proud of his achievements. I remember the first day at Hartpury, he phoned me and said he didn't want to be there; they weren't his kind of people. 'But I told him a rugby ball doesn't know where you are from – it makes no difference to you as a player and a person. Do the best you can and see what happens. 'When he got capped by England, it was glory time for me! He's probably my best biggest success story in so many ways. He is from such a similar background to me and I always felt I had to prove myself. I've been in environments where I was the only black person and you always have to be better and prove yourself.' The two stay in close touch and when Russell suffered from cancer, Genge, who calls his former mentor one of the family, was the first on the phone to him. Having benefited from mentoring when he was a student, the Gallagher Touchline Academy is vitally important for Genge. 'My advice to any teacher tempted is go for it, but don't try to reinvent the wheel.' Russell also believes the initiative could give the future of the sport a boost: 'There is a great role for these teachers to play. There are many other Ellis Genges out there, but you need the teachers and mentors to identify them and help them at that crucial early stage. That talent needs to be nurtured and mentored. 'Ellis is now doing a bit of that himself, giving back. I call him the Robin Hood of Knowle West. He draws them like a magnet.' Does Genge see himself as a role model? 'I have responsibility. I'd much rather use that word than say I am a role model. I am very aware I make an impact on young kids' lives and if that is being a role model, brilliant.' Watch the moments that Ellis Genge, Christian Wade and Marcus Smith were surprised by their teachers and mentors. Gallagher is Right Here for Rugby and Right Here for Business – go to to see what Gallagher can do for you.
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Post Office campaigner's proposal for independent compensation body being ‘worked on'
A proposal by the Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates for an independent body to oversee future public sector compensation schemes is being 'worked on' in government, after criticism of the treatment of victims of scandals. Whitehall sources said a model was in planning in light of the traumatic experiences of those who had struggled to secure redress after scandals such as Horizon, contaminated blood and Windrush. The body, which would operate at arm's length from government, would be referred to by ministers in the event of major controversies in the future. It would establish the rules around compensation eligibility and help administer payments. Sources said the plan was at an early stage but was being 'actively worked on' and that ministers were pushing to find the right model. There has been widespread criticism of the role government has taken in the running of redress schemes in the past. The compensation scheme for victims of the Windrush scandal, in which a generation of people who made their lives in the UK after coming from the Caribbean were mistreated by the Home Office, was said to have 'become a source of further trauma rather than redress', according to the Commons home affairs select committee. The complexity of the scheme to compensate victims of the infected blood scandal, in which more than 30,000 people contracted HIV and hepatitis C due to NHS failings, was said to have led to a situation in which people died before they were able to secure redress. This week, Bates, who was the lead campaigner for post office operators persecuted and even prosecuted due to the accounting failures of the Horizon IT system, described the compensation scheme in that scandal as being a 'quasi kangaroo court'. In each case, the involvement of government was said to have undermined confidence of victims that they were being treated fairly and led to rules that were overly 'legalistic', it is claimed. Bates, who revealed this weekend that he had been given a final 'take it or leave it' offer that amounted to 49.2% of his original claim for redress, has said he believes that it is crucial to take future schemes out of government hands. Last year, a National Audit Office report, titled Lessons learned: government compensation schemes, found recurring problems, but Bates said it had not addressed the problematic role of the state itself. He argued that the independent arbiters in current schemes, including for the victims of Horizon, were being constrained by rules written by government officials. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Bates wrote in the Times that a new independent body would ensure a 'consistent approach when financial redress or compensation is needed' over which representatives of claimants would be consulted to tailor any scheme to address all aspects of the scandal. This combined body would be 'charged with setting the parameters of the scheme as well as the assessment structure for claims to ensure it was fair', he said. Bates has voiced concern that the civil service will push back on his plan but Whitehall sources said serious work was being done to make such a model viable. There are four schemes for victims of the Horizon scandal, which as of the start of this year had paid out £633m to more than 4,300 claimants. A government spokesperson said: 'We remain absolutely committed to righting past wrongs and working to ensure justice is delivered for victims. 'We pay tribute to all the postmasters who've suffered from the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, and we have quadrupled the total amount paid to postmasters since entering government, with £964m having now been paid to over 6,800 claimants.'
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Only a third of recommendations to tackle endemic racism in UK implemented
Only a third of the recommendations from major reports commissioned to tackle endemic racism in the UK over the past 40 years have actually been implemented, a Guardian investigation has found. The Guardian's analysis – published ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Black Lives Matter protests – has led experts involved in some of those inquiries to demand the government break the 'doom loop' of inaction. In the face of rightwing backlash against equalities work, they urged ministers to act on the hundreds of recommendations that have been ignored. The Guardian analysed 12 reports into racial inequalities commissioned by ministers since 1981, often in response to scandals and unrest – such as the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the Windrush scandal. Of the nearly 600 recommendations – which span education, business, health, the criminal justice system, and community cohesion – Guardian analysis found that fewer than a third had been fully actioned, and that progress on others had been reversed or significantly eroded during years of government austerity policies. Just under a third of recommendations were not implemented at all. The remainder were either only partly implemented, often in symbolic, limited or inconsistent ways, or were too vague or difficult to measure. Labour MPs said the UK was trapped in 'a performative cycle', where a crisis prompted a report to be commissioned to 'diffuse anger' and its recommendations were later quietly shelved. Prof Ted Cantle, the former chief executive of Nottingham city council, led the community cohesion review team after 2001 riots in northern towns with predominantly white and Asian populations. Analysis by the Guardian has suggested that of his recommendations, an estimated 5% had been fully implemented, while more than a third had not been implemented at all. The rest had been partly implemented or were deemed not measurable for this analysis. Cantle said: 'We're in this doom loop where a riot happens or there's an acknowledgment of some sort of issue, a review happens and the recommendations aren't really taken up and then the process starts again.' After last year's riots, Cantle renewed the call he first made in 2001 for a community cohesion strategy. 'There is no doubt in my mind that there has to be, at the heart of government, an agency, a department, that is focused on developing cohesion and provides a national strategy, a national narrative, which is then implemented at the local level by the local government, by voluntary agencies.' Lord Victor Adebowale, the chair of the NHS Confederation, made 28 recommendations after his 2021 review of mental health and policing, which examined the disproportionate number of Black men dying in police custody. Analysis suggested an estimated 14% of his recommendations have been fully implemented, while around a quarter was ignored. 'A healthy society is an equitable society,' he said. 'It's one that understands individuals, communities and the interactions between them in such a way that they can provide appropriate services.' Since the riots that broke out in the UK last summer, the rightwing Reform party has taken control of 10 councils, vowing to target equality, diversity and inclusion policies, while Keir Starmer has said the UK risked becoming 'an island of strangers' without further controls on immigration. Adebowale told the Guardian that while it has become easier to 'pander to prejudice [than] to lead progressively', stark racial inequalities remain as 'successive governments, not just this one, fail to accept the systemic nature of race discrimination'. He said: 'If you look at the stats, Black men are still disproportionately detained. If you pick any one of the major disease categories, you'll find that Black people have a greater, worse experience and worse outcomes. You look at cancer, Black people are likely to discover they've got stage four in A&E. If you look at mental health, they have a worse experience and worse outcomes … on and on it goes.' Adebowale said if all of the 27 recommendations he made had been implemented, he was 'pretty certain' that some deaths since 'wouldn't have occurred'. The Guardian's analysis found that some recommendations made in official reports produced since 1981 were implemented initially but later dropped or significantly altered. Several recommendations from the 2001 Cantle report were introduced under the Blair and Brown governments – for example, the requirement for Ofsted to inspect and report on the public duty on schools to promote community cohesion, the expansion of Sure Start to support disadvantaged children early and prevent disengagement from education, and other youth outreach work such as Connexions Service. However, these programmes were substantially defunded during the coalition government's austerity drive in the 2010s, and many were later dismantled entirely under the subsequent Conservative majority government. Some recommendations, such as Adebowale's on developing safer models on restraint, come up again in later reports. The issue of deadly use of restraint, particularly those in the prone position, came up four years later in the Angiolini review in 2017, yet multiple individuals have died in custody while being restrained, including in prone-position holds. Many recommendations the Guardian assessed to have now been fully implemented were first made decades ago, resurfacing in two or even three subsequent reviews before finally being acted on – often after 10 or even 20 years. Others, such as the call for police forces and teaching staff to reflect the communities they serve, or for the curriculum to meaningfully reflect Britain's racial diversity, have been repeatedly recommended but remain unmet. The Guardian's snapshot analysis builds on earlier work by the Stuart Hall Foundation and the Centre for Public Data. While a majority of recommendations made over five decades have not led to policy changes in the public sector, David Tyler, who co-chaired the Parker review which made recommendations to the private sector, said big business has acted. The Parker review set FTSE 100 businesses a deadline of having one minority ethnic board member by 2021, and also said each FTSE 250 board should have at least one director of colour by 2024. The review's yearly update earlier this year found that 95% of FTSE 100 companies now have one minority ethnic board member, while 86% of FTSE 200 companies could say the same. Tyler said: 'Broadly, unless you're talking about the very recent past, which has been influenced above all by Donald Trump and Maga, it's moved in the right direction in terms of the attitude of business people to take the best possible talent from the ethnic minorities in the UK.' Nonetheless, the number of recommendations made to the state that have been 'shelved' meant the UK was 'trapped in a performative cycle' when it comes to racial inequality in the UK, the Labour MP Clive Lewis said. 'This research sadly confirms what many of us have long suspected: when it comes to race equality in the UK, we are trapped in a performative cycle – crisis, commission, then conveniently shelved recommendations. 'From Scarman to Macpherson to Lammy, we've seen inquiry after inquiry confirm what racialised communities already know: that systemic racism is real, it's persistent, and it's baked into the institutions that shape our lives. But instead of acting on those truths, successive governments have treated these reviews as fire blankets – designed to smother outrage, not spark change,' said Lewis. The Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy urged the government to act. She said: 'Looking at the British state's track record, you could be forgiven for thinking the main purpose of race inquiries past has been to diffuse anger around the many inequalities facing Black communities in our country and divert attention away from securing real change.'
Middle East Eye
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
UK: Labour MP warns Starmer's immigration rhetoric could incite race riots
A former shadow immigration minister and Black Labour MP has strongly criticised UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's immigration rhetoric, warning it could incite civil unrest and repeat the injustices of the Windrush scandal. Earlier this week, Starmer caused consternation among several MPs when he said the UK risked becoming "an island of strangers" during a speech unveiling major immigration reforms in a newly published White Paper. The rhetoric was likened by some to the language used by Enoch Powell in his controversial 1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech, in which he warned of a future where white people "found themselves made strangers in their own country". Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, told Middle East Eye's live show MEE Live that Starmer's rhetoric risked fuelling racism and emboldening the far right. "We have to remember that a lot of the time when people say there are too many migrants in this country, they're talking about people like me," said Ribeiro-Addy, who represents one of London's largest Afro-Caribbean communities. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "You are counting them by colours." How Starmer careened from honourable left to racist right Read More » Her comments come as Labour attempts to shore up support among socially conservative voters following losses to Reform UK in the recent local elections. Reform, which has campaigned on hardline immigration policies, made gains in several areas, prompting Starmer to double down on controlling migration as part of his strategy to win over disaffected Tory voters. But Ribeiro-Addy warned that Labour risks alienating core communities and repeating the mistakes of the past. "It wasn't so long ago that immigration legislation retrospectively applied ruined people's lives," she said. "We said we learned lessons from Windrush. And that's exactly the type of thing that's happening again." She also warned that the government's tone could lead to a repeat of last year's riots, which erupted in several towns after the murders in Stockport in August. In the aftermath of the killings, misinformation blaming migrant communities spread online, leading to targeted attacks, clashes with police, and protests organised by far-right groups. "I am extremely concerned that we would go about this in a way that stokes division and incites the far right," Ribeiro-Addy said. 'Shame on you, Keir Starmer' A number of other MPs also criticised Starmer's remarks, with Clive Lewis, a Labour MP for Norwich South, being among the first to compare it with Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech. "It's simply not sustainable for the prime minister to echo the language of Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech - invoking the idea of 'living in a land of strangers'," Lewis told The Independent. Suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana also accused Starmer of echoing Powell's speech. "That speech fuelled decades of racism and division. Echoing it today is a disgrace. It adds to anti-migrant rhetoric that puts lives at risk. Shame on you, Keir Starmer," Sultana posted on X. Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, said he would not have used the phrase "island of strangers", telling LBC: "The sort of language I use is different to the language used by others. "That's not the sort of words I would use." Meanwhile, Labour MP Richard Burgon took aim at the scapegoating of immigrants, saying: "Migrants didn't cause the housing crisis. Migrants didn't cause the NHS crisis. Migrants didn't drive up poverty levels. Years of austerity did all that. "If you want to improve people's lives, stop the cuts, introduce a Wealth Tax, and properly invest in our communities," Burgon wrote on X.
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- The Guardian
UK agrees to fly home wrongly deported Windrush generation man from Jamaica
The Home Office has agreed to fly home a member of the Windrush generation who lived in the UK for 47 years before being wrongly deported and forced to live on the streets of Jamaica in horrific conditions for more than a decade. In a highly unusual move and after protracted legal action, Home Office officials have accepted that Winston Knight, 64, is a member of the Windrush generation and have agreed to revoke his deportation order. Speaking to the Guardian from Kingston, Jamaica, Knight said he was delighted to finally be on his way back to the UK after more than a decade of enduring horrific conditions on the streets. 'I'm doing much better now I know I have won my case and will be returning to the UK. But I am coming from hell. I have been living in a war zone in Kingston and I've had some very tough days.' He is likely to be back in the UK in the coming weeks, possibly before Windrush Day on 22 June, which celebrates the contribution Caribbean migrants and their families have made to the UK. It marks the date in 1948 that HMT Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury, Essex, bringing hundreds of passengers from the Caribbean to the UK. Knight was deported from the UK in 2013 after he was convicted of stealing a piece of jewellery during the 2011 riots in what his lawyers described as an 'opportunistic mistake'. He arrived in 1966 aged six, brought here by people unrelated to him. He experienced a difficult childhood in south London, was not allowed to attend school and later worked on construction sites. The lack of school and employment records made it difficult for him to prove he had been 'ordinarily resident' in the UK in 1973. Like all Citizens of the UK and Colonies – a status granted before 1983 – he was granted indefinite leave to remain. But his lawyers had to carry out painstaking work to track down eye witnesses who remembered him from his childhood and could corroborate his account of the time he arrived in the UK. When he was unlawfully deported in 2013, the Windrush scandal revealed by the Guardian had not yet emerged. Knight said that he was so desperate when he was detained in Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, near Heathrow, about the prospect of being forcibly returned to a country he knew little of, that he repeatedly attempted suicide there. But his deportation went ahead despite his fragile mental state and he found himself street homeless on the streets of Kingston where he has been caught in the crossfire of gang warfare. The violence he witnessed has left him deeply traumatised, he said. The Guardian reported on his case in 2018 and interviewed him in Kingston. At that time he asked for his real name not to be used and instead to be referred to by David Jameson. He brought a judicial review arguing that he was exempt from deportation, and just hours before the final hearing on 15 May the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, conceded that Knight was a member of the Windrush generation. Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion Nina Kamp, a consultant solicitor at Duncan Lewis Solicitors who represents Knight, said: 'Mr Knight has suffered unimaginable harm being homeless in an extremely volatile environment for over a decade with no support. The physical and psychological toll is profound and will take years to repair. Astonishingly, the home secretary has still offered him no apology for the historic wrong her department inflicted.' She added: 'This case ranks among the gravest Windrush injustices we have seen –not only because he was excluded for 12 years, but because the home secretary clung to an indefensible position until the very last moment, needlessly prolonging and compounding his suffering.' Knight is being put up in a hotel before being returned to the UK. 'For the first time since I was deported here, I'm sleeping in a bed,' he said. I witnessed so many murders and stabbings and saw so many people being beaten. I survived by eating vegetables from the market, bread and bananas. I've received a lot of abuse in Jamaica being called 'English' and 'deportee'.' He said one of the things he has really missed about England were his days playing football in a Sunday league with friends in New Cross Gate, south London. 'I would love to do that again and get back to work doing painting and decorating,' he said. 'I'm a working kind of guy. 'I have had a lot of ups and downs here, mostly downs, but now I'm coming back to England I feel great. Thank God I survived. I was calling out for years but nobody listened to me.'
