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The Windrush Betrayal
The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment | Amelia Gentleman
6 posts | 5 read | 2 to read
'It is impossible to overstate the importance of this heartbreaking book.' James O'Brien Amelia Gentleman's expos of the Windrush scandal shocked the nation, and led to the resignation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary. Her tenacious reporting revealed how the government's 'hostile environment' immigration policy had led to thousands of law-abiding people being wrongly classified as illegal immigrants, with many being removed from the country, and many more losing their homes and their jobs. In The Windrush Betrayal, Gentleman tells the full story of her investigation for the first time. Her writing shines a light on the people directly affected by the scandal and illustrates the devastating effect of politicians becoming so disconnected from the world outside Westminster that they become oblivious to the impact of their policy decisions. This is a vitally important account that exposes deeply disturbing truths about modern Britain.
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Cazxxx
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Pickpick

I have so much to say about this racist and I humane scandal that I could never review the book here. It‘s heartbreaking, it made me so angry and it was absolutely engaging. Although it seems like a horrific work of fiction it‘s actually all true and absolutely disgraceful, everyone involved in this should hang their heads in shame. I was so moved by this book I know I‘ll never forget these people‘s stories. A must read for everyone

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emmaturi
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Pickpick

This was a really informative and good book about Amelia Gentleman broke the Windrush scandal in the Guardian newspaper. It is completely heartbreaking to read the stories on the people in this book. The appalling treatment by the UK Government and their only wish to get anyone not with appropriate papers out, but they had documents. I could in fact go on about this as it really hard to read. I really recommend reading this book!

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rockpools
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This reads like some messed up dystopian fiction. But it‘s Britain, December 2017 😞

TrishB ☹️☹️ rage against the establishment. 4y
rockpools @TrishB I don‘t want to believe this can happen here now - but it does. And the accounts of the people caught up in it all are ‘there‘s just been some mistake, we can fix it‘ until they‘re thoroughly ground down. It‘s just 🤬 4y
TrishB Yes, the machinery of the establishment is relentless and never recognising it‘s peoples lives. I did a lot of charity stuff for the Hillsborough appeals, you saw for many, many years how successive governments (of both political sides) just tried their hardest to ignore and wear the families down. 4y
rockpools @TrishB ☹️ I obviously still have more faith in ‘the system‘ than (a) I thought I had (b) is entirely sensible. That‘ll have to change then. 4y
56 likes4 comments
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rockpools
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Chapter 1, & it‘s SO distressing l‘m not sure I‘m going to get through.

I didn‘t like the intro, by the editor-in-chief of the Guardian, which felt almost gloaty ‘we‘ve fixed it, aren‘t we great?‘ Also, maybe naive.

The main book starts with Paulette Wilson, who passed away 2 weeks ago. As a commonwealth citizen, she‘d been living in the UK since childhood, but reclassified as an illegal immigrant in her 60s & taken for ‘removal‘ (deportation).

squirrelbrain I just got this on Kindle.... sounds distressing ☹️ 4y
rockpools @squirrelbrain I think it‘ll be worth reading, but you really don‘t want to believe our governments behave like this. Even if you suspect it. A tad stressful! 4y
squirrelbrain Oh I will get to it I‘m sure, so much to read, so little time! 4y
rockpools @squirrelbrain I know! I totally can‘t concentrate on anything for more than 10 mins at at a time right now - so I seem to be reading 20 books at once to compensate 🙄 Not sure it‘s helping. 4y
squirrelbrain Yeah, tried that a while ago and that *really* stressed me out. Now I try to limit myself to one on Kindle, one real book and an audio.... but then I speed read to get onto the ‘next‘ book - we can‘t win, can we?! (edited) 4y
50 likes5 comments
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wicdiv
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I've just noticed that this is 83p on Amazon UK (or $1.04 on Amazon US) for the Kindle version, and with the excellent ratings and reviews on Goodreads I'll definitely add this to my TBR.

rockpools Oh thank you! I was going to borrow the library copy, but Kindle‘s much easier right now. Paging @Emilymdxn just in case... 4y
Emilymdxn Oh I definitely need to get this thank you! 4y
wicdiv @RachelO @Emilymdxn no problem at all! I was on the lookout for more British books after finding Black, Listed for 99p and it just sounded really interesting. 4y
rockpools Black, Listed sounds fascinating as well - I hadn‘t heard of that one. 4y
4 likes4 comments
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Cydster61
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Pickpick

Fantastic book