"I have never welcomed the weakening of family ties by politics or pressure" - Nelson Mandela.
"He who travels for love finds a thousand miles no longer than one" - Japanese proverb.
"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." - Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"When people's love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change". -
David Cameron.

Friday 25 January 2013

BritCits Update - End Jan. 2013

Every few weeks, we send a campaign update email to our supporters, including many of those affected. We will share those communications on this website to generally update everyone on the work we do.

If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please contact us - britcits at gmail dot com. Especially contact us if you are affected by the rules in any way, as we would relish the chance to lobby on your behalf, as well as helping you make the connections you need for your situation. We believe that the connections we have made have been effective in raising the profile of a number of specific cases, as well as all the issues surrounding this.

The email bulletins are managed by Sonel, who tweets here - https://twitter.com/britcits .

 

Hi all

Final January 2012 update email:
- recent developments in media
- BritCits pack - more stories required
- plug for our website and request for more Twitter followers
- Theresa May reception. Yes, I was there. No, I didnt throw anything at her.
Read below and have a lovely weekend.

Sonel

Media
So it's been an eventful few days with britcits having the opportunity to share their experiences of immigration with the media.  While BritCits has worked hard for this, mega huge thanks to JCWI and MRN for giving us the opportunity.  A reporter from BBC contacted me, thanks to Don and Awale, and I've put her in touch with Gerard and another britcit who hopefully will also have the opportunity to share her experiences on Sunday, on Dotun’s show. 

This reporter is amazing and volunteered to direct people with immigration issues, or those who need help/advice to britcits at gmail dot com and http://www.britcits.com
i.e. to publicise our prescence.  Stoked!

Also grateful to Gerard and Andy for making themselves available for these interviews.

To all, who also want the opportunity, please ensure you have sent in your phone numbers. From my experience on this, often reporters want to speak to someone about their experience for a report on the same day..before sharing your details with them, I need to ensure you are willing and able, and therefore, phone numbers help to expedite the process.

Gerard on two radio broadcasts:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21178405


From 1:20:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p013bknw/Drivetime_with_Eddie_Nestor_Council_ignored_abuse_warning_and_women_smoking/

Andy on Channel 4:
http://www.channel4.com/news/inspector-uncovers-huge-ukba-immigrant-backlog


The BritCits pack


If you would also be interested in having the same opportunity as Gerard Andy, Yana, Maliha, Laura, Rob and I have had - I'm sure I've left out some britcits (either via media, or by mention in parliament), it's very important your stories are in the pack. 

I'm working on updating the pack at the moment, hence not attached.   If your story is not already in the pack, then please send it in to us ASAP:  britcits at gmail dot com 

You are much more likely to be able to raise awareness of the issues if people can read about how its affecting you directly.  Indeed, photos also help as they create a more human touch and therefore harder for ppl to ignore the families affected.  We only use first names in the pack.

Pls, pls, pls, send in your story and encourage others to as well.
  Also include
a) your phone number (not shared with third parties without your permission)
b) info on your constituency, MP and any experience you have had with them.


Website and twitter
Please keep an eye on the website: http://www.britcits.com  Steven has put in a lot of work into this (and its amazing).

Also follow us on twitter: @BritCits https://twitter.com/britcits

To maximise exposure, please re-tweet (RT for twitter novices) our tweets so we have more chances of raising awareness.


THERESA MAY RECEPTION
So, last night I attended a reception at which Theresa May was present. We had to be there at 6:30 for a 7pm start.  TM rocked up at 7:30.  She may have apologised to the organiser..I dont know. But she did not apologise to us all when she started speaking. We were already not off to a good start and my dislike of her went up a notch.

Naturally my question on immigration wasnt selected, as one of about four. And it was just a platform for her to go on about how wonderful this govt is.

It wasnt however a complete waste of time and money, because I got the oppportunity to raise awareness of the immigration issues with some other attendees..all educated, politics students, uni professors..THEY STILL DIDNT KNOW! - but somehow I ended up in a group where we were all not big fans of the Tories..surprise!  Perhaps one does just gravitate towards those of the same ilk!

One of the professors indicated that she had a phd student due to come from Saudi Arabia (where the govt tends to pay for university of its citizens)..but the Saudi govt refused to pay the students fees if he came to the UK. They said they would only pay if he went to US or Australia (indeed, this professor said that Oz and American govts are rubbing their hands in glee at what Tories are doing to our post-grad education market). Really nice prof, who agreed that there had to be some checks on overseas students, but the way this govt was doing it, wasn't on. (She gave me a lift home out of her way, to save me having to catch two buses, so I was especially appreciative!)

Theresa May spoke about
a) EU - that Cameron showed leadership

b) Crime going down

c) Bringing in a college of policing, as part of police reform..apparently Cambridge University is very interested in this.

d) How they have completed so many pledges (yawn, yawn)

e) She worked for Bank of England immediately after graduating - keen to have responsibility for banks handed over to BoE (banking reforms)

f) She used to love Spooks, until she became Home Secretary and then watched an episode where the head of MI5 killed the home secretary..following which she had a meeting at MI5, where they offered her tea and cookies (there was a joke here - I dont know if the implication was that she didnt have the tea and cookies for fear of death)

g) She has a protected line telephone in her office and the first time it rang a couple of months into her new role, she was excited but also nervous, not knowing what serious news it would bring.  The person on the other end just asked 'is that specsavers' (I reckon this is probably a lie)

h) Coming up in the next couple of months, she will be presenting to parliament work in relation to integrity of police. She couldnt talk about this too much she said because it needs to be said in parliament first

i) only a few questions were allowed (mine on immigration wasnt...oh, isnt it nice that the Reading University Conservative Association was protecting her from anything difficult)
- a couple on police..which just allowed her to go on about the police stuff theyre doing, and that now we can democratically elect police commissioners (no mention or questions allowed on the poor turnout and timing of the police elections, and wasted money)
- whether she thought UKIP was a relevant party..she didnt really answer this but to be fair, she cant really comment on UKIP..but did use this to talk about how wonderful the Conservatives are, and they realised that other parties were doing things that many would expect from the Tories
- what the biggest thing to achieve in 2013 is..she said ideally, a quieter year, with Home Office not in the news so much (HA..we will ensure thats not the case!)

The really sad thing is that she came across as more of a leader than Cameron (the new Maggie?)..and I wasnt the only one there who could see her as leading the Tories. How terrifying is that?!

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