Journalist at RFI (ex-DW, BBC...), writer, (first book on Bristol's music/art; e-book on African art), I also work on films, as a journalism lecturer, and a contributor to the New Arab, Art UK, etc.
Born in Paris, I was based in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi (covering East Africa), Bangui, and Bristol, UK. I also travelled to Italy, Haiti, Tunisia, Liberia, Senegal, India, Mexico, Iraq... My passions: Africa, music, arts...
This blog is to share my work and cultural discoveries.
Great panel discussion yesterday at the 4th Beyond Borders International Documentary Festival, where I'm a volunteer. The guests talked eloquently about "civil disobedience", a theme that couldn't be more accurate. Speakers: Nick Torrens, Michel Nolls, Mandy Chang of BBC4, Panagiotis Tsolias, Ed Braman, and Irini Sarioglou
The Deliberate Rebellion: Short film with exclusive track from Massive Attack
August 27, 2019 by Extinction Rebellion
#DeliberateRebellionFilm #ExtinctionRebellion
The Deliberate Rebellion, a film by All Hands On, examines Extinction Rebellion’s demand for a national Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice
Comment from David Farrell, leader of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly Project and winner of the 2019 Brown Democracy Award
The film is accompanied by an exclusive remix of Massive Attack’s ‘Hymn of The Big Wheel’
Comment from Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja
Starting on October 7 Extinction Rebellion UK and allied movements will peacefully shut down Westminster to demand the government Act Now!
The Deliberate Rebellion is a short film commissioned by Extinction Rebellion UK and made by All Hands On.
The film examines Extinction Rebellion’s demand that Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
The film is directed and produced by ex-Reuters reporter Patrick Chalmers.
Music for the film is provided by Massive Attack and is an exclusive remix of their track ‘Hymn of The Big Wheel’.
Watch the film here:
The UK government has not commissioned a national Citizens’ Assembly in accordance with Extinction Rebellion’s demand, the proposed Select Committees’ Citizens’ Assembly announced in June 2019 is smaller in scale and scope than that recommended by Extinction Rebellion.
David Farrell, leader of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly Project and winner of the 2019 Brown Democracy Award, said: “What is laudable about the Extinction Rebellion agenda is that the activists are not pushing for particular policy decisions on the climate emergency: they are merely asking that their government agrees to establish a citizens’ assembly and give it the task of bringing forward proposals.”
Patrick Chalmers, director and producer of The Deliberate Rebellion and ex-Reuters reporter, said: “I first reported on climate politics 25 years ago, including the then-hopeful global talks in Kyoto. Nothing came close to producing the policy changes our species needs. It’s sweet relief for All Hands On to film Extinction Rebellion’s explosion on to the planet. Maybe, finally, we’ll address this critical issue.”
Linda Doyle, coordinator of the Extinction Rebellion Citizens’ Assembly Working Group, said: “The fact that Extinction Rebellion is demanding a Citizens’ Assembly on the climate and ecological emergency is really what makes it unique. We’re not trying to assert our will on anyone else, and we’re not just crying out for action, we’re crying out for a very specific thing – we’re crying out for the UK public to have a say on how they respond to this emergency.”
Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, said:“If 52% in a punch-drunk referendum means we must shut down parliament and drive off a cliff for medicine and food shortages, what political action should result from a sobering 55% now demanding that government act much faster to prevent catastrophic flooding, crop failure and the mass extinction of the species?
“The democratic centre is still facing two ways when we desperately need laser focus. Everyone sees that parliament’s declaration of a climate emergency is totally incompatible with Heathrow expansion, fracking, slow deadlines for the phasing out of dirty road transport and a financial capital that adores transnationals who are still – despite all the scientific evidence and legal accords like Paris – seeking to extract new fossil fuel reserves.
“As street movements of resistance build, so must a new democratic catalyst.
“The magnitude and urgency of climate emergency dwarfs Brexit, and yet the obvious paralysis of party politics reveals a government unable to respond adequately.
“Citizens Assemblies as clean democratic expressions must now form to demand faster action, engage in logical solutions and illustrate the consequences – humanitarian and political. “
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Notes to editors:
About Extinction Rebellion:
Time has almost entirely run out to address the ecological crisis which is upon us, including the 6th mass species extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices, with human extinction also a possibility, if rapid action is not taken.
Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.
Extinction Rebellion’s key demands are:
Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
Check out the International XR website, with links to the French, German, Italian and UK websites.
And while your time and energy are of most importance, if you are financially able to donate money, see our crowdfunder.
About Rising Up!
Extinction Rebellion is an initiative of the Rising Up! network, which promotes a fundamental change of our political and economic system to one which maximises well-being and minimises harm. Change needs to be nurtured in a culture of reverence, gratitude and inclusion while the tools of civil disobedience and direct action are used to express our collective power.
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Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja at Extinction Rebellion's
Arrived this morning on the last Greek island in the Aegean Sea before the Turkish coasts, Castellorizo, or Kastellorizo, depending on the spelling.
Here are a few pictures:
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And why we're here:
The 4th Beyond Borders International Documentary Festival in Castellorizo is here one more time with the aim of “bringing the world to Castellorizo and taking Castellorizo to the world”!
From August 25 to September 1st, “Beyond Borders” is going to make #Castellorizo once again a meeting point for history and social #documentary filmmakers and for people of the arts from Greece and the world.
The competition this year includes 25 foreign and Greek films. Beyond Borders also includes a multitude of educational programmes and various cultural events for all ages.
Organised by: Hellenic History Foundation (Ίδρυμα Ιστορικών Μελετών) & Ecrans des Mondes (Paris) Co-organisation: Region of the South Aegean, Restoration Committee of Megisti, Sydney Under the auspices of the General Secretariat of the Greeks Abroad (Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Η Ελλάδα στον Κόσμο) and the Municipality of Megisti
I was invited by this journalist to share a few thoughts about Portishead's first album 'Dummy', released 25 years ago (!) in 1994, one of these albums from Bristol that changed British music and enriched it in a unique way... Listen to it again!
Dummy at 25: How Portishead defined the Nineties while remaining completely mysterious
Because Portishead never fitted in with the Britpop era they were born into, their debut album continues to be timeless and unknowable
There are many possible starting points for the story of Portishead and their debut album Dummy, which marks its 25th anniversary this week.
You could begin with the teenage Geoff Barrow falling in love with hip-hop and sampling while attending youth club funk nights in rural Somerset in the Eighties.
Or with the first, fateful meeting between future beat-whisperer Barrow and singer Beth Gibbons at a work experience course in Bristol, 11 miles down the road from his home town of Portishead.
You might even begin with Dummy itself and opening track “Mysterons”, with its mash-up of hissing vinyl, slowed-down James Bond guitars and Doctor Who-style scary effects. If the earth was invaded by theremin-wielding aliens, this is how they would announce themselves.
But perhaps the most appropriate entry point is the moment the world at large first discovered Barrow and Gibbons’ singular, slightly scary chemistry.
“We should go over to Portishead,” a mullet-and-leather-jacket sporting Jools Holland declared, welcoming the band to his Later… studio on 12 November 1994. “The singer and the DJ met on an enterprise allowance scheme.”
It was a strange introduction to what was, by the standard of mid-Nineties British pop, a strange band. “We played ‘Glory Box’ and ‘Wandering Star’ and the interest went crazy,” Barrow would later tell me of that performance.
He spoke as if Jools Holland had happened only yesterday. That it would be seared so powerfully into his memory is no surprise. The rendition of “Glory Box”, in particular, was an unforgettable avalanche of late hours catharsis. Amid scratching vinyl and grooving guitars, the haunting sample of Isaac Hayes ”Ike’s Rap II” sweeps in. Gibbons stands with her eyes closed, mouth shaped into a snarl. Even before she sings, you know something special is happening.
“With only three albums, Portishead brought an amazing story to British music,” says Melissa Chemam, author of Massive Attack: Out of the Comfort Zone (A Bristol Story), one of the definitive chroniclings of the city’s music scene through the Nineties.“They’re absolutely revered in the rest of Europe. Their sound is more related to jazz than hip-hop… They cultivated their own identity, at a time of massive trends like Britpop. They never fit into a commercial model.”
Portishead, as Chemam suggests, are part of the secret history of British music in the Nineties. It is a narrative that has come to be thoroughly obscured by Britpop. Dummy was released the same year as Oasis’s Definitely Maybe and Blur’s Parklife. At the time, and certainly within the critical community, it was accorded equal prominence.
Dummy would go on to shift an estimated 3.6 million units. In an era of blockbuster records it was right up there. And of course it won the 1995 Mercury Music Prize, seeing off Oasis, PJ Harvey, Leftfield and fellow West Country boundary-breaker Tricky.
It has also weathered the decades better than many of the albums with which it jostled for attention. The average Britpop LP of the period nowadays sounds as creaky and quaint as a Pathé newsreel. Because Portishead never fitted in to begin with Dummy remains its own mysterious thing: timeless and unknowable.
That’s even more remarkable considering little about either the group or their approach to music was particularly enigmatic. Dummy took hip-hop and its DIY sampling culture in a mildly left-of-centre direction. The primary ingredients were guitarist Adrian Utley’s jazz-inflected licks, Barrow’s passion for Sixties and Seventies soundtracks and Gibbons’ supernatural coo. And they spent an age labouring over their soundscapes. There was no secret formula.
“The album was a game changer in Bristol’s music history,” says Chemam. Portishead were, she points out, operating in the shadow of Massive Attack, pioneers of the swampy, rumbling sound that would – to the horror of everyone involved – quickly be dubbed “trip-hop”. Yet if the story of Dummy has to be told in the context of Massive Attack and of their sometime collaborator Tricky, it’s equally obvious that Portishead were their own thing, out there in the lonely margins.
“Dummy came out only a few weeks before Massive Attack’s second album, Protection,” says Chemam. “Portishead had some dark imagery and some hip-hop influences. [But] they were not creating the same kind of music and were not at all the same kind of band. Massive Attack came out of eight years of work in sound systems, and had a strong Caribbean identity.”
“Nobody in Bristol apart from team at the Coach House Studios expected Dummy,” adds Richard Jones, author of Bristol Music: Seven Decades of Sound. “Like Massive Attack’s Blue Lines, it was completely unanticipated. The broken beats, the plaintive guitar, the devastating sadness of the vocals were truly groundbreaking.
“For decades, Bristol music had barely troubled daytime radio or the charts. The city had refused to dance to the London beat and so had developed a musical style in isolation drawing, perhaps subconsciously, on the city’s traditions of jazz, folk, reggae and hip-hop and adopting an international perspective that surely had something to do with Womad [the international arts festival] being based in the city. Perhaps this helps appreciate where Dummy came from, but there’s no explaining genius.”
Dummy was a spectacular record made by unassuming and in some ways ordinary people. Barrow, the group’s founder and driving force, had started out as a tape operator and general runabout at Coach House Studios, situated then, as now, close to Bristol city centre.
Coach House was a gathering point for faces on the local trip-hop scene, among them the members of Massive Attack. Twenty-year old Barrow was on hand, brewing up a cuppa and delivering the post, as the group assembled their 1991 debut Blue Lines.
He later worked on Neneh Cherry’s Homebrew alongside her producer husband Cameron McVey (who had overseen Blue Lines). The lesson he took from these experiences was that by the early Nineties musicians were no longer hidebound by convention. They were at liberty to make up their own rules.
One of the most revolutionary aspects of Massive Attack, after all, was that they weren’t a band in the traditional sense. They were a collective, with a free-floating family of members and influences that encompassed graffiti and vintage scores as much as hip-hop or pop.
What Barrow lacked was Massive Attack’s encyclopaedic grasp of pop history. A shy lad from the sticks, he wasn’t much of a crate digger. One of his early demos sampled his sister’s copy of the Grease soundtrack. That was all there was to hand. Everything changed when he struck up a friendship with DJ and musician Adrian Utley, the very disc-spinner whose youth club gigs he’d attended as a teenager.
“We kind of hooked up, with our knowledge of old school hip-hop and current hip-hop at the time, and breaks and stuff,” Utley told Medium in 2014. “I’d kind of play him old breaks that he’d never heard before to work on tracks.”
All Barrow needed now was a vocalist. He held a mini X-Factor competition in his mum’s kitchen in Portishead. A gaggle of hopefuls got the bus down from Bristol to audition. None chimed with his distinctive vision.
As with all the best pop stories, Portishead’s features a heavy dose of serendipity – never more so than when Barrow bumped into vocalist Beth Gibbons at that fateful enterprise scheme induction day. They got to talking and realised they had a mutual acquaintance in Utley. Portishead was progressing from pipe dream to flesh-and-blood pop group.
Still, they in many ways remained at the baby steps phase. There was no record label interest. They didn’t play live. And didn’t have anywhere to rehearse. But Barrow was still working at Coach House and had use of the studio during downtime. He took full advantage. Painstakingly over the course of 18 months, the record that would become Portishead’s debut came together.
Dummy, it’s worth remembering, was not a slow burner nor an underground hit. It was as an immediate sensation. In 1994 rave reviews could still make a difference and the music press was head over heels for Dummy. In a summer dominated by Oasis, Blur, Pulp and the rest, it was dark and unfathomable. And in Gibbons it offered a bleak, twisted and completely novel vision of what a blues singer could be.
Success thus arrived more or less overnight. Portishead’s response was to recoil in horror. Gibbons sang because she felt isolated from and unmoored by the world and wanted to communicate with others with similar experiences. Now she found herself the poster child for upwardly mobile angst. The breaking point was when Portishead were repurposed as aural wallpaper for the BBC’s aspirational Gen X drama This Life (thanks to the show’s music supervisor, Ricky Gervais).
“Half the reason you write… is that you’re feeling misunderstood and frustrated with life in general,” Gibbons protested. “Then it’s sort of successful and you think you’ve communicated with people, but then you realise you haven’t communicated with them at all – you’ve turned the whole thing into a product, so then you’re even more lonely than when you started.”
Geoff Barrow fell in love with hip-hop and sampling while attending youth club funk nights in rural Somerset in the Eighties (Rex)
If a low profile was what they wanted, difficult times lay ahead. Their debut London performance, at the Eve Club on 28 November 1994, was a glittering event, with a huge media coverage and a guest list that included INXS’s Michael Hutchence.
A mild backlash ensued. Dummy was ridiculed in some circles as manicured misery for the dinner-party set. This hurt. And when Portishead were nominated for the Mercury, they were more or less appalled at all the exposure.
The lesson they took away was that the less people saw of them the better for Portishead. An eponymous second album followed in 1997. A full 11 years would then elapse until its follow-up, Third. In the interim, they’ve maintained a cautious silence. Portishead’s success would, it was clear, be on their terms. They’ve kept a tight grip on that narrative ever since.
“We never went to parties or award ceremonies,” Barrow told me. “We never actively sought to be famous. We won the Mercury, which was bloody uncomfortable. It proved a point to us. We weren’t those kind of people.”
and went on a trip to the island of Euvia.... to meet some friends...
Talking to the Greek Gods and Goddesses in Acropolis...
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Tomorrow, I'll sail toward the island of Castellorizo for the Documentary Festival Beyond Borders, a motto we desperately need at this time:
Beyond Borders
Launched in 2016 by the Hellenic History Foundation (IDISME) in Athens and internationally supported by the Association Ecrans des Mondes in Paris (AEM) the 4th International Documentary Film Festival “Beyond Borders” rooted in the Greek island of Castellorizo, will screen documentary films from Greece, Europe and the whole world, produced within the past five years (2015-2019). The Festival program also includes several cultural events in Castellorizo. The Festival seeks to reflect strongly, on a global scale, the importance of studying and documenting historical trends and events to understand the challenges, opportunities and hazards of our political and socio-economic present. “Beyond Borders” addresses filmmakers of historical and socio-political documentaries from all over the world, to submit their films.
Our vision is none other than to “Bring the world to Castellorizo and take Castellorizo to the world!”
The competing films are appreciated by an international Jury, who discern two awards: Best History Documentary and Best Sociopolitical Documentary. These Awards are a kind courtesy of the Hellenic Parliament. Each screening is followed by Q&A sessions with the director and / or an expert of the film’s topic. Entrance is free.
Under the aegis of the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Municipality of the Island, with the support of the Administration of the Region of South Aegean and the General Secretariat for the Aegean and Island Policy as well as by prominent businesses and media organizations, the Festival is a true celebration of culture on the edge of the Aegean. Watch a short film about the 3rd “Beyond Borders” here:
Finally, every year, the Festival presents an award to two different special partners: The Media of Honor and the Academic Institution of Honor. This way “Beyond Borders” honors those who uphold the values that it represents.
New on YouTube: Massive Attack - 'Group Four' (Security Forces Dub) - remixed by Mad Professor
Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group
'Group Four' (Security Forces Dub) · Massive Attack
Mezzanine
℗ 2019 Virgin Records Ltd
Released on: 1998-11-16
Studio Personnel, Re- Mixer: Mad Professor
Associated Performer, Music Production: Robert Del Naja
Associated Performer, Music Production: Andrew Vowles
Associated Performer, Music Production: Grantley Evan Marshall
Studio Personnel, Engineer: Lee Shepherd
Producer, Associated Performer, Samples, Keyboards, Programmer: Neil Davidge
Associated Performer, Guitar: Angelo Bruschini
Associated Performer, Drums: Andy Gangadeen
Studio Personnel, Mixer: Mark 'Spike' Stent
Studio Personnel, Asst. Recording Engineer: Jan Kybert
Studio Personnel, Asst. Recording Engineer: P-Dub
Composer: Robert Del Naja
Composer: Liz Fraser
Composer: Andrew Vowles
Composer: Grantley Marshall
Les Anglais des Caraïbes n'ont pas le coeur à la fête
Le bateau Windrush arrive au Royaume-Uni avec des passagers de Jamaïqu en 1948.
Dans la deuxième partie de Vu d'Allemagne, nous prenons la direction de l'Angletterre. C'est là que se tient ce week-end, 25 et 26 août, le fameux Carnaval de Notting Hill. Un Carnaval qui célèbre les cultures jamaïcaine et antillaises en général.
Le 22 juin déjà avait été déclarée "Windrush Day", du nom du bateau Le Windrush, arrivé de Jamaïque en 1948. Une manière de commémorer les apports de la population caribéenne au Royaume-Uni, de la musique reggae aux arts, en passant par la cuisine et la danse.
Mais malgré toutes ces célébrations, les Britanniques issus des Caraïbes ne se sont jamais sentis si peu acceptés. Des retraités ont même été renvoyés du pays ces dernières années, on a parlé de Windrush Scandal. Une ministre a même dû démissionner, le gouvernement s'est excusé et a promis de se pencher sur le dossier l'an denier. Sauf que rien ne s'est passé depuis. Alors ce week-end, et même depuis juin, les habitants originaire des Caraïbes n'ont pas le coeur à la fête. Melissa Chemam nous emmène à leur rencontre.
At this stage, it's not possible for freelance workers to remain safely and freely in the country with a European passport...
EU freedom of movement “will end” on day one of no-deal Brexit - Channel 4
Britain will be ready to leave the EU by 31st October with or without a deal, Boris Johnson claimed again today, despite the emergence of a leaked government document - called Operation Yellowhammer, and named after the bird - warning about the potential consequences.
Meanwhile his Home Secretary Priti Patel was spelling out exactly what that No deal outcome might mean - border restrictions to be imposed the moment Brexit happens.
Opponents said that idea was 'completely detached from reality.'
Hell Is Round the Corner - The Book Hardcover – 31 Oct 2019 by Tricky (Author)
Tricky is one of the most original music artists to emerge from the UK in the past 30 years. His signature sound, coupled with deep, questioning lyrics, took the UK by storm in the early 1990s and was part of the soundtrack that defined the post-rave generation.
This unique, no-holds barred autobiography is not only a portrait of an incredible artist - it is also a gripping slice of social history packed with extraordinary anecdotes and voices from the margins of society. Tricky examines how his creativity has helped him find a different path to that of his relatives, some of whom were bare-knuckle fighters and gangsters, and how his mother's suicide has had a lifelong effect on him, both creatively and psychologically. With his unique heritage and experience, his story will be one of the most talked-about music autobiographies of the decade.
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"I was never interested in being the richest guy on the planet. My attitude was, I'm gonna turn music upside down. I'm gonna make a sound that nobody's heard before."
- Adrian 'Tricky' Thaws
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Born in 1968, into the 'white ghetto' Knowle West area of Bristol, to an Anglo-Guyanese mother and Jamaican father, Adrian Thaws had what one might term a troubled start to life. Certain shocking events, particularly his mother's suicide, made a deep imprint on the boy who would grow up to become the artist and performer known as Tricky.
Over the course of his career as a solo artist, he has released 13 studio albums, selling over 2 million copies worldwide.
His debut album Maxinquaye (1995) was nominated for the Mercury Prize and sold over a million copies worldwide. He is admired internationally by some of the biggest names in music, including the late David Bowie. He currently lives and records in Berlin.
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You can even pre-order... But I have a feeling it'll be delayed...
Today's anthem: Massive Attack - 'Eurochild' (live @ Rock For People festival 2016)
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You can try to get rid of 3 million people who are your neighbours, waiters, nurses, doctors.... Or try to get rid of this far right government...
#LetsVote#UK#EU
Latest news: "Emails reveal Boris Johnson laying groundwork for election campaign" - Guardian Boris Johnson’s No 10 operation is increasingly on an election footing, with leaked internal emails revealing he was due to meet the political strategist Sir Lynton Crosby.
Bad news from the UK for European citizens' rights:
#Brexit
On Sunday 18 August, 2019, The Telegraph wrote:
Freedom of movement into the UK will be banned from October 31 in the event of a no deal exit, as Priti Patel signals there will be no grace period
Freedom of movement by European Union nationals into the UK will be end overnight from October 31 in the event of a no deal Brexit, Priti Patel has signalled.
Theresa May's government had wanted to crack down on freedom of movement as soon as possible after the UK left once new legislation had passed through Parliament.
This would have meant a new Immigration and Social Security Co-Ordination Bill would have had to be on the Statute Book before the curbs could be implemented.
However with time running out before the UK's expected exit from the EU, the new Home Secretary has made clear that she wants the tough new approach to apply at the UK's borders as soon as Britain has left the EU.
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Meanwhile, The Guardian only mentioned trade problems but had this line:
EU citizens who are resident in the UK will be allowed to stay under the “settled status” scheme, but campaign groups are warning that some people may be left in a legal limbo, especially if they frequently travel between the UK and the EU.
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The Independent also confirmed the current government's intentions:
UK to end freedom of movement for EU citizens on day one of Brexit, under new government plan
New home secretary wants border restrictions imposed immediately on 31 October – despite warnings of people trapped in legal limbo
Free movement for EU citizens will end on day one of a no-deal Brexit, under new Home Office plans – despite warnings of chaos and of people trapped in legal limbo.
Previously, ministers had intended to delay scrapping free movement until new rules are in place, with a bill stuck in the Commons and fierce rows over what those rules should be.
The Liberal Democrats condemned the acceleration as “brutal”, warning it exposed Ms Patel as being “completely detached from reality”.
And the organisation representing more than 3 million EU citizens in the UK said: “This will open the door to discrimination. There are no systems in place.”
The dramatic shift comes despite the government declining to bring forward the stalled bill which would end free movement under a slower timetable, for fear of a Commons ambush.
Instead, Ms Patel believes she can act through secondary legislation, in a way that would bypass MPs of all parties who would oppose it.
Home Office officials have been sent to Singapore to copy its solution to technical issues, with the home secretary convinced it can be introduced quickly.
(...)
Nicolas Hatton, head of the3million group of EU citizens in this country, said: “There are no systems in place and nothing is ready. This is a political gesture, but it will have a real impact on people’s lives.
“This will open the door to discrimination. How will they distinguish between the ‘legacy people’, those already here, and those who will arrive afterwards?”
The new plan may be viewed as part of efforts to force the EU into reopening Brexit negotiations, by signalling an uncompromising stance that would also cause huge upheaval across the Channel.
The government will not bring back the existing immigration bill because it fears it will be hijacked by MPs seeking to block a no-deal Brexit, who could table amendments.
In any case, business and public service leaders, as well as some ministers, are fighting a mooted £30,000 salary threshold for would-be immigrants – fearing severe staff shortages.
Boris Johnson further muddied the waters when he said advisers would now be told to work up plans for “an Australian-style points based system”, declining to set any limit on numbers.
In the Commons last month, the prime minister made no mention of the bill, instead telling MPs: “No one believes more strongly than me in the benefits of migration to our country.”
(...)
No 10 declined to comment on the new approach, but it is believed to be endorsed by Downing Street and Dominic Cummings, the controversial chief aide.
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If you have a more, read my article from January on the situation faced by European citizens in the UK:
“We’re now talking about removal of rights. It’s unprecedented in our history.”
Polish and Irish families, Italian and Spanish waiters, Eastern Europeans in construction and healthcare, and French musicians—Bristol certainly has a visible pro-European feel. Out of its 459,000 or so inhabitants, 30,000 are from a European country, according to the Office of National Statistics. The remain vote exceeded 60% in Bristol.
However, despite the thumping majority, the result highlighted divisions in the city, and a simmering discontent directed toward the EU. Over a quarter of the city’s wards voted to leave, some by as much as 66%, especially working class neighbourhoods outside of the centre.
But in Bristol, as in the rest of the UK, the Brexit process seems to be satisfying no one. Caught in the mix are European Bristol residents, whose future is still cruelly uncertain. Only Irish citizens have a special agreement with the UK: others may lose the right to free movement within the rest of the Union, the right to vote in local elections, the right to family reunion – or simply the right to stay.
A breach of rights
According to Christophe Fricker, a translator born in Germany, this could mean the largest loss of civil rights in Europe since the Second World War. “We are now five million people threatened: three million Europeans in the UK and two million British people in other European countries,” he told me at his home in south Bristol. “The British government uses our lives as a matter of negotiation. For centuries, European nations have seen progress in matters of civil rights. We’re now talking about removal of rights, it’s unprecedented in our history.”
Christophe has been living in Bristol with his British partner since 2012, and travels extensively for work. For several months he wasn’t sure if he could meet the requirements to get ‘settled status’ or permanent residence documentation, for which you need to have lived in the UK continuously for five years.
“The British government uses our lives as a matter of negotiation”
“In Germany, we’ve learned a lot about war and destruction. For us, the European project is a peace project. Out of the ashes, a new community was created by nations that had vowed each other’s destruction. Economic cooperation was a means to reach political harmony. Here in the UK, the narrative is different: we talk about ‘deals’, ‘good deals’ and ‘no deal’ as though this European project was just a business transaction. In reality, Europe is about peace.” This rosy view is certainly not shared across the country or region. Political discontent has been increasingly directed towards the EU, from both left and right. But Christophe is determined to stay.
Like thousands, he marched for the controversial People’s Vote in London in October 2018. Eight buses took protesters to the march from Bristol. In the middle of this stressful process, Christophe has managed to keep a sense of humour and write a book dedicated to the country: 111 Gründe, England zu lieben, or ‘111 Reasons to Love England’.
Cross-border culture pulled apart
Maike Bohn, another German citizen, also went to the march. She’s an active member of the3million, a campaign from EU citizens in the UK. “My son was born in Germany, for medical reasons. I came back here five weeks later. His father is British but he cannot have British citizenship before he turns 18, and I’ve only learned this recently. If I leave the UK now, he would not be able to be a citizen of the country he spent all his life in!”
As well as families and friends, Brexit threatens to separate artists and colleagues. Europeans are well represented in Bristol’s art and music scene. For example, the Bristol European Jazz Ensemble (BEJE), in which each musician is from a different country.
The string quartet Petit Soleil was in a similar position and has now split. Sebastien Gutiez, the guitarist, is French and has been living in the UK since 1997. He spent 17 years in France and 21 years here with his British partner, Kilda, and their son. “We’re not married, we didn’t need to… until now! If we leave for France, Kilda will have troubles getting residency. There is no easy way.”
“I’ve been living here 20 years. I pay my taxes but wasn’t allowed to vote in the referendum”
Their Spanish cellist, Sonia Cano, went back to Valencia after three years in Bristol. “I loved Bristol and I’m sad I’ve left,” she told me over the phone. “But the future became so uncertain. I had a part time job in a shop. I wouldn’t be able to find work after Brexit. I also heard, every day, European people complaining about insults they receive, jokes about going back to where they came from, it’s sad.”
Essential workers in limbo
European citizens are also highly represented in the health services. French writer Véronique Martin, based near Bath, reported their stories in the book In Limbo. In the NHS, the proportion of nurses and doctors from the EU is high, in part because these hard jobs are paid with relatively low salaries and poor training opportunities for British-born staff. Most nurses I spoke to in Bristol were unwilling to talk about it publicly having already experienced aggravation due to their nationality.
Joan Pons Laplana, a Spanish nurse for the NHS agreed to be interviewed. We met in London at a counselling session from the Existential Academy, which created a programme named ESSE3 to support people facing desperation because of Brexit.
“In Spain I couldn’t find a job [but] here in England hospitals cannot find nurses,” Joan told me. “I have three kids, their mum is British. I love this country, I’ve been living here 20 years. I pay my taxes but wasn’t allowed to vote in the referendum. I was in shock when I saw the results… Now I see these tabloids blaming migrants for anything. On top, the Brexit deal is putting the last nail in the coffin of the NHS! The Brexit campaign lied about it. Meanwhile the budget is cut and cut again.”
Joan worries for his children. Others for their parents.
“For many, the core issue is the dispute about the NHS,” says Nicolas Hatton, founder of the3million. “It’s a national treasure for the British as foreigners”. Nicolas and his British wife have separated recently, like many couples facing Brexit. Now, he is thinking about his ageing parents. “What if one gets ill and I want to bring them close to me? In 2020, it might not be possible any more.”
He and ‘the3million’ are currently creating a platform to inform European citizens about their potential future in this country.
Like the Polish café Zapiekanki, on Stokes Croft, recently closed, Bristol’s European community has already gone through a lot. Christophe Fricker explains in his book that despite all this, his love for England won’t disappear. And organisations like ‘the3million’ are showing that it is possible to get organised and respond to the seemingly endless chaos of Brexit with cooperation and solutions.
