Quotes

[Originally appeared in The Big Issue #1414, 18-24 June, 2020] I am one of the Windrush generation. I came over from Jamaica in 1964. My father was part of the generation Winston Churchill called over. I cried when I had to leave my mother behind.

[Originally appeared in The Big Issue #1414, 18-24 June, 2020] My sister and I had one passport. I only got a British passport when The Specials took off. My Jamaican passport caused so much hassle going through customs. So I got my British Citizenship then, but I always thought I was British anyway.

[Originally appeared in The Big Issue #1414, 18-24 June, 2020] We were brought up to believe England was the motherland.

[Originally appeared in The Big Issue #1414, 18-24 June, 2020] I've fought all my life to say my life matters.

[Originally appeared in The Big Issue #1414, 18-24 June, 2020] Windrush Day was long overdue to show respect for the sweat, blood and tears West Indians put into this country. It took 70 years to get recognition for my father's generation for the work they did. And after all that, people were threatened with deportation. Kids who were five or six when they came to England, that is what they had to go through. Shame, shame, shame.

[Originally appeared in The Big Issue #1414, 18-24 June, 2020] But for him not to be able to hear the song, B.L.M. (Black Lives Matter) [from The Specials' 2019 album Encore] about his journey coming to England and my journey to be with him brings tears to my eye.

[Originally appeared in The Big Issue #1414, 18-24 June, 2020] When The Specials played four nights at Coventry Cathedral [in 2019], it meant so much to us. We played on my father's birthday and his final resting place is in Holbrook in Coventry. Everything flashed back that day. I know he is proud of what I've done. He'd say 'that's my lad'.

[Originally appeared in The Big Issue #1414, 18-24 June, 2020] Theresa May will have blood on her hands for the rest of her life.

[On Theresa MayTheresa May will have blood on her hands for the rest of her life. And she rushed over to America to be the first to meet Donald Trump? Shame on her. History will tell what dreadful things she did. Because I look at Donald Trump, starting his campaign with Birtherism against the first black president. He showed us who he is and what he is. We should have believed him. This man is a racist. History will look at him and see this terrible person. No one has any respect for him.

[On the Windrush Scandal ] When the Windrush Scandal happened, I got so mad. I had to untangle everything we had been taught, the way we were brainwashed. The anger comes out when I think about it. My father came here to work, and he worked his butt off, but he couldn't get a room to rent. He had to sleep in a garage in Gloucester.