Category: immigration

UK – Exiled Zimbabwean Journalist in Great Britain: Immigration; Racism, African Experience; Reflections Or None Of It

Crimson Tazvinzwa: "How to feel and how not to feel as an African immigrant ..."
Crimson Tazvinzwa: “How to feel and how not to feel as an immigrant …”


|CRIMSON TAZVINZWA, AIWA! NO!|For so many years I have worked very hard and waited for my left hand to be right. I’m still working hard and waiting …

I admit. This is not my writing style at all – especially when reporting myself. But then here we go. Eisch!. I have decided I share with you some random snippets of my experience or non of it over the 20-plus odd years I have lived on this side of the pond; for I forever shall live in mortal fear of being misquoted or lack of it thereof; or worse still forgetfulness and forgettable.  Non consequential or just as ‘SHIT HOLE’ as US President Trump’s  characterization of Africa and its populations myself included. 

You see! I have seen it all.  From ‘dog-whispers’ to ‘bull-horns’ of racial slurs. Some deliberated, calculated and unleashed and the outcome assessed, and blatant and yet others random and ignorant.  From people pretending they don’t understand my accent, and least still cannot spell my African surname even as it shows clearly on the identity badge laying on my lapel all the time, all written in English alphabet – and (‘by law’?). Wait! Aah! You name it. But jog on still.

But it still hates …

Take accents for example; and their  names. Already cause anxiety and discomfort among and between some lot.

Exhibit one;

One time years back; just over one-year after September 11: my partner and I planned visiting with friends in New York. Our respective annual leave were generous – could take a good 4 weeks in the summer. We didn’t think much about itinerary or anything except booking the tickets online – lastminute.com and whacked email to our friend Monika – a Czech – American to let her duly know we were on our way and asked what we should bring her from London. Flight Tickets were cheap; £420 apiece return and all. 

Except for me to be denied a visa DESPITE the fact I lived in America before. In Louisiana (Lousyana). Barton Rouge.

Despite I was the professionally fully employed between the two of us. As if it should have mattered.

Despite we had our own two bed room flat in North East London; Walthamstow . We bought it for £182.000.00. On mortgage of cause.

My bank statement at that time was very healthy. No reason to complain in this department … at that time at least.

Despite my manager John Pink at Community Volunteers (CSV) writing a passionate passion-able letter vouching for me; tax returns and payslips; bank statements; and the fact that I had not taken sick leave for all the 3 years I had been working with him. And that there was no reason whatsoever for me to get stranded or live off some American public freebies or on government recourse for that matter – we had enough savings in personal and joint account as it stood.

You name it. The whole shebang.

My application failed.

The ‘computer said no.’

Their Sentiment: “There was no sufficient evidence with my application to suggest I would want to return to the United Kingdom after my holiday in America.”

In their pitifully blinkered or myopic eyes on issues of human and social mobility, geography ie population movements and settlements; they had just done some non formulaic calculation;  I wasn’t gonna come back to the UK – would go on a runner. ????

SAY WHAT?

And they said my partner could still go ahead though and travel to visit with our friends as she was on a German passport. They made it sound we were very fortunate at least one of us could still be travelling. Dough!

No refund for airline tickets even as we informed the Airline two weeks in advance.

We took it in our synchronized stride and jogged on.

Images of ‘black men’ doing ‘black man bad man tings‘

Is it me? Every time I watch news on telly and there is  some robbery or stabbing or even an accident that has taken place. I’m conditioned to quickly check if the aggressor, violent person at that were a black man or not. Simple demographic statistics. And praying … “Oh God Let It Be Not A Black Man This Time.” Of course there is disproportionate representation of black man crime versus white man crime. The media do that everyday. I work there. Masochistic!

Look! As black men we are wired to self doubt; confess; self interrogate, and question our selves first before the other in any situation what ever situation; a bad one or a good one. We can be impressionable, callous, belligerent and gullible. Don’t speak out for fear of being labelled cocky or arrogant or both or self aggrandizing; therefore double-down on self-minimization  and our lack of potential; assumed of course-  trying to prove we can fit in while all the while dying of self-pity. The vulnerability.

I’m not a pub man but when I do do happen to go into one all sorts of things happen.

EXHIBIT 2 – Pub In Barcelona

Imagine the famous and memorable Gaudi Architecture; Las Ramblas and the Olympics village in Barcelona.

Las Ramblas Barcelona;

Las Ramblas is often the first landmark that most tourists identify with the city. It is the central most boulevard which cuts through the heart of the city centre and is a vibrant and lively promenade filled with Barcelona action at its best and sometimes the worst.

Barcelona Miró mosaic on La Rambla

Did you know there is a Miró on La Rambla? The famous painter Joan Miró actually created part of the Ramblas. Many thousands of people walk right over the Miró circle on the Ramblas every day and don’t even know it.
Human Statue: Galileo

Human statue: Galileo

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Catalan architect who is the best known practitioner of Catalan Modernism.

Gaudí’s works have a highly individualized, and one-of-a-kind style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família

Elegant Sagrada Familia Church; Crimson Tazvinzwa, Travel Photos 2005

Magnificent!  We went up to Gaudi House’ by cable car; did little of  nosing around and taking pictures. A cup of coffee.  We were four of us; an English couple who had traveled with us from London; long time friends shall I say, and the two of us. My partner then heavily pregnant; irritable, irritating and all … as you can imagine. We all decided we needed a drink after the excursion up the Gaudi Hill. We headed into the next pub that came to sight by The Ramblers, except I thought I remain outside for a little-while to finish off my ‘fag’. I had just started smoking then, and drinking for that matter. And why not – that was pregnancy stress, anxiety and all.

Another piece of great work by Gaudi/crimson tazvinzwa travel photos 2005

I casually walked in the pub a little while later. Took a quick glance and spotted my little gang patched on a wide table by the corner.

flaherty barcelona


Flaherty’s – Square Joaquim Xirau 

Drinks ordered including my San Miguel. Happy days. Before I realized ; a notably smartly dressed gentleman whom I assumed to be a staffer walked up to me and accosted:

” PARRDONH! My ‘pathronh‘ patrons/customers are not pleased seeing you here.” he said.

“There is another nicer pub down the road,” he added helpfully of course.

Sheepishly and meekly as I always do in ‘these’ circumstances …; I smiled my normal broad smile showing only the white teeth and said something to the effect;

“Sorry. Thank you. Thank you so much. And God’s Blessings!”

What is that all for?

Crimson Tazvinzwa Travel Photos; Ras Ramblas Street Performing Artist; 2005

I believe BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS, BLACK BROTHERHOOD just as SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS has undesired consequences and outer-limits for thoughtful intercultural and interracial dialogue; and our common struggle against prejudice: religious, race, creed or OTHERWISE.

Or some pointless meaningless mumble of some sort.

This all happened in full glare of the Mexican and Brazilian dance troupe who stared at the scene in bewilderment, and bemused . World vision! Consequently my lot including the cacophony of the dance ensemble – wobbled out with some apologizing on ‘their behalf’ to me … which was bizarre but understandable for such brazen attack will not happen in the UK where I live; as I am still aware. I presume.

EXHIBIT 3 – Black on black crime and the language of self – hate and hurt.

I don’t know about you. I have decided the British Law of Etiquette & Decorum still works.

It doesn’t really matter what you are at and where are you at in life as long a you are not hurting or hating others, fair and fine.

For no reason.

Sometimes.

US PRESIDENT Trump Says Military ‘Can Use Force’ At United States – MEXICO Border; Hundreds of Immigrants Die Attempting To Cross


The number of migrants losing their lives attempting to cross the United States-Mexico border in 2017 remained high in spite of substantial decrease in the number of arrests along the frontier, the United Nations migration agency reported

The number of migrants losing their lives attempting to cross the United States-Mexico border in 2017 remained high in spite of substantial decrease in the number of arrests along the frontier, the United Nations migration agency reports. IOM/Keith Dannemiller Irregular migrants atop freight train, ‘La Bestia’ which takes them through Mexico towards the US. (file)

The number of migrants losing their lives attempting to cross the United States-Mexico border in 2017 remained high in spite of substantial decrease in the number of arrests along the frontier, the United Nations migration agency reports. 
IOM/Keith Dannemiller
Irregular migrants atop freight train, ‘La Bestia’ which takes them through Mexico towards the US. (file)

|CRIMSON TAZVINZWA, AIWA! NO!|In a news release, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that US Border Patrol figures show 341,084 migrants were apprehended on the country’s southwestern border in 2017 as against 611,689 in 2016 – a drop of about 44 per cent.

However, 2017 recorded 412 migrant deaths, compared to 398 the preceding year.

“The increase in deaths is especially concerning, as the available data indicate that far fewer migrants entered the US via its border with Mexico in the last year,” said Frank Laczko, Director of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre.

According to the UN agency, prolonged exposure to the extreme environments in the border region, where temperatures often top 104 degree Fahrenheit (40 degree Celsius), combined with the difficulty of bringing assistance those in need in remote areas have repeatedly been cited as leading causes of death.

Texas, where 191 migrant deaths were recorded in the last year, is a particular area of concern and the 2017 total represents a 26 per cent increase over the 151 fatalities recorded in the state in 2016, added IOM in the news release.

At the same time, though data on migrant fatalities on the US-Mexico border are more accessible than in many other regions of the world, they remain incomplete and the number of deaths reported by the US Border Patrol, includes only those which agents deal with directly.

“This means that federally reported figures could seriously underestimate the real number of deaths,” said Julia Black, data collection coordinator for IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.

IOM also reported that the “vast majority” of migrant border deaths recorded by the Project occur on the US side of the border – though one reason for this may be that coroners, medical examiners, and sheriffs in US border counties are more likely to regularly report data on migrant deaths to the agency’s staff.

Reports of deaths south of the border often surface locally from radio stations and small newspapers, or from social media, the UN agency added, noting that the information on fatalities could come weeks, even months after they occur.

Since the start of the Missing Migrants Project, IOM has recorded 1,468 deaths on the US-Mexico border, including 14 deaths in January 2018.

Elijah Cummings says U.S. must let caravan migrants enter: ‘That’s the law’

Photo by: Jacquelyn Martin Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asks Republican colleagues to intervene in the separation of immigrant families at the border, during opening remarks at a joint House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, hearing examining the Inspector General's report of the FBI's Clinton email probe, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 19, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Photo by: Jacquelyn Martin
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asks Republican colleagues to intervene in the separation of immigrant families at the border, during opening remarks at a joint House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, hearing examining the Inspector General’s report of the FBI’s Clinton email probe, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 19, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

|By Valerie Richardson – The Washington Times|AIWA! NO!|Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said Sunday that caravan migrants seeking asylum should be able to enter the country immediately, challenging President Trump’s efforts to keep them in Mexico while their cases are processed.

“That’s not the law. They should be allowed to come in, seek asylum. That’s the law,” Mr. Cummings said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Asked if he would support changing the law, the Maryland Democrat said, “No.”

Mr. Trump is seeking a deal with Mexico in which the thousands of asylum-seeking migrants massing on the southern border would remain there until their applications are approved, insisting he will close the border if necessary.

Mr. Cummings said he disagreed with the effort.

African Reflections: Exiled Zimbabwean Journalist In the United Kingdom; The Murdered Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi And The Remainder Of Us All …


Itai and Sheffra Dzamara’s children, Nokutenda and Nenyasha.


Mugabe may have gone, but the young Itai Dzamara, journalist cum human rights activist’s family is still picking up the pieces after his disappearance and are still demanding answers.

Three Billboards at a Zimbabwe bus terminal. They read: “Abducted at the barber. Still no arrests. How come ED [President Mnangagwa]?” Credit: Baynham Goredema.

Three Billboards at a Zimbabwe bus terminal. They read: “Abducted at the barber. Still no arrests. How come ED [President Mnangagwa]?” Credit: Baynham Goredema.


|CRIMSON TAZVINZWA, AIWA! NO!|You see! Sometimes you begin by reminiscing those pleasant moments and occasions visiting friends and relatives in the villages. Often around Christmas festive season – when families and extended families gather for annual reunions. They would travel all the way from across Zimbabwe boundaries.

Myself. Not even a journalist then; barely through high school. Things were dandy. Happy days.


Itai Dzamara, 35, is Sheffra’s husband and Nokutenda and Nenyasha’s father. He was abducted three years ago today. He was getting a haircut on a Monday morning when four men bundled him into an unmarked vehicle and sped off. Itai’s whereabouts and the identities of those behind his kidnapping have remained unknown ever since.
“Every day I think that I’ll hear him coming through the gate,” continues Sheffra. “I think maybe I’ll see him on the news, or someone will send me a WhatsApp. These days my phone is always on, ready to receive news that Itai has been found. Maybe someone will phone, and he’ll be on the other end, or someone will give us information about where he is or tell us he’s on his way back. It’s hard to live like this, every day waiting to hear good news.”

AFRICAN ARGUMENTS

The season. Culminating into Christmas festivities; people celebrate and reflect the successes and failures of the year gone or going by, by  way of feasts and prayers.

Bulls, goats, chickens, pigs and sheep or all of them and sometimes at once are slaughtered. This is ‘MEAT-CURE‘ Season at its best and for a REASON. People joke about this and say you can only come across vegetables at your next door neighbor’s – around this time. 

People eat; drink, talk, sing and dance.

Little harmless verbal fights. Little harmless white  lies here and there. Catching up and harmless gossip are in order. There are also sideline activities; plots: engagements or and birthdays.

People constantly talk and hardly sleep; sometimes music blurring  uncontrollably and catatonic-ally on ‘fading and dying batteries’ throughout the night – and to be honest; this exhausts me a  lot though.

There are no open quarrels except if they are, they are communicated via hidden messages in songs and folktale, proverbs and metaphors. Communication is delicate, deliberate as it is loose due to alcohol consumed and weed smoked –  necessary tasks given the circumstances. This is one of the things so dear to me that I have missed for over – 20 -odd- years and counting. The thought of it alone sends my head into a spindle.

And often wonder allowed as to when I would one day visit the motherland Zimbabwe. I scratch my head often – only for my bare fingers to scratch over a bump, ‘dent on the middle of my head’ – a stuck reminder of how close I came close quarters with  death. This dent on my head:  left by a cocoa-cola bottle struck from one of Mr. Mugabe CIO agents. Challenging my lectures and my views on a current affairs programme I used to co-present on ZTV; Sundays.

On the Zimbabwe Television program. It was a Sunday evening current affairs program. I just happened to have been co opted onto presenting the program by the Head of Radio 4; Sam Munyavi. The editorial content comprised of simple question and answer sessions and general dialogue.

One fateful day though I drew the ire of the then minister of Environment and Tourism Francis Nhema. I queried the minister on the inflated fees for foreign tourists; that included ‘tourist price’ for things like transport, shopping and meals. I pointed out:

  1. I had lived in Kenya in the previous years; had seen how Kenya promoted tourism, including nominal fees and such
  2. Foreign tourists are arriving in droves simply because of President Chiluba’s land and business policy: “I don’t care whether a cat is black or white for as long as it catches the rats”
  3. And that South Africa had embarked on amicable and equitable redistribution of the land
  4. And that Nigeria had just offered Zimbabwean white commercial farmers land leases that span 90 – years if they chose to settle in Nigeria.

That query alone landed me the nickname: Mr. ‘Been-to’ although I would have rather Mr. Bantu.

It has taken me this long to face and accept the reality of my British-ness; and for Zimbabwe to remain a pipe- dream destination; probably as it should be.

In the beginning it used to get to my head and my dreams too.

I reminisce weekends of barbecues/braai KWA MEREKI – HARARE. Fake birthday parties from and among friends to attend to – excuses for PARTIES and having fun. That was grand.

But when mum went to be with the Lord on July, and realised still I couldn’t travel to Zimbabwe for the funeral – for the danger is still as real now as it was under Dictator Robert Mugabe. Imagine! 

My beloved aunt remarked recently: “By the time you visit Zimbabwe all the people would be gone. Dead!. That scared me. For it is the stuck reality.


The narrative

It doesn’t get any better. Thinking of my former graduate journalism student cum human rights activist Itai Dzamara who disappeared into ‘thin air’ from some hair salon downtown Harare; and in broad daylight.

He was abducted three years ago. He was getting a haircut one Monday morning in March 2016 when four men bundled him into an unmarked vehicle and sped off. Itai’s whereabouts and the identities of those behind his kidnapping have remained unknown ever since. 

Rumors has it that he was ‘murdered’, his body soaked in sulfuric acid and dumped in Lake Chivero/McIlwaine – 5 miles west of capital Harare. 

“Every day I think that I’ll hear him coming through the gate,” says Sheffra, his wife.

“I think maybe I’ll see him on the news, or someone will send me a WhatsApp. These days my phone is always on, ready to receive news that Itai has been found. Maybe someone will phone, and he’ll be on the other end, or someone will give us information about where he is or tell us he’s on his way back.

It’s hard to live like this, every day waiting to hear good news.”


And then there is the fateful Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

A Saudi Arabian journalist, dissident, author, and a former general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel and Columnist for Washington Post who was assassinated at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi.  


The CIA has a recording of a phonecall in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave instructions to “silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible”, a Turkish news website has reported.
Gina Haspel, CIA director, is said to have revealed the existence of a wiretapped call between Prince Mohammed and his brother Khaled bin Salman, who is Saudi’s ambassador to the US, to Turkish officials during a visit to Ankara last month, according to Hurriyet.
“It is said that the crown prince gave an instruction to silence JamalKhashoggi as soon as possible and this instruction was captured during the CIA wiretapping,” Hurriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote on Thursday. “The subsequent murder is the ultimate confirmation of this instruction.”

The Telegraph

It sends shivers through my spine. My head goes into an ‘intoxicated’ like dangerous spin. Imagine a journalist; one so prominent at that; can be murdered in a Turkish consulate and nobody knows how it happened; and no knowledge of the whereabouts of his body so family can lay him to rest with respect.


And for President Trump to say ;

“Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump said. “In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran. The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region. It is our paramount goal to fully eliminate the threat of terrorism throughout the world!”


And for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to say:


“It’s a mean, nasty world out there — the Middle East in particular,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. “There are important American interests to keep the American people safe, to protect Americans — not only Americans who are here, but Americans who are traveling and working, doing business in the Middle East. It is the president’s obligation, indeed the State Department’s duty as well, to ensure that we adopt policies that further America’s national security.”

All in front of a ‘dead body.’

Shame! It is a shame.

Shall we ever live in fear for as long as we remain trained and practising journalists?

UK ‘on edge of constitutional CRISIS’ over Brexit – academic makes EXTRAORDINARY claim

Brexit News

“Brexit is going to redefine the parties for many years to come” (Image: GETTY )

JAMES BICKERTON, EXPRESS|AIWAI! NO!|THE UK is on the verge of a full-on “constitutional crisis” over its departure from the European Union, which could trigger a “crisis around parliamentary democracy” according to a dramatic warning from a leading academic.

Brexit News Theresa May

You’ve got a potential crisis with our union, potential crisis around parliamentary democracy” (Image: BBC/GETTY)

Dr Haddon said: “You talk about a constitutional crisis, you are starting to see the edge of that.

“You’ve got a potential crisis with our union, potential crisis around parliamentary democracy and parliament being able to get through this.

“And also potentially a governance crisis if you look at the potential for a no-deal and what could go wrong in the event of that.”

A provisional Brexit agreement was announced between the EU and UK last week. 
In response two Cabinet Ministers, including Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, resigned along with a number of junior Ministers.

In his resignation letter Mr Raab wrote: “No democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime, imposed externally without any democratic control over the laws to be applied.”

Dr Haddon added that Brexit could transform the British party system.

She argued: “Brexit is going to redefine the parties for many years to come.

“This is the defining issue for a generation of politicians and it’s not just straight down the middle.”

Under the terms of Mrs May’s proposed Brexit deal, the UK will automatically become a member of a European customs union if a new trading arrangement can’t be agreed during the 21-month transition period.

BREXIT – EXCLUSIVE EXPRESS POLL: Readers say NO to May’s Brexit deal as 86% REJECT plan


An exclusive Express.co.uk poll reveals 86 percent of readers reject Mrs May’s draft Brexit deal (Image: GETTY IMAGES)


THERESA May’s Brexit deal has been overwhelmingly rejected by Express.co.uk readers, with an exclusive poll revealing 86 percent are against the Prime Minister’s plan.


Theresa May has drafted staunch supporter Amber Rudd back into the cabinet as the work and pensions secretary and took personal control of the final phase of Brexit negotiations.
The prime minister sought to shore up her support hours after Michael Gove decided to remain in the cabinet, despite having told her on Thursday he believed her Brexit deal was “not a runner” and will not get through parliament.

The Guardian


|HARVEY GAVIN, EXPRESS|AIWA! NO!|THERESA May’s Brexit deal has been overwhelmingly rejected by Express.co.uk readers, with an exclusive poll revealing 86 percent are against the Prime Minister’s plan. 

The online ‘People’s Poll’, which has been live on Express.co.uk for just 36 hours, has already received more than 69,500 responses. As of 9.05pm GMT, Just 9.9 percent (6,880) of respondents said they supported the deal while 3.7 percent (2,592) said they were unsure. The remaining 60,081 who took part said they rejected her draft Brexit deal. 

The shock results comes as Mrs May desperately battles to muster support for the draft agreement struck with Brussels.

The PM is fighting for her political survival on multiple fronts as pressure mounts following a barrage of resignations yesterday – including Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey.

Furious Tory Brexiteers dismayed at Mrs May’s deal have called for a vote of no confidence in her leadership, with 22 MPs having publicly confirmed they have submitted letters.

Meanwhile, there is huge doubt over whether Mrs May can persuade enough MPs to back her deal in the Commons.

Conservative eurosceptics and her unionist allies in Northern Ireland have all warned they will vote against it.

And as things stand, Mrs May would need dozens of Labour MPs to defy the whip and vote with the Government.

But Jeremy Corbyn’s party has said his party will stick to its guns and reject it, insisting the deal does not meet his six “tests”.

UK – BREXIT? What Brexit? Liberal Democrat Voice …


A tricky day for a Press Team, I’d suggest. After all, all the attention is directed towards who might, or might not, resign, and whether or not a leadership contest will be called. Who’d be a press officer under such circumstances?…
Mark Valladares@honladymark

Sir Vince Cable on saving the Lib Dems, staying fit and, why he thinks Prime Minister Theresa May and Conservatives started Britain on a journey with no actual idea of their route or their destination.

Sir Vince Cable on saving the Lib Dems, staying fit and, why he thinks 
Prime Minister Theresa May and Conservatives started Britain on a journey with no actual idea of their route or their destination.

The Prime Minister took a long time to say nothing this afternoon. She appears to be in denial. The facts haven’t changed. There is no majority in Parliament for her deal, and she has rightly conceded that “No Brexit” is the real alternative to it.There must now be a People’s Vote to break the deadlock and get the country out of this mess.null

  • Cable: The Conservative Government is in meltdown
  • Cable: PM’s incompetence leaves UK unprepared for all options
  • Brexit chaos hitting UK businesses hard
  • Cable: ‘No Brexit’ clearly on the table
  • Cable: PM in Brexit denial

Cable: The Conservative Government is in meltdown

Responding to the resignation of Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable said:

The Government started Britain on a journey with no actual idea of their route or their destination. The Conservative Government is in meltdown and it’s clear the Conservatives are now driving the country off a cliff.

The Tories are finally realising what we have always known. There is no way to prevent Brexit from leaving our country worse off.

A People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal, where they can choose to remain in the EU, is the only route out of this uncertainty. It is time people had the power to end this mess.

Cable: PM’s incompetence leaves UK unprepared for all options

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable has today criticised Theresa May for failing to prepare for no Brexit, despite admitting it was an option.

Speaking in response to the Prime Minister’s Brexit statement in the House of Commons today, Vince Cable said: “The Prime Minister rightly asserts that there are two alternatives to her plan, no deal and no Brexit.”

He added: “The Government is investing considerably in contingency planning for no deal. What contingency planning is she doing for no Brexit? Including, for example, advising the Commission that Article 50 may have to be withdrawn? And is she herself preparing for the fact, however much she hates it, that the House may instruct her to carry out a People’s Vote?”

In response, the Prime Minister confirmed the Conservative Government was making no plans for no Brexit.

Following the exchange, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said:

For the livelihoods of people right across the UK, there is no deal better than the deal we currently have as EU members. That is why the Liberal Democrats have consistently made the case for remaining in the EU.

Given the Prime Minister’s botched deal is falling apart already, it is beyond incompetent that she has left the UK unprepared for the very real reality of no Brexit at all.

The future of our country should be decided by the people. The people must be given the final say on Brexit, including the option to remain in the EU.

Brexit chaos hitting UK businesses hard

Responding to reports that UK- focused firms have been hit hard by the PM’s proposed Brexit deal, with RBS, Lloyds, Barclays, Marks and Spencer, Barratt, Berkeley and EasyJet all seeing falls in their share prices, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake said:

Ministerial resignations and Brexit chaos are hitting UK-based businesses hard.

But the short-term damage caused by a rudderless Government will be nothing compared to the permanent harm the PM’s bad deal or catastrophic No Deal would inflict on UK Plc.

That is why we need a People’s Vote to get us out of this mess and secure an exit from Brexit.

Cable: ‘No Brexit’ clearly on the table

Responding to Donald Tusk’s invitation to the UK to remain in the European Union, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said:

Donald Tusk is right and it’s good to see that ‘No Brexit’ is clearly on the table from the EU.

Any sensible Government would be contingency planning for no Brexit, and I am pleased to see that the EU is now planning for it too.

The PM too has acknowledged now that there is a choice between no Brexit and no deal if her plans fail.

Recent events have shifted a People’s Vote from being possible to becoming probable. We must prepare to win the argument in the country: there is still time to exit from Brexit.

Cable: PM in Brexit denial

Responding to the Prime Minister’s press conference today, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said:

The Prime Minister took a long time to say nothing this afternoon. She appears to be in denial.

The facts haven’t changed. There is no majority in Parliament for her deal, and she has rightly conceded that “No Brexit” is the real alternative to it.

There must now be a People’s Vote to break the deadlock and get the country out of this mess.