Autumn budget and Windrush voices (E252)

Budgets were once a “straw hats and Pimms day” in parliament – though, to be fair, that was when they were held in the spring. Now they take place in the early chill of autumn. Chancellors were arguably bigger figures back then too, biding their time until they moved next door to No 10. Nobody would accuse the current chancellor, Philip Hammond, of being a larger than a life character and neither is he fancied much at the bookies ever to become PM. But what stood out in this week’s budget was the announcement of the Brexit 50p coin (which could slip quite nicely into a new blue passport). Who joins us to discuss the meaning of this week’s budget is the Labour MP for Derby North, Chris Williamson, who is tipped by many as a future leader.

Back in the day, Britain beseeched the people of its Caribbean colonies – perversely called the West Indies – to come to the mother country. Those who came faced decades of hostility, discrimination and the final pay-off – deportation. In a collection of real life stories, David Matthews, a writer, broadcaster and film-maker, gives voice to those whose lives were irrevocably changed by this early mass migration. So, we invited him into the studio to tell us what he discovered while working on his new book “Voices of the Windrush Generation”.

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