Posted on 12/30/2009 2:43:07 PM PST by GOPGuide
Lady Thatcher responded that “in her view all those who wrote letters in this sense should be invited to accept one into their homes," the minutes disclose.
"She thought it quite wrong that immigrants should be given council housing whereas white citizens were not."
Lady Thatcher asked what the implications of such a move could be given that an exodus of the white population from Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe – was expected once majority rule was established.
She made clear, however, that she had "less objection to refugees such as Rhodesians, Poles and Hungarians, since they could more easily be assimilated into British society".
The meeting was held about 18 months after Lady Thatcher made comments in a television interview that came to be seen as a watershed in mainstream politicians’ handling of race and immigration.
“People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture,” she told World In Action.
“If we do not want people to go to extremes we ourselves must talk about this problem and we must show that we are prepared to deal with it,” she added. “We are not in politics to ignore people’s worries. We are in politics to deal with them.”
The comments were held responsible for a collapse in support for the National Front, which had been gathering momentum in working class communities.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Considering that London seems to now have more AlQaeda operatives per capita than The Afghan-Pakistan Tribal War-Zone thanks to New Labour I can’t say she was wrong.
Good for Thatcher. She had the right idea early on in her government.
What the heck happened after that?
She was talking about Vietnamese refugees. Big mistake not allowing more anti-communists into the country. Instead they went all out with the muslims.
Excerpt: “People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture,” she told World In Action.
“If we do not want people to go to extremes we ourselves must talk about this problem and we must show that we are prepared to deal with it,” she added. “We are not in politics to ignore people’s worries. We are in politics to deal with them.”
I wish more politicians were like Margret Thatcher, Palin and Michelle Bachman are close.
No No No....she was not talking about Vietnamese refugees....they refer to arabs, mid easterners , as asian in Britain? Don’t know why but they do...
We refer to Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis as Asian....
They show that in July 1979, Lady Thatcher met Lord Carrington, her foreign secretary, and William Whitelaw, then home secretary, to discuss the plight of hundreds of thousands of "boat people" fleeing persecution in communist Vietnam.
The prime minister, who had publicly said that she sympathised with fears that Britain was being “swamped” by immigrant cultures, reacted sharply to the ministers’ suggestions that thousands of the Vietnamese refugees should be welcomed.
---snip---
He said that according to letters he had received, opinion favoured the accepting of more of the Vietnamese refugees.
They show that in July 1979, Lady Thatcher met Lord Carrington, her foreign secretary, and William Whitelaw, then home secretary, to discuss the plight of hundreds of thousands of "boat people" fleeing persecution in communist Vietnam.I find it amusing they're arguing over 10,000 people, though. Meanwhile, they've taken over a million people from what used to be British India. And the US has taken over 1m Indochinese (Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese) refugees. In the end, Britain took in over 20,000 refugees. My personal impression is that at least some of these were economic migrants who - instead of being persecuted - rather liked the Communist government.The prime minister, who had publicly said that she sympathised with fears that Britain was being “swamped” by immigrant cultures, reacted sharply to the ministers’ suggestions that thousands of the Vietnamese refugees should be welcomed.
Lord Carrington, who had visited refugee camps in Hong Kong where some of the boat people were being held, gave a "vivid account" of the conditions there, the minutes show.
He suggested that Britain take 10,000 of them over two years. Failure to take a significant number would lead to a "damaging reaction" at home and abroad, he said, and anything less than 10,000 would be "difficult to sustain" on the world stage.
But Lady Thatcher said that there were already too many people coming into Britain, according to the minutes.
She said that "with some exceptions there had been no humanitarian case for accepting 1.5 million immigrants from south Asia and elsewhere. It was essential to draw a line somewhere".
Mr Whitelaw entered the debate, suggesting to the prime minister that refugees were a different matter to immigrants in general.
He said that according to letters he had received, opinion favoured the accepting of more of the Vietnamese refugees.
Reading this speech today, over 40 years since it was given, is sobering. Powell was labelled a racist, but his remarks were prescient and on the mark.
You should have hear my aunt talking about the "Pakistanis" back in 1975!
ML/NJ
what she said is simple common sense. Political classes all across the west have intentionally acted to dilute,weaken/destroy/marginalize their own native cultures.
We in the US are just lucky our southern border is with Mexico, given the other possibilities.
I will add that the international media have been central in propagating the big lie that mass immigration from very different cultures than western values/laws are geared towards is in any way a good thing.
Sort of like the difference between LBJ and Obama.
Not 'thanks to New Labour'. A significant number of those apprehended for terrorist offences is second- or third-generation offspring of immigrants originally arriving in the 1950s and 1960s. 'New Commonwealth' immigration (which incidentally is just as much non-Muslim as Muslim) has been slowly building over 50 years, under governments of both main parties - it's a mistake to see this as a recent development under Labour.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.