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William Webster's avatar

Those who landed from Empire Windrush landed in 1948. No one asked them to come. When they did land the government was aghast.

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John's avatar

The UK was growing at a rate of about 5% per annum in the first half of the 1960s. There was no possibility of labour shortages crashing the economy and Britain would soon suffer an excess of labour and mass unemployment post baby boom and deindustrialisation.

I also entirely disagree with "ignorant racism" argument. The British people did not want immigration from the West Indies or from any other far flung place. They expressed their views on this repeatedly and robustly culminating in the late 1960s with huge popular support for Powell post speech in Birmingham. Why the majority felt that way mattered not. Their views ought to have been enacted. And as often turns out to be the case, the majority were right - or more right than left wing internationalists. Immigration once started is not just very difficult to stop but expands and without an off button one will eventually lose the country in much the same way that Savill Town in Dewsbury at close to 80% muslim, with life revolving around the Makazi Masjid Mosque, cannot seriously be described as English - other than it lies within the borders of what is referred to as England. One could take the position that this is an extreme and cannot happen elsewhere but only if one is poor with numbers. White British will be a minority in schools in less than a decade and there is a population explosion to the south of Europe which will really manifest in the next 10 -20 years.

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