“People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture. 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. We are not in politics to ignore people’s worries. We are in politics to deal with them.” – Margaret Thatcher (World in Action)
THE TELEGRAPH: Margaret Thatcher thought it was "quite wrong" for immigrants to get council houses ahead of "white citizens", previously unpublished government papers show.
Files released to the National Archives show that soon after becoming prime minister, Lady Thatcher privately complained that too many Asian immigrants were being allowed into Britain.
The documents, which are published today under the “30 year rule”, shed further light on Lady Thatcher’s attitudes on race and immigration, political issues that have remained controversial ever since.
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.
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. >>> Jon Swaine | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Files from 1979 too sensitive for release remain secret: Government files from 1979 regarded as too sensitive to release under the “30 year rule” were kept secret. >>> Jon Swaine | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Lady Thatcher attacked French president over Europe funding: The French president received a “handbagging” from Lady Thatcher over Britain's funding of Europe within weeks of her entering Downing Street. >>> Jon Swaine | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
