The history of legislation to control immigration into this country has had a rather shamefaced air. The policy of the “open door”, particularly as applied before 1962 to immigrants from the Commonwealth, had a certain hospitality and nobility about it; but it was only maintainable so long as those wishing to enter were comparatively few… As soon as there was a substantial flow of immigrants in the late 1950s, it became inevitable that… controls on entry would be imposed. Britain has no wide open spaces to populate… Nevertheless, the change in British policy came as a shock to liberal opinion in this country and it would be quite wrong to deny that racial prejudice played a large part in bringing this change about.
Attempts to obscure this have sometimes been less than honest and have given rise to much hypocrisy. But this does not alter the main fact that it is reasonable and necessary to place curbs on the flow of immigrants, as does every other country. In our case, it was necessary to reassure the indigenous population that the flow would be reduced, thus giving some security to those immigrants who were already established here and who would in all probability have suffered far greater prejudice if the “numbers” against which Mr Enoch Powell has been fulminating had greatly increased. This reassurance and this security are the essentials of good community relations.
Key quote
“He was said to be dead this morning – but when I called him he denied it.”
Mr Chris Hutchins, agent for Tom Jones
Talking point
Hungary has applied to London bankers to raise a long-term loan in the Western capital market. This is the first time that a Communist country has sought funds in the West.
Front-page story ‘Hungary to borrow in West’