Britain's Racist Election

[TomandJerry]

Sunday, Channel 4 at 10pm

All about the 1964 General Election, (anti-immigration) does anyone on here remember it?

 

[London Irish]

I once interviewed Peter Griffiths about it many years later when I was a student. He was the Tory MP in Birmingham whose supporters campaigned under the slogan "If you want a ****** neighbour, vote Labour". Seemed a kindly old gent who didn't have the faintest clue about how Britain was changing irreversably

 

[TomandJerry]

I once interviewed Peter Griffiths about it many years later when I was a student. He was the Tory MP in Birmingham whose supporters campaigned under the slogan "If you want a ****** neighbour, vote Labour". Seemed a kindly old gent who didn't have the faintest clue about how Britain was changing irreversably

Could make for an interesting viewing on sunday then

 

[Puppet Master]

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I was living in the West Midlands at the time and remember the widespread revulsion at Griffiths and his nasty campaign. I don't believe he won because of the racism. It was more the fact that Patrick Gordon Walker wasn't a popular MP in Smethwick. Griffiths lost his seat in 1966.

 

[studio150]

Sounds like an interesting programme will have to tune in

 

[TomandJerry]

Sounds like an interesting programme will have to tune in

Exactly what I was thinking after seeing it advertised on tv!

 

[TomandJerry]

I was living in the West Midlands at the time and remember the widespread revulsion at Griffiths and his nasty campaign. I don't believe he won because of the racism. It was more the fact that Patrick Gordon Walker wasn't a popular MP in Smethwick. Griffiths lost his seat in 1966.

How much did Griffiths win by?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

How much did Griffiths win by?

He had a majority of 1,774, having increased the Tory vote by just 2.3% compared with the 1959 General Election. Patrick Gordon Walker' s vote fell by 12.1%, largely because the Liberals put up a candidate in a seat that they didn't contest in 1959. Griffiths won not because Smethwick was full of racists, but because 3,000 Liberals lived there and they turned against the sitting Labour MP.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The constituency reverted to Labour in 1966 and it has remained Labour ever since.

 

[TomandJerry]

He had a majority of 1,774, having increased the Tory vote by just 2.3% compared with the 1959 General Election. Patrick Gordon Walker' s vote fell by 12.1%, largely because the Liberals put up a candidate in a seat that they didn't contest in 1959. Griffiths won not because Smethwick was full of racists, but because 3,000 Liberals lived there and they turned against the sitting Labour MP.

Was the racism more wide spread than just the Griffiths seat, since the program is based on the GE as a whole that year?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Was the racism more wide spread than just the Griffiths seat, since the program is based on the GE as a whole that year?

Labour won the 1964 election because of a massive shift of opinion against the Tories. The Tory Prime Minister, Scottish laird Alec Douglas Home was seen as a throwback to a different age. Labour was seen as the modern party, committed to what Harold Wilson called "the white heat of the technological revolution". And the Tories were also pulled down by the baggage of things like the Profumo scandal. There was plenty of racism knocking around in society at large, but it didn't taint politics to any great extent.

 

[TomandJerry]

Labour won the 1964 election because of a massive shift of opinion against the Tories. The Tory Prime Minister, Scottish laird Alec Douglas Home was seen as a throwback to a different age. Labour was seen as the modern party, committed to what Harold Wilson called "the white heat of the technological revolution". And the Tories were also pulled down by the baggage of things like the Profumo scandal. There was plenty of racism knocking around in society at large, but it didn't taint politics to any great extent.

What about Enoch Powell, did he play a part in the 1964 racism/anti-immigration with his speech or wasn't that abit later on?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

What about Enoch Powell, did he play a part in the 1964 racism/anti-immigration with his speech or wasn't that abit later on?

Powell's speech didn't happen until 1968.

 

[Hampster Gull]

The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there

 

[Cheshire Cat]

This was far more influential than any "race" tag at the time.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics...3/oct/01/harold-wilson-white-heat-speech-live

 

[cunning fergus]

I once interviewed Peter Griffiths about it many years later when I was a student. He was the Tory MP in Birmingham whose supporters campaigned under the slogan "If you want a ****** neighbour, vote Labour". Seemed a kindly old gent who didn't have the faintest clue about how Britain was changing irreversably

Interesting.

Nonetheless, it's something of an inditement that a democratically elected MP should be unaware of such profound change in the country at that time, let alone his constituency. If he didn't understand what was happening what hope is there for the public?

Whatever the rights and wrongs are about that campaign, the essential truth is that Birmingham is, as at the last census 53% white British, had that statistic been bandied about by Tories like Griffiths in the 70s no doubt they would have been branded as fantasists and racist alarmists.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Sat...096353923&pagename=BCC/Common/Wrapper/Wrapper

Quite.........

 

[cunning fergus]

The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there

You are right it is.

The question is do you accept how things were in the past or do you want to pretend it was never like that..........

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...l-Boy-for-being-racist-Dont-be-a-plonker.html

 

[TomandJerry]

 

[Hampster Gull]