Saving Our Nation
14 Aug 2024
A trumpet of warning to the Government unheeded for 70 years!
Sir Kier Starmer’s policy of getting tough on rioters will not dispel the discontent in the nation today because he has not understood the problem. As Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack said in his PT article last week, “The impact of mass immigration on working-class communities and the concerns it engenders are never addressed seriously or with understanding by the establishment.”
Windrush generation
I have been following the issues of immigration in Britain since the first boatload of mainly young men from Jamaica arrived in London aboard the Empire Windrush in 1948. In 1958 I wrote the first book to be published in the UK on modern race relations, coinciding with the Notting Hill riots in September that year. I had been living and working in the Notting Hill area of London since 1952. The book was called ‘Black-And-White In Harmony’ and it rapidly became a bestseller. I was a familiar figure among the immigrants, helping with practical issues such as housing and finding jobs as well as dealing with an abundance of personal problems.
Our house became locally known as the ‘Jamaican Labour Exchange’ ....
Finding jobs was not easy for a small number of men who could not, for example, read warning signs in a factory, so my wife, Monica, taught a literacy class at our church. Our house became locally known as the ‘Jamaican Labour Exchange’, but we loved having these people in our church congregation, with their strong faith and musical talents.
We had a brilliant quartet who we used in broadcasts from the church. I used to do a weekly programme on the BBC Overseas Service to the Caribbean – a sort of ‘Letter from London’, reporting on life among the migrant communities. I married probably 100 couples in six years. To one young couple who were homeless, we gave a week’s honeymoon in our home while we found a room for them to rent.
Lack of assistance
My major concern, right from the beginning, was that absolutely no provision was made for the newcomers. They were given no help at all in finding somewhere to live or to work, and no help or advice on living in Britain. I was constantly calling upon the Government to recognise both the physical issues and the cultural needs of people coming from rural areas of the Caribbean islands.
To be suddenly thrust onto the streets of a great city such as London with no preparation and no help or advice was a devastating experience for these young people. The first young men to step off that first boat had no friends in London and some even spent the first night on the streets.
I married probably 100 couples in six years. To one young couple who were homeless, we gave a week’s honeymoon in our home while we found a room for them to rent.
We spent a lot of time talking to them about British laws, rules and regulations, especially in relation to housing. When they were looking for rooms ‘to let’ they saw the cards advertising rooms in local shop windows, to which were usually added; “No Coloured, No Irish, No Dogs”. It was this desperate scarcity of accommodation that forced them to buy big old rundown houses in the Notting Hill area. They achieved this by six or more men paying weekly into a ‘club’ and each taking it in turn to draw the whole amount which enabled them to raise the deposit on a house. One by one they became house owners, renting out rooms to newcomers.
Settling conflicts
Many of the houses were leasehold or had a sitting tenant in one part of the house. The immigrants had no knowledge of British housing laws. The sitting tenant was often an elderly white person paying a tiny rent. They were protected by British law, but the African Caribbeans just wanted them out so that they could accommodate their own family or friends.
This was a cause of endless friction, especially when they made life unbearable for the tenant. Another cause of conflict on warm summer evenings was when a Jamaican family had a celebration and invited their friends. 100 or more would arrive, and reggae music would reverberate around the street, to the annoyance of the local white residents.
Numerous times the police would telephone me in the early hours of the morning to come and calm things down and prevent a race riot. I would drive at top speed to the address and go straight inside the house where the police did not dare to go. I could usually solve the problems within a few minutes. Even after we moved to Tottenham in North London, the police would still ring me and I would drive all the way to my old neighbourhood to restore harmony to a fractious community.
No help was ever given to assist them in making the great change from tropical Caribbean territories to London or other British cities.
This was the scene in the 1950s and my constant pleas to the Government were ignored to provide some kind of ‘Induction Course’ for newcomers to give them a basic understanding of British law, local government regulations and the local culture of the neighbourhood where they were settling. Nothing was ever done. No help was ever given to assist them in making the great change from tropical Caribbean territories to London or other British cities.
Asian arrivals
In 1960 the whole immigration scene changed – the first Asians came to Britain. They came in quite small numbers that year, but once again, the Government took no notice, although public clamour arose with calls for immigration controls, the first of which began with The Race Relations Act of 1962. But still there was no ‘Induction Course’ for newcomers to introduce them to the British way of life.
This was disastrous because all those who had come from the Caribbean were English speakers, and had lived under British colonial law, were taught the history of Britain in their day schools, and their churches were much the same as we have in Britain. Moreover, 90% of the people of Jamaica went to church regularly. They were shocked when they came to Britain to discover the churches were often not even half full.
The situation with the Asians was different. They did not speak English, they were not used to English education, or a culture based upon the Christian religion of the Bible. Whereas the Caribbeans could adjust fairly quickly and they made great efforts to identify with the local community, the Asians were completely different. They had no desire for integration. There are still parts of our cities, notably Leicester, where few people speak English and where they have their own shops and mosques and a very different way of life.
90% of the people of Jamaica went to church regularly. They were shocked when they came to Britain to discover the churches were often not even half full.
Government failing
This, of course, is largely the fault of British Governments of all political parties – none of whom have bothered to require immigrants to attend ‘Induction Courses’ to teach them the basics of English law, language, history, culture and faith. All this should have been a requirement before the granting of British citizenship, in the same way as Americans require before granting citizenship in the USA.
If we had done this from the 1950s, we would not be facing the problems that we have today. What most people in Britain do not realise is that it is the intention of many Muslim people to make Britain an Islamic nation. They are aided by British immigration law that penalises people from English-speaking British colonies such as the West Indies but favours those coming from India and Pakistan, where they are allowed to send their young people back home for a bride or bridegroom. They get married in their local village to a partner who has no knowledge of the English language and culture. Then they are allowed to settle in Britain.
The Asian birth rate in Britain is two or three times as high as the white British population, so it is a numerical certainty that they will be the majority of the population before the end of this century. These are the plain facts of immigration of which I have been warning successive Governments for sixty years.
Mounting anger
The latest folly is with Kier Starmer’s policy of simply punishing the rioters and making no effort to understand the tension that is building up right across the country because white native English, Scots, Welsh and Irish people are slowly waking up to the fact that their country has been given away to foreigners! This is the anger that is boiling under the surface, and it will not go away by punishing a few hundred lawbreakers labelled ‘thugs’.
The latest folly is with Kier Starmer’s policy of simply punishing the rioters and making no effort to understand the tension that is building up rapidly right across the country because white native English, Scots, Welsh and Irish people are slowly waking up to the fact that their country has been given away to foreigners!
Enoch Powell made a speech in April 1968 warning that ‘rivers of blood’ would flow in this country unless the Government changed its policy on immigration. He was dismissed as a racist by both Labour and Conservatives and his warnings went unheeded. Today we are seeing the result with the mounting anger in the nation.
Islamic nation?
No one should charge me with being a racist – they should examine my history! But I am tired of blowing a trumpet of warning since 1954. I am now in my 98th year, but still in good health and with all my mental faculties in good order. I am only saying this because I do not want this warning to be dismissed as the ramblings of a half-witted old man!
Some 20 or 30 years ago, my good friend, David Pawson, now departed, prophesied that the day would come when Britain would become a Muslim country and subjected to Islamic law. This would be a tragedy – especially for women who would be reduced to second-class citizenship and probably even denied education as they are in Afghanistan and made to wear burkas, as they are in Iran.
Listening to the people
I am making this one last plea to the British Government to change the Immigration Laws of this land!! In addition to stopping the boats, all new immigrants should be required to attend an ‘Induction Course’ before being granted British citizenship. The practice of allowing Asians to go back home to get a marriage partner must be stopped! It is increasing the number of Asians in this country at a rapid pace and it will totally undermine and destroy the character of the British nation.
All new immigrants should be required to attend an ‘Induction Course’ before being granted British citizenship.
The anger in the nation is not confined to the ‘far right’ as the Government assumes. That is a dangerous lie! They need to listen to the ordinary British working class and middle-class people who are fair-minded and deeply concerned at the signs that the whole character of the nation is being lost. We need an open discussion of the race issues in Britian.
This anger will not be dispersed by handing out a few prison sentences to lawbreakers. The Government has to listen to the ordinary people of this land and be courageous enough to deal with the real issues.
The Revd Dr Clifford Hill MA. BD. PhD
Additional Info
Author:
Rev Dr Clifford Hill