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Britain's Racist Election



T

TomandJerry

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2013
11,465
Sunday, Channel 4 at 10pm

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




L

London Irish

Well-known member
Nov 25, 2003
21,869
Trapped inside the Project for the New American Ce
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
 


T

TomandJerry

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2013
11,465
London Irish said:
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
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Could make for an interesting viewing on sunday then
 


Puppet Master

Puppet Master

non sequitur
Aug 14, 2012
4,055
54835955.jpg
 


Lord Bracknell

Lord Bracknell

On fire
Jul 5, 2003
39,499
104 Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair
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.
 








T

TomandJerry

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2013
11,465
Lord Bracknell said:
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.
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How much did Griffiths win by?
 




Lord Bracknell

Lord Bracknell

On fire
Jul 5, 2003
39,499
104 Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair
TomandJerry said:
How much did Griffiths win by?
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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.
 




T

TomandJerry

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2013
11,465
Lord Bracknell said:
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.
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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

Lord Bracknell

On fire
Jul 5, 2003
39,499
104 Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair
TomandJerry said:
Was the racism more wide spread than just the Griffiths seat, since the program is based on the GE as a whole that year?
Click to expand...
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.
 


T

TomandJerry

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2013
11,465
Lord Bracknell said:
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.
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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?
 








Cheshire Cat

Cheshire Cat

The most curious thing..
Nov 4, 2006
11,444
Sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off...


C

cunning fergus

Well-known member
Jan 18, 2009
4,747
London Irish said:
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
Click to expand...


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.........
 










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