Paul McGilchrist cites an explicit admission of racism on immigration that has been in the public domain for more than 50 years. Plus letters from David Chan and Alison Simmons
The leaked Home Office document detailing the inherent racism of British immigration policy from 1950 to 1981 is shameful (Windrush scandal caused by ‘30 years of racist immigration laws’ – report, 29 May). However, it will surprise no one familiar with postwar immigration policy. There is, for example, at least one surprisingly explicit admission of racism that has been in the public domain for more than 50 years, and which demonstrates the peculiar ability for British racism to hide in plain sight.
Race Without Rancour (1968), a political analysis by the Tory MP and Daily Telegraph journalist William Deedes, talks candidly of the coded message behind the Tories’ 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act: “The Bill’s real purpose was to restrict the influx of coloured immigrants. We were reluctant to say as much openly. So the restrictions were applied to coloured and white citizens in all Commonwealth countries – though everybody recognised that immigration from Canada, Australia and New Zealand formed no part of the problem.”
Paul McGilchrist
Colchester, Essex
