History of the corner shop (immigration)

[diy_fun_uk]

This was on telly last night, made for quite interesting viewing. If you get the chance, watch it. The documentary explores the ups and down of immigration, those in favour, those against, racism suffered etc.

BBC Four - Timeshift, Series 16, Booze, Beans and Bhajis: The Story of the Corner Shop

The growing and shifting fortunes of the British corner shop over the past 70 years.

www.bbc.co.uk

It gave a potted history through the prism of the corner shop of UK immigration over past decades. I myself am probably/possibly a product of Indians and Pakistanis coming across in the 60s/70s. However, on watching the documentary, it struck me that these people came in through official routes. The Indians and Pakistanis were invited to come during the 60s/70s due to labour shortages. People of Indian descent were also accepted (under asylum seeker status) due to the Idi Amin instigated expulsion of Asians in the early 70s, as were Iranians after the revolution in the late 70s.

I suppose what I'm driving at is, unless I'm missing something, those fleeing the (real and significant) Idi Amin and Iranian situations came to the UK through formally arranged routes. This thread isn't about whether it was right or wrong to accept these people in, we all hold different views on that, however what can't be argued against is the manner in which they did come in.

For me, this is immigration working as it should. People sneaking in on boats isn't.

 

[Pat ex]

There have been the odd occasion in history when UK have recognised a one-off event requiring unusual provision for certain sectors to claim asylum. The Idi Amin episode was one such incident, The Vietnamese boat people were another. The recent Ukraine invasion was another.
But by and large there is no 'formal' route to claim asylum in UK, unless by some miracle you manage to gain access to an embassy.
Either you wait in a refugee camp somewhere, (which you may have arrived at by boat), and hope that a friendly country comes along and selects you for 'immigration' into UK. You will have no choice of which country selects you, and it will be dependent on political/ population/ relatives criteria at the time. (Remember the £10 assisted passage to Australia also?)
Otherwise, if you want to claim asylum in UK (or more or less any other country of your choice) you need to arrive there somehow.
UK being an island, the only way is by boat.

Some immigrants may have arrived before the UK government changed the Common Wealth UK passport criteria. (1981)
Edit, since about 1962 it became more and more stringent criteria for Common Wealth citizens to enter UK.

 

[ic1927]

Years ago I worked with a Ugandan Asian bloke and his son on a building site, they had been evicted from Uganda by Idi Amin and lost everything, their home, plumbing business, possessions, vehicles, the lot. They ended up in Cardiff and were grateful for a chance to start again. The thing with this fella was, he never felt bitter and was always upbeat about life, I'd have been angry as feck if I'd gone through what he went through.

 

[opps]

People of Indian descent were also accepted (under asylum seeker status) due to the Idi Amin instigated expulsion

According to a Radio 4 programme that I listened to over the last few days, most of them held UK passports.

More than 27,000 ethnic Indian and Pakistani holders of UK passports made their way to Britain, which reluctantly took in its former colonial subjects.

They weren't asylum seekers, they had the right to resettle here.

 

[opps]

As an aside, when I went to school in the 70's and 80's I had loads of mates, who like me were children of people from the commonwealth invited to the UK post war to work on the the tubes and buses.

I had black mates whose parents came from different islands in the Windies and met whilst working for London Transport. My Irish mum was a clippy on the buses when she met my (Route Master driver) father (whom had been born part of the Punjab which became Pakistan).

 

[opps]

The whole Rivers of Blood chite was an attempt to deprive people of their legally held UK passports.

The idea gained traction in some fairly high profile people- a classic example being Eric Clapton.

In 1976, on stage, Clapton said -

"Stop Britain from becoming a black colony," he said. "Get the foreigners out. Get the w*gs out. Get the c*ons out. Keep Britain white. I used to be into dope, now I’m into racism. It’s much heavier, man. ****ing w*gs, man. F*cking Saudis taking over London. B*stard w*gs. Britain is becoming overcrowded, and Enoch will stop it and send them all back. The black w*gs and c*ons and Arabs and f*cking Jamaicans and f*cking … don’t belong here, we don’t want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don’t want any black w*gs and c*ons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man. We are a white country. I don’t want f*cking w*gs living next to me with their standards. This is Great Britain, a white country. What is happening to us, for ****’s sake?”

He then went on to insist that any foreigners in the audience leave the building immediately.

His outburst resulted in Rock Against Racism being formed.

 

[Mottie]

UK being an island, the only way is by boat.

Or tunnel. Or air.

 

[Pat ex]

Or tunnel. Or air.

I was referring only to asylum seekers.

 

[Bod ...]

Or tunnel. Or air.

Or submarine

 

[Bod ...]

I was referring only to asylum seekers.

Is that true? Can they not come in by Air?

 

[noseall]

Didn't bozza propose a bridge when voters lost interest in his 'get brexit done' lies?

 

[fillyboy]

Didn't bozza propose a bridge when voters lost interest in his 'get brexit done' lies?

But it wasn't lies was it? he got Brexit done. An awful lot of nutjobs will never forgive him for that, and to an extent, they've got their revenge, he's out. But he got it done, I salute him for that.

 

[Deleted member 18243]

The whole Rivers of Blood chite was an attempt to deprive people of their legally held UK passports.

The idea gained traction in some fairly high profile people- a classic example being Eric Clapton.

In 1976, on stage, Clapton said -

"Stop Britain from becoming a black colony," he said. "Get the foreigners out. Get the w*gs out. Get the c*ons out. Keep Britain white. I used to be into dope, now I’m into racism. It’s much heavier, man. ****ing w*gs, man. F*cking Saudis taking over London. B*stard w*gs. Britain is becoming overcrowded, and Enoch will stop it and send them all back. The black w*gs and c*ons and Arabs and f*cking Jamaicans and f*cking … don’t belong here, we don’t want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don’t want any black w*gs and c*ons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man. We are a white country. I don’t want f*cking w*gs living next to me with their standards. This is Great Britain, a white country. What is happening to us, for ****’s sake?”

He then went on to insist that any foreigners in the audience leave the building immediately.

His outburst resulted in Rock Against Racism being formed.

Do you know what prompted Eric to make that statement, on that stage on that day? He wasn't known to say such things beforehand; and do you know if he has said anything similar since?

Just looking for some context.

 

[noseall]

But it wasn't lies was it? he got Brexit done. An awful lot of nutjobs will never forgive him for that, and to an extent, they've got their revenge, he's out. But he got it done, I salute him for that.

The UK got done (over), Brexit is a never ending catastrophuck of lies, broken promises, unworkable treaties and a money losing shambles. The only thing that got done were the pro-Brexit voters. Still nothing positive has come from it and we are 6 years on. A majority of the UK population now view Brexit unfavourably. What a pile of shoite.

Forgive him? He shafted the UK for a brief spell of narcissistic, UK wrecking self-indulgence. The incessant liar needs putting against a wall.

 

[JohnD]

But it wasn't lies was it? .

When does the £350 million a week extra to the NHS start?

Why are we no longer in the Single Market if we hold all the cards?