The river of blue blood
Dear Caroline Spelman,
I cannot help but wonder what was the primary motivation behind the pressure you put on Nigel Hastilow to forfeit his position as PPC in Halesown. Was this an appropriate step for a party chairman to take, or have you misjudged the situation?
I don’t know the Wolverhampton area very well, but I am assuming that a PPC highlighting local concerns about immigration is related to the feelings of local people rather than just being said on the spur of the moment. The job of an MP or PPC is to represent their constituents, and should immigration be the key issue in any given area then I have no problem with Mr Hastilow talking about it in a very candid manner. Mr Hastilow said:
“Enoch, once MP for Wolverhampton South-West, was sacked from the Conservative front bench and marginalised politically for his 1968 ‘Rivers of blood’ speech, warning that uncontrolled immigration would change our country irrevocably. He was right. It has changed dramatically.”
He obviously agrees with Enoch Powell, and I agree with Mr Hastilow – immigration has already changed our country to an unacceptable degree. Some immigration is clearly needed but the situation we have now is outrageous and has changed towns, cities and villages across the country (possibly forever). If you hadn’t got involved, I suspect these comments would never have seen the light of day in the mainstream media. Your rash intervention has made sure this is not the case.
Do not underestimate how many people agree with Mr Hastilow. The Conservative Party must let the country know that we will not tolerate the levels of immigration seen under Labour.
Yours in dismay,
A.Tory
This is bad, bad news. Mr Hastilow obviously misjudged Cameron’s rhetoric about immigration as genuine, and actually bucked up the guts to speak out about it. This is the thanks he gets for being hoodwinked into believing that the Tories , Labour or Lib Dems had actually pulled away from this climate of fear when facing up to the mess of immigration in Britain.
I think his sacking/resignation was more to do with the fact the Tories wanted to avoid being branded (again) as racists by the Labour spin machine. Though why anyone hasn’t been up in arms at Brown’s “British jobs for British workers” rhetoric is a mystery.
I agree with you both.
This resignation signals to the electorate that the Conservatives don’t share their concerns about immigration and gives the other parties an easy target (which they have gladly accepted). He was just standing up for the views of his constituents, as the Conservative chairwoman in Nigel Hastilow’s constituency pointed out today.
Dammit, Sir, you’re sounding like a Tory!
The Tories encouraged immigration in the 1950’s and still like the fact that they can get cheap labour from over seas. Trouble is Britain hasn’t needed immigration at all since the late 1960s. Unemployment first hit 1 million in 1973 and the massaging of figures by Mrs Thatcher’s government in the 1980’s is well known, just as it is known that the same dishonest practices are continuing today. The politicians and capitalist employers may con the migrants but they can’t con their children just as they can’t con the indigenous population with their slave labour wages. Why do you think so many Brits of all ethnic backgrounds don’t work? Scum like Digby Jones encouraged this for the benefit of his capitalist friends. This is a self made problem that Britain has brought on itself. Britain will never change now and most realise it.
Be nice to immigrants. They are paying for your pension.