Source D, in contrast, is a useful source that shows the type of unwelcoming attitudes being expressed in newspapers at the time. The Daily Mirror generally supported the labour party, whom were in Government in this period. Therefore the fact that the paper appears to be supporting the views of a leading Conservative figure is quite suggestive that support for Labour’s reasonably open attitude towards Immigration was failing to reflect those of the people. It also suggests the reliability of the source, as the Labour supporting newspaper would have little reason to support the ideas of Enoch Powell and is unlikely to be bias.
The Immigration act that was passed in 1968 supports this idea of the British public not wanting Immigrants because it came about soon after the Enoch Powell speech was presented and after this source was published. The act was rushed through Commons suggesting that Labour felt pressured into passing the law, signifying that they felt it was the view of the people. This means that Source D is a useful source because it is fairly reliable and can explain the actions of the Government soon after it was made public. It would be useful to a historian as evidence that many British people did not welcome immigrants into the country.
Source G may appear to support the idea that attitudes were not as unwelcoming as the other two sources suggest but the cartoon does not actually refer to this. This cartoon was drawn to criticise Enoch Powell and his speeches. The source does not actually show a useful amount of evidence to show that many people accepted Immigration. The source is more useful to endorse Sources D and E. The source appears in the Daily Telegraph a broadsheet supporting the Conservative Party. Although Powell does belong to the Party I think the cartoon is more focused on Enoch Powell rather than the Conservative views in general.
The source can be used to consider the extent of dislike of Immigration within the British community. As the source is in a popular paper it suggests that this view is widely shared so it is possible to use this source to show that although British people disliked Immigration they’re views were generally not as strong as Powell’s. The cartoonist is a fairly liberal man so this cartoon would give an idea of the views of liberals, however since only a very small percentage of British were liberals it cannot be used to make a wide judgment about the whole of Britain.
Sources E and D both imply that there was an unwelcoming attitude towards immigrants in the 1960’s and that people probably thought there were too many. All three sources would be useful to a historian investigating the attitude towards immigration. Separately I think all of them lack in some areas but when grouped together they can make a fairly convincing argument to suggest that in general the British people felt Immigration had only disadvantages and did not welcome immigrants. The fact that the Conservatives were voted into power in 1970 follows this evidence and so I believe these three sources could be very useful.
3. “ The British Became increasingly intolerant of immigrants in the 1960’s”
3. The 1960’s were a time in which a lot of changes happened to do with immigration. Although intolerance became more obvious during the 1960’s it did not increase greatly. From when immigrants first began to come in to Britain there was always an underlying intolerance within employment and accommodation, the intolerance only appeared to grow because it came into the public domain more as it increased in appearance in politics during the late 1960’s.
During the early 1960’s the government had passed no laws that would prevent landowners and employers discriminating against Black Immigrants. Source A states that such a law was passed in 1965, which shows that there must have been a severe problem with discrimination. This indicates that intolerance was high even during the beginning of the 60’s. This high intolerance may explain why the 1962 Immigration act was passed. This act shows clear discrimination by only introducing restrictions on Black people, suggesting that intolerance was a great problem.
The British were always intolerant of the immigrants; discrimination and racism appeared in Government and in the Media. Even during the early years of this decade the problem of racism would be blamed on the Black Immigrants rather than an admission of Britain’s intolerance. Black people had been bought over to the country for extra workforce and during the early 60’s when the labour shortages began to subside it is true to say that intolerance grew as their labouring was no longer so desperately needed.
The General Election was another example of severe discrimination and intolerance toward Black Immigrants, one of the Conservative candidates, Peter Griffiths, used a racist slogan to gain support and the fact that he got the majority of the vote proves an unquestionable intolerance of Black Immigrants amongst the voters. Although these General elections are only a few years after Britain had boasted very liberal citizenship rights, the country had begun to become more intolerant of Black Immigrants.
Source B shows an authoritative report that is quite reliable because it is commissioned by the Race Relations Board so there is little reason why the investigator would be bias, however the lack of details about the writer of the report means it may not be completely reliable. The report suggests that discrimination is a very serious problem, which supports the statement that intolerance rouse in Britain during this time. Source H also supports this theory.
In this source the numbers of people who joined the National Front has been recorded. This source indicates that intolerance has grown because many more people have joined this racist group. This is strong evidence that intolerance increased, the evidence is quite reliable because it has been extracted from the book of a modern historian. There is one source however which could be used to argue that perhaps intolerance lessened.
Source G is the one source that indicates an anti-racist attitude. Although it is only one person’s point of view as it was published in a popular broadsheet newspaper it may imply that quite a number of British people were more tolerant. The use of the ‘Ku Klux Klan’ suggests that most people in Britain disagreed with the American Group indicating that the British were not as racist or did not at least have such extreme groups. I don’t think this one source can disprove the strong argument to agree with this quote because it cannot be seen as a widespread opinion.
I would agree with this quote, the intolerance of Black Immigrants did increase but not to a dramatic extent. Most of the British public were intolerant of Black Immigrants from the first few years they began to immigrate into Britain. The intolerance did grow; I think the sources are all quite suggestive of that, although I would say there was high intolerance a lot earlier than this as well.
