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In the early hours of the morning on Tuesday 2nd January, 1906, | 0:00:03 | 0:00:08 | |
a boat approached British shores with an unusual cargo. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:12 | |
Aboard were ten American sailors, | 0:00:13 | 0:00:16 | |
who'd just been saved from death on a shipwreck. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:20 | |
Three weeks earlier, out in the Atlantic, | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
a gale had punched a hole in their ship, which had begun to sink. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:27 | |
The desperate crew huddled together on the roof of the cabin. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
After five agonising days, finally a British vessel appeared. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
They were saved! | 0:00:37 | 0:00:39 | |
The sailors were now approaching Southampton, | 0:00:41 | 0:00:43 | |
where they hoped to board another ship home. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
But first, they had to meet the British authorities. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:50 | |
The crew were questioned, refused entry | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
and, incredibly, ordered back out to sea. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:57 | |
Why? Because the shipwrecked sailors were, officially, | 0:00:57 | 0:01:01 | |
destitute alien immigrants. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
The unlucky sailors had arrived | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
just one day after modern Britain had introduced | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
its first peacetime restrictions on immigration. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
Before that, in the Victorian era, | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
the welcome we gave to so-called aliens | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
was a huge source of national pride. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
But, in the early 20th century, things changed. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:28 | |
For the first time, Britain had to face up to the question | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
that has haunted its politics ever since - | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
who do we let in and who do we keep out? | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
-NEWS REPORT: -50,000 Bulgarian and Romanian migrants | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
could come every year... | 0:01:41 | 0:01:42 | |
Today, as Britain heads for Brexit, | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
few topics are more divisive than immigration. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
There is no case in the national interest | 0:01:47 | 0:01:50 | |
for immigration of the scale we have experienced | 0:01:50 | 0:01:53 | |
over the last decade. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:55 | |
Immigration can be used as a proxy | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
to abuse or intimidate minority communities within our society. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
-THEY CHANT: -Go home, refugees! | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
These individuals from some of these cultures they come from | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
are feral humans. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:08 | |
How long before migrant communities | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
have to stop taking that loyalty test? | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
To understand how we got where we are, | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
we need to go back to the decades | 0:02:17 | 0:02:18 | |
from the Victorian age to the First World War, | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
when many of today's attitudes to immigrants were first formed. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:26 | |
As Britain again prepares to draw up new rules about its borders, | 0:02:27 | 0:02:32 | |
I want to find out if looking at this period, | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
where immigration first became a toxic issue, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
could help us approach it more clearly. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
We've been here before but can we learn from it? | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
The Times newspaper once printed | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
a bold declaration of Britain's pride in its open door. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
"Every civilised people on the face of the Earth..." | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
"Must be fully aware that this country is the asylum of nations." | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
"The asylum of nations." | 0:03:10 | 0:03:12 | |
-"And it will defend the asylum..." -"Defend the asylum..." | 0:03:14 | 0:03:16 | |
"Defend the asylum to the last ounce of its treasure..." | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
"And the last drop of its blood." | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
"There is no point whatsoever..." | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
-"On which we are prouder..." -"Prouder..." | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
When do you think that was written? | 0:03:26 | 0:03:28 | |
-100 years ago? -Ooh, '50s. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
1800. 1900? | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
-'45. -50, 60 years ago? | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
1853. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:38 | |
That was a Times leader, a British establishment paper, saying, | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
"British values are open doors. That's all there is to it. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
"That's what we do." Do you think that's a good idea? | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
Um... | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
No, absolutely not. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
If you say you have unlimited amount of people coming in, | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
it's not going to work. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:56 | |
Let them come, if they've got war, famine or whatnot. | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
It's probably not sustainable. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
I think a lot of people would probably have a problem with it. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
Today, few appear to believe | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
that Britain should welcome literally anyone. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
But in the mid-19th century, | 0:04:11 | 0:04:13 | |
this was not the viewpoint of an idealistic fringe. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:17 | |
It was mainstream opinion. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
In fact, the "open door" was at the heart of British identity. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
It was felt that we had a duty to accept anyone to these shores, | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
with no passport, no visa, no letter of introduction, | 0:04:27 | 0:04:31 | |
just a metaphorical handshake and the confident assumption | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
that the newcomer would, in due course, contribute | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
to the greatness of Great Britain. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
It was such an important part of Britain's self-image | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
in the Victorian period, | 0:04:45 | 0:04:46 | |
that it was open to anyone. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
Of course, why wouldn't anyone want to come here? | 0:04:48 | 0:04:50 | |
We were by far the greatest culture and civilisation | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
the world had ever seen. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:55 | |
-Do you think the Victorians saw this as a moral point? -Very much so. | 0:04:55 | 0:05:00 | |
They'd just abolished slavery, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
they'd just emancipated Catholics and Jews. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:05 | |
They saw themselves as the leaders of the free world, | 0:05:05 | 0:05:08 | |
not just the imperial power in the world. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
So, it was simultaneously an act of moral leadership | 0:05:11 | 0:05:15 | |
and a statement of pride. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
The Victorians made no distinction between asylum seekers | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
and economic migrants coming here for work and a better life. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:28 | |
And they would go to extraordinary lengths | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
to keep their door open to everyone, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
even if that meant harbouring a terrorist. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:36 | |
Born in France in 1817, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:40 | |
Simon Bernard was a revolutionary socialist. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:43 | |
Known for his ability to fanaticise the masses, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
Bernard was wanted by the French authorities. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:52 | |
So, in 1851, | 0:05:52 | 0:05:54 | |
he took advantage of the Victorians' proudly open door | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
-and legged it to England. -Hmm. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
BIG BEN CHIMES | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
For seven years, Bernard made his home in London. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
His neighbours, here on Park Street, | 0:06:09 | 0:06:11 | |
knew him as that nice man who gives French lessons. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
But all that time, the quiet teacher had a dark secret. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:19 | |
EXPLOSION | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
On 14th January, 1858, three terrorist bombs went off in Paris. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:29 | |
Their target, the Emperor of France, survived, | 0:06:29 | 0:06:33 | |
but eight bystanders were killed. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
What would have shocked the good people of Park Street | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
was to discover that the bombs used in the attack had been supplied | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
by that nice Dr Bernard, who kept himself to himself, | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
from right here at number 10. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:51 | |
The French blamed the murderous act | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
on Britain's lack of immigration controls, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
which had allowed terrorists to enter freely | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
and set up, in the words of one French politician, | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
"Laboratories of assassination". | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
Bernard was arrested, charged with being an accessory to murder | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
and sent for trial at the Old Bailey. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
73 witnesses gave evidence against him | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
and Bernard did not even deny the charges. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
It looked like it was all over, but his lawyer had an audacious plan. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:28 | |
He decided to recast the whole trial | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
as an attack on the great British open door. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:35 | |
For centuries, our shores have been open | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
and the protection of our strong arm has been extended | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
to those whom the operation of political and religious persecution | 0:07:42 | 0:07:47 | |
have driven from their native soil. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
He argued that Bernard wasn't a criminal but a victim, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
oppressed by the tyrannical French. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:00 | |
He had taken up Britain's offer of welcome to all. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:04 | |
And that meant the nation had a duty to protect him. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
After just two hours, | 0:08:09 | 0:08:11 | |
the jury returned to the packed courtroom to deliver its verdict. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
Simon Bernard walked free. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
This was extraordinary. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:21 | |
Bernard had been banged to rights | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
but it's a measure of that open Victorian attitude to immigration | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
that Bernard left the court | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
with the cheers of the crowd ringing in his ears. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
Setting free a terrorist to display | 0:08:39 | 0:08:41 | |
your commitment to open borders sounds a little crazy. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
Nowadays, many of those proud of British liberal values | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
have come to accept that defending them should not come at any cost. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:53 | |
One reason for that is that the numbers are very different. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
Recent figures show that, in 2015, | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
there were almost nine million foreign-born people in the UK, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
or more than one in eight of the population. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
Back in 1851, in England, Scotland and Wales, | 0:09:09 | 0:09:13 | |
there were just over 60,000, | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
less than one in every 300 people. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
By the start of the 20th century, | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
the foreign-born figure had risen fivefold, | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
but that was still less than 1% of the total population. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
In certain urban areas, however, the proportion was much higher. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
This is a map of Jewish settlement in the East End, | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
-which comes from 1899. -Huh. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
And the very darkest blue, you've got 95 to 100% Jewish. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:48 | |
95% Jews. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
Yeah, 95 to 100% Jews. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:52 | |
VOICEOVER: Historian David Rosenberg's great-grandparents | 0:09:52 | 0:09:56 | |
were among roughly 100,000 Jewish immigrants who came to Britain | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
in the late 19th century. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
We're just in Princelet Street, just over here. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
Portrayed like this, it does suddenly seem like, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
"Look, there's an enormous bit of the East End | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
-"that has suddenly become Jewish." -Yeah. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
Fleeing persecution and poverty in Eastern Europe, | 0:10:16 | 0:10:19 | |
the Jewish arrivals quickly set up communities in British cities. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:23 | |
And when they arrived, what did people make of them? | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
Well, they had many complaints about the Jews. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
They felt the area was becoming extremely overcrowded. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:34 | |
But if the Jews came here and they got on with their own work | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
and they didn't disturb anyone else, why were people upset with them? | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
OK, because the workers who were already here were worried | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
that a new lot of people coming in in large numbers, | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
who are willing to work very long hours at low rates of pay... | 0:10:47 | 0:10:51 | |
And that's presumably true. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
Well, it was, um, partly, but also, it wasn't, | 0:10:53 | 0:10:58 | |
in the sense that the sweated industries had already started | 0:10:58 | 0:11:02 | |
in the East End before the Jews got here, | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
and they greatly expanded that. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:07 | |
But presumably they were slightly undercutting wages... | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
Well, they were... | 0:11:10 | 0:11:11 | |
..just by the numbers of them arriving, looking for work. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
-Yeah, I mean, in that sense, it was an employer's dream. -Yeah. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
Because if there were people in the workshops | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
complaining that their wages were not high enough, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
they would say, "Well, go away. I can find some other people." | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
-Yeah, another boat coming. -Yeah. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
The concerns about cheap labour intensified anxiety | 0:11:31 | 0:11:35 | |
over fast-changing neighbourhoods. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:37 | |
Initially, these tensions were limited | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
to small pockets of inner cities. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:42 | |
But, in 1900, the East End elected an MP | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
who was determined to make immigrants a national issue. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
Sir William Evans-Gordon made his name in India as a British officer. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:57 | |
Handsome and energetic, | 0:11:57 | 0:12:00 | |
he'd once crossed two passes of the Himalayas in less than 18 hours. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:04 | |
In 1900, he became the Conservative MP | 0:12:04 | 0:12:08 | |
for white working-class Stepney in the East End, | 0:12:08 | 0:12:12 | |
and he wasted no time making his views known on immigrants. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:16 | |
Evans-Gordon laid out the charges against the newcomers. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
They threatened communities. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
Not a day passes, but English families are ruthlessly turned out | 0:12:31 | 0:12:36 | |
to make room for foreign invaders. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:38 | |
They overwhelm resources. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
The rates are burdened with the education | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
of thousands of foreign children. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
And he warned, "A storm is brewing which, | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
"if it is allowed to burst, will have deplorable results." | 0:12:50 | 0:12:54 | |
It's the sort of doom-laden imagery | 0:12:54 | 0:12:56 | |
with which, since, we've become all too familiar. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
The reality is that, at that time, | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
people were pouring OUT of Britain, not pouring INTO it. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
But there was a sensation created, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
which scheming politicians could jump on, | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
that we were under an alien invasion. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
This, of course, is when HG Wells wrote The War Of The Worlds. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
This is when Bram Stoker wrote Dracula which, of course, | 0:13:18 | 0:13:22 | |
is about a blood-sucking migrant from Eastern Europe, | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
-preying on innocent British workers. -And women. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
And women, of course, yeah. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
And what Evans-Gordon was able to bring | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
to that inchoate feeling of insecurity about this, | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
was a tremendous sense of high society, respectability, | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
that this was an honourable thing to think. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:44 | |
It was not racist to dislike those Jews. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
Evans-Gordon argued, in a book of 1903, | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
the Jews not only undermined communities, | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
they couldn't really be trusted. | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
"I wish to make it perfectly clear that I direct | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
"no hostile criticism against the Jews as a people. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:07 | |
"But..." And there's always a "but". | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
"But they are necessarily a race apart. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
"By pride in their traditions, their ideals | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
"and the mission of their race, they are Jews before all things | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
"and their first loyalty is to Israel." | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
But how true were Evans-Gordon's claims about disloyalty? | 0:14:29 | 0:14:34 | |
So, if we come here, this is the foundation plaque | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
for the New Road Synagogue, that was consecrated on May 24th, 1892. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:43 | |
"Her Majesty's birthday. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
"A letter was addressed to the Queen, on behalf of the members, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
"expressing their respectful felicitations, | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
"acknowledging their loyalty to Her Majesty." | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
They're actually carving themselves in. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
This is a very trad-looking stone | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
and "VR", Victoria Regina, is above the name of the synagogue. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
A royal crest was obviously there. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
Look, you can see the outline of the lion and the unicorn. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
That was really in your face. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
Actually, I think it's quite clever because it is a reminder | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
to all the people who are trying to deprive them | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
of those civil liberties and those religious liberties | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
and saying, "We don't want Jews here." | 0:15:19 | 0:15:21 | |
They're saying, "No, underneath YOUR Queen, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
"who we are celebrating here, we are allowed to be here." | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
But the immigrants' argument cut little ice with Evans-Gordon. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
He now decided the time was right | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
to turn local hostility into organised opposition. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
This rather austere poster is attempting to drum up business | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
for a great public demonstration, | 0:15:44 | 0:15:46 | |
and the burning issue of the day, "Destitute foreigners". | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
There are going to be Members of Parliament there, | 0:15:50 | 0:15:52 | |
borough councillors, | 0:15:52 | 0:15:54 | |
"all shades of politics, Ministers of religion of all denominations". | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
This is a real attempt to make this | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
a representative, mainstream meeting. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
But who's in the chair? | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
Well, it says, "The chair will be taken at eight PM sharp..." - | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
no messing about - "..by Major Evans-Gordon, MP." | 0:16:09 | 0:16:14 | |
The rally was organised by a new grassroots movement, | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
spearheaded by Evans-Gordon - the British Brothers' League. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:23 | |
They were a movement dedicated to the proposition | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
that Britain was best, Britain was for the British. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
They were the first right-wing, popular, protest, | 0:16:30 | 0:16:34 | |
marching, bully-boy gang. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
-Somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 are crammed into this huge hall. -Mm. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:44 | |
They've got placards and Union Jacks, banners saying, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
"British jobs for British workers, British homes for British people." | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
And was there anything in it? I mean, were they losing housing? | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
That was the narrative that they were led to believe. | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
But the counter-narrative, people stress, "Go round the country. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
"There are areas where there's no immigrants and there's low pay | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
"and there's bad housing and there's unemployment." | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
If your own situation is very bad, economically, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:14 | |
it's very easy to find enemies and people to blame. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:17 | |
This long-standing anti-alien agitator in the area, | 0:17:17 | 0:17:22 | |
when he said, "These people are not coming as refugees, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
"they're coming because they want our money," | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
he was greeted with somebody from the audience | 0:17:28 | 0:17:30 | |
shouting, "Wipe them out." | 0:17:30 | 0:17:32 | |
The anxieties about jobs and homes | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
that the British Brothers' League fed off are still familiar today. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
Recently, mainstream politicians have been accused | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
of making the situation worse by ignoring concerns over immigration. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:50 | |
In 2004, another group from Eastern Europe - | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
not Jews, but migrants from countries joining the EU - | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
started arriving here and there were far more of them | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
than the Labour government of the day expected. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
I think soon there will be more Polish people here than English. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:09 | |
One of the key front bench figures and, as Home Secretary, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
the man in charge of Britain's immigration policy, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
was Alan Johnson. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
In 2009, when you were Home Secretary, you said, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
"People think we've shied away from a debate about immigration | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
"and they may well be right." | 0:18:24 | 0:18:26 | |
Why do politicians shy away from talking about it? | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
Well, I think there was a reluctance amongst us. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
We couldn't deny that we'd got the figures wrong, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
in terms of the projected numbers that were going to come | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
from the Eastern European accession countries in 2004. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
We had egg all over our face. It's best not to talk about it. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
But the right tend to breed | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
when people won't address the issues of immigration. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
If everyone says, "Oh, it's embarrassing | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
"and if you say anything, it's racist, so we'll keep quiet," | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
the people who don't mind being racist or saying things about it | 0:18:56 | 0:19:00 | |
then start to move in in force. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:01 | |
Yes, they do. But I have to say, even when you're talking about it, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
people still accuse you of not talking about it. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:08 | |
When I was Home Secretary, I spoke about little else. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
We were keen to talk about the points-based system | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
that we were introducing, we were keen to talk about the measures | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
we were taking - biometric passports, stuff like that. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
All that sounds like blah-di-blah... | 0:19:19 | 0:19:21 | |
-Cos it's not really the big issue, that's right. -Yeah. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:24 | |
The issue, for me, was Eastern European. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
And what was the resentment there? | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
"Why are these people coming over here, getting jobs, | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
"when 18 to 24-year-olds, in particular, can't find any work?" | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
And it seems to be, historically, that is always the cry. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
The Jews move into the East End in the 1890s, | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
the workers suddenly say, "There aren't enough houses, | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
"they're undercutting our jobs." | 0:19:45 | 0:19:46 | |
And you get the British Brothers' League | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
which is, essentially, the same old far-right movement. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
But here's a funny thing about that. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:54 | |
Once they become assimilated, once they're going to school... | 0:19:54 | 0:19:59 | |
By the time I left Notting Hill in 1969, | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
we were singing reggae songs and going out, you know... | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
We're quite fortunate. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:08 | |
We've never had this Front National that you see in France, | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
these extreme politicians, | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
whose whole career has been based on...basically, racism. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:19 | |
I do like to think that, on some things, | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
we can teach other countries about how to integrate. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
Of course, not perfect, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:27 | |
but I think we've done it better than many other countries. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
A century ago, the integration Alan Johnson values | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
was in short supply in parts of Britain's inner cities. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
Rapidly changing neighbourhoods | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
meant hostility towards the new arrivals was on the rise. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:48 | |
Yet, some of the sharpest attacks on immigrants | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
came from surprising places. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
This is an election campaign flyer from 1895. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:58 | |
It was issued on behalf of the Conservative candidate | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
for the constituency of Bethnal Green North East in the East End. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:07 | |
"What's one of the principal causes of increased house rent | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
"in East London? Foreign pauper aliens! | 0:21:10 | 0:21:14 | |
"What's one of the causes of overcrowding | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
"and insanitary dwellings? | 0:21:16 | 0:21:18 | |
"Foreign pauper aliens. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
"Who competes with the boot makers? | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
"Foreign pauper aliens." And so it goes on. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
The anti-immigrant message is fairly typical, | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
but the name at the bottom is anything but. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:32 | |
It says, "If you don't want THEM, vote for Bhownagree." | 0:21:32 | 0:21:37 | |
The anti-immigrant politician is an Indian immigrant. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:41 | |
Mancherjee Bhownagree was born in Bombay in 1851. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:49 | |
A dedicated Anglophile, he'd even translated the Scottish diaries | 0:21:49 | 0:21:53 | |
of Queen Victoria into Gujarati. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
In his 30s, he'd strode through Victorian Britain's open door | 0:21:58 | 0:22:03 | |
to study law. But, once here, | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
Bhownagree didn't exactly welcome his fellow immigrants. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
Bethnal Green is, today, | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
home to a population that is around one-third Bangladeshi origin. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
But, in the 1890s, it was solidly white working-class. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
It was here the Indian-born Bhownagree | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
threw his hat into the ring, running for the Conservatives. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:36 | |
At his very first public meeting, Bhownagree was heckled, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
with cries of "Foreigner" and "Alien". | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
But he had a bold strategy to win over the East End voters. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:48 | |
He declared, "Like yourselves, it is my great pride to have been, | 0:22:48 | 0:22:53 | |
"since birth, a British subject and citizen. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
"I can assure you my whole life and interest has been bound up | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
"with the British Empire." | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
He was no alien immigrant. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
Like his listeners, he was an English speaker | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
and a loyal subject of Her Majesty the Queen. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
For Bhownagree's critics, his proud membership of the Conservatives, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
the party of Empire, wasn't loyalty, but servility. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
They came up with a nickname - "Bhownagree" became "Bow And Agree". | 0:23:21 | 0:23:27 | |
Oh, what are you doing here? | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
Well, we British love to come down to our local for a pint. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:34 | |
Of course we do. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:36 | |
Oh, Vanessa, hi. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:38 | |
-Not yet, but I'm working on it. -LAUGHTER | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
The accusation that immigrants try to become | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
more British than the British is a rich source of satire, | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
like the Coopers' and Robinsons' excruciating efforts | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
to blend in in Goodness Gracious Me. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
-I think he means, "Would you like something to drink?" -I knew that! | 0:23:52 | 0:23:57 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:23:57 | 0:23:59 | |
Meanwhile, the immigrant who takes a tough line on immigration | 0:23:59 | 0:24:03 | |
is deftly sent up by Adil Ray's creation Citizen Khan. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:08 | |
Too many bloody immigrants coming to this country! | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:11 | 0:24:12 | |
-YOU'RE an immigrant, Dad! -I'm not an immigrant, sweetie. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
I've been here 30 years. Immigrants are the Eastern Europeans! | 0:24:15 | 0:24:20 | |
Coming over here, taking our jobs - jobs meant for us Pakistanis! | 0:24:20 | 0:24:24 | |
-LAUGHTER -Dad! | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
In July, 1895, Bethnal Green went to the polls. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
When the 5,000 or so votes had been counted, | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
Bhownagree had won with a majority of 160. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:39 | |
White working-class Bethnal Green had sent | 0:24:39 | 0:24:43 | |
an Indian immigrant to Westminster. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
There was an Indian MP for this place in 1895. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
He said, "We've had enough immigrants." | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
Do you feel that Britain can still take some more? | 0:24:54 | 0:24:59 | |
Britain can still take more, but quality not quantity. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
Not everybody can come in, but quality, they should. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
Bhownagree was the first Asian Conservative MP in Britain. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:14 | |
It took another 115 years for a British Asian | 0:25:16 | 0:25:19 | |
to make it into the Cabinet. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:21 | |
Yorkshire-born Conservative Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
like Bhownagree, believes government should control immigration. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
There are many, many people | 0:25:30 | 0:25:32 | |
in Britain's migrant communities | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
who have very conservative views about immigration. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:38 | |
They absolutely believe that this is their country, | 0:25:38 | 0:25:40 | |
this is their nation and that we should have controlled immigration. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
I've yet to meet somebody from black or minority ethnic communities | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
who thinks we believe in complete open-door policies. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
A recurring story is the idea that immigrants who are successful | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
then start looking down on the next wave of immigration and saying, | 0:25:55 | 0:25:59 | |
"Well, I think, you know, it was fine for ME, | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
"but let's kick the ladder away for the next lot." | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
I think we have to work out | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
why somebody believes in controlled immigration. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
If you speak to my parents, | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
they seem to have so much more time for the newly-arrived immigrants | 0:26:10 | 0:26:14 | |
whom, as my dad keeps reminding me, have the same work ethic | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
that he had in the '60s and that my granddad had in the '50s. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:20 | |
If anything, he thinks that | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
some of the second and third generation Asians, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:24 | |
as he keeps complaining, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
"Oh, they've got a work ethic that's become like the locals now. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
"They don't work as hard as we did when we first arrived." | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
My dad's always moaning about the second and third generation Asians. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:37 | |
Bhownagree said that economic problems could be blamed | 0:26:37 | 0:26:41 | |
on "foreign pauper aliens". | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
I mean, you're not entirely innocent yourself, are you? | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
There was a leaflet in 2005 and you said, | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
"The only effective way to bring down immigration | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
"is to vote Tory and we'll do it." | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
The point that I was making was that politicians have to find a way | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
in which we talk about immigration - | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
not in the way in which the BNP or UKIP do, at one end, | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
and not at the other end, where we don't talk about it at all | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
because it's considered to be off limits. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
We have to find a middle way. I would love to see a day | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
when we can actually take the politics | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
out of the debate on immigration. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
Mm. Would you say politicians are too keen to use it? | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
Your flyer from the time is pretty clear. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:20 | |
It's saying, "If you want immigration to come down, | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
"vote for me." | 0:27:23 | 0:27:24 | |
The majority of people in this country, Ian, | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
are not all for stopping all immigration or having open borders. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
They feel uneasy. They're in that middle. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
There is nothing wrong to say we believe in controlled immigration. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
It's when we use that debate to say to communities | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
that you do not belong that it becomes problematic. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
So, today, Britain's immigrants and descendants of immigrants | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
may be just as proud as Bhownagree of their Britishness. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
But do they share his views on other more recent arrivals? | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
I do not want unskilled immigration, | 0:28:00 | 0:28:02 | |
neither do I want immigration from Eastern Europe. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
That's why I voted for Brexit | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
because I wanted this country to control its borders. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
I 100% disagree with what he said. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
That's saying that we are such a sort of precious item | 0:28:14 | 0:28:19 | |
that nobody should come to our country. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:21 | |
I have to say it is very British the way the two of you can disagree | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
about absolutely everything but still remain friends. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
We have learned it from being British | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
because we have developed the art of tolerating each other. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
A century ago, | 0:28:38 | 0:28:40 | |
parts of Britain's inner cities were becoming noticeably less tolerant. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:44 | |
After two decades of rising migration, there was pressure, | 0:28:46 | 0:28:49 | |
above all from Evans-Gordon and Bhownagree's faction, | 0:28:49 | 0:28:52 | |
for Britain's first ever immigration controls. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:56 | |
But the government still didn't know | 0:28:56 | 0:28:58 | |
if this was a national or a local problem. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:01 | |
So, in 1902, it set up a Royal Commission to find out | 0:29:01 | 0:29:07 | |
and the tireless Evans-Gordon was on the committee. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
Here's a list of the witnesses who gave evidence over the 49 days. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:17 | |
Shoemaker, boot clicker, boot finisher, milk seller, | 0:29:17 | 0:29:22 | |
undertaker, butcher, the Mayor of Reading, | 0:29:22 | 0:29:26 | |
editor of Shoe And Leather Record... | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
Everybody had a view on immigration. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:32 | |
Spitalfields, which was formerly entirely occupied | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
by English people, is now a second Palestine. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:40 | |
These people have lessened the poverty. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:44 | |
The Jews are an exceptionally dirty race | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
and the Jewish bakehouses are insanitary. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
The health of the Jewish population is far more satisfactory | 0:29:52 | 0:29:56 | |
than that of the Christian population. | 0:29:56 | 0:29:58 | |
The new population is about the same as the old but the women drink less. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
Despite the wide range of opinions on display, | 0:30:05 | 0:30:08 | |
the hearings were dominated by Evans-Gordon. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:11 | |
He claimed to have asked | 0:30:12 | 0:30:13 | |
the majority of the 30,000 questions himself | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
and, in its final report, his influence is plain to see. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:20 | |
Here it is, the important bit - the recommendations. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | |
And they certainly fit the Evans-Gordon agenda. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:30 | |
"The state should," they recommend, | 0:30:30 | 0:30:32 | |
"be allowed to refuse entry to undesirables, | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
"viz, criminals, prostitutes, idiots, lunatics, | 0:30:36 | 0:30:40 | |
"persons of notoriously bad character | 0:30:40 | 0:30:43 | |
"or likely to become a charge upon public funds," | 0:30:43 | 0:30:47 | |
ie, they will have to be supported by benefits. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:52 | |
In essence, the Commission concludes that, for the first time ever, | 0:30:52 | 0:30:56 | |
modern peacetime Britain should be allowed to screen immigrants | 0:30:56 | 0:31:01 | |
and turn away the ones it doesn't want. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
The government put the recommendations before Parliament | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
but found it had a fight on its hands. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
In May, 1904, a letter appeared in the Manchester Guardian | 0:31:14 | 0:31:18 | |
and The Times. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:20 | |
The letter called the new proposals "a loathsome system | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
"of police interference and arbitrary power", | 0:31:23 | 0:31:27 | |
which would harass the simple immigrant, | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
the political refugee, the helpless and the poor. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:33 | |
It defiantly evoked the proud Victorian open-door policy, | 0:31:33 | 0:31:38 | |
praising "the old, tolerant and generous practice | 0:31:38 | 0:31:43 | |
"of free entry and asylum, to which this country has so long adhered | 0:31:43 | 0:31:48 | |
"and from which it has so greatly gained." | 0:31:48 | 0:31:52 | |
The author of the letter was a 29-year-old MP - | 0:31:52 | 0:31:56 | |
Winston Churchill. | 0:31:56 | 0:31:58 | |
Fresh from the Boer War, | 0:32:01 | 0:32:03 | |
young Winston was first elected to Parliament in 1900. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:06 | |
Impulsive and headstrong, | 0:32:09 | 0:32:10 | |
he'd fallen out with other Conservative MPs over free trade. | 0:32:10 | 0:32:14 | |
Now, he took on the Evans-Gordon brigade over immigration... | 0:32:17 | 0:32:21 | |
..and launched a passionate campaign to keep Britain's door wide open. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:28 | |
Churchill's letter was published for all to read, as a pamphlet. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:35 | |
"To judge by the talk there has been, one would have imagined | 0:32:36 | 0:32:39 | |
"we were being overrun by a swarming invasion | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
"and ousted from our island. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:44 | |
"This bill is expected to appeal to insular prejudice against foreigners | 0:32:44 | 0:32:49 | |
"and to racial prejudice against Jews." | 0:32:49 | 0:32:52 | |
For Churchill, Britain had come to a fork in the road, | 0:32:52 | 0:32:56 | |
between being a free, open and tolerant country | 0:32:56 | 0:33:00 | |
and one which was more closed, less liberal | 0:33:00 | 0:33:03 | |
and one which he did not want to see. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
The day the letter was published, | 0:33:08 | 0:33:10 | |
having lost patience with his own party, | 0:33:10 | 0:33:12 | |
Churchill left the Conservatives. | 0:33:12 | 0:33:14 | |
He joined the Liberal party | 0:33:16 | 0:33:18 | |
and helped them force concessions from the government, | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
including a commitment to take in all asylum seekers. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
The Aliens Act of 1905 was a watershed in British history. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:30 | |
The principle that anyone could get off a boat | 0:33:30 | 0:33:33 | |
and walk into Britain was gone forever. | 0:33:33 | 0:33:35 | |
But the ambition to deter poor economic migrants, | 0:33:37 | 0:33:40 | |
while protecting asylum seekers, created a dilemma. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:43 | |
Britain now made a legal distinction | 0:33:45 | 0:33:47 | |
between worthy and unworthy immigrants, | 0:33:47 | 0:33:50 | |
but first, it had to tell them apart. | 0:33:50 | 0:33:52 | |
Armed with the Aliens Act, Britain's new immigration officers | 0:33:55 | 0:33:59 | |
now had to sort the arrivals. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:01 | |
Those deemed economic migrants were only allowed in | 0:34:03 | 0:34:06 | |
if they carried £5, about £500 today. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:10 | |
But there were ways to get around the rules. | 0:34:10 | 0:34:14 | |
They would pass around... | 0:34:15 | 0:34:16 | |
If they could lay their hands on a £5 note, they would pass it around, | 0:34:16 | 0:34:19 | |
rather like football fans getting into a stadium with one ticket. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:22 | |
I think England was quite a "soft touch", as they would say. | 0:34:22 | 0:34:26 | |
And if things weren't confused enough, | 0:34:28 | 0:34:30 | |
another force was keen to stoke the debate. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:33 | |
Fear of foreigners sold a lot of newspapers. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:37 | |
In the summer of 1900, | 0:34:41 | 0:34:42 | |
Britain was stunned by bloodthirsty news from Peking. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:47 | |
Men, women and children had been besieged | 0:34:47 | 0:34:49 | |
inside the British Embassy compound by a horde of Chinese rebels. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:53 | |
The Daily Mail broke the story | 0:34:55 | 0:34:56 | |
and its account was quickly picked up by other papers, | 0:34:56 | 0:34:59 | |
including The Times. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:00 | |
"The Europeans fought with calm courage to the end | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
"against overwhelming hordes of fanatical barbarians | 0:35:04 | 0:35:08 | |
"thirsting for their blood, | 0:35:08 | 0:35:10 | |
"until borne down by the sheer weight of numbers, | 0:35:10 | 0:35:14 | |
"they perished at their posts. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:16 | |
"They died as we would have had them to die, | 0:35:17 | 0:35:19 | |
"fighting to the last for the helpless women and children | 0:35:19 | 0:35:23 | |
"who were to be butchered over their dead bodies." | 0:35:23 | 0:35:26 | |
It's an incredibly powerful piece of journalism. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:30 | |
There was only one problem. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:32 | |
The slaughter of the European men, women and children | 0:35:32 | 0:35:36 | |
hadn't actually happened. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:38 | |
It was fake news. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:40 | |
In fact, international troops had broken the siege | 0:35:41 | 0:35:44 | |
and the massacred Britons were alive. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:46 | |
But the press had learnt a valuable lesson. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:51 | |
The Chinese were great copy - | 0:35:51 | 0:35:53 | |
exotic, mysterious and now, apparently, murderous. | 0:35:53 | 0:35:58 | |
This was a picture that chimed with a growing fear in Britain. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:02 | |
And that fear was best expressed by a new expression | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
that had entered the English language - the "yellow peril". | 0:36:05 | 0:36:09 | |
The British papers were now hungry for stories a little closer to home. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:17 | |
Britain's Chinese community numbered fewer than 400 | 0:36:18 | 0:36:22 | |
but had already prompted whispers about opium and illicit sex. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:26 | |
This was perfect press fodder. All it needed was a hook. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:32 | |
In 1906, 32 poor Chinese immigrants arrived in Britain, | 0:36:34 | 0:36:39 | |
mostly bound for the small Chinatown here, in Liverpool. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:43 | |
Under the new Aliens Act, entry was denied, | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
but when Chinese shopkeepers and laundrymen promised work, | 0:36:47 | 0:36:51 | |
an appeals board let them in. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:53 | |
Liverpool was up in arms. | 0:36:55 | 0:36:57 | |
Shouldn't British jobs be for British workers? | 0:36:57 | 0:37:00 | |
And the press, above all, one reporter, scented a big story. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:05 | |
Claude Blake was an American journalist. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:10 | |
In 1905, eager for racy material, | 0:37:10 | 0:37:14 | |
he hopped across the pond and followed his nose to Liverpool. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:18 | |
He paid his way with lurid articles for British readers | 0:37:18 | 0:37:23 | |
and, having seen the anti-Chinese hostility, | 0:37:23 | 0:37:27 | |
he published a sensational expose. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
Blake lifted the lid on a jaw-dropping world | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
of vice and corruption here, in Liverpool. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:40 | |
The city's Chinatown had it all - squalor, crime, gambling dens, | 0:37:40 | 0:37:46 | |
the seduction of underage English girls into a life of sex and opium. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:51 | |
And he ends with a warning. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:52 | |
"When they hear from their countrymen | 0:37:52 | 0:37:55 | |
"that England is a good place where they're allowed to do as they like, | 0:37:55 | 0:37:59 | |
"they will come here in droves." | 0:37:59 | 0:38:01 | |
VOICEOVER: But was the story true? | 0:38:04 | 0:38:06 | |
Anna Chen's father came to Liverpool from China in 1927. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:11 | |
She's an expert on the "yellow peril" media storm. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:15 | |
So, this is Claude Blake's article. I love the fact it's... | 0:38:16 | 0:38:20 | |
It's very, very tiny type, but the crossheads are enormous. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
That first one, "Sinister Offspring" - | 0:38:24 | 0:38:26 | |
-well, that'll be ME then. -Yeah. | 0:38:26 | 0:38:28 | |
-"Perverted women". -Oh, that'll also be me. | 0:38:28 | 0:38:31 | |
-"Fierce gamblers". -No, not so much. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:34 | |
Blake says that, obviously, | 0:38:34 | 0:38:36 | |
all Chinese homes are just fronts for criminal practices. | 0:38:36 | 0:38:39 | |
What was the truth of this? | 0:38:39 | 0:38:41 | |
Well, Liverpool City Council were so alarmed by his piece | 0:38:41 | 0:38:44 | |
and by these claims that they set up an investigation | 0:38:44 | 0:38:47 | |
into the Chinese community in Liverpool. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:50 | |
And they found that, in fact, | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
the Chinese were "the embodiment of public order". | 0:38:52 | 0:38:56 | |
-That's quite a good quote. -It is. It vindicated the Chinese totally. | 0:38:56 | 0:39:01 | |
Sex - let's get onto it cos Claude's there. What's his obsession here? | 0:39:01 | 0:39:06 | |
Oh, dear! Well, he writes, | 0:39:06 | 0:39:08 | |
"When you walk along a dark, dirty, evil-smelling street, | 0:39:08 | 0:39:11 | |
"and see in each ill-lighted doorway a group of half-caste youngsters - | 0:39:11 | 0:39:15 | |
"half-yellow and half-white - you must know that something is wrong." | 0:39:15 | 0:39:19 | |
There is this tremendous fear | 0:39:19 | 0:39:21 | |
of the pollution of the glorious white race. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
Was this a really big scare, the yellow peril? | 0:39:24 | 0:39:27 | |
It was huge. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
Only days after Blake's piece in the Sunday Chronicle, | 0:39:29 | 0:39:33 | |
the Liverpool Courier is now piling in, and this time, | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
with pictures, with added illustrations. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:38 | |
And look how simian they've drawn the Chinese. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:42 | |
Here we are. They're excited gamblers and opium smokers. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:46 | |
Was the opium essentially making everyone criminal? | 0:39:46 | 0:39:49 | |
Well, the Chief Constable at the time said | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
that no crimes resulting from it ever came to his attention. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:55 | |
So, that was it? Nothing. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:57 | |
Yeah, nothing, so it was a storm in a teacup. | 0:39:57 | 0:39:59 | |
So, it seems some journalists a century ago didn't let the facts | 0:40:04 | 0:40:08 | |
stand in the way of a good immigration story. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
And today? | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
There's a lot of false news out there | 0:40:15 | 0:40:17 | |
and I think it's all very blown up | 0:40:17 | 0:40:20 | |
and people have a very big misconception | 0:40:20 | 0:40:22 | |
on immigration in this country. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:24 | |
"They're taking your jobs and they're making everything cheaper." | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
Do you think our view of immigrants... | 0:40:28 | 0:40:30 | |
-Do you think the newspapers blow it up a bit? -Yeah, course you do. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:34 | |
In April, 2015, the press's contribution to the national debate | 0:40:37 | 0:40:41 | |
came under intense scrutiny | 0:40:41 | 0:40:43 | |
when the then Sun columnist Katie Hopkins said | 0:40:43 | 0:40:47 | |
she would use gunships to stop migration | 0:40:47 | 0:40:49 | |
and compared immigrants to cockroaches. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:51 | |
We're looking at period where immigration became a huge topic | 0:40:53 | 0:40:57 | |
for the press and it was immediately very popular. | 0:40:57 | 0:41:01 | |
Why do you think that is? | 0:41:01 | 0:41:03 | |
I think two things will always sell newspapers. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:06 | |
One of them is Maddie McCann and one of them is migrants. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:08 | |
-Did you read the piece that Claude Blake wrote? -Yes. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
I liked the idea of this historical reflection | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
but it feels so modern, it feels completely contemporary, | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
apart from the wording and the linguistics about it, | 0:41:19 | 0:41:21 | |
which I sort of enjoy. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:22 | |
It feels like a hugely contemporary piece. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:24 | |
Um, you used the term "cockroaches" in a piece about migrants. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:29 | |
Blake didn't go that far. Is that something that you still stand by? | 0:41:29 | 0:41:35 | |
Mm, if you pick out one word | 0:41:35 | 0:41:36 | |
out of a 800-word, 600-word whatever, piece... | 0:41:36 | 0:41:41 | |
-It's quite a strong word. -It probably could stand alone. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
We were always taught that there were only a few people | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
that could withstand, or few animals or few creatures | 0:41:46 | 0:41:48 | |
that could withstand a nuclear holocaust. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:50 | |
So, I was talking about the enduring nature of migrants, | 0:41:50 | 0:41:53 | |
able to cross the Mediterranean and I used the term "cockroach". | 0:41:53 | 0:41:57 | |
Your language... | 0:41:57 | 0:41:58 | |
-You say the linguistics have changed since Blake. -Yes. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:01 | |
In fact, you used the same words - "festering sores". | 0:42:01 | 0:42:04 | |
That's what he says, that's what YOU say. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:06 | |
I did say to you I admired his language. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:08 | |
Yes. I mean, you're proud of that, are you? | 0:42:09 | 0:42:12 | |
I think I am honest about the fact that there's lots of London, | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
there are lots of places where migrants live that aren't pretty. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
Those dosshouses, those mildew-infested places | 0:42:19 | 0:42:23 | |
with fourteen people in a room designed for two. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:25 | |
I'd love it if you came there | 0:42:25 | 0:42:27 | |
and try to tell me that wasn't a festering sore. | 0:42:27 | 0:42:30 | |
Well, you could say, "It's an offence against humanity, | 0:42:30 | 0:42:32 | |
"it's time we did something about it." | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
I don't feel the need to do anything about it. | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
Well, the thing I would do about it, of course, is have our borders | 0:42:37 | 0:42:40 | |
such that we don't have 600,000 people here that are here illegally. | 0:42:40 | 0:42:44 | |
That seems nonsense to me. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:45 | |
You referred to a "plague of feral humans". | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
I mean, are they all feral? Is it actually a plague? | 0:42:48 | 0:42:52 | |
Aren't they just a group of people? | 0:42:52 | 0:42:54 | |
It's because you look at them and think, "You are nothing like me. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
"You don't understand how our culture works. | 0:42:57 | 0:42:59 | |
"You think it's OK to molest a young boy in a swimming pool. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:02 | |
-"You think it's OK to rape women..." -You say you've met these people. | 0:43:02 | 0:43:05 | |
Haven't you met any asylum seekers who you've talked to and thought, | 0:43:05 | 0:43:08 | |
"You're an ordinary human being? You're not a feral human being"? | 0:43:08 | 0:43:11 | |
I think these individuals from some of these cultures they come from | 0:43:11 | 0:43:14 | |
ARE feral humans. I stand by those words. | 0:43:14 | 0:43:17 | |
I used those words explicitly. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:19 | |
I think I reflect the national conversation | 0:43:19 | 0:43:23 | |
and I don't see that as hatred | 0:43:23 | 0:43:25 | |
and I don't see that as distrust or mistrust. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:28 | |
I see that as people wanting to protect the thing they love | 0:43:28 | 0:43:32 | |
and this would be an interesting thing... | 0:43:32 | 0:43:34 | |
-But do they do that by hating the other? -No, I don't see that at all. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:38 | |
I'm just reading your stuff, thinking, | 0:43:38 | 0:43:40 | |
-"This is filled with hate, isn't it?" A lot of it. -No. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:43 | |
You really hate this, you hate that. | 0:43:43 | 0:43:45 | |
-It's part of the shock jock genre, isn't it? -No, I just have very... | 0:43:45 | 0:43:48 | |
If someone's been around for 12 years or so, | 0:43:48 | 0:43:52 | |
speaking their version of truth, with a now massive audience, | 0:43:52 | 0:43:57 | |
there's a reason that that's gained support | 0:43:57 | 0:44:00 | |
and it isn't to do with speaking hate or whipping up frenzies | 0:44:00 | 0:44:05 | |
or making people anti a "yellow peril", using your words. | 0:44:05 | 0:44:10 | |
Er, it's because there is a sense that there is a whole world of stuff | 0:44:10 | 0:44:15 | |
we can no longer say | 0:44:15 | 0:44:17 | |
and it's because there's a whole world of state media | 0:44:17 | 0:44:21 | |
that appear to be very biased in a particular direction. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:25 | |
It's because of people like you that there are people like me. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:29 | |
And I've always said this - that you guys, the liberal elite in London, | 0:44:29 | 0:44:33 | |
are responsible for me. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:35 | |
You are Dr Frankenstein and I am your monster. | 0:44:35 | 0:44:39 | |
Well, er, for me, one thing, at the very least, | 0:44:43 | 0:44:46 | |
that's missing from that argument is compassion. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
Whilst debates rage on about economic migrants, | 0:44:52 | 0:44:55 | |
many feel that Britain has a moral obligation | 0:44:55 | 0:44:58 | |
to help those in genuine danger. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:00 | |
Remarkably, the greatest demonstration | 0:45:03 | 0:45:05 | |
of this vision of Britain came at the most hostile time of all. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:09 | |
I'm in Folkestone, canvassing opinions on a revealing painting. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:23 | |
-Where do you think this picture is? -Globally? -Yep, globally. -Um... | 0:45:27 | 0:45:32 | |
-Well, this is Folkestone. -Correct. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:35 | |
And when do you think it is? | 0:45:35 | 0:45:37 | |
-1960s? -1960s?! | 0:45:37 | 0:45:40 | |
-You know all about sailing. -16th century. | 0:45:40 | 0:45:44 | |
Maybe 100 years ago? | 0:45:44 | 0:45:45 | |
It's about the era of the Forsyte Saga. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:48 | |
Could be around one of the wars, maybe the First World War. | 0:45:48 | 0:45:51 | |
That's spot-on. And what do you think is happening? | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
Looks like a bit of a welcoming committee. | 0:45:56 | 0:45:59 | |
And who do you think they're welcoming? | 0:45:59 | 0:46:01 | |
-I think some people not from this country. -Correct. -Yes. | 0:46:01 | 0:46:05 | |
-They're refugees. -Oh, they're refugees. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
-They're Belgians. -Oh. -Oh. -Did you know that? -No. -No. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:11 | |
This is the Belgian refugees coming across to Folkestone, | 0:46:11 | 0:46:15 | |
where they were very warmly received. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:18 | |
-You're no fun! You know this! -I do! | 0:46:18 | 0:46:21 | |
And here's the real painting. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:27 | |
The Landing Of The Belgian Refugees, August, 1914. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:32 | |
And they are not being grilled about what their plans are | 0:46:32 | 0:46:35 | |
or whether they're destitute or not. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:37 | |
They are being greeted by an official welcoming party. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:41 | |
Here are some ordinary English children, | 0:46:41 | 0:46:43 | |
offering a plate of cakes to the refugees. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
And you notice they are well-fed, rosy-cheeked, well-dressed, | 0:46:46 | 0:46:51 | |
in comparison to the pale, rather haunted-looking refugees. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:56 | |
The Belgians are fleeing for their lives from the German army, | 0:46:59 | 0:47:02 | |
which had invaded their country | 0:47:02 | 0:47:04 | |
and started committing a series of civilian massacres. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
There was a full-blown humanitarian crisis. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:12 | |
And the numbers of refugees arriving are extraordinary. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:15 | |
During the First World War - | 0:47:15 | 0:47:17 | |
and this is principally through Folkestone - | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
over 250,000 Belgian refugees arrived in Britain | 0:47:19 | 0:47:24 | |
and were fed, housed and welcomed. | 0:47:24 | 0:47:28 | |
It was the greatest work of charitable relief | 0:47:28 | 0:47:30 | |
in British history | 0:47:30 | 0:47:32 | |
and it was thanks, above all, to one extraordinary woman. | 0:47:32 | 0:47:36 | |
Lady Lugard had been colonial editor of The Times. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:43 | |
She was the highest-paid female journalist of her day | 0:47:43 | 0:47:46 | |
and even invented the name Nigeria. | 0:47:46 | 0:47:50 | |
Back home, she became a great do-gooder. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
She was determined that Britain's door, | 0:47:56 | 0:47:58 | |
closely guarded for wartime, should now be opened | 0:47:58 | 0:48:02 | |
and that every single Belgian refugee should be allowed to enter. | 0:48:02 | 0:48:06 | |
Less than three weeks after Britain joined the conflict, | 0:48:08 | 0:48:11 | |
Lugard set up a War Refugees Committee | 0:48:11 | 0:48:14 | |
and borrowed an office in central London. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:18 | |
They found an empty room with no chairs and barely any ink or paper, | 0:48:18 | 0:48:22 | |
but that morning's newspapers contained | 0:48:22 | 0:48:26 | |
a letter from Lady Lugard, | 0:48:26 | 0:48:27 | |
appealing not just for gifts of money and clothing, | 0:48:27 | 0:48:31 | |
but also for people willing to offer English hospitality | 0:48:31 | 0:48:35 | |
to destitute Belgians. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:37 | |
That evening's post, somewhat to her surprise, contained 1,000 replies. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:43 | |
The next day, it was 2,000. | 0:48:43 | 0:48:46 | |
Lady Lugard had set in motion a huge wave of humanitarianism | 0:48:46 | 0:48:51 | |
that, in the coming weeks and months, | 0:48:51 | 0:48:53 | |
would sweep right across the country. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:55 | |
Soon, there were over 2,000 relief organisations nationwide. | 0:48:59 | 0:49:04 | |
Women volunteers carried out the bulk of the work, | 0:49:04 | 0:49:07 | |
putting in up to 17 hours a day, 7 days a week. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:11 | |
Lugard herself remarked, | 0:49:13 | 0:49:15 | |
"It was a moment which unmistakeably revealed the heart of England." | 0:49:15 | 0:49:19 | |
Other nations cast people out, Britain took them in, | 0:49:19 | 0:49:23 | |
and that made us a country worth fighting for. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:26 | |
The Belgians soon became a familiar sight. | 0:49:30 | 0:49:33 | |
In a popular propaganda poster, | 0:49:33 | 0:49:35 | |
the smaller woman's outfit would have instantly indentified her | 0:49:35 | 0:49:39 | |
as Belgian, | 0:49:39 | 0:49:40 | |
while a young woman in Torquay used the Belgians | 0:49:40 | 0:49:44 | |
as inspiration for a new fictional detective - Hercule Poirot. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:49 | |
Yet, as the war ground on, | 0:49:50 | 0:49:52 | |
frictions started to emerge between Britons and their house guests. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:57 | |
MUSIC: Rule Britannia | 0:49:57 | 0:49:59 | |
The British, for example, loved fresh air. | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
MUSIC: La Brabanconne | 0:50:08 | 0:50:11 | |
But the Belgians thought draughts were unhealthy. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:14 | |
MUSIC: Rule Britannia | 0:50:15 | 0:50:20 | |
MUSIC: La Brabanconne | 0:50:20 | 0:50:24 | |
And this wasn't the only complaint being muttered. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:31 | |
Jane Mason from Folkestone said | 0:50:31 | 0:50:33 | |
that the Belgians made the kitchens reek of garlic. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:37 | |
Daisy Spickett from Pontypridd said | 0:50:37 | 0:50:40 | |
that many of them were very, very difficult, expecting the earth. | 0:50:40 | 0:50:44 | |
Mary Coules from Kent, | 0:50:44 | 0:50:47 | |
who'd organised a girls' choir to raise money, wrote in her diary, | 0:50:47 | 0:50:51 | |
"It may be true enough that Belgium saved Europe, | 0:50:51 | 0:50:55 | |
"but save US from the Belgians." | 0:50:55 | 0:50:58 | |
Despite the gripes, Britain extended its hospitality | 0:51:01 | 0:51:05 | |
to Belgians large and small, right to the end of the war. | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
A century on, volunteer organisations are, once again, | 0:51:13 | 0:51:17 | |
matching refugees with British hosts. | 0:51:17 | 0:51:20 | |
23-year-old Mario was training to be a commercial pilot in Syria | 0:51:21 | 0:51:26 | |
but, after war began, he left for Britain. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
He now lives with Jennifer Nadel and her family. | 0:51:30 | 0:51:33 | |
What did you expect when you said, "I'll put up a refugee"? | 0:51:35 | 0:51:39 | |
I probably did have preconceptions. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
I had naively thought that I would, you know, | 0:51:43 | 0:51:46 | |
have a young woman to stay because I have children | 0:51:46 | 0:51:49 | |
and that's what you think will fit best into your household | 0:51:49 | 0:51:52 | |
but it's young men that are most in danger and it's young men | 0:51:52 | 0:51:55 | |
that flee here and get here and it's young men that need to be housed. | 0:51:55 | 0:52:01 | |
OK, Mario, what everyone wants to know is why are you in Britain? | 0:52:01 | 0:52:05 | |
Um, something happened the last six years in my country. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:10 | |
Um, people started fighting between each other. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
It's everywhere in Syria. Something happen every day. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:17 | |
Every building is, like, down and no have any life, | 0:52:17 | 0:52:21 | |
no have any opportunity to stay there. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
That's why I'm looking for something to be safe, to carry on for my life. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:28 | |
So, who's left in Syria? | 0:52:28 | 0:52:31 | |
My mum and my sister and two cousins from my family. | 0:52:31 | 0:52:37 | |
The story we've been covering is where, | 0:52:37 | 0:52:39 | |
at the beginning of the First World War, | 0:52:39 | 0:52:42 | |
the British people welcomed 250,000 refugees - | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
that's men, women and children - into their homes, | 0:52:45 | 0:52:48 | |
-in a very short period of time. Does that surprise you? -It does. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:52 | |
And I think how fantastic and that it's the right thing to do | 0:52:52 | 0:52:56 | |
and I don't know how many of those Belgians stayed here. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:58 | |
-Nearly all of them went back. -Yeah, I mean that's why... | 0:52:58 | 0:53:02 | |
There are so many myths about people who seek refuge here - | 0:53:02 | 0:53:05 | |
that they've come here to stay, that they don't really need to be here, | 0:53:05 | 0:53:08 | |
or that they've got some kind of criminal or dangerous intent. | 0:53:08 | 0:53:12 | |
During the First World War, | 0:53:13 | 0:53:15 | |
it was a patriotic gesture to let other people in, | 0:53:15 | 0:53:19 | |
to share what you had. | 0:53:19 | 0:53:21 | |
Do you think we've lost that? | 0:53:21 | 0:53:23 | |
I think we have and I think it's incredibly sad | 0:53:23 | 0:53:25 | |
that Britishness has somehow been appropriated to actually mean | 0:53:25 | 0:53:29 | |
some kind of fortress mentality and drawing up the drawbridge | 0:53:29 | 0:53:32 | |
to prevent those who are most in need from coming here, | 0:53:32 | 0:53:35 | |
and how great would it be if we could just reclaim Britishness | 0:53:35 | 0:53:39 | |
for what it was then, | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
which is to open our homes and our arms to those who are in need. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:46 | |
That was who we were and we seem to have lost our way big time. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:50 | |
The usual argument is that that's fine | 0:53:50 | 0:53:53 | |
until the numbers get too large. | 0:53:53 | 0:53:55 | |
I would say, if it was your child that was in danger | 0:53:55 | 0:53:58 | |
of being shelled or buried alive, | 0:53:58 | 0:54:00 | |
numbers wouldn't make any difference to you, | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
and if you look at what those tiny countries | 0:54:03 | 0:54:05 | |
that are bordering Syria are doing, | 0:54:05 | 0:54:07 | |
countries which have none of the resources that we have... | 0:54:07 | 0:54:10 | |
We're the fifth richest economy in the world | 0:54:10 | 0:54:13 | |
and we can't do more to help. | 0:54:13 | 0:54:15 | |
That's just shameful, absolutely shameful. | 0:54:15 | 0:54:18 | |
By the end of 2016, Home Office figures show | 0:54:21 | 0:54:25 | |
that Britain had taken in around 13,000 Syrians, | 0:54:25 | 0:54:29 | |
far fewer than the huge number of Belgians. | 0:54:29 | 0:54:32 | |
But even back in 1919, the spirit of welcome they received was eclipsed | 0:54:36 | 0:54:41 | |
by a changed mood, as the soldiers came home from war. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:45 | |
Labour shortages meant Britain had opened its door | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
to workers from the Empire. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:51 | |
While the white European Belgians had mostly gone home, | 0:54:51 | 0:54:55 | |
these immigrants hadn't. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
The demobilised soldiers returned | 0:54:57 | 0:55:00 | |
and they'd go down to the docks and the railway stations | 0:55:00 | 0:55:03 | |
and find Africans and Asians, and they were outraged | 0:55:03 | 0:55:05 | |
and, of course, the war had been fought to protect home and hearth | 0:55:05 | 0:55:09 | |
and the idea was to create a home fit for heroes. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:12 | |
I think the feeling was "Our needs must come first | 0:55:12 | 0:55:15 | |
"at this desperate time", | 0:55:15 | 0:55:17 | |
and also the whole of Europe was so shell-shocked. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:19 | |
-And on the move. -And on the move. And so they rebelled. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:23 | |
Throughout 1919, riots broke out across Britain. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:29 | |
From Glasgow to South Shields to Cardiff, | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
much of the fury was targeted at immigrants. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
Against this violent backdrop, | 0:55:38 | 0:55:40 | |
new anti-immigrant laws were being drawn up in Parliament, | 0:55:40 | 0:55:43 | |
restricting the employment and political rights | 0:55:43 | 0:55:46 | |
of economic migrants. | 0:55:46 | 0:55:48 | |
But the biggest change was for those seeking asylum. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:52 | |
Back in 1905, the government had ring-fenced | 0:55:52 | 0:55:56 | |
the rights of asylum seekers | 0:55:56 | 0:55:58 | |
but, in 1919, Britain was in no mood | 0:55:58 | 0:56:01 | |
to accept, protect or pay for foreigners. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:05 | |
Immigrant and asylum seeker would be lumped together | 0:56:05 | 0:56:09 | |
under one definition. | 0:56:09 | 0:56:10 | |
Both were aliens and neither were particularly welcome. | 0:56:10 | 0:56:14 | |
The Liberal party fought the abolition of the right to asylum, | 0:56:16 | 0:56:20 | |
with a passionate speech from the opposition leader, | 0:56:20 | 0:56:22 | |
Sir Donald Maclean. | 0:56:22 | 0:56:24 | |
Maclean said, "One of the greatest claims for moral leadership | 0:56:25 | 0:56:29 | |
"which this country has made | 0:56:29 | 0:56:30 | |
"is the fact that we have never refused asylum | 0:56:30 | 0:56:33 | |
"to all those poor and distressed subjects | 0:56:33 | 0:56:36 | |
"of oppressed races who have sought asylum here. | 0:56:36 | 0:56:40 | |
"Are we to wreck that noble tradition?" | 0:56:40 | 0:56:42 | |
It was a sentiment the Victorians would have recognised. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:48 | |
It's The Times, in 1853, declaring Britain the asylum of nations. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:53 | |
It's Churchill, in 1904, | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
praising those ancient traditions of freedom and hospitality. | 0:56:56 | 0:57:00 | |
It's Lady Lugard saying, in 1915, | 0:57:00 | 0:57:02 | |
that welcoming refugees revealed the heart of the nation. | 0:57:02 | 0:57:07 | |
But if the ideal kept on being repeated down the years, | 0:57:07 | 0:57:11 | |
then the echo had grown gradually fainter. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:13 | |
In December, 1919, the new Act became law. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:20 | |
It was the final step in the transformation of British attitudes, | 0:57:23 | 0:57:27 | |
from the open door of the Victorians | 0:57:27 | 0:57:29 | |
to a nation that guarded its borders. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:32 | |
Unexpected arrivals, surprising attitudes, | 0:57:32 | 0:57:36 | |
extremes of hatred and compassion - | 0:57:36 | 0:57:39 | |
they'd all played their part in a fierce national debate | 0:57:39 | 0:57:43 | |
that's still with us today. | 0:57:43 | 0:57:45 | |
In 2017, immigration seems to be | 0:57:47 | 0:57:50 | |
Britain's second favourite topic of conversation. | 0:57:50 | 0:57:53 | |
I've met very few people who want to go back to Churchill | 0:57:53 | 0:57:57 | |
or the Victorians' idea of a wide-open door. | 0:57:57 | 0:58:00 | |
But I have found the struggles that Britain went through, | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 | |
when it first tried to tackle mass immigration, | 0:58:03 | 0:58:06 | |
do have lessons and warnings for us today. | 0:58:06 | 0:58:09 | |
Perhaps we should treat arguments about immigration | 0:58:10 | 0:58:13 | |
in the same way we treat immigrants themselves. | 0:58:13 | 0:58:17 | |
So, let's be cautious, let's screen the arguments for facts, | 0:58:17 | 0:58:20 | |
let's check the background, | 0:58:20 | 0:58:22 | |
let's try and differentiate between the helpful and the harmful. | 0:58:22 | 0:58:26 | |
Let's close the door to political bandwagonning | 0:58:28 | 0:58:31 | |
and press hysteria and racism. | 0:58:31 | 0:58:33 | |
And let's allow in honesty and transparency | 0:58:34 | 0:58:39 | |
and compassion and idealism, | 0:58:39 | 0:58:41 | |
as well as common sense and self-preservation. | 0:58:41 | 0:58:44 | |
It might work. | 0:58:44 | 0:58:46 | |
You could call it an open-mind policy. | 0:58:46 | 0:58:49 |