Until yesterday the word "swamped"
had been unutterable in political circles since January 30 1978, when Margaret
Thatcher, then leader of the opposition, used it in a TV interview to describe
fears about immigration. Unlike David Blunkett, who was referring to a single
school, Mrs Thatcher said the entire nation was threatened by inundation.
Questioned about immigration on World in Action, she said the British people
were afraid they "might be rather swamped by people with a different culture".
Staking out the ground for the tough immigration act introduced by her
government in 1981, she went on: "We do have to hold out the prospect of an end
to immigration except of course for compassionate cases my great fear is that if
we have them coming in at that rate [45,000-50,000 a year] we shall not have
good race relations."
The term caused as big a splash then as it did yesterday, dominating the
following day's newspapers and drawing the ire of the government. Home
secretary, Merlyn Rees, accused the Conservative leader of seeking to use fears
about immigration to gain an electoral advantage.
Mrs Thatcher's comments saw support for the National Front bleed away, partly
because she highlighted issues it had previously monopolised. Some people, she
said, "do not agree with the objectives of the National Front but they say 'at
least they are talking about some of the problems'."
At last year's general election William Hague revived the Thatcher technique
with markedly less success, warning that a "flood" of bogus asylum seekers would
revive the National Front's prospects.