Post by johnofgwent on Jun 29, 2023 23:07:11 GMT
... the major problem with this hypothesis is that an evolutionary theory of liberalism struggles to explain the dramatic transformation in the attitudes of the managerial elites in western countries towards universal human rights and by extension immigration between say, 1935, and 1955.
The problem i have with this whole piece, certainly as far as the UK is concerned, is that there wasn't any such shift then was there.
The windrush immigrants rocked up to a britain that was still mourning its generational losses from two world wars. Open your eyes and watch the footage of news and documentary footage of the UK even as late as 1983 and the HUGE numbers of non white faces just ARENT THERE
The most spectacular example of that s probably the last episode of Michael Palin's Around The World In Eighty Days. He arrives in the UK on a MAERSK container ship that docks in a Felixstowe where the container cranes are still bright and shiny, and gets on a diesel multiple unit that takes an age to get him to London Liverpool Street and you'l lbe hard pushed to find six non white faces in the entire journey and that includes two black ticket collectors / ticket inspectors and a single sikh resplendent in his blue turban in the carriage (which isn't the first class one)
This is typical of the time. I was an itinerant traveller on that line at least half way out from Liverpool Street in the late 1970's and very early 80's as one of the research labs was situated about a mile from a station on the line, so i KNOW and the makeup of passengers in that footage in that 1981 production was typical for the journeys i used to take. Try taking it now and you'll be hard pressed to find a white face