Radio Interview for London Broadcasting (phone-in)

Document type:	Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue:	LBC, Gough Square, central London
Source:	IRN Archive: OUP transcript (extract)
Journalist:	Monty Modlyn, LBC
Editorial comments:	MT was due to arrive at 2215, though an earlier press notice had stated that she would be answering questions from 2200-2300. Only a single question survives. Poor indexing of the IRN Archive makes it impossible to be certain whether this item derives from the Modlyn phone-in, but this was MT’s only phone-in for IRN during the year and reference codes for the tape clearly identify it as recorded in 1978.
Importance ranking:	Major
Word count:	439

Good evening.

Oscar

West Indian accent

Mrs Thatcher, I am immigrant. I have lived in this country for a number of years. Now there are several points I'd like to make.

Where did you come from Oscar?

Oscar

I come originally from Trinidad.

Yes.

Oscar

Now firstly the immigrants is something of a football. There's the National Front on the one side, they're horrible, then the Anti-Nazi League on the other. We know what the National Front stands for, but what about the Anti-Nazi League? They are made up of Trotskyites and Marxists and Communists, they don't give a damn about the coloured immigrant, they just want more immigrants so they can have a large unhappy group of people to start a revolution. And this is a fact, Mrs Thatcher, I know, I heard, the Labour Party are supposed to support the coloured man but they only want us as voters because the black immigrant always votes Labour. Mrs Thatcher, please listen to me. The British government today are importing racialism. I am a frightened man and I believe that racial harmony will only come if there are cuts in the immigrants. Numbers and racial harmony are linked, Mrs Thatcher, but at the same time I want a guarantee from the Conservatives, of which you are, that we will not be deported.

Oscar, can I take your points? I would not take too much notice of the National Front or the Anti-Nazi League. Um, they do not represent feeling among the British people. The British people are very fair and they're very tolerant. They believe in equality before the law, they believe in decent treatment for everyone and I don't believe that that decent treatment for everyone and equality before the law and equal civil rights is in jeopardy, so let's forget them. I'm sorry that they attract so much publicity and that because of the marches they do they get so much publicity on the media. Don't take too much notice of them. Um, I couldn't condemn the National Front more than I do, but the vast majority [end p1] of British people, the vast majority, have no sympathy with it or with any extreme movement of any kind.

Now, Oscar, how long have you been here?

Oscar

I been here fifteen years.

Fifteen years. So you've been permanent immigrant for a year, you've been a permanent settler in this country for years, you've made your home here. There is no danger whatsoever of compulsory repatriation by Conservatives of those are permanently settled and who have made their home here. So let's have that absolutely clear.