Kmflett's Blog

London Socialist Historians Group

8^th March

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Historians back Gary Lineker’s comments on refugees

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, has backed Gary Lineker’s comments on the Government’s latest Refugee Bill.

While Suella Braverman said she was disappointed in the comments and Yvette Cooper said they were inappropriate, placing the Bill in a historical context is important say the historians.

The late socialist historian E P Thompson (Peculiarities of the English,1965) made the point about refugees from Nazi Germany and elsewhere and the positive impact they have had on British life

Here is this island, and there, across a few wet miles, are Other Countries. Those waters have, on occasion, been crossed. That city, London, is not in the Antarctic but has been, alongside Paris, Vienna and Prague, a great European capital. In its East End there have been deposit after deposit of refugee and immigrant workers. In the universities there have been deposit after deposit of émigré intellectuals. Across that water there came, in the 1930s, wave after wave of refugees from Fascism; across that water there went, in the early 1940s, wave after wave of troops to assist in the liberation of Southern and Western Europe; and across that water there came, in the later 1940s and 1950s, a further wave of refugees from Eastern Europe.

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, Gary Lineker has added an historical context to this which others clearly want to avoid. Of course while the current Government’s policy on refugees is on the hard right, its not a re-run of the Nazis. However the demonisation of refugees is part of a process that can lead in that direction if its not opposed. We’ll be joining the Stand Up to Racism demonstration on UN Anti-Racism Day on the 18^th March in central London because while remembering history is vital so also is taking part in making the future.