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OLIVER LETWINS RACIAL MEMO


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The 5 most shocking quotes in Oliver Letwin's 'racist' memo

 

 

 

 

 

David Cameron's policy chief and key Cabinet minister has aplogised 'unreservedly' for the comments he wrote in a memo sent to Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, which have been described as 'offensive, disgusting and appalling'

 

 

 

 

 

Every year confidential government documents from 30 years ago are released by the National Archives.

The vast majority are typically dull government letters and statements sent between departments, but a few reveal the private attitudes of those in power that were previously unknown

And this year a five-page letter written to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1985 has given us insight into David Cameron’s current policy chief and key Cabinet minister Oliver Letwin.

 

 

 

 

He and fellow Tory aide Vernon Hartley Booth wrote a memo to Mrs Thatcher advising how to respond to social unrest and rioting in inner city black communities across Britain in the 1980s. 

Here are the five most shocking quotes the pair used: 

 

 

 

1. 'Discos and drugs... vandalism and decay'

Mr Letwin and Mr Booth dismissed proposals by two government ministers to invest in a scheme designed to encourage black entrepreneurs, suggesting such an initiative would only lead to them spending the money on “discos and drugs”. 

"[Lord] Young's new entrepreneurs will set up in the disco and drug trade; Kenneth Baker's refurbished council blocks will decay through vandalism combined with neglect; and people will graduate from temporary training or employment programmes into unemployment or crime," the memo said.

 

 

 

 

2. ‘Bad moral attitudes’ 

They also poured scorn on plans to spend heavily to improve public services and facilities in neighbourhoods hit by riots. 

Instead the pair argued that rioting from members of black communities in Brixton, Tottenham, Liverpool and Birmingham could be explained by “bad moral attitudes”. 

"Riots, criminality and social disintegration are caused solely by individual characters and attitudes. So long as bad moral attitudes remain, all efforts to improve the inner cities will founder."

 

 

 

 

3. White people don't riot

In what has been condemned as blatantly racist remarks, Mr Letwin and Mr Booth attempted to contrast rioting black communities with generations of white working-class people who they claimed had lived in similar areas without rioting.

They wrote: "Lower-class, unemployed white people lived for years in appalling slums without a breakdown of public order on anything like the present scale; in the midst of the depression, people in Brixton went out, leaving their grocery money in a bag at the front door, and expecting to see groceries there when they got back.

 

 

 

 

4. Riots are nothing to do with racism against black communities

Mr Letwin and Mr Booth also dismissed suggestions that the rioting had been caused by racism or social deprivation, despite evidence that racism in the Metropolitan Police was rampant throughout the 1980s and 1990s. 

“The root of social malaise is not poor housing, or youth ‘alienation’, or the lack of a middle class,” they wrote.

 

 

 

 

5. 'There should be no positive discrimination'

The pair categorically rejected the idea that she should pursue positive discrimination initiatives to help close the racial inequality gap and cut the disproportionally large unemployment rate among black communities.

The memo finished off by stating: “There should be no ‘positive discrimination’ in any new programmes,” and also advised Mrs Thatcher to bar her ministers from proposing any state-funded solutions. 

After the documents were released on Tuesday Mr Letwin apologised "unreservedly" and admitted parts of the private memo were "badly worded and wrong".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oliver-Letwin-gt.jpg

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1. 'Discos and drugs... vandalism and decay'
Mr Letwin and Mr Booth dismissed proposals by two government ministers to invest in a scheme designed to encourage black entrepreneurs, suggesting such an initiative would only lead to them spending the money on “discos and drugs”. 
"[Lord] Young's new entrepreneurs will set up in the disco and drug trade; Kenneth Baker's refurbished council blocks will decay through vandalism combined with neglect; and people will graduate from temporary training or employment programmes into unemployment or crime," the memo said.

 

 

 

worst bit imo

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The apology isn't good enough and means nothing

How can he rectify the severe adverse effects his and others racist perspectives have had on government policy over the years

An apology is just another pisstake

 

Would you prefer he doesn't apologise?

 

And how would he make this better moving forward in your opinion?

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The apology isn't good enough and means nothing

How can he rectify the severe adverse effects his and others racist perspectives have had on government policy over the years

An apology is just another pisstake

 

Would you prefer he doesn't apologise?

 

And how would he make this better moving forward in your opinion?

why say it
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The apology isn't good enough and means nothing

How can he rectify the severe adverse effects his and others racist perspectives have had on government policy over the years

An apology is just another pisstake

Would you prefer he doesn't apologise?

And how would he make this better moving forward in your opinion?

I'd rather not hear an insincere apology

There is nothing he can do better aside from leaving office, him and the rest of them that hold these extreme views but that will never happen

This is his country

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The apology isn't good enough and means nothing

How can he rectify the severe adverse effects his and others racist perspectives have had on government policy over the years

An apology is just another pisstake

 

Would you prefer he doesn't apologise?

 

And how would he make this better moving forward in your opinion?

why say it

 

 

I'm not justifying it, I'm just asking

 

There's a lot of race talk on here and personally I don't know the point where it ends, it's interesting to me

 

What if the guy came out and said I'm sorry I was ignorant 30 years ago I take full responsibility for my words and I don't believe what was said at that time any more. I'm interested to know peoples threshold of what is enough to forgive.

 

Especially vocal people like Smaddy

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The apology isn't good enough and means nothing

How can he rectify the severe adverse effects his and others racist perspectives have had on government policy over the years

An apology is just another pisstake

 

Would you prefer he doesn't apologise?

 

And how would he make this better moving forward in your opinion?

why say it

 

I'm not justifying it, I'm just asking

 

There's a lot of race talk on here and personally I don't know the point where it ends, it's interesting to me

 

What if the guy came out and said I'm sorry I was ignorant 30 years ago I take full responsibility for my words and I don't believe what was said at that time any more. I'm interested to know peoples threshold of what is enough to forgive.

 

Especially vocal people like Smaddy

Not trying to go in on you at all but I feel your posts merit more than one line of text

The establishment successfully driving equality throughout society is where we need to be as a country and is the only thing that can be classed as "moving forward" in my eyes

That's for the establishment to see through, not people who have been and are still discriminated against

Once we have equality then people can choose to open dialogue about forgiveness and such

Even then people who've been wronged don't have ANY obligation to forgive at ANY point

The threshold people have for forgiveness is irrelevant and tbf it's offensive that it's even being discussed now

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lol @ thinking this isnt the attitude of the establishment still to this day.

 

Its mad when you think, you look around and see all this anti-islam, but truth is thats coming all from the working classes pushed out there by the media. Other than the rhetoric they use to do their stuff around the world, the establishment actually have no real problem with muslims, its still the blacks who they very much look down on and see as beneath them.

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