William Whitelaw, Mrs. Thatcher's first Home Secretary, stated on 7 April 1978 (Conservative Central Office, 487/78): "All countries are entitled as a mark of their national sovereignty to have their own nationality and immigration laws...
"... [I]n 1969, Mr. Callaghan concluded that marriage was being abused by many young men of working age as a means of entering, working and settling in this country. His words were true then and I believe they are as true today...."
The Conservatives duly promised at the time of the 1979 General Election to "end the concession introduced by the Labour government in 1974 to husbands and male fiances."
The Equal Opportunities Commission vigorously opposed this measure, and its 1978 Policy Statement concludes: "Although nationality law is excluded from the provisions of the Act, the Commission, in order to fufil its statutory duty, must draw to the attention of the government and the public those areas in which discrimination on grounds of sex are prevalent and make recommendations."
It is fair to discriminate. A judge who couldn't discriminate right from wrong or good from bad wouldn't (or shouldn't) be a judge.
In campaigning to enable foreign and Commonwealth men to occupy the UK through marriage the EOC promoted inequality, because:
1. Native British men often cannot live and work abroad through marriage.
2. The UK's "equality" laws entitle foreign men to deprive native British men of work and promotion. (Even though their countries don't have such laws.)
3. The unequal ratio of the sexes of young people (more young men than young women) is exacerbated.
4. Overcrowding is exacerbated. (England is reputedly the most crowded country in the world.)
5. People in multi-national marriages have a choice of countries to live in. This is a great advantage if there is a natural disaster, war, etc.
6. While foreign men are taking advantage of this loophole, British servicemen are dying (and being wounded) in Iraq and Afghanistan (and anywhere else they may be sent).
7. Foreigners like it here or they wouldn't be here. By contrast, many Englishmen (besides myself) have much unhappiness because of this self-inflicted (more accurately, enforced) situation. Few inequalities are worse than that.
8. Native British men do not have the same access to British law as do other people. (My request for legal aid concerning this issue was turned down by the Law Society on 31 January 1979, ref: LW1(G)/14/1/78/12966 Z - though it was not denied to other people.) Nor do Britons have any "rights" regarding immigration to the UK.
On 28 May 1985 the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in the case of Mrs. Abdulaziz, Mrs. Balkandali and Mrs. Cabales that not allowing their husbands to live and work in the UK amounted to sex discrimination.
Inasmuch as sex discrimination is natural (we'd none of us be here without it) it is good.
