"It's insane!"

40 years ago, in January 1983, the Immigration Act allowed foreign men to live in the UK through marriage. This was despite Mrs Thatcher's 1979 election promise to end this concession. Conservative opposition to this Bill, because many Tory MPs thought they should honour their election promise, succeeded in defeating its passing in December 1982. (The year of the Falklands Conflict!) But in January '83 much of this opposition fell away because Mrs Thatcher persuaded MPs that the Conservative Party had to be united in an election year. One Conservative who continued to vote against it was Ivor Stanbrook who described allowing foreign men to live here through marrige as "insane". Some 10,000 foreign men a year exploit this loophole in Britain's immigration system. So there are now some 400,000 men living here because Mrs Thatcher did not keep her 1979 election manifesto promise. The Equal Opportunities Commission led the fight to oppose the measure. Paying NGOs and lawyers with public money to contest Government decisions made by politicians, who are also paid by us, is a bit daft. We also pay for legal aid for immigration. So we ourselves pay for much of the occupation of these islands. Foreigners don't mind. And we don't seem to mind. A bit daft? Or insane?