THERE was a certain bitter irony in reports that appeared in London newspapers yesterday. Caribbean immigrants, fed up with unemployment and racial harassment, are queueing up, it seems, to go home.
It was the influx of these people in the '50s and '60s, tempted from former colonies at a time when the British economy was booming, that bolstered the arguments of those opposed to offering passports to the people of Hongkong.
And while the Britain of the '90s is a very different and far less desirable destination today, the arrival of so many immigrants is still often trotted out as one reason for refusing British citizenship to the territory's non-Chinese ethnic minorities.
Last week, the House of Lords - not the natural home of rebellion - recommended that Britain should reverse its stance on the 7,000 who make up this group. Their lordships were so moved by pleas from the likes of Lord Bonham-Carter and our own Baroness Dunn that they inflicted a resounding 60 votes to 48 defeat on the government.
Former Governor Lord Wilson and Lord Glenarthur, Foreign Office minister responsible for Hongkong when the original nationality deal was struck in 1986, voted against the policy. Baroness Thatcher abstained, though she nodded in agreement as speakers called for change. Friends said later that, having voted against the government earlier in the week over Maastricht, she simply couldn't bring herself to do it again.
The House of Lords is certainly not the only body to feel a sense of guilt and shame at the shabby way in which Britain is discharging its responsibilities to a small group of people who have served Hongkong well but who now fear they may be left stateless in 1997.
In the House of Commons, too, opposition to the government's position is growing. Both Conservative and Labour MPs are keen to see the stance reversed.