The first half of 1979 was taken up with the huge effort needed to field 300-plus candidates. When the election arrived, the NF actually fielded 303 - nearly half the seats in the country. During the campaign, the old-gang parties and especially the Tories became very worried by the rapid rise of the movement and Thatcher came out with her now infamous speech in which she claimed that she "understood the fears of the British people of being swamped by coloured immigrants."
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