Immigration in the UK. Enoch Powell 40 years on............

iguanamanc

It's been exactly 40 years since Enoch Powell made a controversial speech about immigration into the UK, which was really an attack on the 1968 Race Relations Act. That speech has been incorrectly labelled as "Rivers of Blood" (for full transcript see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/m...607.xml&page=1).



I was 15 years old at that time and his speech left a considerable impression on me. As a whole, 1968 was a memorable year for political events (Tet offensive in Vietnam, student riots at the Sorbonne, the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Soviet tanks rolling in to Prague) and I was fortunate to have been at Wembley when we won the European Cup.

This week, I have listened to a couple of radio phone-ins on the topic of Powell's speech, one at least by a presenter who wasn't even born at that time. He described Powell as a "racist" and a "loony". Believe me, Powell was neither of those things. He was sacked from the Conservative shadow cabinet after his Birmingham speech, mainly because he had dared to open the can of worms about immigration and race relations in the UK. This man could have been a great Prime Minister who would have left a considerable legacy to this country.

Agree or disagree?

cockneyred

if you read the whole speech its all coming true.im in total agree with mr powell shame we dont have politicians today with as much backbone

topper

Phillips warns of race 'cold war'

Mr Phillips warns failed immigration policies can lead to racism


The head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission says tension over immigration is leading to a "cold war" among rival ethnic communities. Trevor Phillips will speak later to mark the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech.

He will warn that Mr Powell's extreme views discredited planning and control, so that the government "knew too little about what was going on". The government says new measures will ensure Britain has tougher controls.

Although Mr Phillips will say Mr Powell's apocalyptic predictions have not come true, he will acknowledge mass immigration has caused a different kind of conflict. "Powell predicted 'hot' conflict and violence. However, we have seen the emergence of a kind of cold war in some parts of the country, where very separate communities exist side by side... with poor communication across racial or religious lines," Mr Phillips is expected to say.


Because Mr Powell discredited any talk of planning or control, it gave rise to a "migration policy in which government knew too little about what was going on", he will continue. "Ironically, Powellism and the weakening of control it engendered may have led Britain to admitting more immigrants rather than fewer."

Mr Phillips is expected to warn ministers they are helping to boost the support for anti-immigration parties such as the BNP by failing to deal with the concerns of sections of the "settled" population - such as professionals and young mothers.

"For every professional woman who is able to go out to work because she has a Polish nanny, there is a young mother who watches her child struggle in a classroom where a harassed teacher faces too many children with too many languages between them.

"Wanting a better deal for her child doesn't make her anti-immigrant. But if we can't find a better answer to her despair then she soon will be."

He will add that while professionals may appreciate the ability to import skilled IT or health professionals, many will also wonder "why they have to put up with the misery of a packed railway carriage or bus - if they can get on in the first place".

"Wanting an infrastructure that doesn't make getting to work daily hell doesn't make someone a natural voter for an anti-immigrant party. But it soon will."

Mr Phillips will deliver his speech at the Midland Hotel - the same Birmingham hotel where Mr Powell sparked public debate in 1968. The then shadow frontbencher warned of social tensions in pockets of Britain - such as Wolverhampton - if mass immigration continued.

He compared racial tensions in the United States to the Roman poet Virgil's description of "the River Tiber foaming with much blood" and said anti-discrimination laws were like "throwing a match on to gunpowder".

Shadow home secretary David Davis said Mr Phillips was raising "a brave and timely warning" about losing control of immigration."Whilst managed immigration is for the benefit of the country, uncontrolled immigration can lead to serious problems for the whole nation," he said.

A spokeswoman for the UK Border Agency said policy changes, such as introducing ID cards for foreign nationals and the new points-based immigration system for non-EU residents, would ensure Britain had "one of the toughest borders in the world".

"Understanding the impacts of migration on communities and public services is essential, which is why the Migration Impacts Forum (MIF) was set up," she added.

"We need to strike a balance in Britain's migration policy, weighing the economic benefits with frontline feedback about wider impacts."

FlawlessThaw

As far as I know most politicians are white, in fact proportionally more so. So really can't see how the black man has the whip hand over the white man. Load of tosh and scare-mongering.

cockneyred

powells speech was made in the 60s when nearly all immigrants were of afro caribbean descent so it was relevant in its day,today the same applies but more with eastern europeans and africans

noodlehair

He sounded like he was one step short of being a clinically insane bond villain in that speech, and that picture of him doesn't exactly do him any favours either. It's possibly the most evil face I've ever seen.

The speech was also incredibly blinkered and one sided. It came across less as a reasoned view on things to come, and more as a hatefilled maniac trying to justify his own stance. That's probably why he was told to fuck off.

The problem is that people just don't understand immigration, and see it only as a threat. It's only a threat if you're not prepared to accept it.

What's he on about?

Sultan

Show me any self respecting country which do not have immigrants.

Move on people, there is no such thing as immigrants in the present world system. It's time we focused on our needs as a country rather than the country of origin of our neighbours/co workers.

iguanamanc

How can a face be evil?

Lots of speeches are blinkered and one-sided and reflect your own opinions. You could argue that Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech was the same. Powell's was given precisely to open up the debate on immigration in the late 60s that no-one wanted to tackle. Powell was neither racist nor near to being clinically insane.

topper

wtf - you obviously have Whinger problems

noodlehair

Yes, but few are as extreme, or as demanding of action. He even leads into it by going on about preventable evils, for feck sake. The idea of someone with such extremist views being in a position of power in this country is hugely discomforting to me.

I don't know nearly enough about the bloke to comment seriously on him as a character, but after coming out with that speech, he had to go. Anything else would have set an extremely dangerous example.

iguanamanc

Is this the face of an evil man?

noodlehair

Yes, but it's not an evil face

iguanamanc

And Enoch Powell's was not the face of an evil man.

noodlehair

But it is an evil face. This cannot be denied

iguanamanc

We've only just got rid of Blair FFS.

iguanamanc

Perhaps evilness like beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

topper

objective as ever

lynchie

His speech was poorly veiled racism and fear. He was simply stoking the flames.

Plechazunga

Fitzjames

He would have made a great British Prime Minister of sorts......possibly before the 1870s. Thereafter no sane person would have voted for him.

Powell had the ambition to be Viceroy of India and as that was the key position in the British Empire and the British Empire (like all Empires had a racist dimension) its reasonable enough to say he had racist views.
He never really got over India's independence.....so peculiarly he took the view that black migration to Britain was baaaaaaaad but his sitting as Viceroy of India was gooooooooooooood. Seems like a double standard.

To his credit the old bastard did actually see that giving 700 million children of the Great White Queen the right to live in Britain was ok prior to mass tansport systems and people actually taking up the offer..but was not sustainable when people actually took up the offer.

Like all hypocrites, Powell who was totally in favour of Empire but hated the whole idea of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Powells undoubted intelligence gave him a certain sway over (admittedly) very stupid people and theres no doubt that a man of his classical education would have been aware of the imagery that his words like "rivers of blood" and "the black man having the whip hand..." stirred up a kind of sub conscienious fear.
Do not forget please that Powells speech contained "quotes" from letters he had "received" from his constituents cataloguing anti social and criminal activity by black neighbours........"letters" which did not actually exist.

Ultimately Powell was too much of a maverick to be any kind of real party man (Conservative or Labour). He hated Margaret Thatcher but was a friend of Tony Benn.
And sadly (or maybe deservedly) in later years his intelligence deserted him and he succumbed to a form of dementia. He once claimed that Lord Mountbatten had been killed off by the Americans (not the kind of thing most sane people think). Although this is perfectly consistent with his view that USA is Britains biggest enemy.

Perhaps the oddest thing about the 40th anniversary of Rivers of Blood is the attempt to rehabilitate Powell as some kind of visionary.
The "visionary" aspect always appeals as he usually held different contradictory positions on most issues in his life (therefore like a stopped clocked we can show he was "right") .
Still Simon Heffer, Jon Gaunt and the men driving "white vans" will still say "good old Enoch". A whole new generation of the Smithfield meat porters who marched to support him in his heyday. "Enoch was right......its all political correctness gone maaaaaaaaaaaaad innit?"

iguanamanc

I'm not sure that you are right about the number of sane people who would vote for him, I suppose it depends on the definition of sanity. He failed miserably in a bid to become leader of the conservative party in 1965. His anti-American and anti-EEC stance might have stood him in good stead during the late 60s if he was in a position to win a General Election. As you say, the problem was that his views were so extreme and in a way apolitical that he never really fitted in with any particular party, even though a lot of old guard Tories liked and certainly respected him. Edward Heath grew to hate him after that speech.

Did Powell have any lasting legacy as MP for South Down?

Plechazunga

He may have been a bit of a nutjob, but he did a cracking edition of Thucydides

Frosty

It was his own fault for quoting Virgil at a town hall meeting.

peterstorey

A pretty stupid clever bloke.

iguanamanc

Virgil: If they crash-landed on the sea, we'd have picked up a distress call on their radio, unless...

Brains: ...unless they were trapped in the cabin, and if the hydraulic system jammed the automatic escape hatches would not operate.

Gordon: Do you realize what this means?

Brains: I do, Gordon. They could still be alive, trapped in the flight deck at the bottom of the sea.

iguanamanc

Didn't know you were a scholar of the Classics. His revision of Thucydides Historiae was not a patch on his Lexicon to Herodotus.

Team Brian GB

The problem is most people proclaim the speech is racist despite very few people ever having heard or read it.


I believe there was only one person in the Conservative Party that gave him any sort of support- Margaret Thatcher.

Fitzjames

In fairness no matter which Thunderbird International Rescue member he quoted, the effect would have been similar.