Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech: 50 years on

this country in 15 or 20 years time the black man will have the whip hand over the white it's a speech which 50 years armed still raise its head when the topic of immigration is raised on the 20th of April 1968 the Conservative MP Enoch Powell spoke against mass immigration at the party's political center in Birmingham in what is known as the rivers of blood speech the speech was critical of the race relations bill which later that year became an act of Parliament the new legislation made it illegal to refuse housing employment and public services to people on the basis of race Powell believed it would be used to discriminate against the established white population reaction to the speech was Swift with party leader Edward Heath removing Powell from his post as shadow defense secretary citing the speeches inflammatory nature and the risk of damage to race relations it is like washing watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre however pals sentiments were shared by many voters and the speech is believed to have been a decisive factor in the Conservatives in 1970 general election victory only four years later the Wolverhampton MP had left the party in protest at the government's decision to take Britain into the then European Economic Community the rivers of blood speech is also linked with the increase in hostility and violence towards immigrants and coincided with the formation and rise of the far-right National Front party although Powell sought a moderate approach to the issue of immigration the language he used appealed to the ethnic nationalist and racial separatist views of the nf do you feel that any of the support for him may be because people feel that he was standing up and speaking his mind rightly or wrongly when so many politicians have felt to be mealy-mouthed on these controversial issues I think that he was in fact bad precisely because he appealed to the fear and the insecurity which has led to a deterioration in the relations between the residents I think this is demagogy and not leadership for some Powell articulates at the fairs of millions of Britons who felt ignored by their elected representatives for others the speech was an incitement to racial hatred which pandered to ill-informed populist feeling

Channel: On Demand News

Views: 366,754

Keywords: news, uk, enoch powell, Rivers of Blood, Conservative party, politics, immigration, Edward Heath, Europe, EU, EEC, Brexit, Commonwealth, ODN

Id: qjbZi2hTLVw

Length: 2min 36sec (156 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 20 2018