50 Years Today Since The Infamous Rivers Of Blood Speech

[Bobbisox1]

Made by Enoch Powell ,very controversial for its time but a lot of it is happening with no controlled immigration nor any government in power or opposition ,willing to tackle it ,it’s seen as a poison chalice

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/enoch-powell-s-rivers-of-blood-speech-when-did-the-politician-make-the-controversial-address-and-what-about-it-was-so-inflammatory-a3818901.html

[naomi24]

AH, speaking of shoehorning, I rather think you’ve shoehorned Albanians into this whilst ignoring the majority influx from Africa and Asia. It works for you I guess.

[andy-hughes]

The simple fact remains that the notion of the black ban 'holding the whip hand ...' simply never materialised, so the notion that Powell's feverish racist nonsense turned out to be prophetic, is arrant nonsense.

[naomi24]

Those who see only colour miss the important bits.

[andy-hughes]

Mr Powell was the one who referred to 'the black man ...', so critics cannot be blamed for doing exactly the same thing.

[andy-hughes]

It is obvious to anyone with a sense of objectivity, that Mr Powell was predicting a complete takeover by immigrants from the West Indies and the Caribbean, and history has proven his racist agitating to be utterly false.

I did no specify the racial makeup of the 'threat', he did, and pretending not to see it does not nean it is not there in his speech.

[naomi24]

He was of his time. Europe has changed beyond recognition since then. Whilst his critics remain obsessed with colour they’ll never understand what he was saying.

[fripfrip]

Andy have you forgotten the blackwater farm,bradford,and tottenham riots?

[fripfrip]

^^ ^^
broadwater.

[andy-hughes]

More shoehorning Naomi.

I was not the one to make racist provocative statements entirely aimed at one specific ethnicity, Mr Powell was.

But then, I have no problem with his threat of 'the black man' being comprehensively incorrect, because I don't laud him as a prophet whose words have come true.

He's not, and they didn't.

Now quite why people are so determined to make an utterly inaccurate statement into some sort of accurate assessment of the future is a mystery.

Powell is largely forgotten, along with his agitating racism, and he should serve as a cautionary note, that racism does not make your crystal ball infallible.

[andy-hughes]

Fripfrip - What does that have to do with Powell's poison?
The only link with him is that continuing perceived racism causes problems.

[fripfrip]

Powell's poison,really, statements like that also say a lot about you mr nice guy.don't speak ill of the dead when they can not defend themselves.

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - You say Europe has changed since Powell's day, and it has.

But since Powell was talking specifically about the West Indian and Caribbean populations coming here, the condition of Europe has nothing to do with it.

[andy-hughes]

Fripfrip - Were Mr Powell alive, do you seriously imagine he'd be interested either in my opinion of him, or in mounting a defence of his views on here?

If discussions were limited only to living AB contributors, we would be reduced to a seriously narrow list of people's views to analyse.

The fact that Mr Powell is deceased does not make him immune from discussion on here.

[Khandro]

When England plays India or Pakistan at cricket, would the British prime minister and London Mayor pass their respective Tebbit tests ?

[naomi24]

AH, Powell was talking about West Indians because at the time they were the only people coming here in any significant numbers. The prospect of Asians and Africans arriving en masse, as they have in more recent yeas wasn’t a consideration. As I said his speech was of its time.

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - I would not deny that Mr Powell's speech was 'of its time' - that makes it identical to every other speech ever offered on anything, they are all 'of there tome' because they can't be anything else.

The fact remains, Mr Powell was comprehensively wrong with his doom-mongering, and moving the goalposts to Europe to try and prop up his fatuous racism is simply ridiculous.

You might as well expect to be lauded as a sage prophet of the future if you are a weather forecaster and you darkly predict hailstorm, and we actually get rain. Your supporters mutter piffle about it still being 'weather', but it doesn't mean your prediction was true, merely that people are bending facts to try, and fail, to make you appear so.

[naomi24]

AH, I haven’t bent facts. West Indians were the only people coming here in significant numbers then. Since then the face of the whole of Europe has changed - and that’s not moving the goalposts. It’s true. Whilst we now have a Hindu Prime Minister, various people from ethnic minorities in parliament, a Muslim Mayor of London, and a Muslim leader of the SNP, I don’t think anyone can deny that crime is not a problem
among immigrant communities, or that horrendous acts are not hidden by the authorities for fear of causing social unrest, or that a disproportionate number of prison inmates come from ethnic minority groups, or that bloody and brutal terrorist incidents supporting the religion-led politics of an alien culture are a constant threat. Mr Powell didn’t foresee the assortment of people that would, subsequent to his speech, arrive on these shores, so a prophet he was not. Just a man who understood that immigration would bring its problems because cultures clash.

[lady-janine]

Speaking on the say as you find stand - I stick to my views of Mr Powell. His well-known speech I was most unhappy about but as a person I gave you my opinion.

[naomi24]

LJ, I assume that’s to AH?

[lady-janine]

Just for anyone who wants to read it really. It is an open discussion on here I presume.