Its been 40 years since the '' Rivers of Blood '' speech.

[Rtaxron]

I know he said it would happen ( RoB ) in 20 years, but do you think the Government at the time, should have listened to Enoch Powell, considering the increase in gun and knife crime we are experiencing now?

[Mamjet]

Because only blacks carry knives and guns right?

Idiot.

[Rtaxron]

Do they?

You said that, not me !

[keyplus90]

It is not the question whether knives are carried by blacks or whites, Asians or Chinese. I believe the only way we can tackle this problem is to bring more severe and practical punishments. It does not make a difference whether it is a murder, child sex abuse, terrorism, rape or anything else.

What we are doing right now,

1 - Pedophile and child sex offenders - OK ban people taking photographs (Now you can not take photos in public, at school events etc) even it was in the news today that police arrested a man taking photos at a public place.
2 - Murders - Ok ban knives (How would we cook)
3 - Rape - Ok Ban women going out.

Why not just punish the pedophile, the murderer, the rapist and all these sort the way that people should think twice before doing that.

[Postdog]

I agree with mamjet - reading that, you are infering the troubles we have now are down to the blacks and asians that were coming into the country then.

Try looking around, and you'll see it's a breakdown of society's values, whether they are black, white, asian, or sky lue with polka dots.

[Lonnie]

I believe 'Rivers of Blood' will happen, because over the last Decade, we have had uncontrolled Immigration, (legal and illegal). Too many, too fast.

We now have certain religious groups, (minority) calling for a takeover of this country.

There are now areas of this country where the residents say it no longer feels like Britain.

Overall, there's now a deep resentment of immigrants, especially those that have made no effort to learn the language.

[stokemaveric]

we are becoming a minority in our own country.we ought to stop ALL immigration now.the migrants are creating ghettos which many people will not dare enter.there are too many diffrent cultures in this country and we are in danger of losing our very identity.

[vehelpfulguy]

> 3 - Rape - Ok Ban women going out.

So it's the womens fault is it.

Maybe ban MEN going out (and I am a man)

[stokemaveric]

what is your point exactly veryhelpfulguy?

[IggyB]

i sometimes wonder if i'm the only one that really likes living in the UK - i enjoy the diversity, the people and whilst i don't think its perfect i still think its a great place to live and probably one of the best in the world.

so no i don't think the govt should have listened to EP - and i don't think anyone should worry too much about it now, it was over the top and bizarre at the time and its over the top and bizarre now.

[sp1214]

The problem is that for the past 40 years we have been unable to talk about immigration without being labelled racist. If Enoch Powell had concentrated on just immigration we would not be in the current position. It was Enoch when in the Tory cabinet who encouraged West Indians to come to Britain by the boatload to work on our understaffed buses and manual hospital work. It escalated from there.

[Kromovaracun]

because over the last Decade, we have had uncontrolled Immigration, (legal and illegal). Too many, too fast.

See, that's more or less exactly what Powell was saying. And it's clear 40 years on that he was wrong. How do we know such claims are any more true today?

We now have certain religious groups, (minority) calling for a takeover of this country.

There are always minority crackpots calling for extreme measures. Take the Black Panthers or Nation of Islam, for instance.

Overall, there's now a deep resentment of immigrants,

Again, nothing new. Except that the specific immigrant ethnicity has changed. It's previously been Irish, or Jews or...

[stokemaveric]

but at the end of the day he was RIGHT....

[Oneeyedvic]

He was not right - he predicted these rivers of blood in 20 years .... and it is now 40 years on and there are still no rivers of blood - how is he right?

[Lonnie]

Krom,
I notice its just my reply your taking to task, but its fact,, we live on an Island that the size of pimple on an Elephants backside, and there's a limit to how many immigrants this country can take, and thats well exceeded.

In around 2003/4, David Blunkett said there there is no Limit to the amount of immigrants this country can take.

In my mind, thats a ridiclous thing to say, and an open invitation to all and sundry to come here.

[stokemaveric]

oneyevic of course he was right what do you want to see running battles between black and white youths?no its the crime that immigrants have brought here isnt it?that was his point.........................

[Kromovaracun]

In Powell's speech, he references a constituent predicting that 'in 15 to 20 years the black man will have the whip hand over the white man'. This is totally incorrect even 40 years on. And that same prediction was being made years before 1968. And was still wrong.

How do we know that the most recent claims are any less dubious? There's no direct evidence whatsoever that immigrants commit crimes (and individual cases don't count, by the way - I mean real evidence documenting trends among people who come into the country).

[Kromovaracun]

Lonnie - I was only picking on your post because it was the most coherent of the 'anti' bloc at the time I posted.

[jno]

Kromovaracun, there are some suggesting in similar vein that the country will shortly be in Muslim hands. With the Muslim population currently around 5% of the country, I can't see it myself, and I don't know why people are so determined to live in terror of former subjects fo the British Empire.

[Kromovaracun]

Actually Muslims made up around 2.7% of the population in 2001, according to the handy CIA world factbook.

[jno]

yes - I thought I'd seen a more recent estimate that showed it had risen a bit, but I can't track it down and may have imagined it.

0.7% gave their religion as Jedi, as we are at almost as much risk from silly little Yodas buzzing around and disrupting traffic.