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2008 BBC documentary about Enoch Powell's infamous Rivers of Blood speech
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TVTranscript
00:0040 years ago, a group of conservative activists gathered at a hotel in Birmingham.
00:08They'd come to hear a speech by the radical Tory politician, Enoch Powell.
00:15We were the only camera team there. BBC were there with the radio. And I think there must
00:22have been a couple of local newspaper people. Not that many, actually. It was a Saturday.
00:27It was a normal Saturday in April.
00:31Powell had kept the content of his address a closely guarded secret.
00:38No one knew they were about to hear the most controversial speech in modern British history.
00:44It would be called Rivers of Blood.
00:49In this country, in 15 or 20 years' time, the black man will have the whip hand
00:56over the white man.
01:02That speech triggered an explosion of bigotry and prejudice and alarm and fear and tension.
01:10It was right across British society. He had put a match to a tinderbox.
01:15He had put a match to a tinderbox.
01:22He's notorious.
01:24Powell claimed mass migration would bring division and violence.
01:28Many dismissed him as a racist scaremonger.
01:35Powell's big mistake was precisely to talk openly about things that the political elite had decided
01:46could not be talked about openly, which is why he was drummed out of political life in Britain.
01:52Instead, the liberal establishment embraced a radically different vision for the country
01:57from that of Powell, multiculturalism.
02:09But 40 years on, and in the wake of riots and terror attacks,
02:13many are now asking,
02:15was Enoch Powell right to predict disaster in his Rivers of Blood speech?
02:19It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pile.
02:44Only months before Powell's Rivers of Blood speech,
02:46the Beatles broadcast live to a global audience of 400 million people.
02:56This was a radical new image of 60s Britain
02:59as a more liberal, diverse and tolerant society.
03:04While many celebrated this vision,
03:06others were disturbed by the prospect of profound change.
03:09Above all, they feared the revolution that was most transforming the country.
03:18Today, there are over a million coloured people in Britain.
03:22Why have they come in such numbers during the past 20 years?
03:26What impact have we had on them?
03:28And what effect has their coming had on the rest of us?
03:32Race and immigration were explosive issues.
03:37Enoch Powell deliberately lit the fuse.
03:41Rivers of Blood remains one of the best known
03:45but least understood speeches of modern times.
03:48For the first time on television,
03:51we've assembled the recorded fragments of speech
03:54to better understand Powell's argument.
03:57In this country, in 15 or 20 years' time,
04:03the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.
04:10Powell claimed the most incendiary remarks
04:13were quotations from concerned constituents.
04:16But he knew how controversial the speech was going to be.
04:20Well, I can already hear the chorus of execration.
04:27How dare I say such a horrible thing?
04:32How dare I stir up trouble and inflame feelings
04:38by repeating such a conversation?
04:42My answer is that I do not have the right not to do so.
04:55It was a speech dealing with a highly controversial
04:59and sensitive issue.
05:01And the speech was being made by a very intelligent,
05:05very intellectual and very experienced senior politician
05:09within the Conservative Party.
05:15At the age of 56, Powell, a prominent right-winger,
05:18was taking the greatest risk of his career
05:20with an attack on immigration.
05:25Few front-line politicians had dared speak out against it,
05:28until now.
05:29Powell saw himself as a radical visionary,
05:36more in tune with the feelings of the masses
05:38than with his colleagues.
05:41Eno Powell had the gift of prophetic utterance.
05:44He had the gift of language and of mind
05:47to make prophetic statements from the mountain
05:52which people listened to.
05:54Those whom the gods wish to destroy,
05:57they first make mad.
06:00He was a curiously intense man.
06:03Certainly a loner,
06:04certainly highly intelligent,
06:06certainly very confident of his own views
06:10and with deeply held views
06:12and very determined that they should be heard.
06:15There was, in that sense,
06:17something of a missionary about him.
06:21Powell was a conviction politician.
06:23He had already resigned
06:24from a previous Conservative government
06:26over economic policy.
06:30He was somebody who took a point,
06:32elaborated it,
06:33and was led by it
06:34to its own implied conclusion.
06:36And, as a philosopher,
06:37I admire that.
06:38That's the way one should think
06:39if one's interested in truth.
06:41But if one's interested in persuading people,
06:44then, of course,
06:45that might be a mistake.
06:46People are often frightened by logic.
06:48They're frightened by the truth, also.
06:50Excuse me, Mr Powell.
06:51Will you be letting your name go forward
06:53as a candidate?
06:54I'm saying nothing at all,
06:55so don't waste your time.
06:56Do you think your party's chances
06:57will be enhanced by a new leader?
07:00Enoch Powell was ambitious,
07:02but his career hadn't prospered
07:03as he believed it should have.
07:06In 1965,
07:07he had lost out in the race
07:08to become Conservative Party leader
07:10to his great rival,
07:12Edward Heath.
07:13I would like to express my gratitude
07:15to Enoch Powell.
07:17And I am, of course, delighted
07:19that we shall serve together
07:22in the Shadow Camp.
07:28What Enoch felt so strongly
07:30about Heath
07:31was that he, Enoch,
07:33had come to his view
07:34of life on his own.
07:36Heath had, if you like,
07:38tailored his view
07:39to what his smart friends
07:40in the Tory party wanted.
07:41And I think there was always
07:42an underlying contempt
07:43for Heath for that reason.
07:46Powell believed
07:46that a hard-hitting speech
07:47might shock Heath
07:49into taking tough action
07:50on immigration.
07:51It would also raise
07:52his own profile.
07:54Conviction and political ambition
07:56met in a potent brew.
07:59Enoch Powell was a very bad colleague.
08:01And that's not the highest
08:02political gift,
08:03but it means you're not
08:04really going to get
08:05all that far
08:06if you can't actually work
08:08with other people.
08:09And he had something
08:10in him,
08:11something lonely in him,
08:12something theatrical in him.
08:13He had to be something special.
08:18Part of what was special
08:19about Enoch
08:20was that he was difficult.
08:22And you don't make oysters
08:24without some sand
08:25to begin with.
08:26And I think the Tory party,
08:28and particularly the Tory leader
08:29at the time,
08:29found him difficult.
08:31He was a bigger figure,
08:33really,
08:34than the leader.
08:35And that usually leads
08:36to a confrontation
08:38which results
08:39in one of them being destroyed.
08:43Powell's speech
08:44had been meticulously planned.
08:46A few days before,
08:47he had confided
08:48in an old family friend,
08:49Clem Jones,
08:50who was the editor
08:51of Powell's local paper,
08:53the Wolverhampton Express
08:54and Star.
08:57Jones had been advising Powell
08:58for some time
08:59on how to manage the media.
09:03Enoch said,
09:03you know,
09:04I'm making a big speech
09:05on Saturday.
09:06And my father said,
09:07well, what's it all about?
09:08Enoch wouldn't tell him
09:09what it was about,
09:09but he said,
09:10listen, Clem,
09:11what's going to happen
09:12is he said,
09:12you know when a rocket
09:13goes up in the sky
09:14and the stars break away.
09:16He said,
09:17well, this time,
09:18when the rocket goes up
09:19in the sky,
09:20the stars are going to
09:21stay up in the firmament.
09:23We must be mad.
09:25Literally mad
09:28as a nation.
09:29to be permitted
09:31the annual inflow
09:33of some 50,000 dependents
09:37who are for the most part
09:39the material
09:40of the future growth
09:42of the immigrant
09:43descended population.
09:45It is like watching
09:47a nation
09:48busily engaged
09:50in heaping up
09:52its own funeral pyre.
09:54of the people
09:55of the world.
09:55Disturbed
09:56by the speed
09:57and scale
09:58of change,
09:59Powell quoted
10:00government statistics
10:01which predicted,
10:02quite accurately
10:03as it turned out,
10:04that by the year 2000
10:05there would be
10:06between five
10:07and seven million
10:08immigrants,
10:09accounting for one-tenth
10:10of Britain's population.
10:11It was,
10:14Powell claimed,
10:15a total transformation
10:17to which there is
10:18no parallel
10:19in English history.
10:21This perpendicular
10:22window is
10:23late 14th,
10:24early 15th century.
10:25England was,
10:27at the heart
10:28of his thinking,
10:29almost a mystical,
10:31romantic,
10:32religious view
10:33of England.
10:36And many people
10:37had this,
10:37people even on the left.
10:38So to be a nationalist
10:40is perfectly all right
10:41and this is the kind of view
10:42that Enoch Powell
10:43was taking.
10:43He was an English nationalist.
10:48The unique culture
10:49and civilisation
10:50of Powell's
10:51beloved country
10:52were being transformed
10:53against his wishes.
10:54by mass migration.
11:02The change
11:03was particularly marked
11:04in urban areas
11:05like his own constituency
11:06of Wolverhampton South West.
11:11It almost passes belief
11:15that at this moment
11:1720 to 30
11:19additional immigrant children
11:21are arriving from overseas
11:24in Wolverhampton alone
11:27every week.
11:30And that means 15 or 20
11:32additional families
11:34a decade or so
11:36hence.
11:40Immigration was certainly
11:41changing parts of the
11:42North Midlands.
11:43It was changing the
11:44constituents that I represented.
11:45my constituency
11:47was predominantly Irish
11:49in its urban parts
11:51when I first became
11:52a member of Parliament
11:53and gradually
11:54the Irish moved out
11:55into the suburbs
11:56and immigrants
11:58mostly from Kashmir
11:59moved in.
12:00And there were areas
12:02where they were visibly
12:03different
12:04where what had been
12:05Anglican churches
12:06became mosques.
12:08Black and Asian
12:13people moved
12:14into space
12:15that had been thought
12:16of as working-class
12:18areas.
12:19And, you know,
12:20one mustn't imagine
12:21that Englishness
12:22is only a property
12:23of the middle classes.
12:24There was a distinctive
12:26sense of what working-class
12:27community was like.
12:47It had its own
12:48traditions, its own
12:49culture.
12:50It had a very
12:51distinctively English
12:52character.
12:53We want to keep Britain.
12:57Britain, keep it white
12:58as it should be.
12:59We feel
13:00we're being outnumbered
13:01and the policy
13:02of this country
13:03now is to
13:04integrate.
13:05Well, if they,
13:06the coloured people
13:07are going to be
13:08allowed to form
13:09communities
13:10how can
13:12integration
13:13take place?
13:19The British people
13:20had never been consulted
13:21on the unprecedented
13:22transformation taking
13:24place in their country.
13:28The speed and scale
13:29of immigration
13:30made many feel uneasy.
13:31Familiar neighbourhoods
13:33were being changed
13:34forever.
13:42Some white British
13:43people also believed
13:44they were becoming
13:45second-class citizens
13:46in their own country.
13:52Much of Powell's speech
13:54was not recorded.
13:55The following extract
13:56is read by an actor.
13:59They found their wives
14:00unable to obtain
14:01hospital beds
14:02in childbirth.
14:03Their children unable
14:05to obtain school places.
14:07Their homes and
14:08neighbourhoods
14:09changed beyond
14:10recognition.
14:11They began to
14:12hear,
14:13as time went by,
14:14more and more voices
14:16which told them
14:17that they were
14:18now the unwanted.
14:19I walked the streets
14:20with my wife
14:21and three children.
14:22We had nowhere
14:23to go.
14:24We spent a week
14:25at our mothers
14:25and a week
14:26at our sisters.
14:26Nowhere at all
14:27to go.
14:28And eventually
14:29we found a place,
14:30a very dilapidated place
14:31we're still living.
14:32It's 100 years old,
14:34the roof leaks.
14:35It's no good
14:36in this day and age
14:37where people are living.
14:38And when I look
14:39out of my back window
14:41there's blocks
14:42of flats
14:43and masonets
14:44with black people in.
14:45that's wrong.
14:46I think that the ex-servicemen
14:47should get preference
14:48in this country
14:49and preference
14:49to his people.
14:52Powell believed
14:53that the discrimination
14:54his countrymen complained of
14:56was about to be made
14:57far worse
14:57by new legislation
14:59which the Labour government
15:00was proposing.
15:03I can't let you in.
15:04Um, I think...
15:05I've got 14 English boys in here.
15:0814 English boys?
15:09Yes.
15:10I can't, I can't mix,
15:11I'm ever so sorry,
15:12I wouldn't sell,
15:13but if I let you come in
15:15all my boys would leave.
15:16A new race relations bill
15:18would make it illegal
15:19to refuse housing,
15:20employment
15:21or public services
15:22to people
15:23because of their
15:24ethnic background.
15:26The legislation
15:27was meant to stop
15:28the victimisation
15:29of immigrants
15:30but Powell believed
15:31it would result
15:32in the victimisation
15:33of whites instead.
15:38His criticism
15:39is very clear.
15:40This is going to mean
15:41that Commonwealth immigrants,
15:43meaning blacks nations,
15:44will be privileged
15:45over the locals
15:47because you would not
15:48be able to sack them,
15:49you would not be allowed
15:50to talk about them
15:51in a certain language
15:52on grounds of being
15:53politically incorrect
15:54and so on.
15:55And secondly,
15:56it is going to contain
15:57the individual's freedom
15:59to discriminate
16:00against whoever he wants.
16:01The discrimination
16:03and the deprivation,
16:05the sense of alarm
16:07and of resentment
16:08lying,
16:09not with the immigrant
16:11population
16:12but with those
16:14among whom
16:15they have come
16:16and are still coming.
16:18This is why
16:19to enact legislation
16:21of the kind
16:22before Parliament
16:23at this moment
16:24is to risk
16:25throwing a match
16:26onto gunpowder.
16:30Powell profoundly
16:31opposed the race
16:32relations bill
16:33but he was out of step
16:35with many of his
16:36conservative colleagues.
16:38I had an employment
16:39agency
16:40at around that time
16:41which offered
16:42to companies
16:43CVs
16:44of people
16:45who might work for them.
16:46Professionally
16:47and technically
16:47qualified people.
16:49And we'd get the
16:50requests back
16:51from well-known
16:52British companies
16:53and across the top
16:54would be no colours.
16:55Now that
16:56that was what was happening.
16:57I knew it was happening.
16:58There was no point
16:59in sort of saying
17:00I don't believe it
17:01or hearsay.
17:02I knew it was happening.
17:03And this is what
17:05the Labour legislation
17:06was about.
17:07About outlawing
17:08that sort of
17:09discriminatory
17:10racial behaviour.
17:14Ten days before
17:15Powell's speech
17:16on the 10th of April
17:171968
17:18the Shadow Cabinet
17:19had met to discuss
17:20the race relations bill.
17:23Most argued for
17:24the legislation.
17:25Powell, though deeply
17:27opposed,
17:27made no comment.
17:28He also failed
17:30to mention
17:30the controversial speech
17:31he was planning.
17:32It was because he felt
17:34that there was almost
17:36no point of agreement
17:37between him
17:38and the Heath men
17:40about anything.
17:41This came also
17:43at the end
17:44of three years
17:45of growing frustration
17:47on Enoch's part
17:49with Ted Heath
17:50and growing rancour.
17:51Ted Heath
17:53simply
17:54wouldn't accept
17:56Enoch's
17:57logical premises
17:58on almost anything.
17:59And I think
18:00he took the view
18:01that he could sit
18:02there and argue
18:03until he was blue
18:04in the face.
18:05And I think that's why
18:06he kept quiet about
18:07the race relations bill.
18:08I just don't think
18:09that he saw any point
18:10in saying anything.
18:13Powell believed
18:14that the liberal establishment
18:15of politicians,
18:16journalists
18:17and church leaders
18:18had deliberately ignored
18:19the concerns
18:20of ordinary people.
18:23There could be no
18:24grosser misconception
18:26of the realities
18:28than is entertained
18:30by those who vociferously
18:32demand legislation,
18:35as they call it,
18:36against discrimination.
18:38whether they be
18:42leader writers
18:43of the same kidney
18:45and sometimes
18:47on the very same newspapers
18:49as those
18:50which year after year
18:52in the 1930s
18:53tried to blind this country
18:55to the rising peril
18:57which confronted it,
18:59or archbishops
19:01who live in palaces
19:03faring delicately
19:05with the bedclothes
19:07pulled right up
19:08over their heads.
19:14That sense of an
19:15impending danger
19:16being ignored
19:17was highlighted
19:18in an incendiary letter
19:19Powell claimed
19:20to have received
19:21concerning a constituent
19:22from Wolverhampton,
19:23an elderly widow.
19:27The letter alleged
19:28that she had been
19:29repeatedly intimidated
19:30by black immigrants
19:31who had moved
19:32into her street.
19:35There's always this
19:36sense that they
19:37want to get the women.
19:38They're after your women
19:39invoking a widow
19:40to make it
19:41even more poignant
19:42and then you're
19:43sort of thinking
19:44of some sort of
19:45frail elderly
19:46white woman
19:47besieged
19:48by these hulking
19:49great
19:50sort of black
19:51people all
19:52around her.
19:53So it's a very
19:54interesting way
19:55of making a nation
19:56feel that it's besieged.
20:00Enoch Powell
20:01always chose his words
20:02with calculated precision.
20:04Now he took the
20:05greatest gamble
20:06of his political career
20:07in using language
20:08about the widow
20:09that no senior
20:10politician has dared
20:11publicly use before
20:12or since.
20:15No recording
20:16of this section
20:17of the speech exists
20:18but these are the words
20:19that Powell quoted.
20:20She is becoming afraid
20:23to go out.
20:24Windows
20:25are broken.
20:26She finds excreta
20:27pushed through
20:28her letterbox.
20:29When she goes
20:30to the shops
20:31she is followed
20:32by children.
20:33Charming,
20:34wide grinning,
20:35pickaninnies.
20:37is a really potent term.
20:40It immediately conjures
20:41up this image
20:42of the kind
20:43of little black Sambo.
20:44You know,
20:45the little child
20:46with corkscrew hair
20:48and big wide bug eyes,
20:51big, you know,
20:52over exaggerated thick lips,
20:53big nose and so on
20:54and black, black, black skin.
20:56When you talk
20:57about excrement
20:58in relation
20:59to a body
21:00of people,
21:01you talk about
21:02piccaninnies,
21:03you deliberately choose,
21:04you know,
21:05a word
21:06which debases them,
21:07which makes them
21:08abject
21:09in relation
21:10to your civilization,
21:11which extrudes them,
21:14expels them
21:15from a community
21:16together.
21:17You are really
21:18talking about something
21:19which is operating,
21:20I think,
21:21in your own feelings
21:23and sensibilities
21:25at a very profound
21:27and often unconscious level.
21:37Underlying Powell's speech
21:38was a deep-seated fear.
21:43He believed
21:44that immigration
21:45was fatally weakening
21:46the racial, religious
21:47and cultural ties
21:48that had bound
21:49his country together
21:50for centuries.
21:55all of us need
22:00an identity
22:02which unites us
22:03with our neighbours,
22:04our countrymen,
22:05those people
22:06who are subject
22:07to the same rules
22:08and the same laws
22:09as us,
22:10those people with whom
22:11we might one day
22:12have to fight side by side
22:13to protect our inheritance,
22:14those people
22:16with whom
22:17we will suffer
22:18when attacked,
22:19those people
22:20whose destinies
22:21in some way tied up
22:22with our own.
22:26But the Labour government
22:27had recently announced
22:28an historic shift
22:29which would threaten
22:30Powell's deeply held views
22:31of what Britain was.
22:36The Home Secretary,
22:37Roy Jenkins,
22:38a Liberal reformer,
22:39argued that immigrants
22:40should no longer
22:41have to integrate.
22:42Newcomers could retain
22:44their own values.
22:45It was the birth
22:46of a new way
22:47of thinking
22:48about Britain,
22:49multiculturalism.
22:51Roy Jenkins made
22:52a classic speech
22:54which I contributed to
22:56in which,
22:57among other things,
22:58he defined integration
23:00not as a flattening process
23:02which would turn
23:03everybody out
23:04in some kind of mould
23:05of a stereotyped Englishman,
23:07but would be a combination
23:09of equal opportunities
23:10accompanied by cultural diversity
23:13in an atmosphere
23:14of tolerance.
23:15Diversity was the encouragement
23:16of people
23:17to live together
23:18in harmony
23:19despite their differences
23:20and rejoice
23:21in the differences
23:22rather than deplore them.
23:23But Powell's wartime experience
23:25convinced him
23:26that this kind
23:27of diversity
23:28could only lead
23:29to violence.
23:30But Powell's wartime experience
23:31convinced him
23:32that this kind
23:33of diversity
23:34could only lead
23:35to violence.
23:36Powell spent four years
23:37in India.
23:38He was fascinated
23:39by the complexity
23:40and diversity
23:41of this ancient civilization.
23:42But he also deplored
23:43the violent divisions,
23:44above all between Hindu
23:45and Muslim,
23:46which undermined it.
23:47Powell saw how
23:48good he was
23:49to be able
23:50to be able
23:51to be able
23:52to be able
23:53to be able
23:54to be able
23:55to be able
23:56to be able
23:57to be able
23:58to be able
23:59to be able
24:00to be able
24:01to be able
24:02to be able
24:03to be able
24:04to be able
24:05to be able to be able
24:06to be able
24:07to keep
24:09out of them.
24:10But the
24:11communal hatred
24:12tore India apart
24:13after independence.
24:14Around half a million
24:15people died
24:16during the creation
24:17of Islamic Pakistan.
24:18Powell believed
24:19Indian-style
24:20communalism
24:21was now rearing its head
24:22in his own
24:23Wolverhampton constituency.
24:25Back in 1921,
24:26the people
24:27who ran
24:28the transport department
24:29here laid down
24:30that drivers and conductors should wear the uniform provided and nothing but the uniform provided
24:37they hadn't thought then of turbans coming into their town except perhaps when alibaba was the
24:42christmas pantomime 1968 sikh bus drivers in powell's constituency went on strike
24:51they believe rules which banned the wearing of turbans and beards went against their religion
24:56when a protester threatened to set fire to himself the bus company backed down
25:06paul believed that religious and racial differences were being entrenched by the threat of violence
25:14here is their means of showing that the immigrant communities can organize to consolidate their
25:21members to agitate and campaign against their fellow citizens and to over all and dominate the rest
25:32powell had no doubt where mass migration and race relations legislation were leading
25:41only months before he had visited the united states
25:44race hate seemed to be tearing the country apart
25:57in chicago and detroit powell witnessed violence at first hand
26:05a leader of his people a teacher of all people has fallen the man who fought against violence
26:11is by violence destroyed just two weeks before powell's speech the civil rights leader martin luther king
26:20was murdered by a white racist
26:27thousands were injured and tens of thousands were arrested in rioting that followed
26:33america seemed to be on the brink of ethnic war
26:41he began to feel that in 10 15 years time britain would simply become the carbon copy of the united
26:50states reproducing exactly the same sort of problems that the united states was facing at the time
27:03and i think any politician if this is how he saw the situation
27:06he owed it to himself and to his country to say look this is what i feel this is what i fear
27:15only by halting immigration powell argued could britain be saved from armageddon
27:21in these circumstances nothing will suffice but that the total inflow for settlement should be reduced
27:31at once to negligible proportions and that the necessary legislative and administrative measures
27:39should be taken without delay
27:49powell ended his speech with a line from the roman poet virgil which summed up his deep sense of anxiety
27:55it is one of the most misquoted lines in british political history
28:05as i look ahead i am filled with foreboding like the roman i seem to see the river tiber foaming with much blood
28:16how many among his listeners knew what the tiber was and where that reference came from doesn't matter
28:21he got the image even those people who don't fully understand what you're saying get the point because
28:27they get it in their stomachs in their hearts rather than in their heads this extraordinary figure
28:33who is very cerebral i mean you know but who when he's used when he speaks about race is not being
28:40as cerebral as all that he is speaking from the gut too englishman's gut
28:51mr powell received a considerable amount of applause for what he said there were
28:58members of parliament and candidates and leading members of the conservative party there
29:04who in no way indicated any dissent from what what mr powell was saying at that time
29:12he left the hotel and went to the home of his friend clement jones whose wife marjorie had been
29:23looking after powell's two daughters for the day my mother had got the speech my father had brought it
29:31home from the office of the expression star they'd been unable to use it that day because powell had put an
29:36embargo on it but of course when my mother read it she she was shocked and it was the sight i think
29:44of words like grinning piccaninnies is clearly what upset my mother most of all she said that there was
29:52no way that she could ever spend time with enoch powell again my mother handed over the girls and powell
29:57said well that looks like the end of a very good friendship and my mother said yes so it was a real
30:04defining moment for my mother and father uh i think this was the moment when they had to
30:11make a stand uh it hurt them i know that uh it probably hurt the pals as well but that was the
30:19moment in in family history a searing moment meanwhile footage of the speech was dispatched south
30:34the bomb that powell had primed was about to explode
30:41the tape plus the extracts from the speech which i'd marked up for them was put on a train to itn in
30:48in london who of course ran it big
31:02that evening powell's shadow cabinet colleagues watched in horror the black man will have the whip
31:08hand over the white man they were outraged by what they felt was his racist tone some threatened
31:16resignation if powell wasn't sacked having had no warning of the speech many felt betrayed ted heath
31:23was furious with enoch powell for saying something entirely different from what had been agreed he
31:28would have acted even if the other colleagues had not insisted their insistence was absolutely in line
31:33with his own his own feeling i dismissed mr powell from the shadow cabinet because i believed that his
31:41speech was inflammatory and liable to damage race relations in this country
31:49heath had acted quickly powell was sacked on sunday the 21st of april just a day after the speech
31:56heath had acted on the speech
32:07two days later a thousand dockers marched to parliament to protest against what they called
32:12the victimization of powell
32:14white working people traditionally core labor supporters were now backing a radical right-wing tory
32:34meat porters from smithfield market in london added their voice to the growing chorus of support
32:39how can you fetch more in where you haven't got enough housing enough schools the national
32:44health service is going to put over them this is why we're doing it because enoch powell spoke the
32:49truth and he's been sacked for it this race relation issue goes well beyond the field of politics and
32:55trade union matters this is an issue of national importance as important to us as dunkirk oh what is
33:02the issue about the issue is not colored immigration but they do know of free speech to us the english in our own land
33:23i was frightened by the irrationality of it
33:25i remember an interview with one of the dockers on television in which he said that dockers were
33:35tolerant and moderate people but when our women are threatened then we stand up and i wanted to shout
33:42to the television so what do you mean about your women being threatened who's threatening your women
33:46and i guess a speech of mr powell's force and drama and extremism stirred in all sorts of not very
33:57thinking people every imaginable sort of fear and i remember thinking if this docker thinks somehow
34:03his women are under threat well we are getting to a very dangerous situation a very dangerous situation
34:08indeed i was in burmese at the time talking to west indians about it they were genuinely frightened
34:24they thought if he can say that then it is a kind of invitation to people who hold racist opinions
34:32anyway to act on them it certainly was a call to mobilization don't just talk about london and the west
34:48midlands my constituency was in devon and the atmosphere there was absolutely electric if enoch
34:56powell had stood to be the leader of the conservative party he'd have had a landslide at that weekend
35:02and i dare say if he then stood to be prime minister he would have had a national landslide
35:07it was that dramatic the degree of support and the intensity of it
35:14two thousand signatures in two days
35:18a letter to the press 88 percent of slough people say they support enoch powell 88
35:26slough people powell received a hundred thousand letters and 700 telegrams following
35:32his speech less than one percent challenged his views he wanted saying he was supporting the
35:38people he represented he was put there by the people you know and he also could only be took
35:43away by the people you see the first time we've had a champion this is this is the first time we've
35:48had somebody to speak up for what the people the working class people think and feel to be right
35:54opinion polls showed that up to 80 percent of those questioned agreed with powell's comments about
36:00immigrants one week after the speech the labor minister dick crossman wrote we are still absolutely
36:09dominated by the effect of his birmingham speech he has stirred up the nearest thing to a mass movement
36:15since the 1930s all part of a response to a very simple appeal no more bloody immigrants in this country
36:31anyone who dared oppose powell's views faced a furious response
36:35powell's now ex-friend the editor clement jones tried to balance out the 5 000 letters in support of
36:50the speech which he received at the wolverhampton express and star
36:55he was getting calls at home from people saying is that the bloody nigger lover he was getting letters
37:02with used toilet paper bricks through the window i mean my father and mother had made a stand they'd
37:10made a stand the situation for immigrants and their families was no better i personally and i think
37:19probably many other black people too felt very uncomfortable obviously because then we became even
37:25more the object of um a kind of racism uh that was legitimated in one sense by uh this speech
37:35you didn't feel safe there was that sense of okay the gloves are off
37:42i was in a school playground when people came up to me and said i heard what mr powell had said
37:48i remember vividly there was a long crocodile of children every one of them i suspect black or at least
37:55and i thought these are the people he's talking about and i immediately thought the damage this was
38:00going to do to them that all over britain racism had suddenly been made respectable because normally
38:07this sort of thing is said in the bars of the worst sort of public houses but suddenly this was told by a
38:14man in pinstripe trousers black jacket homburg hat he was told by a respectable figure that was my initial
38:20feeling and it was why i hated him there and why i hate him now
38:29powell now faced a backlash from those who passionately opposed his views
38:33a cross-section of british society from middle-class liberals to radical students mobilized against him
38:46even the world's most famous pop group got in on the act recording a song originally intended as a satire
38:54on paul's views
39:06he faced vehement opposition wherever he appeared for your intelligent reception
39:16and for your demonstration
39:19of the academic principles of chalem of schmier
39:31it was a growing anti-racist movement it had to get up to speed quite quickly because then you
39:37started to get these acts of violence uh verbal violence and physical violence against black and
39:42asian people i'm now going to call the right honorable enoch powell mp for wolverham from south west
39:50powell refused to retract a single word of his speech
39:54he used the 1968 tory party conference to embarrass his leader still further by calling for voluntary
40:01repatriation too often today people are ready to tell us this is not possible that is not possible
40:11i say whatever the true interest of our country calls for is always possible
40:25as always his words appeal to the party faithful
40:31but for many he was now public enemy number one
40:35a lot of people say you're a racialist
40:39would you admit in any sense the word to being a racialist
40:42first of all i must define it because if by being a racialist you mean be conscious of differences
40:48between men and nations some of which coincide with differences of race then we're all racialist
40:55i would have thought but if by a racialist you mean a man who despises a human being because he belongs
41:01to another race or a man who belongs believes that one race is inherently superior to another in
41:08civilization or capability of civilization then the answer is emphatically no
41:12his defense fell on deaf ears the most evil feature of powell's new conservatism is the hatred
41:23it's stirring up playing on fear and the flag of racialism which has been hoisted in wolverhampton
41:31is beginning to look like the one that fluttered 25 years ago over dachau and belson
41:40by 1970 two years after his speech powell's future hung in the balance
41:48the labor prime minister harold wilson called a general election
41:52if the tories lost powell could challenge heath for leadership of the party
42:03but heath won a surprise victory and powell's frontline career was over
42:09many people are asking where does enoch powell go from here
42:13you're 61 next june and there's certainly no chance of you going back into the cabinet
42:18while mr heath is prime minister so he says a voice in the wilderness then wildernesses are good
42:25places i notice for voices they tend to get a reverberation which is often lost in the more crowded places
42:39by 1974 his exile was complete in protest at heath's pro-european policy powell resigned from the
42:47tory party and quit his wolverhampton seat oh i'm heartbroken why well he's such a good man he's
42:56a far-seeing man and at least he loves his country and that's what he's fighting for all the time he spoke
43:03out as a working man feels he spoke out as a good 90 percent of the politicians today think but just
43:10haven't got the nerve to say powell returned to parliament as an ulster unionist but his mainstream
43:18political career was over a profound legacy remained however rivers of blood had brought
43:25the issue of race to the fore but not as he had wished
43:28in the 70s not until the 70s as he responded to by saying yeah and there is a black culture as well
43:46it's a black consciousness it's a black identity there's a black history
43:51language and str Copeland's uchtocht that ieita decrypt the fact that american
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44:12of war against His Cock squealty
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44:20he called for an end to mass migration it continued
44:29Paul had demanded a national debate on the transformation Britain was undergoing
44:36the discussion was now silenced
44:39there was a conspiracy I'd say between the leadership of both parties neither side want
44:46to discuss this issue the Tories because it was so embarrassing because what power was
44:50doing and hours because there was this genuine feeling about the brotherhood of
44:56man and so on and how appalling it was that vulnerable newcomers should be
45:00actually picked on this way so both sides found it very convenient not to
45:04discuss the issue certainly not in front of the children i.e. the voters you
45:09couldn't say anything which was remotely concerned with limit eight limiting
45:14immigration or taking a tougher line on these issues without fearing that the
45:19ghost of Powell or the ghost of Powell's speech will be held against you Paul might
45:24briefly have drawn hope from the new Tory leader Margaret Thatcher owed much of her
45:29political philosophy to him especially on economic policy and she even dared voice
45:35Paul-like views on immigration people are really rather afraid that this country
45:40might be rather swamped by people with a different culture her comments like
45:47Paul's ten years earlier struck a chord with many but they also added to a sense of
45:52anger in immigrant communities
45:56kids who were born and bred in this country were coming of age and they were not going to take the
46:04shit that was handed out to their parents they were British they had a right to this country
46:10whereas we first generation we always felt that we were partly visitors
46:15partly partly partly guests partly intruders
46:18it was like a pressure cooker there are no jobs very harsh policing no economic and social mobility
46:31and they began to see that there was no future
46:35in 1981 Powell's voice reverberated from the political wilderness with a dire warning of
46:47the uncertainty of violence on a scale which can only adequately be described as civil war
46:54the Brixton riots were the first serious disturbance
47:24in mainland Britain in the 20th century
47:38more than 300 people mainly police officers were injured in three days of chaos
47:49but there was worse to come
47:51when Toxteth in Liverpool exploded a few months later with even greater fury
47:56Powell predicted catastrophe ahead
47:58he believed his speech had finally been vindicated
48:02but the man who had been seen as the tribune of the people in 1968 was increasingly isolated
48:10the Scarman report which investigated the riots concluded that ethnic disadvantage and inner city decaying
48:20and inner city decay were to blame the report recommended financial aid for immigrant groups
48:27Margaret Thatcher ever the politician rejected Powell's calls for voluntary repatriation
48:33and embraced the recommendations of the report instead
48:35Margaret Thatcher then against her own wishes I think began to undo lots of money into ethnic groups
48:48and everybody became ethnic overnight Greeks Turks Cypriots all became ethnic
48:54because local authorities and central government and the GLC was handing out funds for ethnic projects
49:01all over Britain multiculturalism was strengthened
49:07but while many applauded this state-sponsored diversity
49:11there was a downside as communities grew apart
49:14in 1988 the nation experienced a major clash of cultures
49:21when many British Muslims demanded the banning of Salman Rushdie's novel
49:25the satanic verses which they said insulted Islam
49:30book burning made many feel uneasy
49:33but more disturbing still was the death centres imposed by the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini
49:39some prominent British Muslims backed the fatwa
49:43whereas at the beginning of the 80s people were fighting on things like immigration controls
49:47and race attacks and police harassment by the end of the 80s it was things like halal meat
49:52separate education for girls and most exclusively the Salman Rushdie issue
49:58and political struggles unite because all that matters is that you believe in the political vision
50:06it doesn't matter what skin colour or what culture or what faith you have
50:10cultural struggles by definition fragment
50:13good evening politicians and former colleagues have been paying tribute to Enoch Powell
50:24his supporters viewed him as the greatest statesman of his day and a possible future prime minister
50:30in 1998 Enoch Powell died
50:34all political careers end in failure he had once remarked
50:39his forever associated with the rivers of blood speech appeared to be no exception
50:47the strong British identity which he had championed had lost out to the multicultural vision
50:53Britain it was even said was now a community of communities
50:58but events were about to bring Powell's thinking centre stage once more
51:04the rioting lasted for over seven hours at times hundreds of Asian youths were hurling bricks and petrol bombs at the police
51:17officers were shocked by the rage
51:19and the ferocity of the fighter
51:23in 2001 Asian men mainly Muslims rioted in Oldham Bradford and Burnley
51:30they claimed they were racially provoked and economically disadvantaged
51:36those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad
51:42in his rivers of blood speech Powell had warned that mass migration would lead to segregation
51:55a report into the riots concluded that the white and Asian populations were living a series of parallel lives
52:01there was a lack of shared values uniting multicultural Britain
52:05it seems to me that diversity as lived experience is a great thing
52:12it's made Britain less homogenous more vibrant more cosmopolitan more open
52:18but multicultural as a political process undermines much of that
52:23by trying to force people into their particular ethnic or cultural or religious pigeonholes
52:31and so it undermines that sense of universal belief that there is a common set of laws, values, beliefs to which we can all subscribe
52:44Powell had prophesied that mass migration would lead first to segregation
52:49and then inevitably to disastrous racial and religious division
52:54it is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pile
53:06this is London 9.47 on a midsummer morning
53:13the terrified voices are those of morning commuters
53:20some of them terribly wounded
53:25in 2005, four Muslim suicide bombers raised in multicultural Britain
53:30killed 52 people in London
53:33your democratically elected governments
53:37continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world
53:41and your support of them makes you directly responsible
53:45we are at war and I'm a soldier
53:48now you too will taste the reality of this situation
53:52Powell would have I think said that this was an inevitable consequence of what he was warning about
53:59that if you have such large numbers of people from another culture coming to this country
54:05that they cannot possibly integrate
54:08then they will go their own way
54:10the fact we have all these tensions
54:12to my mind justifies exactly what Powell said
54:15after 7-7 the chairman of the commission for racial equality claimed that multiculturalism had left Britain sleepwalking to segregation
54:25even the architects of multiculturalism were dismayed by its unintended consequences
54:31the model we had was everyone would share the broad values of being British
54:40what we did not expect was that there would be those who would unwisely suggest that for example
54:46Sharia law should be applied in this country
54:48or that the punishment of stoning for adultery might be looked at depending on the kind of stoning
54:56to take a recent example
54:58it never occurred to us that there would be those kinds of unwise challenges
55:02to the broad values of a liberal democratic society
55:05and I remember towards the end of Roy Jenkins life his saying to me
55:09you know we just didn't realize that in the struggle for race equality
55:15we would have also to struggle for a secular society
55:18and for the universal values of human rights
55:22ten years after his death many believe that Powell's arguments were often prescient
55:31but mention of his name remains a taboo
55:34we must be mad
55:37literally mad as a nation
55:41to be permitted the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents
55:48Powell had been horrified by immigration levels of 50,000 a year
55:5340 years on they're over 300,000 a year
55:57six times the figure
56:01many of the immigrants are white East Europeans
56:04migration has therefore lost much of its racial charge
56:08but worries over the pressure on housing and services
56:11and a loss of identity are stronger than ever
56:14the word on the street is apprehension
56:18the word on the street is that people are leaving if they can
56:23if you look at the composition of people going
56:26it's because they don't actually like what's largely what's happening to this country
56:31the sense of alarm and of resentment lie not with the immigrant population
56:39but with those among whom they have come and are still coming
56:45I don't think we've yet effectively put over just how troubled many of our constituents are by this
56:53and that's worrying because if you allow things to brew they can erupt in all sorts of ways
57:02which then it's too late to actually counteract
57:06Powell may have been prescient in foreseeing the problems ahead
57:10but on the key issue of race he had got it wrong
57:14while at the time the main distinction that people observed was between black and white
57:21that is not the significant distinction as we now know
57:25the significant distinction is between those who for whatever cultural and historical reasons
57:31can accept a secular state a rule of law and a national identity and those who cannot
57:38Powell's racially charged language led to the rejection of his ideas
57:46his fears over a loss of common identity and the rise of segregation were ignored
57:53multiculturalism which was seen as an antidote to virulent racism took over
58:01Powell had wanted to save his nation from disaster
58:04but his rivers of blood speech inadvertently damaged the country he loved
58:09and condemned his career and his cause to the wilderness
58:34the season continues with an emotive drama from an award-winning writer
58:38the story of a troubled schoolgirl who finds solace in islam white girl monday at nine
58:43and you can have your say on the white season so far at bbc.co.uk
58:47slash white
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