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[[File:Enoch Powell 4 Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Enoch Powell (1912–1998)]]
 
The "'''Rivers of Blood'''" '''speech''' was made by the British [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP)politician [[Enoch Powell]] on 20 April 1968, to a meeting of the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] Political Centre in [[Birmingham]]. In it Powell, England.who Hiswas speechthen made[[Shadow variousSecretary remarks,of whichState includedfor strongDefence]] criticismin the [[Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (United Kingdom)|Shadow Cabinet]] of significant[[Edward Heath|Ted Heath]], strongly criticised the [[Modern immigration to the United Kingdom|Commonwealthrates of immigration]] tofrom the [[UnitedNew KingdomCommonwealth]] and(mostly former colonies of the proposed[[British Empire]]) to the United Kingdom since the [[World War II|Second World War]]. He also opposed the Race Relations ActBill, 1968an [[Anti-discrimination law|anti-discrimination bill]] which upon receiving [[royal assent]] as the [[Race Relations Act 1968]], whichcriminalised madethe itrefusal illegal to refuseof housing, employment, or public services to a personpersons on the grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins in the countryorigin. It became known as the "Rivers of Blood" speech, although Powell alwayshimself referred tocalled it as "the Birmingham speech".; The"Rivers formerof nameBlood" alludes to a prophecy from [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'' which Powell, (a former [[Classics|classical]] scholar,) quoted:
 
{{Quote|As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see 'the [[River Tiber]] foaming with much blood'.<ref name=h9>{{Harvnb|Heffer|1998|p=449; the line in Virgil is Aen. VI, 87: [''et''] ''Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno''.}}</ref>}}
 
The speech causedwas a politicalnational stormcontroversy, makingand it made Powell one of the most talked -about and divisive politicians in Britain. Heath, the country;[[Leader itof ledthe toConservative hisParty controversial(UK)|leader dismissalof fromthe Conservative Party]] at the [[Firsttime, Shadowdismissed Cabinethim offrom Edwardthe Heath|Shadow Cabinet]] bythe Conservativeday Partyafter Leaderthe [[Edward Heath]]speech.<ref name="mac">{{Harvnb|McLean|2001|pp=129–130}}</ref> According to most accounts, the popularity of Powell's perspectiveviews on immigration maymight have been a decisive factor in the Conservatives'[[Conservative surpriseParty (UK)|Conservative Party]]’s unexpected victory inat the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970 general election]], although he became one of the most persistent opponents of the subsequent [[Heath ministry|Heath government]].<ref name=mac/><ref name=h10>{{Harvnb|Heffer|1998|p=568}}</ref>
 
== Background ==
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Powell went on:
 
{{Quote|Here is a decent, ordinary fellow Englishman, who in broad daylight in my own town says to me, his Member of Parliament, that the country will not be worth living in for his children. I simply do not have the right to shrug my shoulders and think about something else. What he is saying, thousands and hundreds of thousands are saying and thinking—not throughout Great Britain, perhaps, but in the areas that are already undergoing the total transformation to which there is no parallel in a thousand years of English history. Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. So insane are we that we actually permit unmarried persons to immigrate for the purpose of founding a family with spouses and fiancées whom they have never seen.<ref name=p2/><ref>{{Harvnb|Powell|1969|p=283}}</ref>}}
 
Powell quoted a letter he received from a woman in [[Northumberland]], about an elderly woman living on a Wolverhampton street where she was the only white resident. The woman's husband and two sons had died in the [[Second World War]] and she had rented out the rooms in her house. Once immigrants had moved into the street in which she lived, her white lodgers left. Two black men had knocked on her door at 7:00&nbsp;am to use her telephone to call their employers, but she refused, as she would have done to any other stranger knocking at her door at such an hour, and was subsequently verbally abused. The woman had asked her local authority for a [[Rates (tax)|rates]] reduction, but was told by a council officer to let out the rooms of her house. When the woman said the only tenants would be black, the council officer replied: "Racial prejudice won't get you anywhere in this country."
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On 23 April 1968, the [[Race Relations Act 1968|Race Relations Bill]] had its second reading in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]].<ref name="hansard763-53"/> Many MPs referred or alluded to Powell's speech. For Labour, [[Paul Rose (British politician)|Paul Rose]], [[Maurice Orbach]], [[Reginald Paget]], [[Dingle Foot]], [[Ivor Richard]] and [[David Ennals]] were all critical.<ref name="hansard763-53"/> Among the Conservatives, Quintin Hogg and [[Nigel Fisher]] were critical, while [[Hugh Fraser (British politician)|Hugh Fraser]], [[Ronald Bell (politician)|Ronald Bell]], [[Dudley Smith]] and [[Harold Gurden]] were sympathetic. Powell himself was present for the debate but did not speak.<ref name="hansard763-53"/>
 
Earlier that day, 1,000 London [[Dockworker|dockers]] had gone [[on strike]] in protest of Powell's sacking and marched from the [[East End]] to the [[Palace of Westminster]] carrying placards with sayings such as "we want [[Enoch Powell]]!", "Enoch here, Enoch there, we want Enoch everywhere", "Don't knock Enoch" and "Back Britain, not Black Britain". Three hundred of them went into the palace, 100 to lobby the MP for [[Stepney (UK Parliament constituency)|Stepney]], [[Peter Shore]], and 200 to lobby the MP for [[Poplar (UK Parliament constituency)|Poplar]], [[Ian Mikardo]]. Shore and Mikardo were shouted down and some dockers kicked Mikardo. Lady Gaitskell shouted: "You will have your remedy at the next election." The dockers replied: "We won't forget."<ref>{{Harvnb|Heffer|1998|p=462}}</ref> The organiser of the strike, Harry Pearman, headed a delegation to meet Powell and said after: "I have just met Enoch Powell and it made me feel proud to be an Englishman. He told me that he felt that if this matter was swept under the rug he would lift the rug and do the same again. We are representatives of the working man. We are not racialists."<ref>{{Harvnb|Roth|1970|p=361}}</ref>
 
On 24 April 600 dockers at [[St Katharine Docks]] voted to strike and numerous smaller factories across the country followed. Six hundred [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]] meat porters struck and marched to Westminster and handed Powell a 92-page petition supporting him. Powell advised against strike action and asked them to write to [[Harold Wilson]], Heath or their MP. However, strikes continued, reaching [[Port of Tilbury|Tilbury]] by 25 April and he allegedly received his 30,000th letter supporting him, with 30 protesting against his speech. By 27 April, 4,500 dockers were on strike. On 28 April, 1,500 people marched to [[Downing Street]] chanting "Arrest [[Enoch Powell]]".<ref>{{Harvnb|Heffer|1998|pp=462–465}}</ref> Powell claimed to have received 43,000 letters and 700 telegrams supporting him by early May, with 800 letters and four telegrams against.<ref>{{Harvnb|Heffer|1998|p=466}}</ref> On 2 May, the [[attorney general]], [[Elwyn Jones, Baron Elwyn-Jones|Sir Elwyn Jones]], announced he would not prosecute Powell after consulting the Director of Public Prosecutions.
 
[[The Gallup Organization]] took an [[Gallup poll|opinion poll]] at the end of April and found that 74 per cent agreed with what Powell had said in his speech;<ref>{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Adam |date=November 2015 |title=In 1968, a British politician warned immigration would lead to violence. Now some say he was right. |language=en |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/24/in-1968-a-british-politician-warned-immigration-would-lead-to-violence-now-some-say-he-was-right/ |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Perspective {{!}} Most Americans don't know who Enoch Powell was. But they should. |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/04/20/most-americans-dont-know-who-enoch-powell-was-but-they-should/ |access-date=2022-06-09 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> 15 per cent disagreed. 69 per cent felt Heath was wrong to sack Powell and 20 per cent believed Heath was right. Before his speech Powell was favoured to replace Heath as Conservative leader by one per cent, with [[Reginald Maudling]] favoured by 20 per cent; after his speech 24 per cent favoured Powell and 18 per cent Maudling. 83 per cent now felt immigration should be restricted (75 per cent before the speech) and 65 per cent favoured anti-discrimination legislation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Heffer|1998|p=467}}</ref> According to George L. Bernstein, the speech made the British people think that Powell "was the first British politician who was actually listening to them".<ref>{{cite book|author=George L Bernstein|title=The Myth Of Decline: The Rise of Britain Since 1945|year=2004|publisher=Pimlico|isbn=1844131025|page=274}}</ref>
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{{Quote|The flag of [[racialism]] which has been hoisted in Wolverhampton is beginning to look like the one that fluttered 25 years ago over [[Dachau]] and [[Belsen]]. If we do not speak up now against the filthy and obscene racialist propaganda&nbsp;... the forces of hatred will mark up their first success and mobilise their first offensive.&nbsp;...
 
[[Enoch Powell]] has emerged as the real leader of the Conservative Party. He is a far stronger character than Mr. Heath. He speaks his mind; Heath does not. The final proof of Powell's power is that Heath dare not attack him publicly, even when he says things that disgust decent Conservatives.<ref name="ButlerPinto-Duschinsky1971" />}}
 
According to most accounts, the popularity of Powell's perspective on immigration may have played a decisive contributory factor in the Conservatives' surprise victory in the 1970 general election, although Powell became one of the most persistent opponents of the subsequent Heath government.<ref name=mac/><ref name="h10"/> In "exhaustive research" on the election, the American pollster [[Douglas Schoen]] and [[University of Oxford]] academic [[R. W. Johnson]] believed it "beyond dispute" that Powell had attracted 2.5 million votes to the Conservatives, but nationally the Conservative vote had increased by only 1.7 million since 1966.<ref name="h10"/> In his own constituency at that election—his last in Wolverhampton—his majority of 26,220 and a 64.3 per cent share of the vote were then the highest of his career.
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The interviewer then asked him, "what do you see as the likely prospect now? Still the 'River Tiber foaming with blood'?":
 
{{Quote|My prospect is that, politicians of all parties will say "Well [[Enoch Powell]] is right, we don't say that in public but we know it in private, Enoch Powell is right and it will no doubt develop as he says. But it's better for us to do nothing now, and let it happen perhaps after our time, than to seize the many poisonous nettles which we would have to seize if we were at this stage going to attempt to avert the outcome." So let it go on until a third of Central London, a third of Birmingham, Wolverhampton, are coloured, until the Civil War comes, let it go on. We won't be blamed, we'll either have gone or we'll slip out from under somehow.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/3xGLmFNZ1tM Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131125213253/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xGLmFNZ1tM Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xGLmFNZ1tM|title=Enoch Interview 1977|publisher=Youtube|year=1977}}{{cbignore}}</ref>}}
 
===Cultural===
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The Rivers of Blood speech has been blamed for leading to violent attacks against [[British Pakistanis]] and other [[British Asians|British South Asians]], which became frequent after the speech in 1968;<ref name="Ashe">{{cite journal |last1=Ashe |first1=Stephen |last2=Virdee |first2=Satnam |last3=Brown |first3=Laurence |title=Striking back against racist violence in the East End of London, 1968–1970 |journal=[[Race & Class]] |date=2016 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=34–54 |doi=10.1177/0306396816642997 |pmid=28479657 |pmc=5327924 |issn=0306-3968}}</ref> however, there is "little agreement on the extent to which Powell was responsible for racial attacks".{{sfn|Hillman|2008|p=89}} These "Paki-bashing" attacks later peaked during the 1970s and 1980s.<ref name="Ashe" />
 
Powell was mentioned in early versions of the 1969 song "[[Get Back]]" by [[The Beatles]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of The Beatles Let It Be Disaster |first1=Doug |last1=Sulpy |first2=Ray |last2=Schweighardt |page=153 |chapter=Thursday, 9 January 1969}}</ref><ref>Alex Sayf Cummings. [http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/no_pakistanis_the_racial_satire_the_beatles_dont_want_you_to_hear/ {{"'}}No Pakistanis': The racial satire the Beatles don't want you to hear"]. ''Salon''.</ref> This early version of the song, known as the "No Pakistanis" version, parodied the [[anti-immigrant]] views of [[Enoch Powell]].<ref>{{cite book| last1=Sulpy| first1=Doug| year=2003| last2=Schweighardt| first2=Ray| title=Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles' Let It Be Disaster| publisher=Helter Skelter Publishing| isbn=978-1-900924-83-2| page=153}}</ref>
 
On 5 August 1976, [[Eric Clapton]] provoked an uproar and lingering controversy when he spoke out against [[Modern immigration to the United Kingdom|increasing immigration]] during a concert in [[Birmingham]]. Visibly intoxicated, Clapton voiced his support of the controversial speech, and announced on stage that Britain was in danger of becoming a "black colony". Among other things, Clapton said "Keep Britain white!"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/oct/14/popandrock2|title=The ten right-wing rockers|last=Bainbridge|first=Luke|date=14 October 2007|work=The Guardian|access-date=20 April 2018|location=London}}</ref> which was at the time a [[National Front (UK)|National Front]] slogan.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hall |first=John |date=19 August 2009 |title=The ten worst rock'n'roll career moves |work=[[The Independent]] |location= |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-ten-worst-rocknroll-career-moves-1774270.html?action=Popup&ino=3 |access-date=}}</ref><ref>''Rebel Rock: The Politics of Popular Music'' by J. Street. 1st ed., (1986). Oxford Press/Basil Blackwell. pp. 74–75.</ref>
 
In November 2010, the actor and comedian [[Sanjeev Bhaskar]] recalled the fear which the speech instilled in Britons of Indian origin: "At the end of the 1960s, [[Enoch Powell]] was quite a frightening figure to us. He was the one person who represented an enforced ticket out, so we always had suitcases that were ready and packed. My parents held the notion that we may have to leave."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11757017 | publisher=BBC News | title=Sanjeev Bhaskar's family feared Enoch Powell | date=15 November 2010}}</ref>
 
While a section of the white population appeared to warm to Powell over the speech, the author [[Mike Phillips (writer)|Mike Phillips]] recalls that it legitimised hostility, and even violence, towards black Britons like himself.<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/0098/feb/09/obituaries.mikephillips | work=The Guardian | title=Enoch Powell – An enigma of awkward passions | first1=Norman | last1=Shrapnel|first2=Mike|last2=Phillips | date=7 February 2001}}</ref>
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== Identity of the woman mentioned in the speech ==
After Powell delivered the speech, there were attempts to locate the [[Wolverhampton]] constituent whom Powell described as being victimised by non-white residents. The editor of the local Wolverhampton newspaper the ''[[Express & Star]]'', Clem Jones (a close friend of Powell who broke off relations with him over the controversy), claimed he was unable to identify the woman using the [[electoral roll]] and other sources.<ref>{{Harvnb|Goodhart|2013|p=143}}</ref>
 
Shortly after Powell's death, Kenneth Nock, a Wolverhampton solicitor, wrote to the ''Express and Star'' in April 1998 to claim that his firm had acted for the woman in question, but that he could not name her owing to rules concerning [[client confidentiality]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Heffer|1998|p=460}}</ref> In January 2007, the [[BBC Radio Four]] programme ''Document'' claimed to have uncovered the woman's identity. They said she was Druscilla Cotterill (1907–1978), the widow of Harry Cotterill, a [[battery quartermaster sergeant]] with the [[Royal Artillery]] who had been killed in the Second World War. (She was also the second cousin of [[Mark Cotterill]], a figure in British far-right politics.<ref>''Heritage and Destiny'', Issueissue 33, July–September 2008, pp. 13–14.</ref>) She lived in Brighton Place in Wolverhampton, which by the 1960s was dominated by immigrant families. In order to increase her income, she rented rooms to lodgers, but did not wish to rent rooms to [[West Indians]] and stopped taking in any lodgers when the [[Race Relations Act 1968]] banned racial discrimination in housing. She locked up the spare rooms and lived only in two rooms of the house.{{cn|date=May 2020}}
 
== Support for the speech ==
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Powell gained the support of the [[Far-right politics in the United Kingdom|far-right in Britain]]. Badges, T-shirts and fridge magnets emblazoned with the slogan "Enoch was right" are regularly seen at far-right demonstrations, according to [[VICE News]].<ref name="PowellVice" /> Powell also has a presence on social media, with an Enoch Powell page on [[Facebook]] run by the far-right [[Traditional Britain Group]] which amassed several thousands of likes, and similar pages which post "racist memes and ''[[Daily Mail]]'' stories"<ref name="PowellVice">{{cite news|last1=Poulter|first1=James|title=We Tried to Ask Far-Right Groups About the Enoch Powell Paedophilia Allegations|location=United Kingdom|url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/enoch-powell-child-sex-abuse-allegations-the-far-right-833|access-date=23 April 2016|work=VICE News|date=2 April 2015|language=en-uk}}</ref> have been equally successful,<ref name="PowellVice"/> such as [[British nationalist]] and anti-immigration [[Britain First]]'s Facebook page.<ref>{{cite news|last1=McIntyre|first1=Niam|title=Britain First: Feminism and Fascism|url=http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/britain_first_feminism_and_fascism|access-date=23 April 2016|work=New Left Project|date=3 October 2014}}</ref>
 
In ''The Trial of Enoch Powell'', a [[Channel 4]] television broadcast in April 1998, on the thirtieth anniversary of his Rivers of Blood speech (and two months after his death), 64% of the studio audience voted that Powell was not a racist. Some in the [[Church of England]], of which Powell had been a member, took a different view. Upon Powell's death, Barbados-born [[Wilfred Wood (bishop)|Wilfred Wood]], then [[Bishop of Croydon]], stated, "[[Enoch Powell]] gave a certificate of respectability to white racist views which otherwise decent people were ashamed to acknowledge".<ref>"Bishops criticise Abbey over Powell honour", ''The Irish Times'', 16 February 1998, p. 14</ref>
 
In March 2016, right-wing German writer [[Michael Stürmer]] wrote a retrospective pro-Powell piece in ''[[Die Welt]]'', opining that nobody else had been "punished so mercilessly" by fellow party members and media for their viewpoints.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Stürmer|first1=Michael|title=Enoch Powells frühe Warnung vor der Massenmigration|trans-title=Enoch Powell's early warning about mass migration|url=https://www.welt.de/debatte/kolumnen/Weltlage/article153780196/Enoch-Powells-fruehe-Warnung-vor-der-Massenmigration.html|access-date=31 March 2016|work=Die Welt|date=29 March 2016|language=de}}</ref>
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The Labour Party MP [[Michael Foot]] remarked to a reporter that it was "tragic" that this "outstanding personality" had been widely misunderstood as predicting actual bloodshed in Britain, when in fact he had used the ''Aeneid'' quotation merely to communicate his own sense of foreboding.<ref name=sandford/>
 
In November 2007, [[Nigel Hastilow]] resigned as Conservative candidate for [[Halesowen and Rowley Regis (UK Parliament constituency)|Halesowen and Rowley Regis]] after he wrote an article in the Wolverhampton ''Express & Star'' that included the statement: "Enoch, once MP for Wolverhampton South-West, was sacked from the Conservative front bench and marginalised politically for his 1968 'Rivers of Blood' speech, warning that uncontrolled immigration would change Britain irrevocably. He was right and immigration has changed the face of Britain dramatically."<ref>
{{Cite news|work=The Daily Telegraph |first=Toby |last=Helm |date=5 November 2007 |access-date=5 November 2007 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/05/nmigrants305.xml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109065720/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/05/nmigrants305.xml |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 November 2007 |title=Race row Tory refused to sign gagging order}}
</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Nigel |last=Hastilow |work=Wolverhampton Express and Star |title=Britain seen as a soft touch |url=https://www.expressandstar.com/2007/11/05/britain-seen-as-a-soft-touch/ |date=2 November 2007 |access-date=5 November 2007 |archive-date=9 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109055832/http://www.expressandstar.com/2007/11/05/britain-seen-as-a-soft-touch/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
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* [[Le bruit et l'odeur]]
* [[Protests of 1968]]
* [[Racism in the UKBritish Conservative Party]]
 
== References ==
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