Rivers of Blood speech

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Badge supporting Powell's Rivers of Blood speech.

The Rivers of Blood speech was a controversial speech about immigration. It was made on April 20, 1968 by the British politician Enoch Powell.

The central political issue addressed by the speech was not, however, immigration as such. It was the introduction by the then Labour government of anti-discrimination legislation which would effectively criminalise the expression of racial prejudice in certain areas of British life — particularly housing. Powell found this legislation offensive and immoral.

The speech took place at the annual meeting of the West Midlands Conservative Political Centre in Birmingham, in the Midland Hotel. In a small room after a lunch, Powell warned his audience of what he believed would be the consequences of continued immigration to Britain from the Commonwealth. His speech included the following words, referring to the Race Relations Bill then coming before parliament:

Here is the means of showing that the immigrant communities can organise to consolidate their members, to agitate and campaign against their fellow citizens, and to overawe and dominate the rest with the legal weapons which the ignorant and the ill-informed have provided. As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood.'

The name given subsequently to the speech arose from its allusion to Virgil's line from the Aeneid 6, 1.86 (Before politics, Powell had enjoyed a glittering academic career as a Classicist) about the Tiber foaming with blood: "Et Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno."

The next day, the Leader of the Opposition Edward Heath sacked Powell from his Shadow Cabinet. Powell hadn't notified Conservative Central Office of his intentions, and this was expounded as one reason for his dismissal. Powell never held another senior political post. The speech was followed by strikes, in particular in London's docklands, both in support and in opposition. Powell gained considerable support from the public, receiving over 43,000 letters and 700 telegrams, which overloaded Wolverhampton's postal system. By comparison, four telegrams and 800 letters expressed a form of hostility to him or his message.

Powell was supported by MPs such as Sir Gerald Nabarro. Some supportive commentators attributed the surprise 1970 election victory by Edward Heath to the swing in Powell's West Midlands heartland, while other more hostile commentators have said that this speech alienated many immigrants from the Conservative Party. Following the Brixton, Toxteth and Handsworth riots in the 1980s, Powell claimed that his 'rivers of blood' prediction had come true.

"Rivers of Blood" was the title of a song by the British Rock Against Communism band Brutal Attack, from their 1985 album Stronger Than Before.

[edit] Slogan: "Enoch was right"

In the United Kingdom, particularly in England, "Enoch was right" is a phrase of political rhetoric, employed generally by the far-right, inviting comparison of aspects of contemporary English society with predictions made by Powell in the Rivers of Blood speech. The phrase implies criticism of racial quotas, immigration and multiculturalism.

"Enoch was right" badges were at one point available in the United Kingdom; so were stickers bearing the slogan "Come back Enoch Powell - we should have listened".