The Birmingham Speech, fifty years on

April 20, 2018, marks the 50th anniversary of the significant speech about harmful immigration by the late, great Enoch Powell, M.P. The speech warned of excessive immigration into the U.K. by non-white people. Their numbers would make Anglo-Saxons a minority in their own country. Non-white people would be unassimilable. Social disruption would ensue.

A pejorative label ("rivers of blood") was given to the speech by leftists to misrepresent it. The takeoff point for the misrepresentation appears almost at the end of the speech. Powell said, "As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood'." The quoted words come from the Aeneid. Powell was learned in the classics. The quotation has "river" (singular). The pejorative label uses "rivers" (plural). The aim of the pejorative label is to impute falsely, to Powell, advocacy of violence to prevent immigration of non-white people. Far from advocacy of violence, Powell expressed obvious truths about immigration into the U.K. He expressed sadness at the coming of deplorable societal conditions, which were wholly preventable. The truth of immigration is obvious. Substitute "Muslims" for "non-white people," and "Europe" for "U.K." Muslims, not Anglo-Saxons and other native people of Europe, cause crime waves in France, Germany, Sweden, the U.K., and elsewhere. Muslims established and maintain no-go zones, beat their wives, and mutilate their daughters. They, not Anglo-Saxons and other native people of Europe, are Jew-haters of the Nazi sort. Would that Enoch Powell's prescient warning had been heeded. The writer is a lawyer in Hong Kong. Comments are welcome. Contact the writer at krugerwork@yahoo.com.