englander1
Banned
In February 1974, Powell left the Conservative Party, mainly because it had taken the UK into the European Common Market, and advised the electorate to vote Labour, who promised a referendum on whether or not the UK should remain in the EEC, as the only way to save the UK's sovereignty.
Had he not left the Conservative party it is likely that he not Margerat Thatcher would have won the Conservative leadership election just 1 year later.
How different would Britain be today if that had happened?
Powell was noted for his oratorical skills, and for being a maverick. On Saturday April 20, 1968 he made a controversial speech in Birmingham, in which he warned his audience of what he believed would be the consequences of continued unchecked immigration from the Commonwealth to Britain. Because of its allusion to Virgil saying that the Tiber would foam with blood, Powell's warning was dubbed the "Rivers of Blood speech" by the press, and the name stuck.[27]
The central political issue addressed by the speech was not immigration as such, however. It was instead the introduction by the Labour Government of anti-discrimination legislation which would prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race in certain areas of British life, particularly housing, as many local authorities would not give houses to immigrant families until they had lived in the country for a certain number of years. This meant that almost all Commonwealth immigrants living in England before 1970 were owner occupied or private tenants. Powell found this legislation offensive and immoral.
One feature of his speech was the extensive quotation of a letter he had received detailing the experiences of one of his constituents in Wolverhampton. The writer described the fate of an elderly woman who was supposedly the last white person living in her street. She had repeatedly refused applications from non-whites requiring rooms-to-let, which resulted in her being called a racist outside her home and receiving excrement through her letterbox
Had he not left the Conservative party it is likely that he not Margerat Thatcher would have won the Conservative leadership election just 1 year later.
How different would Britain be today if that had happened?
Powell was noted for his oratorical skills, and for being a maverick. On Saturday April 20, 1968 he made a controversial speech in Birmingham, in which he warned his audience of what he believed would be the consequences of continued unchecked immigration from the Commonwealth to Britain. Because of its allusion to Virgil saying that the Tiber would foam with blood, Powell's warning was dubbed the "Rivers of Blood speech" by the press, and the name stuck.[27]
The central political issue addressed by the speech was not immigration as such, however. It was instead the introduction by the Labour Government of anti-discrimination legislation which would prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race in certain areas of British life, particularly housing, as many local authorities would not give houses to immigrant families until they had lived in the country for a certain number of years. This meant that almost all Commonwealth immigrants living in England before 1970 were owner occupied or private tenants. Powell found this legislation offensive and immoral.
One feature of his speech was the extensive quotation of a letter he had received detailing the experiences of one of his constituents in Wolverhampton. The writer described the fate of an elderly woman who was supposedly the last white person living in her street. She had repeatedly refused applications from non-whites requiring rooms-to-let, which resulted in her being called a racist outside her home and receiving excrement through her letterbox
