Plausibility Check: PM Enoch Powell

Hume wins a narrow victory in the October 1964 election, say 3-4 seats.
Hume retires in 1966, Powell wins the first proper leadership lection in Conservative Party history.
 

terence

Banned
Hume wins a narrow victory in the October 1964 election, say 3-4 seats.
Hume retires in 1966, Powell wins the first proper leadership lection in Conservative Party history.
Hume wins a narrow victory in the October 1964 election, say 3-4 seats.
Hume retires in 1966, Powell wins the first proper leadership lection in Conservative Party history.

Hume? Hume? Could this be Sir Alec Douglas-Home, pronounced Hume, formerly the 14th Earl Home? (pronouned Hume) or are you thinking of John Hume the SDLP member of the Northern Ireland assembly?
 

terence

Banned
The Times 21 July 1965

Reports that a man described as a "Senior Political Figure" was arrested on Friday night on unspecifed charges remain unconfirmed by sources at West End Central Police Station. Spokesmen for the three main Parties at Westminster were unavailable for comment.


The News of The World 22 July 1965
Another Sex Scandal to rock Parliament?

No sooner has the dust settled on the Profumo Affair than another sex scandal looks set to upset Westminster.
It has long been rumoured that some well-respected politicians have been seen engaging in the unsavoury practice of 'Cottaging' and several high-profile libel suits have brought this practice to public awareness. The News of the World can exclusively report that now irrefutable proof is available.
This newspaper is in the possession of sworn statements from two self-confessed male prostitutes that they have provided services to at least one nationally prominent political figure at public lavatories in the London area.
As a public service, the News of the World has reported this fact to the appropriate authorities and we await their response in the hope that the Establishment will not try to cover up this crime. It is understood that a middle-aged man was cautioned by the Metropolitan Police last week in connection with this matter.

Private Eye 23 July 1965
Grocer looks for Bog Rolls!


The Times 25th July 1965

Mr Edward Heath, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and candidate for leadership of the Conservative Party has been taken ill and is now unlikely to contest the post of Party Leader. Close aides report that Mr Heath is not well enough to continue with the campaign and will be recovering at his Mother's house in Broadstairs.


The Daily Mirror 27 July 1965

Reggie Does it!

Reginald Maudling, former Chancellor in the last Tory government and Opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs defeated sole opponent Enoch Powell in last night's battle for leadership of the Conservative and Unionist Party.
The result of 212 against 150 is far closer than many expected suggesting that supporters of Ted Heath switched their support to Mr Powell at the last moment after the race leader abruptly pulled out of the contest last week.
Mr Powell is known for his opposition to the mainstream "Butskellite" financial policies of the Conservative party and believe that only the imposition of tight monetary policy will save the country from the current recession.


The Times 1 August 1965

Mr Reginald Maudling, leader of the Conservative Party, announced his shadow cabinet last night. Shadow Foreign Secretary is to be Lord Carington, Mr Enoch Powell, shadow Chancellor; Mr Iain McLeod, shadow Home Secretary; Mr Francis Pym, shadow Minister of Defence... (cntd. page 3)


The Times 2 August 1965

The death of Mr Edward Heath MP PC, Member of Parliament for Bexley, at his home in Broadstairs after a short illness was announced yesterday. Mr Heath, 49, was expected to win the recent contest for leadership of the Conservative Party in the first ever election held for that position prior to his sudden illness and withdrawal from the selection process. The cause of death is unknown at this time but is believed to be from natural causes. Full Obituary P.22.



The Daily Mirror 1 April 1966

Today's April Fool's joke is on the Tories. Their dismal performance in the General Election has boosted Labour's majority from an unworkable 4 to a comfortable 96 ensuring a Labour Government for, probably, another five years. While Labour can cry full steam ahead for their programme of radical legislation, the Tories remain all at sea as Yesterday's Men.
Much of the Voter's disenchantment with the Conservatives seems to stem from the dull image of leader Reginal Maudling. A BBC opinion survey to be released tomorrow shows that during this, the most televised election ever, few leading conservatives captured the interest of the electorate. Notable exceptions are Quentin Hogg famous for smashing pictures of Prime Minister Harold Wilson on camera and shadow Chancellor Enoch Powell, freely acknowledged even by his enemies to be the most exciting speaker in the House today.


The Daily Mail 14 November 1966
Chapman Pinscher

There was grave disquiet in the City this week when officers from the Serious Fraud Squad interviewed the directors of several construction companies with links to Leeds-based architect John Poulson.
Poulson's company has received several lucrative commissions in recent years for government and civic contracts including the redevelopment of Canon Street Station. The Department of Inland Revenue recently obtained a judgement against Mr Poulson's company for £250,000, which we understand remains unpaid.

The Daily Express March 15 1967

In a stinging attack on the Government's performance over the last year shadow Chancellor Enoch Powell poured scorn on the impending nationalisation of the Steel Industry and massive expansion of the state sector. He warned that Labour's wild spending would bring international pressure on the pound and lead to uncontrollable inflation and higher unemployment. Speaking at Smethick Town Hall, Mr Powell..................

May 2 1967
Britain applies to join the European Economic Community

June 6 1967
Israel attacks Arab states to start the Six day War plunging financial markets into turmoil.

July 18 1967
Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces that Britain will withdraw all Forces from 'East of Suez' within five years to the disapproval of the US, Australia and SEATO nations.

October 27 1967
Weeks of rioting in Hong Kong spread to the border with mainland China. PLA soldiers in civilian clothes attack both Hong Kong Police officers and units of the Brigade of Gurkahs. A request to London by the Governor for reinforcements is refused.

October 30 1967
General de Gaulle vetos Britain's application to join the EEC

November 1 1967
President Lyndon Johnson makes a formal, but secret, request directly to Prime Minister Harold Wilson for British troops to participate in the Vietnam War. The minimum request is for the 'token' battallion of The Black Watch.
The request is turned down out of hand.

November 10 1967
The last British troops leave Aden in the most humiliating British retreat from Empire since Suez.

November 18 1967
US short-selling of British Government securities since Wilson's refusal to participate in Vietnam puts so much pressure on the Pound that it is devalued fro US$2.80 to US$2.40 making a penny mean the same thing on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Daily Mail November 20 1967

The Prime Minister claims that the devaluation of the Pound by 15% this week will "Not affect the Pound in your pocket". Oh, yes it will Mr Wilson. This country still imports most of its food from abroad and even if New Zealand and Australia devalue their currencies to match Sterling, which is unlikely, the shopping basket of the British public will cost more next month. With the Arab-Israeli and Nigerian Wars already putting oil prices at post-war highs, devaluation will bring even higher petrol prices for the Motorist and higher transport charges for industry. Higher taxes and Nationalisation are not the answer--that and kow-towing to the wildcat strikers in the Docks and the Car Industry will soon beggar the Private Sector and cut off new investment.
The Shadow Chancellor has warned that we are heading for a period of inflation and stagnation--his new word 'Stagflation' is ugly enough to be the legacy of the worst Government this country has seen in living memory. Never has Britain's economic, military and moral prestige been so low or led so badly. We would hope that there was light at the end of the tunnel, but with a miner's strike looming we should all be concerned that that, too, may be switched off.

The Yorkshire Post November 21 1967

Metropolitan Police Officers from the Serious Fraud Squad and Yorkshire Constabulary detectives made several arrests over the past few days in connection with irregularities with major council and central government building contracts. Among those detained are prominent Leeds businessmen Mr John Poulson and T. Dan Smith. Both Poulson and Smith are known to have strong social and business links to political and civic leaders throughout Yorkshire and the North.

The Daily Mail 28 November 1967

As rumours grow over the connection of Members of Parliament from all sides of the House with suspected fraudsters John Poulson and T. Dan Smith, the Prime Minister had talks at No. 10 today on the subject with Mr Reginald Maudling, Leader of the Opposition and Mr Jeremy Thorpe, Leader of the Liberal Party.

Private Eye 30 November 1967

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The Times 4 December 1967

The Leader of the Opposition, The Rt. Hon. Mr Reginald Maudlinghas been ordered to rest by his medical advisors after a hectic Parliamentary session. Mr Maudling intends to take an extended convalescent leave abroad during the Christmas recess. In his absence his duties will be carried out by the Rt Hon. Enoch Powell, shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.


The Economist 20th March 1968

As a former Professor of Classics, Mr Enoch Powell cannot be ignorant of the significance of choosing 15th March to make, perhaps, the most important speech by a Conservative leader in the last decade. On the Ides of March, Mr Powell thrust dagger after dagger into the Conservative body politic.
First, he renewed his assault the traditional economic policies that have limited unemployment by increasing government expenditure and acceptance that certain industries, such as transport, gas and electricity should always remain in State hands. His concept of 'Monetarism' is as radical as it is untried and, to this publication, seems more a return to 19th Century Robber Baron techniques than a blueprint for the future.
Then he deftly dismbowelled twenty years of Conservative Foreign Policy by advocating a renewed independence from the United States, pointing out that their 'cowboy' activities in South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East have only increased tensions and lessened, not only their own position, but also that of their Allies, including Britain, in the World. Yet, Mr Powell does not suggest that this country attempts to re-gain a status as a major world power. He accepts the withdrawl from East of Suez and would even go further and dispense with our bases in the Mediterranean and in Germany. He even questions the value of Britain's nuclear deterrant, pointing out that nuclear weapons appear to prevent attack, but do little to prevent war.
A special blade was reserved by Mr Powell for the Common Market. He claims that he is glad that Britain's membership was denied by General de Gaulle and that Britain must have no more dreams of being drawn into 'Napoleon's failed club'. He warns that what at first seems to be a little tax-free trading zone will one day turn into a monster superstate in which Britain will be but just one anonymous province ruled from abroad by a faceless Commissar.
Not that Mr Powell is concerned that entry into the Common Market would damage our partners in the Commonwealth; he saved some special knifework just for them. He claims that the millions spent on Overseas Development Aid have merely gone to provide tin-pot dictators with limosines and guns to use on their neighbours causing the type of unrest that causes thousands to seek refuge in Britain every year. Mr Powell seems genuinely insulted that unelected dictators who routinely lock up and murder their opponents should lecture Britain on relations with South Africa or the situation in Rhodesia. There are Mr Powell's few friends. At the tip of Africa, in Canada and Australasia. Somehow the Member for Wolverhampton believes that blood can conquer distance and trade with our former White colonies would be infinitely more profitable than trade twenty miles across the Channel.
Readers may be comforted that the Powellite faction at present appears to have a membership of one and with good luck for the Country and the Conservative Party it will remain that way if and when the Opposition decide on a new leader.

30 March 1968
Reginald Maudling returns to Parliament to announce both his resignation as Party leader and as an MP. A election for a new party leader is set for 30 April. Iain Macleod, Peter Walker, Keith Joseph and Enoch Powell are the main candidates.

20 April 1968
Enoch Powell delivers his 'Rivers of Blood' Speech at the Midland Hotel in Birmingham to a Conservative Party audience. Due to the leadership election the event is covered by ATV news.

21 April 1968
Conservatives Iain Macleod, Quentin Hogg and Robert Carr condemn the speech and are joined by several leading Labour MPs.

The Evening Standard 22 April 1968

Thousands of workers showed support for Mr Enoch Powell today--by stopping work. Dockers in London, Tilbury and St Katherine's division staged an impromtu walk out to 'express solidarity' with Mr Powell's warning on immigration.
From the City 600 Smithfield Porters marched on Parliament to deliver a petition to Members of Parliament due to vote on the Race Relations Bill. While attempting to deliver their petition to Ian Mikardo MP who strongly criticised Mr Powell on television, scuffles broke out and Mr Mikardo had to be rescued by a Police Constable.

The Birmingham Post 24 April 1968

The groundswell of support for Mr Enoch Powell continues to grow. Strikers in London's Dockland, now numbering over 4,500, staged another work stoppage to express support for the controversial Conservative yesterday and have been joined by an estimated 30,000 workers up and down the country.
Work stoppages and demonstrations have taken place here in Birmingham, in Coventry, Leeds, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester.
In London, Taxi drivers blocked Parliament Square and the approaches to Victoria and Westminister bridges for an hour and have vowed not to accept a fare from any MP who votes for the Race Relations Bill or criticises Mr Powell.
Mr Iain Macleod, the most outspoken Conservative critic of Mr Powell and a leading opponent in the forthcoming Tory Party leadership contest now requires a Police escort after a crowd of youths followed him home last night chanting "We're with Enoch!"
The impact of Mr Powell's speech has taken many people by surprise and it is not sure yet how the reaction will affect the Tory leadership contest next week.


The Daily Telegraph 25 April 1968

An influential group of Conservative MPs have signed a motion supporting the statements made by Mr Enoch Powell on the need to restrict immigration and the dangers of the Race Relations Bill. Powell supporters include Duncan Sandys, Christopher Soames, Peter Shore, Peter Walker, Gerald Nabarro, Geoffrey Howe, William Whitelaw and Mrs Margaret Thatcher. A similar motion is to be made in the House of Lords. Several Labour MPs have labelled the motion "naked racisim". Meanwhile public support for Mr Powell continues to grow with the third day of spontaneous demonstrations affecting workplaces throughout the country.


The Daily Express 29 April 1968

With only one day before the Conservative Party leadership elections a Gallup poll shows that Mr Enoch Powell has the support of 74% of the general public in his views on immigration.
Of respondents polled 74% believe that immigration of non-whites will have a detrimental effect on the way of British life. 12% did not agree and 14% had no opinion.
85% thought that immigration should be restricted and 60% believed that coloured immigrants should be given assistance to return to their country of origin. 20% believed that forcible repatriation should be implemented.
80% believed that Mr Powell would make a good leader fo the conservative party and 65% thought that he would make a good Prime Minister.


Socialist Worker 1st May 1968

The election of the Imperialistic, dyed-in-the-wool racist Enoch Powell to be leader of the fascist Tory group by an overwhelming margin is surprisingly good news for progressive thinkers, workers and committed socialists everwhere.
While any success for this class and race enemy may seem a setback, Powell's archaic brand of Capitalism is the type guaranteed to further attempt to enslave the workers and therefore, through its inherent contradictions, only hasten the collapse of the whole edifice and bring a socialist revolution in Britain closer. His vile attacks on our black and coloured comrades can only strengthen the solidarity of the masses and the exposure of reactionary forces hiding among the working classes that support Powell's ideas has shown us that there is a Trojan Horse within the working movement that must be eradicated.
Clearly the masses do not yet have the correct mindset or dialectically-driven education to fully appreciate how true marxism-leninism works so we must assist them.
Our plan therefore, comrades is to hide our commitment to the destruction of the Capitalistic, Imperialistic, Nationalistic, Bourgeois world of law and order, marriage and social responsibility. While these effete and outmoded forms must be destroyed we must do it slowly and subtlely. we must cut our hair, throw away the jeans, buy suits and get boring jobs in banks, schools and in council offices. Then slowly we can infilitrate the bourgeois political parties and eventually take control. Control of the Police, control of broadcasting and control of parliament.

Jack Straw, General Secretary, National Union of Students
 
As a former Professor of Classics, Mr Enoch Powell cannot be ignorant of the significance of choosing 15th March to make, perhaps, the most important speech by a Conservative leader in the last decade.
Moar like, he's making another vacuous schematic allusion ;)


That doesn't sound a thing like Socialist Worker. Seriously, 'race enemy'? It's embarrassing. It's not how Marxists write.

First off- the IS Group were unorthodox Trotskyists. They are unlikely to use Marxist-Leninist as an identifier, and 'how true marxism-leninism works' is an even bigger no-no because it suggests that there is a socio-economic system called Marxism-Leninism. You throw in a lot of Marxist jargon without any understanding of it, but it's more grating that it's injected without any relevence to the situation at hand. I'm mixing metaphors now, but it's a 'grab-bag' of phrases. Jack Straw may not be a good writer iTTL but he's not going to mouth off like some kind of drunk North Korean press officer while writing in a paper founded specifically on an intellectual and anti-USSR position. How does Monetarism intensify contradictions specifically? How can education be dialectically-driven? I think SW was more of a populist paper even in 1968 though, so it may avoid such language altogether.

exposure of reactionary forces hiding among the working classes that support Powell's ideas has shown us that there is a Trojan Horse within the working movement that must be eradicated
British Trotskyites would not allude to purges, for obvious reasons.

While these effete and outmoded forms must be destroyed we must do it slowly and subtlely. we must cut our hair, throw away the jeans, buy suits and get boring jobs in banks, schools and in council offices. Then slowly we can infilitrate the bourgeois political parties and eventually take control. Control of the Police, control of broadcasting and control of parliament.
"VE VILL TAKE OVER ZE VORLD" is probably one for the Internal Bulletin.

I warn you, this particular misinterpretation-amalgam of "Cultural Marxism plus 'march through the institutions'" is generally a fascist cipher for Jewish conspiracy, or at least the same motif of the subversive alien in power and used for the same ends. At any rate it's very silly- the IS Group has its own organisation and ideological tradition, you can't transmute it into the Hackney Illuminati.

Parody is fun, but this one is really off mark!


(seriously, race enemy??)
 
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terence

Banned
Moar like, he's making another vacuous schematic allusion ;)


That doesn't sound a thing like Socialist Worker. Seriously, 'race enemy'? It's embarrassing. It's not how Marxists write.

First off- the IS Group were unorthodox Trotskyists. They are unlikely to use Marxist-Leninist as an identifier, and 'how true marxism-leninism works' is an even bigger no-no because it suggests that there is a socio-economic system called Marxism-Leninism. You throw in a lot of Marxist jargon without any understanding of it, but it's more grating that it's injected without any relevence to the situation at hand. I'm mixing metaphors now, but it's a 'grab-bag' of phrases. Jack Straw may not be a good writer iTTL but he's not going to mouth off like some kind of drunk North Korean press officer while writing in a paper founded specifically on an intellectual and anti-USSR position. How does Monetarism intensify contradictions specifically? How can education be dialectically-driven? I think SW was more of a populist paper even in 1968 though, so it may avoid such language altogether.

British Trotskyites would not allude to purges, for obvious reasons.

"VE VILL TAKE OVER ZE VORLD" is probably one for the Internal Bulletin.

I warn you, this particular misinterpretation-amalgam of "Cultural Marxism plus 'march through the institutions'" is generally a fascist cipher for Jewish conspiracy, or at least the same motif of the subversive alien in power and used for the same ends. At any rate it's very silly- the IS Group has its own organisation and ideological tradition, you can't transmute it into the Hackney Illuminati.

Parody is fun, but this one is really off mark!


(seriously, race enemy??)

Do me a favour. I was bored and wanted to wrap the story up. I freely admit that I never read the 'Socialist Worker'. The closest I ever got was an attempt to shag a rather attractive SWP activist who used to hang around the Westminster dole office with Vanessa Redgrave flogging the rag. (Shows what Socialism can do--the particular lady later married a Tory peer.)
If the item reads as if penned by a drunken North Korean press officer--close enough, I'd had a least four scotchs and my laptop has a Hyundai processor. As for not understanding Marxist jargon--of course I don't--and neither do the Marxists. Bit of nonsense--when the first word-processors started to appear in Ad Agencies a fun little program did the rounds--it would translate any piece of prose into typical Lefty gobbledegook, I wish I still had it--then maybe I could have fooled you.
Please feel free to continue the thread on a base of a sounder knowledge of late 1960s socio-political-economic mental self abuse.
( I am however proud of the first 'Private Eye' headline).
 
'Left-wing' gobbledegook as a species doesn't exist in the wild, only as a tame pet of journos with an axe to grind. I'd say understanding of ideological terminology is probably higher in Marxist circles than it is in others. The level would probably be fairly high in the IS in 1968. As someone who doesn't understand it yourself, I don't think you're in the best position to judge.
 

terence

Banned
I've just looked up the 'Socialist Worker' on the Internet. You are right! It's written for nine year olds in a remedial class! It makes 'The Sun' editorials look like the work of Proust! Christ! All these years I thought that the poor, sad, humourless leftie onanites were dangerous intellectuals---they are nothing but naive little pratts who clearly have no idea what they are talking about.
Now in my day Marxists talked like this--

From Jacques Derrida’s book on the relevance of Marxism, Spectres of Marx, the State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, & the New International:
“Capital contradiction. At the very origin of capital. Immediately or in the end, through so many differential relays, it will not fall to induce the ‘pragmatic’ double constraint of all injunctions. Moving about freely (aus freien Stucken), on its own head [de son propre chef], with a movement of its head but that controls its whole body, from head to toe, ligneous and dematerialised, the Table-Thing appears to be at the principle, at the beginning, and at the controls of itself. It emancipates itself on its own initiative: all alone, autonomous and automaton, its fantastic silhouette moves on its own, free and without attachment. It goes into trances, it levitates, it appears relieved of its body, like all ghosts, a little mad and unsettled as well, upset, ‘out of joint’, delirious, capricious, and unpredictable…”
“But also at stake, indissociably, is the differential deployment of tekkne, of techno-science or tele-technology. It obliges us more than ever to think the virtualisation of space and time, the possibility of virtual events whose movement and speed prohibit us more than ever (more and otherwise than ever, for this is not absolutely and thoroughly new) from opposing presence to its representation, ‘real time’ to ‘deferred time’, effectivity to its simulacrum, the living to the non-living, in short, the living to the living-dead of its ghosts. It obliges us to think, from there, another space for democracy. For democracy-to-come and thus for justice. We have suggested that the event we are prowling around here hesitates between the singular ‘who’ of the ghost and the general ‘what’ of the simulacrum.”
This thread will now continue to be dedicated to Enoch Powell, not sad, humourless lefties.
Alternatively you may go to the following website.www.nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth/Pages/gethelp.aspx
 
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