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Sacked Conservative candidate Nigel Hastilow may, for all I know, be a thoroughly decent chap or he may be a raving right-wing BNP sympathiser. Either way, the moment he invoked the name of Enoch Powell and uttered that taboo phrase “Rivers of Blood” his fate was irrevocably sealed. There was, let’s face it, no possible way that the modern Tory party or our lame, pathetic media, steeped as they are in the fear of political correctness, could tolerate this reawakening of such an embarrassing skeleton in their collective cupboard.
The real truth, of course, is that I would take bets that almost to a man every member of the Tory Party along with the vast majority of their constituents across the country, cannot but agree with Hastilow’s assertion that Powell was at least correct in his prediction that unchecked immigration into the UK would change the face of our country beyond recognition. They agree but they are unable to publicly say this because they fear the consequences. Hastilow was, on one hand, foolish in the extreme. On the other hand, he was totally honest and spoke the mind of the average Englishman.
I was just 16 when Powell made the famous speech that both shot him to enormous and unprecedented popularity (surprisingly so amongst the traditional left wing working class) and blighted his future political career. Any review of this man’s life reveals many things. He was a brilliant scholar with an immense intelligence; he was a fierce defender of his country; he was politically astute. He was, above all, perhaps the most honest politician you could hope to find who steadfastly refused to place party considerations above those of the people he represented. One thing he clearly was not was racist. Lost in the furore his speech caused amongst the small but growing first generation of PC advocates, was the reason he gave the speech in the first place. It was true that he was appalled at the apparent unchecked immigration that was taking place and feared for the fabric of the country he loved beyond all else. But the real target of his speech was the introduction by the Labour Government of anti-discrimination legislation that was the first Race Relations Act. He foresaw the approach of such policies as positive discrimination and a future where today’s failed and disastrous policy of multiculturalism could take root.
But as other people have later found to their cost – the latest being Nigel Hastilow – once the apologists and PC crowd shout ‘racist’ the term sticks and everyone else becomes too frightened to simply say – “no he isn’t”. Powell was, perhaps, the first victim of political correctness. Hastilow is the latest. It is just another dark and sad day when our politicians bury the truth and their beliefs because they fear the consequences of stating them. They are cowed by the beast of PC which they themselves allowed to get loose in the first place. The Conservative Party, had they supported Hastilow, would have at the very least earned some respect from the people of this country. Instead they have shown they are scared of their own shadows.
Footnote: I was quietly pleased to read respected and Right Wing ‘blogger’ Iain Dale make the following comment today:
The Party acted quickly and Caroline Spelman summoned him (Hastilow) for a meeting yesterday . Whether he jumped or was pushed is immaterial. The fact is he is gone. There will be two side effects from this. Firstly it sends a signal to all candidates that their public utterances will be scrutinised as closely as those of MPs, and secondly it may well inhibit them from saying anything at all which can be considered as deviating even slightly from the party line. If that is indeed the effect, it may well give CCHQ fewer sleepless nights, but it will mean we are developing a factory line of androgynous politicians.
Leaving aside the questionable use of the word ‘androgynous‘, I have to take him to task on his fear that we “are developing a factory line of androgynous politicians”. Sorry Iain – this process started a long time ago. Today’s clutch are the result.
When a carpark is full and the barrier comes down to prevent any more cars entering, nobody shouts ‘Racist’, but when a country is full, such as when they cannot build ‘enough’ housing,or roads, or schools, or prisons and need draconian measures such as ID cards and cameras on every road and in every shop to ‘control’ the inmates, sorry subjects ( as I dont think we are legally citizens), and somebody says "we need to control immigration" the racist card is played.
I do not agree with judging people on the colour of their skin, their sex, their sexual orientation or their age, but I do need to know what the ‘ism’ is for hating politicians, as to be a politician is not only the lowest of jobs, but also one requiring an absence of the very skills that used to be deemed useful – intelligence, honour and trustworthyness.
Androgynous – that is far to polite a word.
A bit off topic in some respects although your comment leads well into it:
In just about every walk of life, even in most fairly unskilled jobs, a person needs a certain amount of training. The higher up and more important the career, the more training you get and you need to pass exams. One exception to this, of course, is politics.
Maybe it’s time to have a lower age limit, an IQ level and a lie detector test once a month.
Well said Andy, I think you hit the nail on the head. In a truly liberal society there should be no reason to suppress opinion – especially in light of the public attitude change we’ve seen over the last few years against mass immigration. It hasn’t just emboldened the ‘hard right’, addressing immigration’s negative consequences has become the defining imperative in the public consciousness. It tops the agenda not just on the right but also the traditional left. Hastilow simply reiterated the concerns of his local constituents. Councillors and prospective MPs are there to do just that. I’m sure such views are shared almost equally by working class Labour voters.
Thank you Eric. Let’s be honest: In the pubs and clubs, the homes and parks, away from the prying eyes of those who accuse at the drop of a hat, Hastilow has support for what he said. People are not too daft to realise the obvious… even the daft ones!
To reach a point where stating the obvious is considered a crime is scandalous. It also opens the door (once again and we have discussed this before) to the likes of the BNP and slowly but surely shifts public opinion to support those who do voice their concerns and worries.
Now – really off-topic but I learned an interesting fact about Enoch today. Did you know that he was the only soldier to start WWII as a Private and finish the war as a Brigadier? That’s quite a feat!
That’s interesting. By all acounts he seems to have been a man of some conviction. Several articles I read recently debunked a lot of the mythology about the speech, including the revelation earlier this year that the ‘little old lady’ he mentioned in his speech actually did exist. I’ve re-read it a few times, and other than his desire to see people re-emigrate, and the pre-politically correct use of ‘racialist’ language such as ‘picaninnie’ – not a particularly nice term, his main thrust was against multiculturalism, and not race per se.
Towards the end he says "To be integrated into a population means to become for all practical purposes indistinguishable from its other members. Now, at all times, where there are marked physical differences, especially of colour, integration is difficult though, over a period, not impossible. There are among the Commonwealth immigrants who have come to live here in the last fifteen years or so, many thousands whose wish and purpose is to be integrated and whose every thought and endeavour is bent in that direction."
This doesn’t sound like a racist, but someone who was protective of the British way of life.
After leaving school I worked briefly at a publisher and I still recall the day I mentioned that I thought, on the whole Enoch was a good man who had been much maligned and misinterpreted. I still remember the look of absolute horror on the faces of a couple of my colleagues. If I had known then what I know now I would have put up a fight!
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