Dammit, I'll have to dig out a copy of the speech and have a peek! I'm surprised if - as you say porscha - his language was 'coarse and crude' as he was very well educated and very much an ambitious politician. Not to mention, according to good old wiki, 'a British politician, linguist, writer, academic, soldier and poet.' He would have known a thing or two about the written word! We all know, of course, the edited highlights.
Enoch Powell was certainly no rascist and, I suspect, his speech was very much earthed in his Wolverhampton constituency that had just seen a major immigration influx from the West Indies - up to forty occupants in a three bedroom property etc. Scenes and activities completely alien to the country at the time. Whilst he is often wheeled out as an example of bizarre racism it is often overlooked that he was a man of his time talking about his time and is very anchored in 1950's Britain. The Britain he talked of then was so different to the one we have now and, IMO, it is ridiculous to qoute him today as it would be out of context.
My views are assisted by Enoch being a close family friend of my lodger and having had many a discussion about his character.
That said, it'll be interesting how this thread pans out...
Nina, whenever he is a darling of a rascist faction, I would suggest he is being seriously misunderstood.
Rae x
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