Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” Speech
The speech conservative MP Enoch Powell gave on 20 April 1968 still stands as the most inflammatory and racially divisive political address in post-war British history. Before becoming a member of parliament, Powell had been a well-respected classicist, a specialist in the Greek historian Herodotus, but well versed in Greek and Latin literature as a whole.
As an outspoken parliamentarian, he would often color his political rhetoric with classical references, and on no occasion would he do this more (in)famously than during his Party Conference Speech when he pronounced:
“As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood…”
Powell erroneously adapted this line from Virgil’s Aeneid, the most famous example of Latin epic to have survived from antiquity. He took it from the part where the protagonist Aeneas (a Trojan, not a Roman) is visiting the underworld, and receives a prophecy from the Greek Sibyl predicting the civil wars that will consume the Roman world at the end of the Republic: “I see wars, horrid wars, and the River Tiber will foam with much blood.”
The cultural context of Powell’s speech and its unsubtle allusion to violent civil strife turned his comments into a national scandal. In his address, Powell had been speaking out against the Labour Party’s Race Relations Act which prohibited racial discrimination in any sphere of British life, including the divisive issue of housing.
But in the broader historical context, because the speech was delivered at a time of mass immigration to the UK from across the Commonwealth countries, it exacerbated xenophobic sentiments among segments of Britain’s native population who felt immigrants were making no attempt to integrate into their adopted society.
Powell’s speech exploded into controversy. Politicians from all parties pushed for his removal from the shadow cabinet — something his party leader was soon forced to comply with — while some suggesting he be prosecuted for trying to incite racial violence. The Times declared it an “evil speech”, only likely to increase the racial tensions already bubbling under Britain’s surface. However, to the shame of the nation, to call it a complete political failure would be disingenuous.
Powell’s anti-immigration stance won him considerable support among the working classes, particularly in London and in his constituency, and my native city, of Wolverhampton. Many historians believe Powell’s speech strongly contributed to his party’s surprise win in the 1970 General Election, winning over vast swathes of far-right voters. Some would argue this should mark the speech out as great. But as it played on xenophobia, scapegoating, and fear-mongering, I wouldn’t count myself as one of them.
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