Enoch Powell and the Widow in his “River of Blood”

The British lady who "frivolously" directed me to Enoch Powell was mildly outraged when I took him seriously, and much more outraged when I discovered the "River of Blood" documentary. As to the latter, she thinks Martin O'Neill of the New Statesman has the correct perspective: http://www.newstatesman.com/life-and-society/2008/03/powell-speech-british-film-bbc

I am not as impressed with O'Neill's article as the British lady apparently was. The first thing I notice is that he doesn't address Powell's main point: too much immigration is bad! Where is the argument, other than the sarcastic one I produced in a recent post, that lots of immigration is good?

O'Neill does what Leftists do time and time again, pick out some quibble, some small point, some tangent and build it up as though that was what Powell's main argument was.

O'Neill calls Blakeway's film "cowardly" because it seeks to put the so-called offensive things (that became these quibbles and tangents) in perspective. I say O'Neill is cowardly for not being willing to address Powell's main point: too much immigration is bad!

Also, O'Neill suggests that Powell's opinion was a minority one, supported by few people and abandoned by all right-thinking Britains today. That is not what I got from Blakeway's film. Surely the parliamentary cheering when Powell gave his River of Blood speech was real. Surely his popularity which comprised a majority of Britains after that speech was real. Surely the argument that if a vote had been conducted at the time, he would have been elected Prime Minister was supported by evidence at the time.

Here is an interest bit the Irate British lady wrote me: And, we don't need your impressions, Lawrence.  The text of the speech is on the web. Powell makes little use of the views and words of others.  He does, early on, quote a white constituent.  Later, he invokes a letter from another white constituent, reporting the alleged plight of an elderly white woman allegedly harassed by (black) immigrants.  It didn't happen, Lawrence. A massive effort was made to find the woman. No such woman could be found. But eventually, years later, she was identified. We do now have an idea what happened.  The story Powell recounts is untrue."

Perhaps this British lady failed to see the following article which shows that the story Powel recounts is true: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-433497/Widow-Enoch-Powells-Rivers-Blood-speech-really-did-exist.html

The lady's name is Druscilla Cotterill: " For almost 40 years, her identity - indeed, her very existence - has remained a tantalising mystery, known only to a diminishing handful of people.

"But it can now be revealed that this apparently unremarkable woman played a pivotal role in a moment of British history.

"For she has been identified as the inspiration for Enoch Powell's infamous 1968 'Rivers of Blood' speech, in which he warned of apocalyptic social consequences if the rising tide of immigration was not halted.

"Evoking the highly emotive image of 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood', Powell railed against proposed anti-discrimination laws which would make it a crime to refuse services or housing on the grounds of race.

"Crucially, he used the potent story of a beleaguered, elderly constituent as evidence that it was Britain's white population who were being victimised in their own country."