Today is the 50th anniversary of British politician Enoch Powell's controversial Rivers of Blood speech. Subsequently Ted Heath sacked him from the shadow cabinet.
An extract from the speech.
"As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see "the River Tiber foaming with much blood.
"That tragic and intractable phenomenon which we watch with horror on the other side of the Atlantic but which there is interwoven with the history and existence of the States itself, is coming upon us here by our own volition and our own neglect. Indeed, it has all but come.
"In numerical terms, it will be of American proportions long before the end of the century. Only resolute and urgent action will avert it even now.
An extract from the speech.
"As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see "the River Tiber foaming with much blood.
"That tragic and intractable phenomenon which we watch with horror on the other side of the Atlantic but which there is interwoven with the history and existence of the States itself, is coming upon us here by our own volition and our own neglect. Indeed, it has all but come.
"In numerical terms, it will be of American proportions long before the end of the century. Only resolute and urgent action will avert it even now.
"Whether there will be the public will to demand and obtain that action, I do not know. All I know is that to see, and not to speak, would be the great betrayal."
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