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Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Enoch Powell display investigated as hate incident
A shop display showing an image of Enoch Powell next to a copy of his 1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech is being investigated by police. The framed picture of the former Conservative MP was displayed in the window of ironmongers Mumfords in Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire. Shop owner Elizabeth Griffiths has defended her actions, saying it was one small part of a larger collection of images, including Sir Winston Churchill, depicting "a need for strong leadership". "I have had it in there for three and a half months, and the response has been always positive - no negativity at all until this week," said the Reform campaigner, who has now removed it. Powell's anti-immigration speech, delivered by the then Wolverhampton South West MP, caused a national controversy, prompting his sacking from Edward Heath's shadow cabinet. West Mercia Police said enquiries were ongoing after they had received a report of "offensive content displayed in a shop window on Church Street". The complaint had "obviously" come from "political enemies" after she had financed a campaign for two successful Reform candidates at the recent local elections, Ms Griffiths claimed. "Rest assured, since then, I've had knives in my back from left right and centre," she said. Earlier in the week she added an image of Sir Keir Starmer next to Powell's picture linking the prime minister's recent language around immigration to the Powell speech. The text of the 1968 speech, delivered at a Conservative Association meeting in Birmingham, he said, included observations on immigrants taken from his Wolverhampton constituents. "If I had the money to go, I wouldn't stay in this country," the MP claimed he had been told. "In this country in 15 or 20 years' time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man." Powell added: "As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding: like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood." The then Conservative Party leader Heath sacked him from the front bench, and he was widely denounced. Ms Griffiths said she had received support from her community, saying many thought it applied to the "present day". A spokesman for West Mercia Police said: "On 16 May, we received a report of offensive content displayed in a shop window on Church Street in Cleobury Mortimer. "This is being treated as a hate incident, and inquiries are ongoing." Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. Enoch Powell: a drama out of a crisis After Enoch Numbers are down - but Starmer will still struggle to win on immigration Cooper backs PM over 'island of strangers' remark West Mercia Police
The Independent
24-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Don't be fooled by Reform's latest rally – it's nothing but pure anti-migrant malice
In 1968, Enoch Powell delivered his notorious 'Rivers of Blood' speech, warning that soon 'the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.' He was speaking at a Conservative Association meeting in Birmingham – the city I was born in – and his tirade against immigration emboldened racists across Britain. Then, as now, racist violence did not emerge in a vacuum; it was enabled and propagated from the top. In the years that followed, the National Front marched through our streets, so-called 'p**i-bashing' became a national sport, and a wave of racist murders devastated our communities. Like many South Asian migrants in the Midlands, my granddad worked in a foundry in Tipton, where he endured low pay and appalling conditions. His generation already suffered racist abuse that included slurs in the streets, faeces pushed through letterboxes, and attacks by gangs. Powell's speech, coupled with inflammatory newspaper headlines that targeted Black and Asian communities, intensified this hostility. These migrants played a crucial role in rebuilding Britain after the war yet their contributions were barely acknowledged — and too often remain unrecognised today. But our communities were never passive victims. They fought back, organising to protect themselves and to challenge the politicians and media who fanned the flames of bigotry and xenophobia. Sadly, that fight is far from over. Last summer, history repeated itself in the wake of the Southport murders. As disinformation was spread about the killer, mosques, homes and businesses were attacked, and Black and Asian people were assaulted in the streets. Many feared for their lives. It was the worst outbreak of racist violence in my living memory – and the toxic atmosphere that fuelled it has not disappeared. Far-right rhetoric is creeping into the mainstream with the backing of billionaires, MPs, TV channels and social media platforms. Reform UK is surging in the polls. Elon Musk, the world's richest man, amplifies Tommy Robinson and performs 'Nazi salutes'. In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) doubled its votes and came second in the general election while the centre-left SPD suffered its worst result in a century. Instead of confronting this threat head-on, our government is pandering to Reform by engaging in a race to the bottom on immigration – even recently adopting Reform-style branding and videos to boast about deportations. But history shows that parroting the right-wing playbook only strengthens the far-right. Across Europe, centre-left parties that have tried this strategy didn't stop their opponents but empowered them. Voters tend to prefer the original to the copy. Defeating the far-right requires dismantling its ideas, exposing its faux anti-establishment image and offering a real alternative to its politics of hatred and division. Despite its populist facade, Reform UK is deeply wedded to the establishment. It is bankrolled by billionaires and led by ex-banker public schoolboys. Its leader openly claimed to be the only politician in Britain 'keeping the flame of Thatcherism alive' – the same Thatcherism that decimated pit villages and post-industrial towns across the Midlands. Its MPs profess to speak for the working class, yet they vote against workers' interests in parliament. Meanwhile, they bend over backwards for the elites who fund them, and their rhetoric on Muslims and migrants actively puts our communities in danger. We've seen where this leads. Long before last year's riots, conspiracy theories about a Muslim takeover of Britain had become primetime TV. Suella Braverman claimed 'Islamists were in control' – this despite her having been Home Secretary until recently – and smeared demonstrations supporting Palestine as 'hate marches.' Reform's first MP, Lee Anderson, accused London's Muslim mayor of being 'controlled by Islamists,' while Nigel Farage took to the airwaves to declare that British Muslims don't share 'British values.' These moral panics are malicious and manufactured and do nothing to address real issues facing working-class communities. They won't put food on the table, lower bills or fix our economy. Their only purpose is to distract from an economic system rigged in favour of the wealthy, while those in power deflect blame onto the poorest and most marginalised. This week, Reform UK will follow in Powell's footsteps by bringing their anti-migrant agenda to Birmingham. But they do not speak for us. The working class in Britain is diverse, multiethnic and multifaith. We don't need scapegoats. We need real solutions. We need investment in our communities, fair wages, strong workers' rights, affordable housing, fully-funded universal public services, a welfare system based on dignity and respect, and a humane immigration and asylum system. I'm proud to be organising a series of events, starting in Birmingham, to oppose Reform UK and send a strong message: that we are the real opposition and we reject the politics of hate and division. And on 28 March, we will say that loud and clear.
BBC News
14-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Tributes to Edgar Riches killed in Nairobi motorcade crash
A British man killed in a suspected hit-and-run involving a vehicle in the Kenyan president's motorcade was "incredibly generous" and "always pleasant", a friend has Riches, 79, from Poole, Dorset, died on Thursday after he was struck on a road in Kenya's capital, had been visiting relatives in the country when he was fatally injured, the BBC was detained a driver, since bailed, who is thought to have been driving a support vehicle at the back of President William Ruto's official convoy. Mr Riches worshipped at Poole's St Joseph and St Walburga and Our Lady of Fatima Churches, was a long-standing member of the town's Conservative Association and raised money for Catholic aid charity Stribley, the president of Poole Conservative Association, said she had known Mr Riches for about 50 years."He was private, quiet person but incredibly generous and if he said he was going to do something, he always did it," she said."There's a total sense of shock and loss. He will be greatly missed. I shall remember him as a kind, quiet and thoughtful, always pleasant, individual."He was a huge benefit to the association for many years and we will be lucky to see his like again." "[Mr Riches] was an active fundraiser and organised many social events, fundraising for CAFOD to help a school in Kenya," a church representative, who did not want to be named, said."He went every year to visit his sister and nephew." There has been uproar on social media following Thursday's Kenyans are accustomed to roads being cleared for the presidential motorcade, some have questioned why the convoy was so big and moving at such police said Mr Riches' next-of-kin have been informed and a post-mortem was expected to be completed on Friday. You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
