Chapter 42: Enoch Powell

173      “So you are here for the first time . . .” “No!” Georgia Pearce, “Nigel Farage Issues Warning to Sunak as He Attends Tory Conference for First Time in 36 Years,” GB News, video, October 2, 2023, updated October 3, 2023,” www.gbnews.com/politics/politics-nigel-farage-warning-rishi-sunak-tory-party-conference, 00:47–00:55.

173      joined Sked’s Anti-Federalist League  “Former Leader Nigel Farage Quits UKIP,” BBC News, December 4, 2018, www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46448299.

173      predecessor of the UK Independence Party  “Former Leader Nigel Farage Quits UKIP,” www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46448299.

173      established in 1993 to run candidates committed to securing  Alex Hunt, “UKIP: The Story of the UK Independence Party’s Rise,” BBC News, November 21, 2014, www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-21614073.

173      almost immediately began reaching out to . . .Enoch Powell  Christopher Hope, “Nigel Farage and Enoch Powell: The Full story of Ukip’s Links with the ‘Rivers of Blood’ Politician,” The Telegraph, December 12, 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11291050/Nigel-Farage-and-Enoch-Powell-the-full-story-of-Ukips-links-with-the-Rivers-of-Blood-politician.html.

173      had urged his fellow Britons to leave . . . in 1975  Robert Saunders, Yes to Europe!: The 1975 Referendum and Seventies Britain (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 54–55. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1029059417.

173      had supported Thatcher’s Bruges speech  J. Enoch Powell, “How to Not Oppose Political Union,” in Reshaping Europe in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Patrick Robertson (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), 230–231. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/24065537.

173      “political hero”  Nigel Farage quoted in “UK Independence Party Leader Names Enoch Powell as Political Hero,” Herald, October 22, 2008, www.heraldscotland.com/news/12373343.UK_Independence_Party_leader_names_Enoch_Powell_as_political_hero.

173      professor turned military officer turned politician  Norman Shrapnel and Mike Phillips, “Obituary: Enoch Powell,” The Guardian, February 7, 2001, www.theguardian.com/politics/0098/feb/09/obituaries.mikephillips.

173      “I have always read Enoch Powell’s speeches . . .”  Margaret Thatcher quoted in George Jones, “Interview for Daily Telegraph,” January 10, 1990, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107872.

173      “their members” . . . “against their fellow citizens,” and . . . “overawe and dominate” Enoch Powell, “Rivers of Blood” speech, April 20, 1968, The Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3643823/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html.

173      “In fifteen or twenty years’ time . . .” Powell, “Rivers of Blood,” www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3643823/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html.

173–174 “Like the Roman. . .”  Powell, “Rivers of Blood,” www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3643823/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html.

174      condemned the Race Relations Act  Enoch Powell, “Rivers of Blood” speech, April 20, 1968, The Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3643823/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html; and Adam Taylor, “In 1968, a British Politician Warned Immigration Would lead to Violence. Now Some Say He Was Right,” Washington Post, November 24, 2015, wapo.st/4gzbK7j.

174      received royal assent in October  Amritpal Bachu, “Race Relations Act 1968: 50th Anniversary,” House of Lords Library, UK Parliament, October 24, 2018, lordslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/lln-2018-0109.

174      illegal in Great Britain to refuse employment, public services, or housing  “What Was the Race Relations Act?” Newsround, November 26, 2018, www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46310188.amp.

174      “the Commonwealth immigrant came to Britain . . .”  “Powell, “Rivers of Blood,” www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3643823/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html.

174      “drawbacks” . . . not due to “law” or “public policy” but “personal . . .”  “Powell, “Rivers of Blood,” www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3643823/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html.

174      “It would be dangerous to make a frontal attack . . .”  George Washington quoted in David R. Roediger, How Race Survived U.S. History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon (London: Verso, 2008), 46. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/181140215.

174      By 1810, the enslaved population had more than doubled  In J. David Hacker’s study published in the journal Slavery & Abolition, the author calculates that there were 558,921 people enslaved in the United States in 1790. He calculates that there were 1,195,182 enslaved people in the country in 1810. See J. David Hacker, “From ‘20. and odd’ to 10 million: The Growth of the Slave Population in the United States,” Slavery & Abolition 41, no. 4 (2020), pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7716878/, 844.

174      “be protected in the ordinary modes by which other men’s rights are protected”  Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/109/3.

174      paved the legal way for the rise of Jim Crow and . . . disenfranchisement  Michael Perman, Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South, 1888–1908 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 260–261. Perman explains that separate-coach laws and disenfranchisement were deeply connected. “All except the Deep South states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and perhaps Mississippi enacted separate-coach laws in close relation to their drive for disfranchisement. Usually, they were passed in the same legislature that issued the call for a convention or formulated an amendment. In those cases where this did not happen, the connection with disfranchisement was nevertheless quite explicit. Despite developing independently at other times, social segregation and suffrage restriction converged with the enactment of separate-coach laws and constitutional disfranchisement.” Perman, Struggle for Mastery, 248. In Arkansas, for example, a separate-coach law “was part of the larger scheme to arouse public sentiment against African Americans and stigmatize them as separate and inferior before attacking their voting rights and removing them from the state’s politics.” Perman, Struggle for Mastery, 62. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/52415814.

174      introduced . . . bill to reduce the congressional representation of. . .Perman, Struggle for Mastery, 224–225. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/52415814.

174      “the bitterness of civil strife,” which “has passed”  Oscar W. Underwood in U.S. Congress, Congressional Record, 56th Congress, 2nd Session, Vol. 34, Part 1 (January 4, 1901), www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1901-pt1-v34/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1901-pt1-v34-19-2.pdf, 557.

174–175 led the campaign to encourage White Alabama men  Perman, Struggle for Mastery, 2001, 193. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/52415814. Megan Thompson, “Racist Language May Soon Be Gone from Alabama’s Constitution,” PBS News, March 19, 2022, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/racist-language-may-soon-be-gone-from-alabamas-constitution.

175      “establish white [male] supremacy in this State”  Journal of the Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Alabama (Montgomery, AL: The Brown Printing Company, 1901), archive.org/details/alabama-constitutional-convention-journal-1901/page/n7/mode/2up, 9.

175      up “strife between the races”  Augustus O. Bacon in U.S. Congress, Congressional Record, 59th Congress, 1st sess., Vol. 40, Part 7 (May 7, 1906), www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1906-pt7-v40/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1906-pt7-v40-9-1.pdf, 6451.

175      “only the kindest feelings”  Augustus O. Bacon, will, quoted in “Evans v. Newton,” in Equal Protection and Family Law, eds. Mark Mikula and L. Mpho Mabunda, Great American Court Cases, vol. 3 (Detroit, MI: Gale, 1999), 534. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/Great-American-court-cases/oclc/233048291..

175      bequeathed land for a Whites-only park . . . to be named “Baconsfield”  Andrew Michael Manis, Macon Black and White: An Unutterable Separation in the American Century (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press and The Tubman African American Museum, 2004), 237. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/55744183.

175      first met Enoch Powell in the early 1980s while attending Dulwich College  Michael Barker, “Racism in the Life of Farage: From Enoch Powell to Reform UK,” CounterPunch, July 9, 2024, www.counterpunch.org/2024/07/09/racism-in-the-life-of-farage-from-enoch-powell-to-reform-uk.

175      “dazzled me for once into awestruck silence”  Nigel Farage, Flying Free (London: Biteback Publishing, 2011), quoted in Hope, “Nigel Farage and Enoch Powell: The Full Story of Ukip’s Links with the ‘Rivers of Blood’ Politician,” www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11291050/Nigel-Farage-and-Enoch-Powell-the-full-story-of-Ukips-links-with-the-Rivers-of-Blood-politician.html.

175      objected to Farage’s appointment as a prefect  Michael Crick, “Nigel Farage Schooldays Letter Reveals Concerns Over Fascism,” Channel 4, September 19, 2013, www.channel4.com/news/nigel-farage-ukip-letter-school-concerns-racism-fascism.

175      “described how, at a Combined Cadet Force (CCF) . . . Hitler-youth songs”  Letter from English teacher Chloe Deakin to head teacher David Emms, June 1981, quoted in Crick, “Nigel Farage Schooldays Letter Reveals Concerns Over Fascism,” www.channel4.com/news/nigel-farage-ukip-letter-school-concerns-racism-fascism.

175      Six weeks prior, the Brixton uprising occurred  Crick, “Nigel Farage Schooldays Letter Reveals Concerns Over Fascism,” www.channel4.com/news/nigel-farage-ukip-letter-school-concerns-racism-fascism.

175      against police brutality, poverty, and unemployment  Perry Blankson, “The Great Insurrection: Remembering the Brixton Uprising,” Tribune, April 11, 2023, tribunemag.co.uk/2023/04/the-great-insurrection-remembering-the-brixton-uprising.

175      over a house fire–suspected to be a racist arson attack. . . killed thirteen  Blankson, “The Great Insurrection: Remembering the Brixton Uprising," tribunemag.co.uk/2023/04/the-great-insurrection-remembering-the-brixton-uprising; and Virgillo Hunter, “The New Cross Fire (January 18, 1981),” BlackPast.org, June 9, 2019, www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/events-global-african-history/the-new-cross-fire-january-18-1981.

175      suspected members of the National Front  Hunter, “The New Cross Fire (January 18, 1981),” www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/events-global-african-history/the-new-cross-fire-january-18-1981.

175      clashed with the predominantly White police force  Blankson, “The Great Insurrection: Remembering the Brixton Uprising," tribunemag.co.uk/2023/04/the-great-insurrection-remembering-the-brixton-uprising; and “Britain Under Fire,” Time, October 21, 1985, time.com/archive/6704979/britain-under-fire.

175      used the grounds of Dulwich College  Crick, “Nigel Farage Schooldays Letter Reveals Concerns Over Fascism,” www.channel4.com/news/nigel-farage-ukip-letter-school-concerns-racism-fascism.

175      defended in Parliament by none other than Enoch Powell “Civil Disturbances,” House of Commons Debates, vol. 8, debated July 16, 1981, Hansard, UK Parliament, accessed December 19, 2024, hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1981-07-16/debates/70b4c9b8-918f-405e-b55d-51d7cf4a91c3/CivilDisturbances.

175–176 was running as a UKIP candidate  Hope, “Nigel Farage and Enoch Powell: The Full Story of Ukip’s Links with the ‘Rivers of Blood’ Politician,” www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11291050/Nigel-Farage-and-Enoch-Powell-the-full-story-of-Ukips-links-with-the-Rivers-of-Blood-politician.html.

176      asked . . . for his endorsement. Powell declined  Hope, “Nigel Farage and Enoch Powell: The Full Story of Ukip’s Links with the ‘Rivers of Blood’ Politician,” www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11291050/Nigel-Farage-and-Enoch-Powell-the-full-story-of-Ukips-links-with-the-Rivers-of-Blood-politician.html.

176      entreated Powell to become a UKIP candidate  Hope, “Nigel Farage and Enoch Powell: The Full Story of Ukip’s Links with the ‘Rivers of Blood’ Politician,” www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11291050/Nigel-Farage-and-Enoch-Powell-the-full-story-of-Ukips-links-with-the-Rivers-of-Blood-politician.html.

176      continued to reach out until Powell’s death in 1998  Hope, “Nigel Farage and Enoch Powell: The Full Story of Ukip’s Links with the ‘Rivers of Blood’ Politician,” www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11291050/Nigel-Farage-and-Enoch-Powell-the-full-story-of-Ukips-links-with-the-Rivers-of-Blood-politician.html.

176      “non-racist party”  UKIP membership form, 1993, presented by Alan Sked and quoted in Stuart Jeffries, “Ukip Founder Alan Sked: ‘The Party Has Become a Frankenstein’s Monster,’” The Guardian, May 26, 2014, www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/26/ukip-founder-alan-sked-party-become-frankensteins-monster.

176      “immigration was never an issue”  Alan   Sked quoted in Goldfarb, “Three Men and a Far-Right Party,” www.politico.eu/article/three-men-and-a-far-right-party.

176      “I would never say that Powell was racist . . .”  Farage quoted in “UK Independence Party Leader Names Enoch Powell as Political Hero,” www.heraldscotland.com/news/12373343.UK_Independence_Party_leader_names_Enoch_Powell_as_political_hero.

176      UKIP ran 197 candidates. All lost Goldfarb, “Three Men and a Far-Right Party,” www.politico.eu/article/three-men-and-a-far-right-party.

176      one UKIP candidate won more than 5 percent of the vote: Nigel Farage  Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin, Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2014), 29–30. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/742512550.

176      pushed Sked out of leadership and out of the party  Goldfarb, “Three Men and a Far-Right Party,” www.politico.eu/article/three-men-and-a-far-right-party; and Jeffries, “Ukip Founder Alan Sked: ‘The Party Has Become a Frankenstein’s Monster,’” www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/26/ukip-founder-alan-sked-party-become-frankensteins-monster.

176      took the helm of UKIP in 2006  Ben Quinn, “Nigel Farage: A Potted History of His Political Career on the Road to Reform,” The Guardian, June 3, 2024, www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/03/nigel-farage-a-potted-history-of-his-political-career-on-the-road-to-reform.

176      Founded in 1982  Kate Allen, “BNP Faces Political Irrelevance as Official Party Status Lapses,” Financial Times, January 8, 2016, www.ft.com/content/a8284446-b625-11e5-8358-9a82b43f6b2f.

176      would become the UK’s most popular great replacement party  Jonathan Brown, “The National Front’s Long March Back to Politics,” The Independent, April 23, 2012, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-national-front-s-long-march-back-to-politics-7669132.html.

176      “I spoke directly to their voters and I said . . .”  “Nigel Farage: Nobody Has Done As Much as Me to Eradicate the Far-Right in the UK,” LBC, video, July 10, 2019, www.lbc.co.uk/article/nigel-farage-tells-lbc-he-killed-the-bnp-DWyS5b_2/, 0:20–0:28.

176      “‘But, if you’re doing it and holding your nose doing it . . .” “Nigel Farage: Nobody Has Done As Much as Me to Eradicate the Far-Right in the UK,” www.lbc.co.uk/article/nigel-farage-tells-lbc-he-killed-the-bnp-DWyS5b_2/, 0:28–0:46.

176      “when a voter is more Eurosceptic, the odds of voting for a challenger”  Sara Binzer Hobolt and Catherine de Vries, “When Dimensions Collide: The Electoral Success of Issue Entrepreneurs,” European Union Politics 13, no. 2 (May 2012), ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v13y2012i2p246-268.html, 258.

176      “versus a mainstream government party increase”  Hobolt and de Vries, “When Dimensions Collide: The Electoral Success of Issue Entrepreneurs,” ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v13y2012i2p246-268.html, 258.

176–177 “issue entrepreneur,” mobilizing “a previously non-salient issue”  Hobolt and de Vries, “When Dimensions Collide,” ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v13y2012i2p246-268.html, 246, 257–258, 262.

177      The more that parties which were originally not anti-EU adopted . . .  Laurie Beaudonnet and Raul Gomez, “The Imbalanced Effect of Politicization: How EU Politicization Favours Eurosceptic Parties,” European Union Politics 25, no. 2 (January 2024), journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14651165231220615.

177      more politicized the EU issue became, the more polarized  Ian Down and Kyung Joon Han, “Far Right Parties and ‘Europe’: Societal Polarization and the Limits of EU Issue Contestation,” Journal of European Integration 43, no. 1 (2020), www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07036337.2020.1728263, 65–66, 76.

177      rather those parties that had been Eurosceptic all along  Beaudonnet and Gomez, “The Imbalanced Effect of Politicization: How EU Politicization Favours Eurosceptic Parties,” journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14651165231220615.

177      Capitalizing on the lingering economic downtown  Michael White, “Nigel Farage’s Fascist Barrage: Ukip Leader Needs a Political History Lesson,” The Guardian, Politics blog, May 17, 2013, www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2013/may/17/nigel-farage-fascist-barrage-ukip.

177      earned about a quarter of the votes Esther Addley et al., “Ukip Election Success Changes Face of Local Government in England,” The Guardian, May 3, 2013, www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/03/ukip-changes-local-government-england.

177      more votes (27.5 percent) than both the Tories (23.9 percent) and the Labour Party (25.4 percent)  “Vote 2014: UK European Election Results,” BBC News, accessed January 16, 2025, www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/vote2014/eu-uk-results.

177      “truly household names”  Matthew Goodwin and Caitlin Milazzo, UKIP: Inside the Campaign to Redraw the Map of British Politics (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015), 104. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/928890220.