The Mirror’s political columnist Paul Routledge reveals how the fight against bigotry is nothing new and gives politicians a chilling warning to ‘look to their consciences before opening their mouths’
We’ve been here before. Even in modern times, there’s a long history of Right-wing politicians playing the migrant card.
And now we’re seeing it again, with Nigel Farage riding to popularity on the back of widespread – and understandable – concern over boat people.
In my lifetime, public feeling has ebbed and flowed over this issue. In the post-war period, migration wasn’t a big deal. People from Commonwealth countries like India and the Caribbean had fought alongside our boys in WW2.
The Windrush Generation was welcomed to fill gaps in the UK labour market, particularly the NHS. But as numbers grew, so did resentment, resulting in racially-motivated violence in Notting Hill, the West Midlands, Nottingham and Middlesborough.
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These were the days of “no Irish, no blacks” discrimination in housing, and in 1962 a Tory government passed the Commonwealth Immigration Act, which took away the automatic right to settle here.
Ill-feelings grew, culminating in the infamous Tory victory against the trend of Peter Griffiths in Smethwick, in the general election of 1964 on an openly racist ticket.
His supporters were found to have targeted white households with the slogan “If you want a n-word for a neighbour, vote Labour.” I remember Griffiths flaunting his views to students at Nottingham University in the following year.
But Harold Wilson won, and sought to fight bigotry and cool racial tension with the Race Relations Act of 1965, making incitement of racial hatred an offence.
It failed to outlaw discrimination in housing and employment, so Labour followed it up with more wide-ranging legislation three years later.
Cue Right-wing Conservative MP Enoch Powell and his infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech in Birmingham in April 1968, opposing the reform and, demanding voluntary repatriation of migrants. London dockers and Smithfield Market porters marched in support to Westminster, demonstrations I watched as a young reporter in Fleet Street.
Polls in the 60’s and 70’s showed most Brits backed his views, and while they officially condemned Powell, the Tories were happy to profit by his divisive politics, which undoubtedly help Ted Heath to pull off a surprise victory in the1970 election.
In following years, “Enoch was Right” became the favourite slogan of far-Right and outright racist groups, appearing on T-shirts, badges and placards. In 1990, shortly after resigning as premier, Margaret Thatcher was willing to praise his “valid argument.”
The temptation to win votes with Powellism endured into the 21st century. In 2007, Nigel Hastilow, Tory candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis, had to resign after proclaiming “He was right and immigration has changed the face of Britain dramatically.”
Nigel Farage, then UKIP leader, picked up the torch in January 2014 with a statement that “the principle is right.” And a few months later, Norman Tebbit referenced Powell’s warning, saying “We have imported far too many migrants.”
Boris Johnson’s successful Brexit campaign to get the UK out of the EU played on anti-migrant themes, with his slogan of “getting out country back”, and the ghost of Enoch is still discerned today.
Sir Keir Starmer’s remark that “we risk becoming an island of strangers” was criticised as echoing Powell’s “strangers in their own country.”
The rhetoric may change, but the underlying message of divisiveness continues to poison public discourse. In Britain’s increasingly-polarised society, knowing the damage that words have done, politicians must look to their consciences before opening their mouths.
For the sake of decency and humanity, the values they all claim to hold.
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