Rivers of blood candidate stands down!?

Question

This afternoons anouncement that Nigel Hastilow prospective parliamentary candidate for Halesowen & Rowley Regis is to stand down, after his comments supporting Enoch Powell's 1968 speech warning that uncontrolled immigration was just storeing up trouble for the future.

There is no doubt that he was pushed rather than 'jumped'

Is this yet another nail in the coffin of free speech?

Whether you agree or diagree with his sentiments, do you agree that he has a right to aire them and let the electorate decide?

Answer 1

Of course he has a right to voice his opinions, but obviously it has lost him his job, as the PC brigade cannot be crossed. He should have been able to stand for election so that the public could decide whether they agreed with him or not but those who don,t toe the party line are out. Free speech in Britain is a thing of the past, Many people believe Enoch Powell was right,.Just because you are against multiculturism doesn,t mean you are racist.

Answer 2

The nail went in in 1968, never mind now, when Enoch Powell was removed from the Tory front bench for the speech. It has all been down hill since then. By the way Labour are importing Immigrants to top up their support and support for Brussels, why do you think that there has been no election or referendum.

Answer 3

I absolutely agree that Nigel Hastilow has the right to say what he said, loud and clear. Free speech is rapidly being eroded in this country, and we need to be very fearful about our futures.

I am sure most people will have read Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech -which is nowhere near as bad as others would have us believe. Enoch was a man of courage and high intellect. In every respect he left his parliamentary colleagues standing. He knew he would scupper his Parliamentary career by his stand on immigration, but his conscious would not let him do otherwise. He was at that time mainly referring to immigrants from the Commonwealth. Did he ever envisage the sort of unmanaged immigration we have now, with some dreadfully undesirable people coming in from Eastern Europe and other places. At least our Commonwealth friends felt part of this country and saw it as their motherland. They came here to improve their future and they contributed to the country. That is not the case with the current wave of asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, potential terrorists and God knows what. They know so little about our culture that they even think they can shoot Swans on our ponds to eat, and they will now have the opportunity to make the same stinking mess of our country that they made of their own!!We are the land of plenty where everything is free. They don't give a dam about fitting in here or participating for the greater good.

We have a country now whose whole being is based on lies and deceptions - we are not able to be honest about anything. . Our politicians are delusional, mercenary, politically correct lightweights, who have no business being in their positions of power and influence. I truely despair of my country's future, and the future for our children, and all I can hope is that the great British public will make their views very clear at the next election. I know I will.

Answer 4

it is totally wrong that he had to stand down, it goes aginst the notion of free speech and he was only saying what many people in this country are thinking. Maybe we would not go as far as to agree with enoch powell, but i for one am sick of the view that if i speak out against the immigration policy in this country, i am deemed a racist. I dont care if your pink, green, purple or bloody orange but we need to have tighter controls on who enters this country and swifter policies to allow us to kick undesirables out. We have enough layabouts of our own sponging off the state, let us deal with that first instead of adding to the problem!!

Answer 5

trouble is they dont like the truth enoch was right about uncontrolled immigration look what has happened the schools are over crowded the hospital are having trouble to make ends meet thats with out the shortage of housing we are only a small country

Answer 6

Totally - how else can you have a democracy? And tis is part of hat he said

Powell described what he thought the position of the indigenous population would be:

"For reasons which they could not comprehend, and in pursuance of a decision by default, on which they were never consulted, they found themselves made strangers in their own country. They found their wives unable to obtain hospital beds in childbirth, their children unable to obtain school places, their homes and neighbourhoods changed beyond recognition, their plans and prospects for the future defeated; at work they found that employers hesitated to apply to the immigrant worker the standards of discipline and competence required of the native-born worker; they began to hear, as time went by, more and more voices which told them that they were now the unwanted. On top of this, they now learn that a one-way privilege is to be established by Act of Parliament; a law which cannot, and is not intended to, operate to protect them or redress their grievances, is to be enacted to give the stranger, the disgruntled and the agent provocatuer the power to pillory them for their private actions"

Answer 7

The pc brigade gone mad, this man had every right to state what probably the rest of us are thinking anyway.
We are supposed to live in a democracy, but it seems that only applies to the chosen few.

Answer 8

He was absolutely correct in his views, not from any racist point of view, but from an ecocomical one.The revenue from the workers in any country can only support a certain level of services to its inhabitants.
Overpopulation can only mean reduced resources, and this is happening.

Answer 9

Whilst i think free speech should be preserved, there are definate boundaries between offering ones opinion and being deliberately inflammatory in an already tense environment.

He knew what reaction that was going to get as it has been an infamous quote for many years now. He was trying to get a rise, it backfired, he got fired, tough sh1t.

This is what always happens when people in the public arena try to be 'clever'

Answer 10

I agree with his statement,the electorate should have the right to decide,His bosses did not.He jumped before he was pushed.