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Rivers of Blood speech

Enoch Powell's April 20, 1968 address to the General Meeting of the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre was a speech criticising Commonwealth immigration, and anti-discrimination legislation that had been proposed in the United Kingdom. Powell was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West. Though Powell referred to the speech as the Birmingham speech, it is otherwise known as the Rivers of Blood speech, a title derived from its allusion to a line from Virgil's Aeneid. Although the phrase rivers of blood does not appear in the speech, the name alludes to the line, As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood.'
The speech caused a political storm, making Powell one of the most talked about politicians in the country, and leading to his controversial dismissal from the Shadow Cabinet by Conservative party leader Edward Heath. According to most accounts, the popularity of Powell's perspective on race may have played a decisive contributory factor in the Conservatives' surprise victory in the 1970 general election, and he became one of the most persistent rebels opposing the subsequent Heath government.


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