Islam versus Europe

One of the bizarre tropes that the British establishment has developed to explain its cowardly conspiracy of silence over the consequences of third-world immigration on Britain is to blame Enoch Powell for it.

Here are a few examples of it:

Who are the people who have made Britain what it is today, the ones who ensured that we became a limp-wristed and decrepit, post-imperial satrapy of incompetence, sanctimony, self-obsession and self-loathing?

...Enoch Powell For making it impossible to talk about race or immigration without having the Old Bill drop round. He might not have meant it but that’s what happened.

by Rod Liddle, Source: Sunday Times (£)

...I am certain that the Conservative Party was right to drive him out for his remarks, which had the malign effect that no mainstream politician dared raise the issue of immigration for a generation.

by the odious Islamophile Peter Oborne, Source: Telegraph

This is a bit like blaming islamophobes for jihad, which is now another standard part of the ruling caste's rhetorical toolkit.

Of course the charge is false. In fact, the culture of silence and fear had already descended on Britain by the time Powell gave this speech. In fact, that was specifically why he gave it and why he cast it in such vivid terms. He had already made similar points before this speech, but no one had paid any attention to them. That is why he felt he had no alternative but to summon all his rhetorical powers and give a speech potent enough to pierce the official wall of silence.

As Powell himself noted in his famous speech, many of the letters he received on the subject from concerned constituents were anonymous:

In the hundreds upon hundreds of letters I received when I last spoke on this subject two or three months ago, there was one striking feature which was largely new and which I find ominous. All Members of Parliament are used to the typical anonymous correspondent; but what surprised and alarmed me was the high proportion of ordinary, decent, sensible people, writing a rational and often well-educated letter, who believed that they had to omit their address because it was dangerous to have committed themselves to paper to a Member of Parliament agreeing with the views I had expressed, and that they would risk penalties or reprisals if they were known to have done so. The sense of being a persecuted minority which is growing among ordinary English people in the areas of the country which are affected is something that those without direct experience can hardly imagine.

Source

So journalists who blame Powell for the media conspiracy of silence about immigration are simply looking for a scapegoat to absolve them of their own guilt. Powell was the one who was prepared to see his own career blasted and destroyed rather than allow the country he loved to be destroyed without a fight. That is why he haunts the consciences of all those cowards who made the other choice.