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Daniel Hannan & Enoch Powell: Spectacular Media Stupidity Guaranteed

Alex Massie

Wednesday, 26th August 2009

If a politician expresses admiration for Winston Churchill do you immediately think that he's a great fan of, among other considerations, casual indifference to the Bengal famine, the use of chemical weapons in Iraq or the pulverisation and total destruction of German cities? Of course you don't. But when a politician says he admires Enoch Powell it's as if he'd decided to fill the Tiber with blood by scurrying around the country and slaughtering the children of every immigrant in the land.

This is, as you might expect, also nonsense. But, lo and behold there's a mini-rumpus and a song and dance over some comments made by Daniel Hannan to reason.tv. Hannan's crime? To say that among his political heroes:

"In the British context, [was] Enoch Powell ... as somebody who understood the importance of national democracy, who understood why you need to live in an independent country and what that meant, as well as being a free marketeer and a small-government Conservative."

What's missing from that? You're right, any discussion, even implication, that Hannan was talking about immigration. For that matter, Powell's record is traduced too: there was more to the old boy than one speech. I might disagree with Powell on immigration (and other matters) but that doesn't mean I, or anyone else, must abandon everything he said on any subject at any point in his career.

Nonetheless, predictably, this is cause for much asshattery. To wit:

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, said: "Yet again, we are seeing the two faces of the Conservative Party. The one they want to present to the public and the one which attacks the NHS and praises Enoch Powell.”

Oh please. Never mind that the Labour voters who deserted the party to support the ghastly BNP would have agreed with Powell on immigration, the notion that Powell=Hitler is too absurd for words. Which is to say that it's perfect for politics and ideal fodder for our newspapers who, though they should know better, cannot resist deliberately creating a nonsense out of nothing. If this means helping politicians deliberately distort the obvious meaning and context of an argument then so be it. Who's paying attention?

And, just to be clear, if Hannan had bigged-up Powell's views on immigration while he was talking to Reason* the chances are that he'd have been challenged on them. That's because Reason's a libertarian magazine that, you know, is pretty relaxed about the free movement of people and generally disapproves of border supremacists and absolutists.

Anyway, whatever you think of Hannan's views, isn't it unpatriotic - if we must travel down this dreary road - to suggest that he be bullied into silence?

Please, people, let this Summer of Stupidity end soon.

*Disclosure: Several friends either work at Reason or have done so in the past. I think it's terrific and think you should think so too.

Filed under: Hackery (155 more articles) , Immigration (43 more articles) , Newspapers (204 more articles)

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Irene

August 26th, 2009 8:31pm Report this comment

Absolutely agree.

Mr 10% didn't work - the new mantra they all use now is the two-faces of the Conservatives.

Pathetic.

Seanachie

August 26th, 2009 10:32pm Report this comment

Se�or Hannan curiously didn't mention Enoch's political opportunism, willing to nail his colours to any mast to assure his political advancement or survival, which in Don Dan's own case would resonate quite strongly. By the way, I don't think Enoch, loathsome as he was, was really racist. Good Lord, even as an Ulster Unionist he was fairly wishy-washy.

Ray

August 26th, 2009 10:34pm Report this comment

No doubt when the venerable Antony Wedgwood Benn goes to meet the Great-Egalitarian-in-the-sky our de facto prime minister will be eulogising him for being "a great pillar of the Labour movement" - conveniently over-looking the fact that had Benn captured the Labour leadership in 1980 his party would have sailed into the next election promising to punitively tax everything that moved and nationalise everything else that didn't.

(Come to think of it, that's what Labour did sail into the 1983 election saying, wasn't it!)

egh

August 26th, 2009 11:41pm Report this comment

I agreed with Enoch Powell at the time; and what he said would happen has happened.

We still need to limit immigration; to send back the illegals, and to do something to get the others to participate in rescuing our country and re-asserting our own culture. [Though at this point, one might ask 'what culture'? ] And if they won't participate, they should leave.

Looks as if Mr. Hannan might be able to provide us the best way of accomplishing what we need... Barring the BNP, a South-American-style military coup, or delaying until the inevitable blood bath.

Beefeater

August 27th, 2009 2:41am Report this comment

Hmm. I have no beef with that.

Chris

August 27th, 2009 7:53am Report this comment

Rubbish. Hannan was engaging in dog-whistle politics. He was trying to remind his fans in the nutter wing of the conservative party that he understands them. He did just the same when he accused a German MEP of being a Nazi and then went round denying it.

Hannan is a grotty little opportunist and if he doesn't watch it he'll lose the next election for the tories, which would be quite a feat in the face of the current government. Cameron should throw him out.

Edward McLaughlin

August 27th, 2009 8:17am Report this comment

Well I will have to admit firstly, that I agree with Mr Powell's stance on immigration, the prescience of which, becomes more apparent with every year that passes.

However, that pre-disposition admitted, the observation made here regarding the way that media commentators treat certain issues, like so many button-pushing lab' rats, points accurately to a very grave problem in the way we are dealing with things.

RaySmith

August 27th, 2009 10:26am Report this comment

Sad thing is that Enoch Powell was smarter than most if not all the politicians now and in the last 40 years. People could do a lot worse than read the biography by Simon Heffer.

Dirty Euro

August 27th, 2009 10:54am Report this comment

I think Mr Hannan is moving to right wing he needs to tone down. He did support Obama He is seduced by fox news.

The Welsh Jacobite

August 27th, 2009 11:27am Report this comment

It was Powell made the interesting statement (not I think responding to Margaret Thatcher's alleged views on Society, indeed probably earlier than her notorious comments):

"A Tory believes that there is no such thing as an individual who exists without Society."

(I think his choice of the word "Tory" was deliberate: he did not say "Conservative".)

Jeff

August 27th, 2009 2:06pm Report this comment

Well said.

And asshattery? I applaud thee...

Susan Hill

August 27th, 2009 4:23pm Report this comment

People never remember what Enoch Powell actually said, only what they think he said. He did not say he wanted there to be blood in the streets if too many immigrants arrived to settle here, he just said that there would be. And he was right. Metaphorically there was, is and always will be. Literally, there has been and may be again. He was not stating a wish, merely a fact.

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