The BBC will air Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in full and it’s not going down well
Someone at the BBC thought this was a good idea and the corporation’s media editor Amol Rajan is particularly excited about it.
On Saturday, for 1st time EVER, Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech will be read in full on UK radio (by actor Ian McDiarmid). Please join us @BBCRadio4 8pm. Super-brains Nathan Gower + David Prest have done an amazing production job. Great guests too: https://t.co/3XvDMSH16d
— Amol Rajan (@amolrajanBBC) April 12, 2018
But the response to the news today suggests he might be the only one. Well, apart from whoever commissioned it and actor Ian McDiarmid, who will read it.
Here’s how people responded online.
1.
Why are you giving a platform to a racist
— Shivam Manghnani (@shivamLM) April 12, 2018
2.
I’m like SOOO looking forwards to this. How great it will be to hear the words that inspired such hatred of me and my family (and yours, no doubt). Are the beeb doing Goebbels next week? Apparently he was quite a good orator too.
— YRP (@URs_e17) April 12, 2018
3.
Please keep this filth from our airwaves – we absolutely do not need or want a racist speech to be read out in full on UK radio.
Stop to think for a moment how the many families who have suffered as a direct result of Enoch Powell & his racism will be feeling right now.
— Gary Spedding (@GarySpedding) April 12, 2018
4.
As we’re about to engage in conflict in Syria, while the British public are increasingly racist – and IN PARTICULAR – towards refugees, this is fucking appalling.
Utterly fucking appalling.
— chiller ★ (@chiller) April 12, 2018
5.
Now the BBC thinks there is a public service in broadcasting Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech, what next? Oswald Mosley’s memoirs? Genghis Khan’s views on peacemaking?
— Andrew Adonis (@Andrew_Adonis) April 12, 2018
6.
Pundits: how dare you suggest the BBC might need to examine its biases?
BBC: thanks for coming to our defence there lads, anyway here's "rivers of blood" by Enoch Powell.— Phil McDuff (@Mc_Heckin_Duff) April 12, 2018
7.
This is full on insane. You don't even need to be a living facist to get airtime now. Excited for Question Time with the exhumed body of Goebbels. https://t.co/g8smxtwwoZ
— Tom Bell (@tombellforever) April 12, 2018
Amol Rajan returned to Twitter to defend the programme and address one critic in particular.
Naively, I assumed people would click on the link. So let me clarify, for @Andrew_Adonis and others, that the speech is broken up, and critiqued by voices from across the spectrum. Not just read out in a single go. Though of course some will still object https://t.co/ZTGNYHnNgt
— Amol Rajan (@amolrajanBBC) April 12, 2018
Except, well, it didn’t appear to be helping much.
If you click on the link there is no such clarity given. pic.twitter.com/ujrd2kvxjN
— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) April 12, 2018
Good point – sorry
— Amol Rajan (@amolrajanBBC) April 12, 2018
fair play, love it when a racist speech is broken up into palatable chunks
— ⚡️iaul (@zzziaul) April 12, 2018
Anyway, glad to hear that at a time when attacks on immigrants are at a high, BBC radio 4 believe the best thing to do is to broadcast a speech arguing that immigrants drown the country in a ‘river of blood’
— Hussein Kesvani (@HKesvani) April 12, 2018
The decision to broadcast the Rivers of Blood speech in full shows how commitments to 'free speech' and 'balance' are quickly warped by right-wingers into a mandate to air their racist vitriol unchallenged.
— Eleanor Penny (@eleanorkpenny) April 12, 2018
And then someone pointed this out.
bbc: let's get someone to read out enoch powell's rivers of blood speech on radio 4
me: well i don't see how this idea could get any worse
bbc: and we'll get someone who doesn't think the speech is racist to read it
me: spoke too soon pic.twitter.com/1PuMWKdR76— eggy beard (@edknock) April 12, 2018
To be fair, not EVERYONE thought it was a rubbish idea.
Hopefully ppl will tune in, listen & make up their own minds about what he was saying. Surprisingly it has stood the test of time considering the changes we have made towards cohesion of cultures. His reputation as a racist is not deserved.
— Shep de Beenham (@YRUnotlistening) April 12, 2018
can someone get their dad off twitter
— beth mccoll (@imteddybless) April 12, 2018
To conclude …
