Rivers of Blood...and Carrot Juice

Here in the good old Dis-United Kingdom the issues of immigration control, integration and the failure of multiculturalism have at last become respectable mainstream topics, as they should have been from the first.
Trevor Phillips, the head honcho of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has openly stated that Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech of 40 years ago caused the issues to be suppressed until now.
Until very recently, anyone who raised the issue of immigration has been immediately branded as a 'racist' by the politically-correct quasi-fascist champions of pseudo-liberalism.
(Enoch Powell was not a racist, as the dishonest Liberal Left portrayed him, he used the stark idioms of his time to draw attention to an issue that was already causing social problems and could only get worse if nothing were done about it.)
Recently, though, things have started to change, and immigration is no longer a topic discussed in muttered conversations behind pillars at dinner parties, or in dark corners in public houses. It has become mainstream. And about time too.
And Enoch's latter-day supporters are courageously emerging from their self-imposed silence and making themselves heard.
Even those who blame Enoch for the long silence can't seem to bring themselves to condemn him entirely.
For Trevor Phillips does not believe Enoch got it completely wrong.
Here in the Dis-United Kingdom we have not experienced race riots as Enoch predicted, but, according to Phillips the result of uncontrolled immigration has been a kind of 'cold war' between different immigrant and ethnic communities, in which these groups live side by side but do not mix or communicate.
Down on our little allotment in South Gloucestershire, Nosher and me were mulling over these comments over a glass of Nosher's excellent home-made parsnip wine.
As usual, after a morning's work on our little plots, we were sitting in our old deckchairs on the grass outside Nosher's old shed, the grey overcast sky not yet venting its wrath on us insignificant mortals far below.
'I think Phillips is a little unkind to poor old Enoch' I said 'after all, Enoch was just trying to get the British establishment to acknowledge that if immigration was not controlled there would be serious problems in the longer term. But he was so apocalyptic that all our weak-kneed politicians immediately backed off, and so immigration continued to be uncontrolled, whilst this country acquired a reputation for being xenophobic. The first was folly, the second quite undeserved, given our historical record of absorbing immigrants. Enoch can hardly be blamed for all that!'
Nosher swirled the amber nectar around in his glass contemplatively, then took too small a sip.
'We've seen it all before' he announced dryly 'in 1968, long before you ever came to this allotment, the plot you now have was occupied by an old chap called Enoch, and he said something very similar to Enoch Powell.'
'Were you having an immigration problem back then?' I asked, already intrigued.
'Yes, in a way' Nosher replied 'allotment holders were bringing in too many foreign species, and we also had a terrible couch-grass problem at the time. Enoch warned that if we did not manage the process of change properly, we would find it increasingly difficult to grow our traditional varieties of vegetables and so on, and we'd be fighting a constant battle against encroaching weeds. We called it Enoch's "Rivers of Carrot Juice" speech.'
'So what happened?'
Nosher grimaced, as if the memories pained him.
'The usual' he replied. 'Back then the Chair of the Allotment Committee was a pushy little chap we called Hilarious Harold, on account of his obsession with the "white heat of technology". Hilarious Harold said that foreign species benefitted our allotment, and weeds were an issue individual allotment holders should sort out for themselves with the new solar-powered mini-tractors he was sure would be available by the very next spring.'
'And were they?'
'Of course not!' Nosher was indignant 'he was talking out of his hat, as he usually did!'
'So what eventually happened?' I asked.
'Well, those of us who treasured our traditional English varieties of vegetables had to soldier on, whilst the lazy gardeners who didn't dig out their couch-grass condemned the rest of us to a permanent couch-grass problem as it spreads and multiplies so quickly. More recently, the green movement has seen the return of allotment gardeners who are interested in old varieties and who also dig out their couch grass effectively, so things are at last improving on that front.'
'Even so' I said 'it may take more than that to sort out the issues of uncontrolled immigration, the failure to integrate, and the abject failure of multiculturalism in our society.'
Nosher pursed his lips.
'I don't think we should expect too much of Gordon the Moron or Dave "The People's Toff" Cameron' was all he would say on that topic.
More from www.overthegardenfence.blogspot.com soon.
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