QUOTE OF THE MONTH

Enoch was guilty of understatement

A survey by academics predicts that, by 2027, the ethnic minority in Birmingham will be the English. This need not matter provided everybody is happy with that, all are getting on well and the local economy is booming. Sadly, it is not likely to be so simple. The cultural changes this is likely to inflict on the city may be hard for many there to swallow: nobody likes to be marginalised in his or her own ancestral home. The projection brings two other things to mind. It was in that same city almost 40 years ago that Enoch Powell made his so-called "rivers of blood" speech, in which he predicted a boom in the
ethnic minority population that erred in its accuracy only by being understated: he was execrated for saying such things. Also, the recent immigration figures showed a white flight not just from cities, but from the country, of the sort of people on whose efforts the nation depends. It should make us wonder not just what Birmingham will be like in 20 years, but how everywhere else will be, too.

Simon Heffer, writing in the Sunday Telegraph