Discuss @David Flin 's latest article here
I feel like its pretty straight forward that Powell is a racist no matter what he said about the Mau Mau camps.
Yeah, but the article is saying that him being a racist doesn’t mean he was necessarily a death camp Nazi, as he’s been depicted as in some places. Not many people give us an actual speech for the archive where they not only condemn putting people in camps but also condemn those that are justifying doing so on racial grounds. If you want a 50s-70s Nazi stooge or white supremacist dictator, look further afield. Because there’s plenty of options.I feel like its pretty straight forward that Powell is a racist no matter what he said about the Mau Mau camps.
I think the problem is that Powell, like many politicians of note, has been made to Stand For Something, and so regardless of anything else he did on even immigration, he will forever be defined as The Great Racist, with every form of intolerance ascribed towards him. It's the pitfall of the public, and of writers as well.The whole point is about character nuance, though
No-one is arguing that he didn't hold racist views - quite obviously he did; but Powell had far more complex views, even on race, than would be suspected. And a lack of research and laziness by some AH writers means a more complex character gets missed out on.
I suspect in future onecwill see a similar method applied to people like George W. Bush, or Al Gore, or even the last three Popes.
Churchill being Really Really Good At Everything sometimes comes up
A Churchill who becomes PM in 1920 will not behave like he did in 1940, and if he does he will not have the same success.
Nev Chamberlain's mid-life spiritual rebirth is downright authorial 'wouldn't it be an interesting inversion if...'
Powell I think benefits from a cultural bias a lot of people have that a former classics professor couldn't actually be a pretty cheap huckster-demagogue-politician and that there has to be something more complex going on. That he wouldn't suffer from doubt, and certainly not, lord no, low motives.
‘Hello Tony,’ said Enoch Powell.
‘Hello Enoch,’ said Crossbenn. [4]
It occurred to him, not for the first time, that Enoch was actually a very complex figure with a brilliant intellect. It had come as a great surprise to learn that before Partition, Enoch’s dearest ambition had been to go to India and become Gandhi. It was hard to believe that the genial scholar who could be found at the Red Lion necking pints of gin with George Brown had ever said anything racist, but people were complicated. Really, he was more of a tragic figure than anything else.
‘Terrible weather we’re having,’ said Crossbenn Englishly. ‘It’s an awful black sky.’
‘Yes,’ said Enoch, ‘we should deport it!’ [5]
[4] It might challenge people’s preconceptions, but in OTL many Labour MPs said hello to Enoch Powell.
[5] A. Tragic. Figure.
There's also of course the rather good circumstantial evidence that Rivers of Blood was somewhere on a spectrum of mistaken political calculation, frustration with Heath's leadership, and personal erraticism and certainly not about any great conviction. Or at least, I find it rather stretching credulity to suggest someone like Powell actually believed anecdotes about dog shit being pushed through letterboxes and thought them worthy of national politics.
The main reason I'd say possibly not (but you may be right) would be that Powell's election was IIRC a rejection of the Mosley corporatist consensus and Europe might be included in that. Hard to confirm one way or the other since we don't know much about the world of AGB's Epilogue the way we do with FaBR, for example. If we assume Powell is the Thatcher analogue and Nazi Satellite Nukes are Cold War tensions rising, you'd be right though.I get a feeling EdT didn't specifically premise Powell in the epilogue of A Greater Britain being a pro-European PM - but it makes sense given the above, and given in that timeline Europe has a partially British genesis.
Having Butler come out on top in 1956 (or pushes for the job in 1953 when Churchill and Eden were in terrible health) might help.I don't think there's a timeline here but EEC entry under PM Powell is something I might jam into a list one day.