Should Enoch Powell get a blue plaque ( in Wolverhamton)?

[Cyril Haearn]

I'd say no. For the same reason that putting a statue of Thatcher in a public place is a bad idea. It is too divisive. It offends too many people.

+1,and more so in an multicultural city such as Wolverhampton

Is she commemorated in Grantham?

[Si]

I'd say no just because it would be a waste of money and effort given how quickly it'd get vandalised. Plus that, although well known in his time, he will be / is being quickly forgotten, unlike Mrs T.

[pwa]

I'd say no. For the same reason that putting a statue of Thatcher in a public place is a bad idea. It is too divisive. It offends too many people.

+1,and more so in an multicultural city such as Wolverhampton

.
Is she commemorated in Grantham?

Don't know. Political figures from the recent past are always going to be controversial. The only political figure given a statue in my nearest city, Cardiff, as far as I am aware, is Nye Bevan, celebrated for his work to establish the NHS. For Welsh people that is a noble deed that transcends the dirty world of politics. A statue of Margaret would be out of the question.

[PH]

He was a skilled and principled orator and on that level we could do with more of them. I don't believe he ever regretted his so called "Rivers of Blood" speech, he probably regretted that the majority of the British population didn't get the classical references, we didn't all get his privileged education.
I don't believe he is a very important historical figure, that infamous speech was in opposition to the 1968 Race Relations Act, go read it, I doubt anyone this side of the BNP would object to anything contained in it now. He was under the delusion that he cost Heath the 1974 election and therefore the party leadership, but the miners had already done that. Heath kicked him out of the shadow cabinet in 68 and Thatcher wanted nothing to do with him, his idea of a Tory party was opposed by both ends of the spectrum. So off to the Unionists, where he opposed any form of devolution for NI, does anyone who remembers the Troubles believe he was right?
Blue plaque or not, I really don't care, it'll be something for the liberals to campaign against when there's far more important things, and somewhere for the extremists to worship. But what is his legacy? Apparently he was a good constituency MP, and I know there are some of them of all parties, those helped have reason to be grateful. But on a national level what did he leave behind? A couple of speeches? Is that it?

[bikepacker]

Very like Adolf Hitler then.

I suppose he did follow that pattern.

Nuff said then eh!

Often on this forum there is a poster who without fully reading the posts can confuse content with delivery and then make an inane comment to try and make themselves look clever.

[Cyril Haearn]

7 have voted for a plaque and 6 against so far, I am quite surprised
Could some of the 7 explain why they voted that way?

I do love the "save draft" function on these fora, it lets me write a post, I can then take some time to cool down and maybe change it before publishing. Publish and be dammned, said someone

[Debs]

We should not forget that Enoch Powell [and Thatcher too] were both supporters of Apartheid, so they were Racists.

A blue plaque for Powell would be just as wrong as that ridiculous state funded funeral of Thatcher.

[mercalia]

has any one any views that his rivers of blood speech was a warning that was heeded, so it didnt happen?
I wonder how many would have remembered the man had the plaque idea not arose? I had completely forgotten the man. he presumably did some good things as some one has menttioned. An older sort of comparison is Cecil Rhodes- I understand they removed his statue from a uni in South Africa due to PC, an act that was rather rich as he GAVE the land the campus is on for free to the uni - if you dont want me or my money/land give it back I bet they didnt return the land to any descendants

[Cyril Haearn]

Powell was very clever, he delivered speeches in French, German and Italian, not many British politicians could do that
He could have been a great European, had he had other views, or he could have caused a disaster, what if he were alive now?

After his infamous speech he was widely supported by the public

P was a student of A E Housman who has many blue plaques, he wrote some gr8 poems.. as someone said: literature is a rather quiet unexciting business
Quite different from politics

[Cyril Haearn]

has any one any views that his rivers of blood speech was a warning that was heeded, so it didnt happen?

Views not facts
I think it did not make a great difference, it was cooked up by newspapers and politrickians. In the West Midlands like in London there is great racial diversity now and people get on well. Things are better now

It is so long ago, few of us can remember it and the memories are likely not reliable

Alternative facts welcome

[hamster]

Worth a blue plaque only if there is one for Oswald Moseley?

Powell was a journeyman backbencher, with a few brief spells as a junior minister, whose only claim to fame was making some outrageous speeches.

[NUKe]

We should not forget that Enoch Powell [and Thatcher too] were both supporters of Apartheid, so they were Racists.

A blue plaque for Powell would be just as wrong as that ridiculous state funded funeral of Thatcher.

Sorry I am not a Thatcher supporter, but I do hate false histories can you please give justification for her being a supporter of Apartheid?
this would suggest not

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Margaret- ... uth-Africa

[bikepacker]

We should not forget that Enoch Powell [and Thatcher too] were both supporters of Apartheid, so they were Racists.

A blue plaque for Powell would be just as wrong as that ridiculous state funded funeral of Thatcher.

Sorry I am not a Thatcher supporter, but I do hate false histories can you please give justification for her being a supporter of Apartheid?
this would suggest not

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Margaret- ... uth-Africa
It would appear she didn't

Haven't you realised yet that according to many posters on this forum Margaret Thatcher is to blame for everything they don't agree with.

[Ben@Forest]

I'm sure there are many blue plaques to people that we would now think made dubious or offensive statements by today's mores. There is a blue plaque to Mahatma Ghandi - read his statements about the Jews (and the British efforts to defeat Nazism in WW2). Two examples below - there are many, many others:

“Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. As it is, they succumbed anyway in their millions.”

(To the British) “This manslaughter must be stopped. You are losing; if you persist, it will only result in greater bloodshed. Hitler is not a bad man.”

[Cyril Haearn]

Worth a blue plaque only if there is one for Oswald Moseley?

Powell was a journeyman backbencher, with a few brief spells as a junior minister, whose only claim to fame was making some outrageous speeches.

Maybe black plaques for such people, we should not forget them either