A YouGov poll of 5,200 people to be released tomorrow and commissioned by anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate, found that 43% predicted relationships between different UK communities will deteriorate over the next few years compared to 14% who feel things will improve. More than two-thirds of Conservative Leave voters said they believed multiculturalism wasn’t working.
Nick Lowles, chief executive of Hope Not Hate, said: “There is clearly much work to do. Powell’s speech led anti-racism campaigners to mobilise – the anniversary of the speech must do the same.”
.... “Broadly, the reality is that multiculturalism has been an uneven success – leaving some areas of Britain more integrated than others,” said Lowles.
A Gallup poll conducted weeks after the 1968 speech found 74% of the British population agreed with the “Rivers of Blood” speech, in which Powell strongly criticised levels of immigration to Britain, particularly from the Commonwealth. Powell said he was “filled with foreboding – like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood”.
The YouGov survey found that 40% felt his warning has proved well-founded – compared to 41% of respondents who believe Powell’s gloomy view of race relations was wrong.
A narrow majority of 51% worried that immigration was increasing the pressure on hospitals and schools. More than one-third of all respondents see Islam as a threat to the British way of life, fractionally more than the proportion who view the Muslim faith and the British way of life as compatible. [The Guardian] Read more
