Acknowledgement From Party Leaders
The future Labour leader Michael Foot remarked to a reporter that it was "tragic" that this "outstanding personality" had been widely misunderstood as predicting actual bloodshed in Britain, when in fact he had used the Aeneid quotation merely to communicate his own sense of foreboding.
Thirty years after the speech, Edward Heath admitted that Powell's remarks on the "economic burden of immigration" had been "not without prescience."
In an interview for Today shortly after her departure from office in 1991, Margaret Thatcher said that Powell had "made a valid argument, if in sometimes regrettable terms."
Read more about this topic: Rivers Of Blood Speech
Famous quotes containing the words party and/or leaders:
“From now on, I think it is safe to predict, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party will ever nominate for President a candidate without good looks, stage presence, theatrical delivery, and a sense of timing.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“All of us recognize the great benefits to our own nation and to the world of a strong and progressive Iran. Your support of the Camp David accords and your encouragement of the leaders who are or may be involved in consummating the peace effort would be very valuable.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)