More Rivers Of Blood, & Seats Of Comfort

Post-war, Enoch Powell became Tory MP for Wolverhampton South West, which incidentally meant that my beloved Molineux was in his constituency. Equally, indeed perhaps more importantly, he went on to display more progressive thinking.

Powell realised that the Cold War was just a sham, fabricated by America in their (ongoing) quest for world domination. The USSR was dependent on Western food supplies, and were never going to attack us. Hence, he knew that maintaining a nuclear deterrent was another pointless, illogical, unnecessary smokescreen. NATO was just a front, he inferred, for America to control Europe.

Later in his career, he rightly refused to be involved with the National Front, and when he became an Ulster Unionist MP, he refused to join the Orange Order - in your face, Ian Paisley! He went on to declare that it was not the IRA, but the CIA who had killed Lord Mountbatten, and that "MI6 and their friends" had committed multiple political assassinations in Northern Ireland.

As well as being a great learner- learning his 12th language aged 70, he was good friends with Tony Benn, a campaigner for homosexual law reform, and supported the abolition of the death penalty. He opposed British involvement in the 1990 Gulf War, remarking that "Saddam Hussein has a long way to go yet, before his troops come storming up the beaches of Kent or Sussex".

As an aside, I've actually got a chair from the Midland Hotel (don't worry, I haven't half-inched it, they were refurbishing). It might even be the one that Enoch used for his big speech. If you want to own this exciting piece of history, then let me know. Of course, there's no guarantee that his arse has actually rested on it.

Anyway, I didn't buy that signed book in the end, as I mentioned in my previous post. But I'm feeling pleased with myself now because of a guy called Dutch. I'd earmarked Elmore ("Dutch") Leonard as someone on my "must read soon" list. Took a quick look on Amazon, but they didn't have any of his works at a worthwhile discount. So I headed off to another cluster of charity shops in south Birmingham, on the offchance that they might have some. I ended up buying a bag-full of books, including Leonard's Freaky Deaky. Much to my delight, it was only £1.49 - and signed by the author - in your face, Amazon!

Maybe I'll do a sideline in autographed books and "seats of the famous". One day...