During the twentieth century, Britain experienced the arrival of thousands of peoples moving into the country from around the world. Most of these people were from the British Commonwealth and a large amount of these people were non-white immigrants after the 1948 British Nationality Act gave commonwealth the right to settle in the country. The West Midlands, in particular, received the greatest number of non-white immigrants from the West Indies.[1] The area was already facing crises in housing and job shortages, but the arrival of a large amount of people into the area caused tensions in local communities. From these tensions, political figures rose to prominence, such as Enoch Powell, who used and sometimes stoked these tensions for political advantage by speaking what others ‘don’t have the nerve to say’, according to some local people.[2] The Media Archive for Central England (MACE) holds a great deal of material related to Powell from vox pop interviews to recordings of his speeches, for which he is best known. This essay will use a selection of clips, including some short interviews, to analyse how Powell and his views on non-white immigration were presented on Midlands television. Alongside this, it will argue how this form of primary source material is both interesting and important for studies of this kind because it provides a unique window onto the views of everyday people. Also, studies of Powell and immigration in this period are of particular relevance today because of the recent Windrush scandal, as well as some people, such as Tomlinson, arguing that the current political climate resembles that of Powell’s day, with parties like UKIP who see ‘themselves to be the victims of a globalisation that has outsourced jobs outside the country and to immigrants inside’.[3] Additionally, with help from scholarship, this essay will contextualise the archive material used. The clips analysed range from 1968 to 1974, which are the years in which Powell was most outspoken in his views on the large amount of immigration facing Britain.
Enoch Powell is an important figure for exploring the effects of non-white immigration into the Midlands and Britain as a whole. He is representative of many of the tensions which emerged in the region, particularly the West Midlands in the Birmingham and Wolverhampton areas where Powell represented in parliament as MP for Wolverhampton.[4] He is most well known for his 1968 speech known as the ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. Powell argued that further integration of non-white immigrants into Britain would cause violence. Thus, he argued that stricter immigration laws should be introduced and that immigration should actually be reversed to some extent. Although the speech was considered controversial at the time by many, Powell was supported by many people in his local area, as will be seen in interview clips analysed.[5] Joe Street believes Powell was able to ‘tap into the latent fears of dark strangers’ in the West Midlands.[6] As well as this, he was able to build on the views which developed from the MP for Smethwick (near Birmingham), Peter Griffiths, whose campaign during the 1964 general election criticised non-white immigration to gain his seat in Parliament. The criticisms of immigration into the West Midlands targeted issues such as shortages in housing, employment and schools, even though, as Lindsey points out, the region was already facing these shortages before the large amount of immigration and thus the area follows the trend of blame being placed onto non-white minorities.[7] It is interesting to see how these views are expressed by members of the public in some of the clips analysed. Focusing the research on Enoch Powell allows an insightful look into how racial tensions manifested in the West Midlands during the twentieth century. It is clear that Powell was a very recognised person in the area because there is a lot of material in the archive concerning him. Furthermore, there are numerous vox pop interviews on the subject of Powell and none of the interviewees do not know who he is.
The clips used in this essay are mostly vox pop interviews. ATV News, from which the clips are taken, began using vox pops in 1956 and used them very frequently throughout the twentieth century. Kathleen Beckers, Stefaan Walgrave and Hilde Van den Bulck have described a vox pops as ‘an apparently randomly chosen, ordinary individual with no affiliation, expert knowledge or exclusive information, who is interviewed by journalists and gives a personal statement in a news item’.[8] They are simple, quick and easy ways for television journalists to engage with public opinion on news stories and topics. They are somewhat symbolic of ATV’s style of gathering news stories at the time, as they had a limited budget and had to gather local stories for broadcast quickly. The vox pop also allowed journalists to record and present the views of more ordinary people rather than the more elite sources which had been used traditionally. Vox pop interviewees can be replaced by any other member of the public.[9] This makes the interviews useful for historians because the views of ordinary peoples are particularly targeted whereas in many sources that view is left out. Additionally, the television journalist and broadcaster has full control over the balance of the views presented in news clips containing vox pops. This is useful because we can see if the reporter has attempted to make reports balanced or not. This could be through having a balanced number of ‘for or against’ interviewees, or by having a range of different types of people interviewed. This is important for this era of television broadcasting because BBC and ITV were attempting to keep news broadcasting balanced and not present any one point of view too strongly. Therefore, vox pop interviews are useful for presenting the views of ordinary people while also showing us how balanced or unbalanced certain topics were reported on.
The first of the clips analysed has simply been labelled ‘Enoch Powell Vox Pops’ by the archive. Like many of the clips found in MACE it is not a complete news report. However, the questions and answers from interviewees are as they would have appeared in the broadcast. The questions in this clip are focused on asking residents of Wolverhampton whether or not they think Enoch Powell would make a good leader of the Conservative Party. This video is from 1965 which is three years before Powell’s controversial speech which made him well known, nevertheless it is clear from the clip that Powell is familiar in the area. Of all the eleven people interviewed on the street, only one is not in favour of Powell becoming the party leader. The majority believe him to be ‘strong’, ‘dynamic’ and would be able to show the rest of the Commonwealth that ‘England is wonderful’ if he was to become the leader of the party in 1965.[10] It is interesting to see that Powell was already an established name in the area before his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech made him well known across the country. It is unclear from this clip if the interviewees were in favour of Powell due to his views on immigration because they only go as far as to mention his characteristics and not his political views. This shows that Powell may have been widely respected by people in the West Midlands before he made his views on immigration explicit in 1968. It is clear from these, however, that the interviewer was not wholly attempting to supply a balanced report with these vox pops. It could be that the reporter was unable to find many people who were against Powell becoming Conservative Party leader, but the overwhelming opinion presented in this clip is supporting Powell, which does not present a balanced account of views. Alongside this, in response to his own question being directed back at him, the reported says that he also has ‘hope’ that Powell will be successful. This without doubt shows an unbalanced report and furthermore implies that Midlands television represented Powell in a positive way, in this occasion supporting him possibly becoming Conservative Party leader. Powell was unsuccessful in his bid for party leadership and Edward Heath became the Conservative leader in 1965.[11]
Powell made many speeches against immigration during the 1960s and 1970s after the ‘Rivers of Blood’. Many were considered just as controversial and were reported upon in Midlands News. The second clip takes place in 1969 in response to suggestions that the government could pay for non-white immigrants to travel back to the countries from which they migrated.[12] Again, this clip is comprised of vox pop interviews, but this time the interviewer has seemingly targeted non-white immigrants to represent their view on the idea. This in some way goes against the idea that a vox pop interviewee can be replaced by any member of the public, however the interviewees are not prepared for the interviews therefore it can still be considered vox pop interviews.[13] There are mixed reactions: some say they will go if they are paid to leave and all of their property is paid for. Others say they would not go home even if the government paid the full amount. They say that there is nothing for them ‘back home’ and some say that they enjoy living in England and so would not leave. A student says he will probably return home after his studies. One woman says that if she wants to go back she will pay her own way so it would be her own choice. This clip is interesting because it shows a great range of different peoples from a shopkeeper to a student. This implies that to some extent the views of non-white immigrants are represented well by ATV in this instance. This could be important for studying racial tensions caused by immigration in the Midlands during the 1960s and 1970s because it shows how not everyone was supportive of Powell’s views. Powell was not supported on the whole nationally either, as newspapers from the time show how even his own political party saw him as tending to ‘stir up’ racial tensions.[14] The Daily Express reported that members of the same Shadow Cabinet Powell was a part of ‘did not agree’ with the way Powell made his arguments.[15] Although not shown in this clip, many people in the Midlands did support Powell. Therefore, it can be said that the Midlands is important for looking at racial tensions in the period because views similar to Powell’s were not reciprocated by politicians from other areas of Britain and thus evidence of particular racial tensions could be missed without the Midlands. The clips analysed, however, do not make reference to how Powell was not supported by his party in regards to his controversial views on immigration. The second clip shows how Midlands television was attempting to represent the views of non-white immigrants during the period. Although, again it can be argued that the clip was not balanced as it only shows the perspective of immigrants.
The third clip is concerned with Powell’s resignation from the Conservative Party in 1974 and shows how some of the local sentiment remained unchanged from the first clip from 1965. This meant that Powell left his office in Wolverhampton and the clip begins with an interview with Robin Pollard, the Conservative agent for Wolverhampton.[16] This clip was broadcast in colour, which ATV began to do in 1969. Pollard praises Powell for the work he did for his constituency. He is not worried about getting a new candidate to replace Powell but says it is unlikely that there will be someone as individual and successful as Powell. Pollard represents what can be considered an ‘elite’ source for news interview as he is qualified on the subject and cannot be replaced by anyone.[17] The second half of the clip turns to vox pop interviews to find the views of ordinary people on the street. They begin with a lady outside a local shop, who is ‘heartbroken’ and says Powell is a ‘far-seeing man’. A second woman says he spoke his mind on issues and expressed what many people felt, which seems to mirror the views of the man from the first clip. Kassimeris and Jackson explain that Powell was seen by many as the politician that was ‘courageous’ enough to speak the opinions of the ordinary working-class person on the issues of immigration.[18] A man says he has worked hard for Wolverhampton for a very long time, which suggests this man supported Powell before and during his ‘Rivers of Blood’ controversy. Another woman says he was a ‘sick man’ so thought it was coming, which seems to show some balance in a report with mostly positive things to say about Powell. A final man also says that Powell said what a lot of people were thinking and just had the nerve to speak out, which supports Kassimeris and Jackson. Independent television, like the clips found in the MACE archive, quickly became popular after its creation in 1955 and was able to break the BBC’s monopoly on broadcasting.[19] As well as this, television had grown to have more authority than other forms of mass media during this stage of the twentieth century.[20] Therefore, news reports such these are important for the ways they represent views on topics. Especially considering Beckers, Walgrave and Bulck’s argument that views expressed in vox pops by ordinary people are more likely to be agreed with by viewers because they feel their views are supported by others.[21]
To conclude, it has been shown through news clips taken from the MACE archive why the Midlands is important for the study of racial tensions during the 1960s and 1970s caused by non-white immigration. The clips show how controversial views expressed by one of the region’s most prominent and controversial politicians were represented and dealt with on local independent television. Furthermore, it has been considered why vox pop interviews are important as they help to indicate the views of ordinary people as well as indicating how news broadcasters attempted to balance their news reports. Additionally, the clips help to show to what extent ATV was attempting to represent the large amount of non-white people who had immigrated into the region during the twentieth century.
Notes
[1] Lydia Lindsey, ‘The Split-Labor Phenomenon: Its Impact on West Indian Workers as a Marginal Working Class in Birmingham, England, 1948-1962’ The Journal of Negro History 78(2) (1993), 83-109, 86.
[2] ‘Enoch Powell Resignation’, ATV Today (ATV, 8/2/1974), Media Archive for Central England (MACE), University of Lincoln, http://www.macearchive.org/films/atv-today-08021974-resignation-enoch-powell.
[3] Sally Tomlinson, ‘Enoch Powell, Empires, Immigrants and Education’, Race Ethnicity and Education 21(1) (2008), 1-14.
[4] Robert Shepherd, Enoch Powell: A Bibliography (London, 1996), 78-103.
[5] Amy Whipple, ‘Revisiting the “Rivers of Blood” Controversy: Letters to Enoch Powell’, Journal of British Studies, 48(3) (2009), 717-735 (717-718).
[6] Joe Street, ‘Malcolm X, Smethwick, and the Influence of the African American Freedom Struggle on British Race Relation in the 1960s’, Journal of Black Studies 38(6) (2008), 932-950 (933).
[7] Lindsey, ‘The Split-Labor Phenomenon’, 86.
[8] Kathleen Beckers, Stefaan Walgrave and Hilde Van den Bulck, ‘Opinion Balance in Vox Pop Television News’, Journalism Studies 19(2) (2018), 284-296 (284).
[9] Beckers, Walgrave and Bulck, ‘Opinion Balance in Vox Pop Television News’, 285.
[10] ‘Enoch Powell Vox Pops’, Midlands News (ATV, 26/7/1965), MACE, University of Lincoln, http://www.macearchive.org/films/atv-today-26071965-enoch-powell-vox-pops.
[11] Chas Early, ‘July 27, 1965: Edward Heath is the surprise new leader of the Conservative Party’ On This Day BT.com 28 April 2017 [Online Resource] http://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/july-27-1965-edward-heath-is-the-surprise-new-leader-of-the-conservative-party-11363994287360 Accessed 17 March 2018.
[12] ‘Vox Pops on Latest Enoch Powell Speech’, Midlands News (ATV, 10/6/1969), MACE, University of Lincoln, http://www.macearchive.org/films/midlands-news-10061969-vox-pops-latest-enoch-powell-speech.
[13] Beckers, Walgrave, Bulck. ‘Opinion Balance in Vox Pop Television News’, 285.
[14] Arthur Butler, ‘”Curb Immigrants” Powell Sensation’, Daily Express, 10 February 1968.
[15] Arthur Butler, ‘Challenge to Powell’, Daily Express, 4 October 1968.
[16] ‘Enoch Powell Resignation’, http://www.macearchive.org/films/atv-today-08021974-resignation-enoch-powell.
[17] Beckers, Walgrave and Bulck, ‘Opinion Balance in Vox Pop Television News’, 285-288.
[18] George Kassimeris and Leonie Jackson, ‘Negotiating Race and Religion in the West Midlands: Narratives of Inclusion and Exclusion during the 1967-69 Wolverhampton Bus Workers’ Turban Dispute’, Contemporary British History 31(3) (2017), 343-365 (343).
[19] Catherine Johnson and Rob Turnock, ‘Introduction: Approaching The Histories of ITV’, in Catherine Johnson and Rob Turnock (eds.), Independent Television Over Fifty Years (Maidenhead, 2005), 1-13: 1.
[20] Gavin Schaffer, The Vision of a Nation: Making Multiculturalism on British Television, 1960-80 (London, 2014), 67.
[21] Beckers, Walgrave and Bulck, ‘Opinion Balance in Vox Pop Television News’, 285-288.
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