The voice of dissent
No one who has followed the career of Mr Enoch Powell imagined for a moment that he had invited dismissal from the Shadow Cabinet in order to place himself at the head of a landladies' crusade to keep the immi- grants out of their lodgings. Mr Powell's is the voice of dissent in politics: and on Tues- day he carried the public demarcation of his philosophy an important stage further with his call for a coherent British defence and foreign policy based specifically on what he called 'that Western littoral which embraces our own islands.'
It is a cardinal tenet of fashionable political journalism, accepted by the leadership of both main political parties, that the secret of elec- toral success is the seizure of the 'middle ground.' Even assuming that this theory has any meaning, which is doubtful, its validity is at best unproven. The available evidence suggests that Labour lost in 1951, and the Conservatives in 1964 because in each case the Government had ceased to satisfy the crude economic expectations of the voters.
It does not follow from this that the battle for the 'middle ground' has in the past been self-defeating, Merely that it has been largely irrelevant. But we are entering into a new and much more uneasy phase of political evolu- tion. In too many instances the gap between the conventional wisdom of the consensus politicians and the attitudes of the mass of voters has become too wide. The integrity of the Commonwealth,' the need to keep race out of politics,' the place at the top table,' `the authority of the United Nations, or 'the global importance of sterling': these are in- stances of consensus slogans which are now so evidently at variance with reality that they only evoke contempt. Others, such as 'the need for an incomes policy,' the special rela- tionship' and 'our worldwide peacekeeping role,' have not yet lost their magic, but they are no less at variance with reality.
Yet Mr Powell's is the only consistent and powerful voice of dissent. His application of the evocative language which he uses to such effect on other subjects to the inflammatory issue of race is not to be condoned: but it would be naive to imagine that it has diminished his popular appeal. To the voters of Wales and Scotland other alternatives to the consensus are offered. But Mr Powell is the only prominent politician from either 01 the major parties who stands apart. Therein lies his strength.
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