Powellism
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Powellism is the name given to a set of political views along the lines of Conservative MP, Enoch Powell. Although many among Powell's detractors would consider Powell, or at least some of his views, as far-right, they do in fact reflect a High Tory Libertarian outlook.
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[edit] Powellism
[edit] Overview
The word 'Powellism' was, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, coined by The Economist on 17 July 1965. As Powell was best known for his opposition of immigration into the UK, and his proposition of repatriation of immigrants and their dependants, it should come as no surprise that control or ending of immigration is a target of Powellism. The importance of this aspect of his views is overstated by supporters and abhorrers, as Powell saw himself primarily as an economic man (more than two thirds of the chapters of Freedom & Reality, published soon after Rivers of Blood Speech were economic).
[edit] Economic views
Powell was staunchly anti-interventionist in economic and monetary affairs. He believed that business interests should be looked after by the people that best understood them—businessmen—not politicians. He was the first politician of major influence to call for de-nationalision of public services in the 1960s, and had criticised conventions on business practise organised or funded by the government. Powell was very much a monetarist but supported the welfare state.
[edit] Social views
Powell's social views differed from those of his conservative allies in that he supported no-fault divorce, relaxed abortion laws and other aspects of the permissive society put forth by Labour. It is worth noting that the majority of Powell's Old Right and far-right supporters strongly reject his social views, whilst neophytes tend not to be as oppositional. As with his economical viewpoints, Powell was anti-interventionist, although it would be more accurate to regard him as an anti-paternalist than an anti-traditionalist. Powell supported the maintenance of Monarchy, established religion and hereditary peers in governance. He voted to decriminalise homosexuality and did not regard "it as a proper area for the criminal law to operate".[1]
His views on forms of punishment, judiciary and educational, were not those of most contemporary or even present day Conservatives. He described the death penalty as "utterly repugnant" and voted consistently against corporal punishment in schools.
On 11 April, 1973, he wrote in the Daily Telegraph:
I should be the last to imply that a Member of Parliament ought to subordinate his judgement of what is wise or right to even the most overwhelming majority of opinion. If he believes a thing harmful, he must not support it; if he thinks it unjust he must denounce it. In those judgements the opinion of those he represents have no claim over him. But capital punishment is not for me in that category; it is not self-evidently harmful or self-evidently unjust. I cannot therefore deny that in this context a settled and preponderant public demand ought to be taken into account or that at a certain point it would have to prevail. I do not believe that point has been reached: but it would be disingenuous for me to deny that it could exist.
[edit] Nationalism
Powell placed the nation-state as the most important political organisation and he was a romantic British nationalist. His views on Britain's relations with the rest of the world derived ultimately from the belief in the independent nation-state. On the issue which ultimately caused Powell to leave the Conservative party and the issue which Powell placed above all others in importance, the EEC, Powell believed that it eroded national sovereignty in an unprecedented way not known since the English Reformation. This was because EEC law had primacy over law made in the United Kingdom Parliament, which Powell considered the true representation of the British nation with the monarch as its head.
The United States of America, Powell thought, was Britain's enemy not its ally. Powell believed that America was against Northern Ireland being part of the UK because it wanted a united Ireland within NATO to help combat the Soviet Union. Powell thought that Ulster should be integrated with the rest of the Kingdom and treated no differently from the rest of it. Moreover Powell also thought that Russia posed no threat to the UK and claimed that the UK and Russia were 'natural allies' in holding the European balance of power, not foes. Powell also supported unilaterally disarming Britain's independent nuclear deterrent, as he thought that states would never use it because of its devastating effects.
Powell was also against the Commonwealth of Nations because Powell believed that independent countries which were once part of the British Empire were no longer Britain's responsibility and that no national interest compelled Britain to be a member. Powell believed patriotism should in the post-Imperial age be derived from the patria, the nation-state, regardless of the racial composition of foreign states.
The United Nations, to Powell, was an "absurdity and a monstrosity" by its very nature because it sought to preserve the international status quo without the use of force but that the "rise and growth and disappearance of nations is mediated by force...Without war the sovereign nation is not conceivable".[2] In this he was in international relations terminology, a 'realist'. War to Powell was the ultimate sacrifice a man could make for his nation and he once said he wished he had been killed in battle during World War II.
[edit] Separations and possible criticism
[edit] Differences from Thatcherism
The former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, based many of her defining policies along the lines of Enoch Powell's rhetoric. There are not a great many differences; although Margaret Thatcher did make attempts to curtail immigration, it was not to the extent that Powell had proposed in 1968. Thatcher also intended to greatly reduce the power of the welfare state and national assistance, which Powell had not been so enthusiastic about.
The most notable schism between Powell and Thatcher lies not in economic or social decisions, but in foreign affairs. Enoch Powell's sentiment on Britain as part of the wider world would be more in line with Salisbury's "Splendid Isolationism" than Thatcher's advocacy of the Special Relationship. Powell was a well-travelled man who spoke a dozen languages, but his foreign policy ideas could be described as xenophobic by some. He had no more like of America than he did of Europe.
Enoch Powell distanced himself philosophically from Margaret Thatcher; notably when it was remarked to him that she was a convert to Powellism, Powell replied: "A pity she never understood it!"
[edit] Divergence from libertarianism
Libertarians may be unhappy about some of Powell's social views, namely his support of the Church of England's involvement in politics and his closed door immigration policy.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Naim Attallah, Of a Certain Age (Quartet Books, 1993), p. 238.
- ^ Simon Heffer, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999), p. 563.
[edit] Books on Powellism
- A Nation Not Afraid: The Thinking of Enoch Powell (B. T. Batsford, 1965) edited by John Wood.
