Talk:Enoch Powell

It seems like tittle tattle and non-encylopedic to detail a supposed, unidentified university crush; hearsay that someone possibly once mentioned to someone else. In my view its inclusion doesn't benefit the serious article. The section also includes WP:SYNTH. As the article is currently twice the recommended length I would vote to remove this section.

"According to Michael Bloch, in his old age, Powell confessed to Canon Eric James, a former Trinity College chaplain, that he had been in love with a fellow male undergraduate at Cambridge, whom Bloch identifies as "probably Edward Curtis of Clare College", and that this infatuation had inspired love verses published in his First Poems. This confession was revealed by Canon James in a letter to The Times on 10 February 1998.[259] Following his appointment as Professor of Greek at the University of Sydney in 1937, he wrote to his parents that he was repelled by his female students, while feeling "an instant and instinctive affection" for young Australian males. This, he added, might be "deplored, but it cannot be altered", and it therefore had to be "endured – and (alas!) camouflaged." The letters are now in the Churchill College Archives.[260]" Anna (talk) 21:16, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Enoch Powell and the Making of Postcolonial Britain pg 10 says there were questions regarding Powell's apparently repressed homosexuality, I think it's probably due a sentence in Personal life but we don't need the details Kowal2701 (talk) 22:13, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

"Questions" seem a bit week for an inclusion, to me. 22:49, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

It's not hearsay - it's what somebody went on the record as having been told by Powell, namely that he had been in love with another young man and that this had inspired some of his early poems. The youthful Powell's lack of experience of women, after living a very monastic life, was generally remarked on in older biographies, including his reluctance to interact with female students in Sydney. There was also a fair bit of discussion when the real fat biographies were published in the mid to late Nineties. Shepherd as I recall discussed his youthful homosexual inclinations along with his abortive courtship of a woman called Barbara in the late 1940s who was still alive and giving interviews then. She was his first sort-of girlfriend when he was in his late thirties, and he didn't take rejection well. He was blamelessly married from 1952 onwards.Paulturtle (talk) 23:09, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Given how prominently involved he was in public discourse on homosexuality, I think it creeps in. Plenty of biographies speculate about their subject's sexuality Kowal2701 (talk) 23:12, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Flicking through some biographies, 1963 looks about the right place for an article split (a third to half way through said books). The current article is a bit skewed by the enormous amount of direct quotation of Powell's opinions on various events, especially after 1979 when he was still active in public life but no longer a serious power-broker. Paulturtle (talk) 05:33, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

I was in the process of condensing the article a bit and putting some of the quotes in to footnotes, to at least make the main article more readable of the general reader. I got ill, so not all the article is done. I can continue the process. Editors here have expressed appreciation for the extant article, long as it is. I'm not sure I have encountered a biog that is split in the middle. To me it would seem like a shame. Anna (talk) 20:05, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Maybe split some off into Political career of Enoch Powell, like we do with Political career of Donald Trump, Political career of Silvio Berlusconi, and Political career of Abraham Lincoln (1849–1861). Could also have Views of Enoch Powell as another child article, like we have Views of Elon Musk, Views of Kanye West, and Views of Richard Dawkins. Kowal2701 (talk) 21:09, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

In the article on Netherne Hospital, Powell is stated to have made in 1961 a signal "so-called "Water Tower Speech"" which called for reforms away from institutional care of mental patients. The three words are wikilinked to this article, leading the reader to this subsection. However it does not mention the nickname of the speech nor make clear which one it was, as he may have made more than one recorded speech on the subject. Clearly the speech was important enough to be given that nickname, though understandably it may be overshadowed in popular memory of Powell by the equally so-called "Rivers of Blood" speech. It would be helpful to bring in a few words about the 1961 speech so that "Water Tower speech" truly cross-references between the two articles. I was born in 1959 but up to today had never heard of the name being used.Cloptonson (talk) 07:24, 6 June 2025 (UTC)

Given that this article clearly details how Powell and his Rivers of Blood speech were incredibly influential within the far-right, shouldn't the "far-right politics in the United Kingdom sidebar" be added to this article, especially as a link to both this article and the speech article are in that template? -- DeFacto (talk). 08:44, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

I support its inclusion just based on this influence, but I'm curious to know what objections others might have if they are opposed. Loytra^✨ 05:07, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

Without opposing I can tell you what the opposition would: trivial mention of far-right in the body. CNC (talk) 20:25, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

far-right is overused by the left to slur opponents, but it would be par for course given wikipedias inherant bias... to scolars though, serious ones, "far-right" is like neo-nazis or actual nazis (from ww2)... not anyone who disagrees with mass migration... according to your definition then over half of the USA is "far-right"... the problem is wikipedia these days likes to quote op-eds as fact DarkShroom (talk) 00:44, 19 October 2025 (UTC)