Ethnic minorities WOULD vote for Dave [Cameron] – if only he acted like a Tory

I still think many ethnic minorities still remember Enoch Powell.

Or the misrepresentation of his Rivers of Blood speech.

It's quite surprising how many second and third generation immigrants are speaking out about immigration now though.

Or the misrepresentation of his Rivers of Blood speech.

It's quite surprising how many second and third generation immigrants are speaking out about immigration now though.

What was misinterpreted about it?

It was taken out if context. Used by the left to vilify the right and used by Ted Heath to get rid of the competition.

Bear in mind that Powell had popular support from the left and the right.

However, returning back to the original question, I think that Powells river of Blood speech as little impact now as it was made nearly 50 years ago.

But what was taken out of context about it though?

I think the analysis in the second link is pretty much spot on.

Ethnic minorities in the UK are more likely to be socially conservative on lots of issues (other than race) than white British, particularly if they are Muslim or from traditional African societies. But the reason they are turned off Tories is because they generally feel excluded by the Conservative party, regardless of what the party leadership says or its token gestures to ethnic minority candidates and so on. At grass roots level a lot of Conservatives fundamentally don't see ethnic minorities as being British, they see Britain as basically a white, Christian country and feel that it was a better place when there were fewer ethnic minorities around. If an asian candidate ran to be leader of the Conservative party a lot of grass roots members, backbench MPs and certainly voters would not want them, regardless of their abilities or political standpoint, they would not be comfortable with the idea of a British Prime Minister with an asian name and / or dark skin. They would argue that they aren't racist but they just don't feel comfortable with that.

However left wing parties are more likely to be accepting of that and I expect the first black or asian leader of a party will come from one of the left wing parties.

"in 15 or 20 years time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man"?

What exactly about this was misinterpreted?

Well firstly, Powell never made that statement. That statement was a quote from a letter that he received from one of his constituents. You now, the people who's viewpoints an MP is elected to represent.

So there's the first bit of 'out of context' we've addressed.

I think I'd be more likely to vote for Conservatives, if more of the members were like Boris Johnson. He rejected the growing view that immigrants are the problem of society and that immigrants should not be welcomed in some article. He acknowledged the positive contributions of immigrants and I admire him for that especially since Conservatives are so quick to try win back UKIP voters and are happy to adopt the 'immigrants not welcome' approach to politics, in fact Labour has become quite silent on the issue in fear of angering the electorate so for a politician to stand up and say no to scapegoating I think is admirable. Although he could be just saying that because he knows London is a diverse area and wants to be voted Mayor again, I don't know.