ABSTRACT
Enoch Powell, a former Minister of Health, had been appointed to Edward Heath’s shadow cabinet after the Conservatives’ defeat in 1964. Powell was keen to learn all he could about the processes involved in news management and, with the Conservatives in opposition, he was more determined than ever to get maximum exposure in the news media. Powell’s prediction about the impact of the speech proved correct: the fallout reverberated for months and the rights and wrongs of his protestations are argued about to the day. In the weeks preceding the guild of editors’ 1967 conference Powell had made 26 speeches on a range of national issues, but it was not until the summer of that year that he once again campaigned openly for a curb in Commonwealth immigration. Powell’s Birmingham speech became a constant thread during a lifetime in journalism.
