ABSTRACT
The author interrogates the role of the Anglican Church within these invectives against the elites. Much academic research published since around 2000 highlights key components of Powell's politics. Among the plethora of books and articles published on the catch-all concept of “populism”, it is possible to identify some specific traits that help to make sense of Powell's ideology, career, as well as of the responses he brought about and the party reactions his campaign elicited. Powellites bitterly felt that they were being silenced, and that only the iconic populist leader was speaking for them. Some even used the phrase “silent majority”, which itself predated the Richard Nixon speech that was to make it a household phrase, in a November 3rd 1969 rhetorical performance dealing with the Vietnam War. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Michael Ramsey, acted as the chairman of the government-created National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants, which dubbed Powell's speech an “appeal to unreasoning passions of dislike and distrust”.
