It is no part of my business to discuss what gets politicians into office or debars them from it, but in the case of two noteworthy contenders of our time, J. Enoch Powell and Anthony Wedgwood Benn, the reason for their failure to reach the top is surely obvious. They both look barmy. I understand this as an elastic term which would include Benn's appearance of general dislocation as well as Powell's of more specific derangement...
Benn I have run into only once, early in his career, when by a misunderstanding he arrived on my doorstep expected but not heralded by any name. The door was one of the those with a glass panel affording a preview of the caller. At the first sign of the present arrival the thought flashed into my mind, "Who is this English cunt?" The distinguishing adjective is important. There are Scottish cunts, there are even Welsh cunts, and God knows there are American cunts, but the one in question could have come from nowhere else but this green and pleasant land.
Other guests arrived at the same time and my silent question went unanswered for the moment. I offered drinks. Someone asked for a gin and tonic. I turned to the cunt. "Same for you?" He reacted much as if I had said, "Glass of baby's blood?"...
Benn at any rate gives an impression of physical harmlessness: he would never, you feel, for for your throat. Not so Enoch Powell.
(Kingsley Amis, Memoirs)
Old Kingsley seems a little harsh on Enoch there, Harry, lumping him in with that fascist Benn. The worst you can say of him is that he made the mistake of quoting Virgil to a bunch of grammar school oiks who then tarred him as a racist. At least he didn't go to the Soviet Embassy and write "Congratulations on everything" in their Visitors' Book.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Benn smoked a pipe. Anyone who sucks on a pipe is a guaranteed bad egg...
In the speech in which Enoch Powell so learnedly quoted Virgil, he also referred to the horror of seeing "grinning pickannies" in the streets of Wolverhampton. When asked by a journalist, towards the end of his life, whether his speech might have been a tad racist, his reply was "What's wrong with racism?".
ReplyDelete*pickaninny
ReplyDeleteLet's cut him some slack. He was talking about Wolverhampton, after all. "Pickaninnies" is nothing compared to what he called the natives...
enoch was right
ReplyDeleteThe right time to cut Enoch some slack would be right after his nigger-hating neck got stretched. Oh and Benn was a cunt too, if that's any consolation.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHarry, you naughty boy, the comments above are full of forbidden racial slurs! And all because of your post! Not that I'm worried, all humans look the same me.
ReplyDeleteThank God you're here, GB. Intelligent conversation at last...
ReplyDeleteTony Benn was a red fascist pickaninny.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone's a pickaninny, it's Hutton. First post in 6 months and it's a passage copied from someone's memoirs! What a rotten slacker!
ReplyDeleteI come here for gay wolves and mordant commentary on the strange and pitiful spectacle that is Modern Man.
ReplyDeleteAnd what do I get? I get the Fuckingtimes Fuckingliterary Fuckingsupplement, that's what I get.
O tempora, o mores.
ReplyDeleteRedman Benn, Redman Benn,
Ha, ha-ha, ha, ha!
Redman Benn, Redman Benn,
Hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo, hoo!
Stole from the rich!
Gave to the poor!
Redman Benn!
Redman Benn!
Ha-ha-hoo!
Hutton, you cunt, do you even read the comments? Most of this crap should be deleted. You ought to ask Ball Bag or Noreen to moderate like in the old days.
ReplyDeleteBall Bag was a cocksucker.
ReplyDeleteNo question about it. In my every encounter with Powell he would, first thing, wouldn't you know it, for for my throat. I, of course, would run like hell. But not until having taken a manly swig of my g&t.
ReplyDeleteThere's no has-beens!
ReplyDeleteLike dead has-beens!
Like no has-beens I know!
Tata, tata, tata, tata, dum-di-dum!
Does anyone know the the rest of the lyrics?