“Enoch Powell. His part in my downfall”

A former Conservative candidate is “set to cause a political storm” with his new book on the “future of the country”. When you know that the author in question is former Birmingham Post editor, Nigel Hastilow, you’ll probably guess where he is taking you with his arguments. I recently read a piece in my local paper under the headline “Enoch, his part in my downfall” that also underpins where Mr Hastilow is going. Actually, most of it was a stinging invective against the BBC, though this is not available on the website.

“The BBC is so politically correct that when I wrote about Enoch Powell on these pages last Autumn, the news led their radio and TV news bulletins for 24 hours. The BBC behaved like a horrified maiden aunt. So did The Observer newspaper, Caroline Spelman, chairman of the Conservative Party and ex-cabinet Minister Peter Hain”.

Just to reinforce his point, Mr Hastilow pens an open letter to the BBC on his own blog. I take it he not a fan of public service broadcasting.

PS I wonder who is the “highly placed party source” who said “The trouble is with the idiots David Cameron has surrounded himself with…..These people despise the members of the Conservative Party. They think the members are all old, right-wing bigots.”