Powellism is the name for the political beliefs of the politician Enoch Powell, who was in the Conservative and Ulster Unionist parties. These beliefs came from his views as a High Tory and a libertarian (someone who wants maximum freedom).
The Oxford English Dictionary says the word "Powellism" was first used by The Economist magazine on July 17, 1965. But the day before, a man named Iain Macleod wrote about Powell's book of speeches. Macleod said:
The word was first used to talk about Powell's ideas on money and the economy. Powell gave his own definition: "[Powellism is] an almost unlimited faith in the ability of the people to get what they want through peace, capital, profit and a competitive market".
Powell was a strong British nationalist. He saw the nation (country) as "the ultimate political reality". He thought the British Parliament was the voice of the British nation. He was against Britain joining the European Economic Community (EEC) because he thought it would end the power of the British nation to rule itself.
His ideas about Britain's relationship with other countries came from his belief in independent nations. He thought the United Nations was "an absurdity and a monstrosity". This was because the UN tried to keep things the same between countries without using force. Powell believed that war was sometimes necessary for nations to exist.
Powell was against large-scale immigration. This came from his nationalist ideas and his belief that most immigrants could not truly become part of the nation.
One writer, Roy Lewis, said that for Powell, Northern Ireland "went down to the roots of his position on nationhood, on British national identity, on the uniqueness of parliamentary government". Powell believed the unionist majority in Northern Ireland was "part of the nation which inhabits the rest of the United Kingdom". He thought Northern Ireland should stay in the UK.
Powell said that people who broke the law because they (wrongly) thought they were protecting their country were "breaches the peace". He also disagreed that British soldiers were just "glorified policemen" meant to keep two warring sides apart.
Powell wanted Northern Ireland to be fully joined with the rest of the UK. He wanted it treated just like any other part. He used to support the Northern Irish Parliament and even suggested redrawing the border. He believed that British governments, pushed by America, were trying to force Northern Ireland to join with the rest of Ireland.
In 1961, Powell supported Britain joining the EEC. He thought it would help free up Britain's economy. But he changed his mind soon after. He studied the EEC more and decided that joining it would stop Britain from being a self-governing nation. Powell said the EEC question "must be the question which subtends all others...for – in peace as in war, it is the great, the ultimate, question for any nation".
The EEC issue made Powell leave the Conservative Party in 1974. This was because the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, had taken Britain into the EEC in 1973 without asking the voters first. Five days before an election, Powell quit. He then shocked everyone by telling the public to vote for the Labour Party. Labour was offering a public vote (a referendum) on staying in the EEC.
Powell saw the EEC as the most important issue. This was because EEC law was more powerful than laws made in the British Parliament. Powell saw Parliament as the true voice of the British nation.
Powell was against devolution (giving power) to Scotland and Wales. This was because he was a British nationalist and believed Britain was a single, united state. Powell said the same voters could not be represented in two different parliaments unless Britain became a federal state (like the USA or Germany). He wanted the whole British nation to be represented in one parliament.
He believed that if Scottish and Welsh people saw themselves as separate nations, they should become their own independent countries, separate from the UK.
At first, Powell supported the British Empire. He wanted to keep British rule in India. After that failed, he was against Britain being in the Commonwealth (the group of countries that used to be in the empire).
He thought that once these countries became independent, what happened there was no longer Britain's business. Powell believed that after the empire, patriotism (love for one's country) should be for the nation itself, no matter what race the people in other countries were.
Powell was one of the few MPs who spoke out against the cruelty of British troops during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. He demanded that British soldiers who did terrible things should be punished.
Powell believed the USA was against Northern Ireland being part of the UK. He thought this was because the US wanted all of Ireland to be one country inside NATO to fight the Soviet Union. Powell also blamed the US for the end of the British Empire and for Britain losing influence in the world.
Powell used to support Britain having its own nuclear weapons. But after he was no longer a government minister, he changed his mind.
He rejected the common idea that nuclear weapons stopped Russia from attacking Western Europe. He said British security was based on "the American alliance and American armament".
Powell believed that even if the Soviet Union had wanted to invade Western Europe, it wouldn't have. This was "for one simple overwhelming reason: it would have meant a war they couldn't expect to win" against the United States. Powell called the nuclear deterrent a "pretend deterrent". He said the fact that France and the UK had their own nuclear weapons showed they didn't believe the US would risk a nuclear war to save them. He said they were "victims to their own reasoning" because they wouldn't use their own nuclear weapons either, since the results would be too horrific.
Powell supported getting rid of nuclear weapons (unilateral disarmament). He also disagreed that nuclear weapons stopped "nuclear blackmail". He said a country would have to choose between "unlimited devastation" or surrender.
Powell strongly believed the government should not get involved in the economy or money. He thought that business people understood business best, not politicians. He was against government-funded meetings on business practices. In the 1960s, he was the first major politician to call for de-nationalisation (selling government-owned services back to private companies).
Powell's social views were different from many of his conservative allies. He supported "no-fault" divorce. He also supported other parts of the "permissive society" (a time of more social freedoms) that the Labour party brought in.
However, he supported keeping the monarchy, having an official religion (established religion), and having hereditary peers (nobles) in government. He voted to make homosexuality legal. He did not think "it as a proper area for the criminal law to operate".
His views on punishment, judges, and education were not typical for Conservatives then or now. He said the death penalty was "utterly repugnant" (disgusting). He always voted against using corporal punishment (like hitting) in schools.
Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. Many of her main policies were based on Powell's ideas.
But they had big differences. Both wanted to de-nationalise industries, but their methods were different. Thatcher wanted to limit the power of trade unions by defeating them in big conflicts, like the miners' strike. Powell, however, defended unions. He wanted to win over union members to his money policies by using logic and arguments against socialist ideas.
Enoch Powell supported voluntary repatriation. This meant he wanted the government to pay non-white immigrants to return to the countries they or their families came from. Margaret Thatcher's governments never suggested or did this.
The biggest split between Powell and Thatcher was on foreign policy. Powell's view was more like "splendid isolation" (keeping Britain separate). Thatcher's view was "Atlanticism" (a close relationship with the US). Powell saw the United States and Britain as rivals, not allies.
They also disagreed on the European Economic Community (EEC). In the 1970s and early 1980s, Thatcher was a big supporter of Britain being in the EEC. She helped lead the "Yes" campaign to stay in the EEC during the 1975 vote. Powell was a leader of the "No" campaign to leave. Thatcher only started to worry about the EEC's plans for a single government and currency in the late 1980s. Powell had been warning about this since the mid-1960s.
Powell distanced himself from Thatcher. When someone said she had converted to Powellism, Powell reportedly answered: "A pity she never understood it!"
Ralph Harris, from a group called the Institute of Economic Affairs, wrote to Powell. He said Powell's views on immigration went against his other libertarian views. Powell disagreed with this idea.