"Like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood"
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It is exactly 40 years ago on Sunday (20 April 2008) that Enoch Powell made his notorious "Rivers of Blood" speech at a Birmingham hotel. So what do people in the Midlands make of his dire predictions about immigration today?
The fact that we are still talking about a speech made in 1968 by a politician who has been dead for 10 years speaks volumes about the impact of Powell's words.
It is one of the most infamous political speeches of all time and it still polarises opinion.
Supporters say Powell was right in his analysis and he articulated an inconvenient truth about large-scale immigration from our former colonies.
Multi-culturalism
Opponents say he was an opportunist who stirred up racial hatred for his own personal political gain without regard to the consequences.
The speech was given in a room at the Midland Hotel in Birmingham.
The hotel is now called the Burlington and, this Sunday, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has booked a room there for a debate on Modern Multi-Culturalism.
That, in itself, says a lot about how society has changed since the late 1960s but it also shows that the issue is still a live one with the potential to provoke heated argument.
Fresh vision
Indeed the invitation to Sunday's event talks about Britain being "in the midst of a deep and widespread debate about the future of multi-culturalism."
It goes on to say that "The Commission wishes to articulate its vision of a fresh approach to multi-culturalism in modern Britain".
The choice of location to outline this vision is interesting to say the least, as are the views of one of the key speakers.
"History has proved Powell to be wrong. Britain is by and large a tolerant society"
Far right
Much of the current debate about multi-culturalism has been led by Trevor Phillips, the current head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who has been accused of pandering to the far-right by London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
Phillips recently accused Britain of "Sleep-walking into segregation", with particular racial and religious groups confined to rigid ghettos within our inner cities living separate lives to other communities, as they do in the United States.
In many ways he has echoed the concerns from four decades earlier when Powell worried about the long-term impact of a large proportion of non-white immigrants settling in places like his Wolverhampton South West constituency.
Ludicrous misconception
Back then Powell talked about how many of the newcomers wanted to integrate into British society but there were a growing number of immigrants and their decedents for whom integration "is a ludicrous misconception and a dangerous one to boot".
Former Transport and General Workers Union leader, Bill Morris, now Lord Morris of Handsworth, remembers the speech and its aftermath well.
"It gave racists permission to attack black people. It suddenly became ok to attack us physically, emotionally or verbally - it was a fundamental shift," he said.
Predictions were wrong
Ultimately though Lord Morris believes that predictions about "rivers of blood" have proved wide of the mark.
"History has proved Powell to be wrong, very wrong. There are issues within respective communities but by and large Britain is a tolerant society."
Morris also praised Birmingham as a city which he said had heard what Powell had to say and had "risen above it".
Funeral pyre
Powell also spoke of immigration policy in the late 60s as an example "a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre" with the consequences being "the River Tiber foaming with much blood" - a classical reference to the potential for future racial conflict.
Our reporter, Helen Jenkinson, has been to Wolverhampton to see how the city, where Powell was once an MP, has changed since 1968 and what people who live there now think of his apocalyptic predictions about the consequences of immigration.
Also in the programme ....
Are this year's local elections a chance for the electorate to give their verdict on Gordon Brown's tenure as PM so far, or more about a chance to moan about the bins?
In the second of three previews of this year's contests our Political Editor Patrick Burns heads for Worcestershire where three key contests take place this time around.
The Conservatives will be hoping to make gains in each of the local authority votes in Worcerster, Redditch and Wyre Forest.
Brown bounce
In Worcester the Tories lost overall control of the council in a by election in the St Clement's ward last year after a massive 17.6% swing to Labour.
The result helped stoke the frenzied build-up to the election-that-never-was as it was held up as a living, breathing example of the Brown-bounce.
Remember that?
Labour surged ahead in the opinion polls on the back of support for the new PM - it all seems so long ago now does it not?
Wheelie bins
This time round the Tories need to make a solitary gain to resume overall control.
Labour will be hoping the voters will punish the Conservatives for the unpopular introduction of wheelie bins in the city - such are the realities of what proves decisive in local elections.
Over in Redditch the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, will watch with interest to see if Labour can remain the largest single party on the council.
Confusing picture
Currently Labour has 14 of the 29 seats and this time round, they are defending six of them.
The Tories need four to take overall control of a town where Labour have proved a tough nut to crack.
With a majority of just over 2,700 big Tory gains on 1 May, could be worrying for Jacqui Smith's position.
Across north Worcestershire and into Wyre Forest and it is the usual confusing picture as the main parties slug it out with a variety of Health Concern campaigners, Independents and old-style pre-Lib Dem Liberals.
Difficult game
Pick your way through this thicket of fringe groups and political curios and it is the Conservatives that emerge as the largest single group with 18 of the 42 councillors there, meaning they need to make four gains to take overall control.
It is rarely that simple in Wyre Forest though, and while the popular Dr Richard Taylor (Ind Health Concern) remains the MP for the area predicting results here has proved to be a difficult game.
If the Tories take control of all three councils then they will have had a very good night indeed - expect a champagne cork-popping grand tour of the area by David Cameron.
Gaining control of Worcester would be the minimum requirement for evidence of progress in this politically diverse and never dull corner of Middle England.
The Politics Show for the West Midlands, with Jon Sopel and Sarah Falkland on Sunday 20 April, at 1200 BST on BBC One
If you have an issue you would like us to follow up then please write to the producer of the show: Nick Watson, BBC Politics Show, The Mailbox, Birmingham, B1 1RF or email nicholas.watson@bbc.co.uk
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