In April 1968 Wade Crooks, a Jamaican immigrant living in Wolverhampton, was enjoying a christening party for his grandson, born in Britain. Wade was thankful for his job as a window cleaner that gave him the means to provide for his growing family, and to contribute to the society that had welcomed him. Suddenly, without warning or provocation, the Crooks christening was invaded by fourteen white youths. They demanded to know why Wade wasn't making plans to return to his 'own country.' Astonished and perplexed, Wade had no answer. At which, one of the youths slashed Wade's face with a knife cut that required eight stitches.
Two days before this horrific event, Enoch Powell, Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton, had made a speech in Birmingham, putting forward, amongst other anti-immigrant rhetoric, the idea that immigrants should be made to return to their country of origin.
Since Brexit, when certain politicians connected to the Leave campaign, bandied around similar ideas in public speeches, there has been a fivefold increase in reports of hate crime. After having her pay cut an EU immigrant was told if she didn't like it she should go home. Other immigrants have been told by complete strangers they "should leave." Others have been denied entry to clubs, openly threatened for speaking in their own language, and had their children express fears of being deported.
The two events — the assault on Wade Crooks in 1968 and the abuse of EU immigrants in 2016 — are only a short step away from the pogrom of Kristallnacht in the Nazi Germany of 1938, obviously a result of Hitler's hysterical oratory.
Politicians and leaders have a responsibility to consider the consequences of any speech, and to temper their words accordingly. History proves that not to do so can embolden the prejudiced, and foment racism and hatred.