River of Blood again?

In 1968, Enoch Powell, a senior British politician, on the very right wing of the Conservative Party, quoted from Sybil’s prophecy in Virgil’s Aeneid, "wars, terrible wars, / and the Tiber foaming with much blood", in his anti-immigration speech, the infamous “River of Blood” speech, in which Powell warned: “As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood’.”

Whether Powell did or did not want blood to flow is almost beside the point. He was not stupid and he will have known that his supporters would act, when their leader suggests blood.

I was reminded of that vile man, after hearing Nigel Farage’s reaction to the ruling, a couple of weeks ago, of the British High Court that the prime minister was required to get Parliament’s approval before it triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, notifying the EU that Britain is getting out.

Farage, a leader of the UKIP party, according to the Daily Telegraph, intends to lead a 100,000 strong march to the Supreme Court on the day it will be hearing the appeal on the High Court’s ruling.  Farage said “I worry that a betrayal may be near at hand… I now fear that every attempt will be made to block or delay the triggering of Article 50. If this is so, they have no idea of the level of public anger they will provoke.”

Is this incitement that I am hearing?