Introducing the protagonists:
Jonathan Miller was a polymath of rare range: trained as a doctor, he first emerged into public consciousness in the 1960s satire boom with Beyond the Fringe before carving out a distinguished career as a theatre and opera director, broadcaster, and public intellectual. His productions—particularly of Shakespeare and Mozart—were marked by intellectual rigour, psychological acuity and a refusal of empty theatrical flourish. On television, through series such as The Body in Question, he brought complex scientific and medical ideas to a wide audience with clarity and wit. Miller combined scepticism, erudition and a certain patrician sharpness; he distrusted cant and fashionable dogma, yet was never anti-intellectual. Few British cultural figures of the late twentieth century moved so fluidly between medicine, comedy, philosophy and high art while maintaining such a distinctive, questioning voice.
Enoch Powell was one of the most controversial figures in modern British politics, a classicist-turned-Conservative MP whose 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech made him synonymous with strident opposition to mass immigration. A formidable scholar, he became a professor of Greek in his twenties, Powell brought an austere, almost prophetic tone to politics, warning that rapid demographic change would fracture social cohesion. His speech led to his dismissal from the Shadow Cabinet but also won him significant popular support among the intellectually challenged, revealing entrenched racism within parts of the electorate. To critics, Powell legitimised racial hostility and emboldened extremism; to supporters, he articulated concerns others were too decent to voice. Decades on, his legacy remains divisive, shaping debates about immigration, national identity and free speech in Britain.
When brought together, Miller won in a knockout.
On days like today, it’s important to remember the words of Jonathan Miller when challenging the dog-whistling of snake-oil salesmen trying to divide us for political/personal gain & Billionaires hoarding wealth offshore to avoid UK tax while claiming to be patriotic. #newsnight pic.twitter.com/UaN4Jphjj2
— Eddie Burfi (@EddieBurfi) February 11, 2026
And for the white working classes who support Powell:
