Nigel Hastilow is a journalist, author, businessman and politician. He is a former editor of the Birmingham Post and was Conservative Party candidate for Birmingham Edgbaston in the 2001 general election. In April 2007, Hastilow was selected a prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for the Conservative Party for the Halesowen and Rowley Regis constituency but was deselected after he received criticism about a newspaper column he wrote for the Express & Star which included the statement "Enoch Powell was right", sparking a national controversy about immigration and racism.

The "Rivers of Blood" speech was made by British Member of Parliament (MP) Enoch Powell on 20 April 1968, to a meeting of the Conservative Political Centre in Birmingham, England. His speech made various remarks, which included strong criticism of significant Commonwealth immigration to the United Kingdom and the proposed Race Relations Act, which made it illegal to refuse housing, employment, or public services to a person on the grounds of colour, race, ethnic or national origins in the country. It became known as the "Rivers of Blood" speech, although Powell always referred to it as "the Birmingham speech". The former name alludes to a prophecy from Virgil's Aeneid which Powell, a former classical scholar, quoted:As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood'.