John Townend MP, Conservative member for Bridlington, was noted for outspoken views on immigration and race. In April 2001 he became embroiled in a major row with the then foreign Secretary Robin Cook demanding to know if Cook believed that the English were a ‘mongrel race’ (we are, of course, like most populations). His intemperate comments provoked an intemperate response from all sides (including Lord Taylor from the Tory side), and he was forced to apologise by the then Tory leader Wiliam Hague, or resign.

The Editor
The Times

29 April 2001

Sir,

Lord Taylor’s display of intolerance puts him in the same camp as Mr Straw, Mr Cook and the other Labour politicians who require us all to believe without doubting in the virtue of their multicultural policy.

Townend’s views are expressed with little of the dainty tread now expected of all who venture into ethnicity and race. But the essence seems at least arguable. He has criticised ‘multicultural’ policy in the sense of meaning an official commitment to the preservation of new cultural differences of immigrant origin, as being divisive and harmful. He has insisted, using inclusive language, that immigrants or at least their descendants should instead adapt to become part of the country in which they have chosen to live. And he has claimed, if I translate him aright, that his constituents don’t like the suggestion that they are just part of a ‘nation of immigrants’.

The last, factual claim, is easily tested with a poll. Will anyone dare hold one? Insofar as it means anything, the proposition itself, though become liberal gospel, is highly questionable on grounds of history and demography at least over the last millennium. The obligations of immigrants to the country in which they have chosen to settle seem an obvious matter of natural justice. The contentious multicultural policy, which is turning the country upside down, is imposed from above without electoral consent.

What is Conservative policy on these issues? What, exactly, do Messrs Hague and Taylor want us to believe, that make Townend such a heretic? They had better be careful they do not turn him into an unlikely martyr.

David Coleman