If we can't beat this lot...

I wrote a while back that even the dimmest bigots now realised that explaining away racist comments with the excuse that they could not be prejudiced 'because some of my best friends are Asian' just made them look stupid. A reader has contacted me to demand a correction.

It is rarely wise to overestimate the self awareness of wannabe Tory MPs, and, sure enough, Tory parliamentary candidate, Ellenor Bland, did, indeed, defend herself from allegations of racism after e-mailing round a racist poem about asylum-seekers by claiming "some of my best friends are Asian", and that they weren't offended.

It turns out that Ala Uddin, the Asian friend to whom she was referring, was, in fact, offended, saying: "This kind of poem can be damaging. It is wrong, and it should not be sent around as a joke"…"I think that most Asian people come here properly and pay their taxes."

Meanwhile, Bernard Jenkin, when questioned about having told Tory A-lister Ali Miraj that "I would be shocked if they didn't pick a white middle-class male," explained that "You know, there are lots of candidates who may be coloured or may be white who get disappointed in selections." He was sacked from his role of recruiting ethnic minority, or as Bernard would no doubt term it, 'coloured' candidates for the Tories.