Tories to soften stand on immigration?

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, OCT. 2. The Tories, trying hard to mend fences with ethnic minorities in the run up to the next year's elections, today ruled out the infamous ``cricket loyalty'' test for immigrants amid demands from the Conservative Left - an ideological contradiction in terms - that the party should work to soften its image of a hardliner on race relations.

This follows the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair's attack at his party conference in Brighton last week on the Conservative leadership for trying to use the ``race card'' on the issue of giving asylum to foreigners. The Conservatives are opposed to what they see as the Blair Government's ``softly softly'' approach to asylum seekers, most of whom come from the non-white developing world.

The Tories arrived at their own party conference in Bournemouth today determined to try and put a human face on their policy on race issues. The Tory leader, Mr. William Hague and his top brass are under pressure to refurbish the party's image by adopting a ``One Nation'' approach and shedding its perceived exclusivist right-wing agenda. Several prominent leaders, including the veteran, Mr. Michael Heseltine have already spoken up for a more compassionate conservativism arguing that if the party wants to return to power it would need to broaden its appeal beyond the confines of its traditional supporters.

Mr. Damian Gray, a frontbencher and the party's spokesman on environment, has insisted on ``big efforts to make sure that our language on race and our policies on race are extremely sensitive''. He has attacked the party's ``no no'' approach to ethnic minorities, gays, single parents and the blue- collar workers. This is the theme of the discussion on the fringes of the conference and Mr. Hague is expected to respond to these concerns. The conference opened against a depressing backdrop as new opinion polls showed that the Labour had not only retrieved its ground on the popularity chart but gained a lead over the Tories after hitting the bottom of the charts barely ten days ago following fuel protests.

Meanwhile, to be fair to the Tories, the ``cricket loyalty`` test has never been their official policy but many of their supportes keep a close eye on who claps for whom in cricket matches and those clapping with the ``enemy''are deemed ``anti- national''. The fact that the party felt the need to clarify its stand reflects its concern over the effects of alienating a large electorate.

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Section  : International
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