Race row hits Tories

John Townend, the Conservative MP for Yorkshire East, apologised for his "ill-chosen words" about immigrants undermining Britain's "homogeneous Anglo-Saxon society" and creating "a mongrel race", and promised not to repeal them. In his recantation, made at the insistence of Tory leader William Hague, he accepted that "racism has no place in the Conservative party". Laurence Robertson, the Tewkesbury MP who had supported Townend, also apologised. But the row over Tory attitudes to race rumbled on, with the black Tory peer Lord Taylor complaining that Townend's apology was "too little too late". At one point, Lord Taylor had threatened to resign over the issue, and was reported to be considering joining the Labour Party. But this week, he said he was not planning to take the matter further. Former Conservative prime minister Sir Edward Heath warned that his party was in the grip of the extreme right.

The WEEK, 5 May, 2001

This affair has been terribly damaging to William Hague, said The Independent. He should have disciplined his racist MPs immediately. Now the Tory party seems even less inclusive than when he took over. "That is quite an achievement."

Hague was unlucky, said The Times. Townend is an obscure backbencher whose speech was reported some time after the event. Hague was worried that ' withdrawing the party whip would have stoked rather than smothered the story. Other Tory MPs shared Townend's views - and besides, Hague's own "foreign land speech had undermined his credibility on the subject. But when Townend made more inflammatory remarks, Hague made a fatal mistake: he delayed again, allowing the media to give the impression of a "shambles" of a party. Hague was insufficiently decisive, agreed the Daily Mail, but the most revealing aspects of the story were the disloyalty of Lord Taylor and other Tories, and the "glee with which the liberal media and Blairite media inflated the row".

Task 9. Self Assessment. Write an essay about the people of Britain.

Unit 3. Monarchy basic facts:

Task 1. Read the basic facts and discuss with a partner other facts you know.

• Monarchy is Britain’s oldest secular institution.

• Monarch’s power is hereditary.

• Britain is a Constitutional Monarchy.

• Nowadays Britain is ruled by Queen Elisabeth II, who was crowned in 1953.

• The Privy Council is an old institution, which advises the Queen on the issue of Royal proclamations, such as those summoning or dissolving Parliament.There are about 480 Privy Counsellors, consisting of the Cabinet, senior politicians, judges.

• In Britain there exists the so-called Civil List, according to which the members of the Royal Family receive certain sums of money from the State Budget voted yearly by Parliament.

Task 2. Read the text below and think of possible subtitles for every part of the text on Monarchy.