What Mr Cook has on the back burner along with his chicken tikka masala.(British social policy and ethnicity)(Brief Article)

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 28-APR-01

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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

A few years ago, Lord Tebbit announced his `cricket test'. He said words to the effect that the real test of whether a Briton of immigrant origin owed ultimate allegiance to this country was whether they cheered on the English cricket team when it played India, Pakistan or the West Indies.

Many of us who broadly agreed with him had a few difficulties. We were born of a long line of Britons, but we still tended to cheer on the Italian and German music teams against the British. Ideally, we would love to have seen Vaughan Williams thrash Beethoven. But in any game between their respective symphonies, we shout for the Kraut. It is broadly the same with international painting. In the romantic division, in the view of many of us, our Turner beats France's Delacroix. Otherwise, no contest; France and Italy always beat us at painting. Still, we understood Lord Tebbit's drift.

Now Mr Robin Cook has introduced his tandoori test. In that speech on...

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