Jim, then your father too was admirable in his stance. I'm afraid my father was racist, and had, as you suggest, inherited the 'Glorious British Empire' mindset. His dentist was a black Goan, and I remember being bemused by my father's statement "He's quite a good dentist in spite of the fact he's black." (As if most black men would be more likely to be swinging from trees eating bananas.)

I agree also that in times of shortage and unemployment etc racism thrives as we seek someone to blame. I take heart in the fact that the majority of the British people see the BNP as dangerous and abhorrent. Their Fascism, Nationalism and Racism are redolent of Hitler's Third Reich, and I think WW2 is still there in our collective memory to awake distaste and disgust.

I also agree that unfamiliarity and ignorance play a part in passive racism. On a personal level, the Brits are very pleasant and kind, as my husband has found. At the mosque he attends, the other worshippers, a selection of many races and colours, all agree that the English are extraordinarily friendly and tolerant. I suspect that, had my father lived to meet my husband, they'd have become best mates and gone everywhere together. I do value your point of view, Jim, as you have a more hard-headed and realistic perspective than I, and modify my slightly rose-tinted opinions!