To say that there has always been a whiff of closet racism about the Conservative Party would be to show an excessive level of generosity to that great British institution. In fact the closet door remains permanently ajar, and is occasionally flung wide open.

In 1964 Labour's shadow foreign secretary was trounced by a Tory candidate whose campaign featured the slogan: "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour". In 1968 shadow cabinet member Enoch Powell did his bit for race relations by claiming that immigrants would seek to "overawe and dominate", resulting in a nation awash with "rivers of blood". In 1978, after a riot in Woverhampton, Margaret Thatcher remarked that "People are really rather afraid that this country might be swamped by people of a different culture." Under her premiership Tory minister Alan Clark suggested that immigrants ought to be sent back to "Bongo-Bongo Land". In 1990 Norman Tebbit demanded that commonwealth immigrants, with the savage history of Empire still fresh in their minds, prove their loyalty through a "cricket test" by supporting the England team instead of those from their ancestral homes. In 2001 Tory leader William Hague, along with his sidekick and famed moral crusader Anne Widdecombe, embarked on a ruthless drive to exploit public fears on immigration that had been whipped up by an hysterical and mendacious tabloid press. In 2002 Tory rural affairs spokeswoman Ann Winterton was sacked for telling a particularly sordid racist joke at a public engagement. Unrepentant, the MP repeated the offence in 2004. 

Now in 2005, Michael Howard feels the dead hand of Conservative history upon his shoulder.

At the weekend Howard delivered an ominous warning of "literally millions of people in poorer countries" wishing to settle in Britain whose arrival would jeopardise "the future of good community relations". Howard invoked an image of dark, grasping hordes beating down our doors. As Yasmin Alibhai-Brown notes in The Independent, it is not white immigrants that Howard concerns himself with. "Conservatives and New Labour have no problems with [antipodean] migrants, nor with white Zimbabweans, South Africans and Americans who have taken up opportunities here and made good. These people are not the enemy within unlike black Africans, Arabs, Gypsies and South Asians. It is all about race."

Howard repeatedly asserts that its not racist to talk about immigration; as though he had any interest in an honest discussion. A better indication of Howard's intentions is given by his choice of campaign director. Lynton Crosby made his name during Australia's 2001 general elections, and an ugly row about a refugee ship, the Tampa. Crosby exploited false allegations that asylum seekers had tried to blackmail their way into the country by throwing children overboard. "It was a squalid lie" said Dr Paul Reynolds of the University of Queensland, the state where Crosby cut his teeth in Australia's centre-right Liberal party. "Lynton Crosby did not initiate the row. But he went along for the ride and milked it. He was compliant."

Such tactics have entirely predictable consequences for the future of good community relations.

Last weekend The United Nations refugee agency accused Howard of encouraging hatred of foreigners by dragging asylum-seekers into party politics. "UNHCR is terribly worried as among some quarters the crisis rhetoric and lumping of asylum with immigration issues continues, often fuelled by thinly disguised xenophobia and political opportunism". Then, earlier this week, following reports around the country of racist violence, including attacks on traveller sites, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality warned politicians to "take a step back" and realise what their words "may do to people on the ground". He said there were signs of pre-election debates causing racial hostility. The commission had received reports of racist violence, intimidation and "mob rule": "We know what's happening in schools. We know what's happening in factories and so on". Those comments were backed up by Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, who said "Research shows that every time something hardline is said in the press by politicians about immigration, there is a direct link to racist attacks." But none of these warnings have deterred Howard from taking his brave stand against the forces of political correctness.

As Hunter S Thompson said of George W. Bush; four years of Michael Howard would be like four years of syphilis. Many will lament the expected return of a New Labour government in May. But we can at least allow ourselves the small comfort one should derive from witnessing a fresh knife-twist in the heart of the Tory party. Having flatlined at around 30% in the polls for over a decade, one can only hope that 2005 will mark another small step towards the painful, and richly deserved death of the patient. For the warm welcome it has offered to refugees and ethnic minorities throughout its dismal history, the Conservative Party deserves nothing less.