Not cricket
Sir: Your attack on Mr Norman Tebbit' (Leading article, 28 April) was an utter disgrace. To attribute to such a disting- uished parliamentarian — and such a very brave man — the motives of 'yobbo chauvinism', as you do, is despicable.
Mr Tebbit was doing three things. First, he was reminding the present Government that, in permitting up to a quarter of a million people from Hong Kong right of abode in this country, it was violating a solemn and repeated undertaking that there would never be any further large- scale immigration into this country — a simple statement of fact. Secondly, he was pointing out that loyalty to the host coun- try is a crucial factor in creating and maintaining that coherent, peaceful and integrated society which people of goodwill desire — a proposition only the blind or the self-interested would want to chal- lenge. Thirdly, he was stating that a significant proportion of immigrants are failing to demonstrate that willingness to change and adapt to the country they have freely chosen to live in which is a pre- condition of their social integration — a fact now officially and publicly recognised by the de facto granting of separate lan- guage rights to certain groups, despite the absence of either public support or parlia- mentarian sanction.
In short, Mr Tebbit was using the Hong Kong issue to point out a self-evident truth — we are mismanaging our multi-ethnic society. We are getting it wrong. Badly wrong. There are now unmistakable signs that, rather than encouraging that whole- some integration at the public level whatever the minorities' private cultural arrangements — from which we can all benefit, the authorities are systematically promoting a policy of separatism. The recent refusal to prosecute a leading Isla- mic fundamentalist is only the most ob- vious instance of the tendency to treat our minorities, quite literally, as a race apart. Ray Honeyford
14 Milton Road, Prestwich, Manchester
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