ABSTRACT
I write this concluding chapter in the last weeks of the 2005 British general election, when ‘race’ has reared its head in a very explicit manner. The Conservative Party launched its initial election campaign with the slogan: ‘Are you thinking what we’re thinking?’. This included a poster with the statement, written like graffiti over advertising hoardings: ‘It’s not racist to impose limits on immigration’. This of course leaves open the question of who the ‘you’ is. The slogan appears to be directly targeting those white voters who feel hemmed in about what it is permissible to say because of a desire not to appear racist. This opens a Pandora’s box of other, now permissible, statements along the line of ‘I’m not racist but . . .’. It would seem that, for the Conservative Party at least, the commonsense Everyman of Britain retains a white face.
