The Tory leader said it would be only a gesture to withdraw the whip

The Tory leader said it would be only a “gesture” to withdraw the whip because Mr Townend was standing down as an MP at the general election.Mr Hague, who was jostled on a visit to Pudsey in Yorkshire yesterday by three people in masks protesting at Mr Townend’s remarks, said: “We oppose racism in all its forms. We believe the multicultural nature of Britain today is one of the strengths of Britain today. We welcome people of all races, origins and communities into the Conservative Party.”Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union and president of the TUC, will step up the pressure on Mr Hague today with a scathing attack on his warning last month that Britain could become a “foreign land”. Addressing the TUC Black Workers’ conference, Mr Morris will say: “For too many of us, Britain is indeed a foreign land. A foreign land where ordinary black British families wake up almost every morning to listen on the radio to descriptions of themselves that they do not recognise. Phrases like ‘bogus, flooding, economic migrants’.”Last night Mr Townend claimed strong public support for his views and said the Tories would have difficulty retaining his Yorkshire East seat if he was disciplined by Mr Hague.. Sir William Macpherson, the author of the official report on the murder of Stephen Lawrence, has accused the right-wing press of waging a personal vendetta against him that has prevented him speaking out in the racism debate.

Sir William Macpherson, the author of the official report on the murder of Stephen Lawrence, has accused the right-wing press of waging a personal vendetta against him that has prevented him speaking out in the racism debate.
Sir William told The Independent that the vitriolic attacks had become so personalised that he will now refuse to grant any more media interviews.Sir William’s decision marks a victory for opponents of his controversial report into the death of the black teenager, published in February 1999, and raises doubts about whether its 70 recommendations will ever be implemented.Critics have rounded on the report for its accusation that the police force is institutionally racist and for its insistence that attacks should be treated as racist if they are perceived to be so by their victims.Sir William accused the media yesterday of turning the debate on racism into “unpleasant personal attacks” against him.He identified the worst case as an article in a broadsheet newspaper which “said I had blood on my hands”.The retired High Court judge said his family had now become so concerned about the personal nature of the articles that it had urged him not to agree to any more media interviews.He said yesterday: “They [his family] have seen the hassle, and it has been a hassle. However much you are used to criticism and however much you have been in the public eye .. it has gone beyond that; it has been troublesome for them. When they read it, it’s pretty unpleasant.”Sir William’s unhappy experience will also act as a salutary warning to other judges who have been asked to chair public inquiries by the Government. Last year Sir William said he had received hate-mail sent to him at his castle in Perthshire shortly after his report was published.

But he said the “personal attacks” were “fuelled” by articles published in papers such as The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. “They have also regularly attacked the expression ‘institutional racism’ but this isn’t something we dreamt up,” Sir William said “All we did was refine it. It was first used by a black activist in 1975.”He said that the phrase had also been used in the debate on race relations for many years and had been referred to by Lord Scarman in his report on the Brixton riots, which took place 20 years ago.He said: “These newspapers had been running the argument that morale in the police had been dented and they couldn’t do their jobs properly even two years after the report. If their morale was that bad two years afterwards then they must be very badly led.”He accused media commentators of ex cathedra coverage of his report. The majority had never taken the trouble to go to his inquiry or hear any of the evidence.”But anybody who was there was struck by the attitude of the police …

many of them wanted to sweep it under the carpet because they feared it would be used against them,” he said “But I wasn’t going to do that. There was a problem here with more than just a few rotten apples in the barrel.” Many journalists, said Sir William, lacked his experience of the world, which included 25 years in the Territorial Army and many hours spent with “murderers” in their cells when he was a practising lawyer.Earlier this year, Sir William told Scotland Yard to “stop whining and complaining” about his findings. He said it was time for the force to “get over it” and “get on with it”.Stephen Lawrence died aged 18 after he was attacked while waiting at a bus stop near his home in Eltham, south-east London in 1993.. The first British trader to be convicted of selling only in pounds and ounces in defiance of EU legislation announced his intention to appeal against his conviction with the backing of the British public yesterday. The first British trader to be convicted of selling only in pounds and ounces in defiance of EU legislation announced his intention to appeal against his conviction with the backing of the British public yesterday.
Stephen Thoburn, a father of two, announced his decision after it was revealed that a “Metric Martyr” campaign fund set up after his prosecution had topped £100,000 in public donations. The appeal, at the Queen’s Bench divisional court in London, could cost up to £500,000, but the supporters are confident of reaching that target in the 12 weeks allowed.The landmark legal case over his sale of a 34p bunch of bananas to a trading standards officer was labelled a test case which could decide the future of Britain’s system of weights and measures. The 37-year-old market stall holder was prosecuted by Sunderland City Council’s trading standards department for breaching the Weights and Measures Act 1985.The prosecution was brought following the introduction of the EU’s Units of Measurement 1995, which amended the 1985 Act and forced traders to sell in both metric and imperial measures.

District Judge Bruce Morgan, who presided over the trial at Sunderland magistrates’ court this year, found Thoburn guilty and imposed a six-month conditional discharge.Judge Morgan said: “An officer bought a bunch of bananas for 34p that were priced at 25p per pound and weighed out on a weighing machine and sparked a court case around, possibly, the most famous bunch of bananas in legal history.”Thoburn, from Sunderland, said he had decided to appeal because of the massive support of the British public and all over the world “The support has been overwhelming. People have asked me to pursue this further, not for any political party, but just for customers and people in the street so obviously I want to take it further and try to clear my name.”. Fears that foot-and-mouth disease may have transferred to humans receded yesterday when the Government confirmed that most of the farm workers thought to have contracted the virus had been given the all- clear. Fears that foot-and-mouth disease may have transferred to humans receded yesterday when the Government confirmed that most of the farm workers thought to have contracted the virus had been given the all- clear.
Paul Stamper, the Cumbrian slaughterman who was the first to develop symptoms of the disease after being splashed with fluid from a slaughtered cow, was among those found not to have contracted the disease.Mr Stamper, from Dearham, had been moving carcasses at a farm near Wigton in Cumbria when one of the dead animals ruptured, spraying fluid into his mouth. Soon after, he developed symptoms of the disease, including painful blisters on his tongue and in the back of his throat. But he did not develop blisters on his hands or feet.Yesterday Nick Brown, the Minister of Agriculture, said tests had shown Mr Stamper had not contracted the virus.Mr Brown said: “I am delighted that he has been given the all-clear. Otherwise this could have had serious implications for his future employment.”Officials at the Public Health Laboratory Service said that eight of the 13 people suspected to have contracted foot-and-mouth had now been given the all-clear.