Writing on The Guardian's website, Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote, welcomes the selection of black Tories like Helen Grant and Shaun Bailey.
Mr Woolley sees the selection advances as part of a wider understanding in the Conservative Party about multi-dimensional diversity:
"In the past, the machinery of party politics, particularly that of the Tory party, viewed diversity as being a bit like the united colours of Benetton: it looked good, but it didn't mean one jot.
Today, Shaun Baily is encouraged to talk about his inner-city roots - to talk about tackling crime but also about big business. As the Black farmer, Emmanual Jones has turned his race into a successful business brand. And Helen Grant will spare no one's blushes when she talks about her early days as a lawyer and being the only black person in so many offices.
In the past, these would-be politicians were given a choice that was stark as it was debilitating: be either a one-dimensional ethnic minority MP or a multifaceted MP who does not talk about race. Time will tell whether the party and these individuals can continue the transformation of the party.
The party's Caroline Spelman made her intentions clear when she unequivocally sacked the Tory councillor Nigel Hastilow for refusing to apologise for his use of Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech. That's relatively easy stuff when compared with challenging the party's dominant view that nearly all immigration is bad, or that multiculturalism is to blame for the radicalisation of some Muslims."
PS We'd like to take Mr Woolley at face value but he's difficult to take very seriously. This is what he wrote in March 2007:
"In a long run-up to a general election Cameron can no longer be all things to all people. He is either with his party's neocons who harbour a profound dislike for anyone who isn't like them or he is a liberal moderniser that weeds them out, and champions a multicultural inclusive society."
We know neocons has become a routine term of abuse but that's a very silly misuse of the expression.
