James McGrath

I have to say that I write this in a personal capacity about a person I came to deal with during my challenge the Chairman sessions with Francis Maude.

The news that James McGrath has handed in his resignation (or essentially been forced to go??) over supposedly racist remarks is absolute nonsense that quite frankly beggars belief.

Lets get this straight. James is no racist - and even after reading his comments they do not strike me as being racist. My own view is that James comes from a very Australian perspective where you perhaps do not have to be so careful with the words that you choose.

Indeed that raises the question of whether that is a society we want to? I would say that we should be able to talk about issues involving different communities without, when hearing perhaps something you don't agree with, you do not automatically have the race card played.

I have to agree with Iain Dales superb piece where the Conservative Mayor of London is criticised for not standing by James.

It comes at a worrying time when many good people seem to be leaving the party for pastures new. I trust someone in the party will be sure to think about using such a great talent as James McGrath - as if they don't he will certainly be snapped up if he chooses to move outside of the party.

Update:- A phrase which states"let them go" when referring to people who may not like what Boris Johnson is doing and may choose to leave London and actually using a headline which stated in quotation marks, "go back home" referring to "blacks"  is clearly an appalling piece of journalism. The two phrases have very different meanings. One suggests that if someone doesn't like London they don't have to stay. The other suggests that someone is telling a person born in this country to go somewhere else - and is indeed quite offensive.

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