Portillo's prejudices

HE WAS THE heir apparent, the Tories'own blue eyed boy, anointed by none other than the magnificent Maggie. But whether it be through hubris or carelessness Michael Portillo has shown his feet of clay.
His xenophobic pronouncements last week stemmed from an ambitious, power-hungry man's wish to press the populist buttons and win over the people. His ruse back-fired: when he plays to the jingoist audience, a maladroit performer risks ending up with egg on his face.
Portillo's mistake lay in revealing xenophobia to be part of his own personal political agenda if not his party's. Prejudices don't exist in the
abstract; they are attached to distinctive historical peculiarities surfacing at times of insecurity. With his attack on "other countries", Michael Portillo showed himself to be both fearful and insecure. Spoken by an individual his sentiments would have warranted a great deal of criticism. But spoken as a junior minister they become downright dangerous a breeding ground for racist attacks and ethnic slurs.
By lifting the lid off a Pandora box of prejudices, Portillo was unleashing the basest instincts this is not the role we wish our politicians to fill. Accusations of inferiority and iniquity erode rather than build the good society. Portillo must go.