As many Tory apologists will be telling themselves today, Lord Dixon-Smith’s assertion in March that Britain “might have had rather fewer problems” if there was less immigration is in no way related to the type of thinking that had him use a racist, slave era turn of phrase in the Lords recently.

With the sacking of a Bedfordshire Tory Councillor last November for using the same phrase, Recess Monkey is surprised at how popular mid 19th century American terminology is in the Conservative Party.

But with all these stories, Recess Monkey wonders which row of the Cameron era will endear the Conservatives to the public the most.

Perhaps we can have a follow-up vote with the winner of the most racist Cameron era story being pitted against the most racist Tory utterances of all time…

1. “I have Asian friends”, Councillor Ellenor Bland and the racist poem.

2. “Enoch was right”, Nigel Hastilow from Birmingham and the tasteful reminder of one of the “Greatest Speeches ever”.

3. Lord Dixon-Smith (lover of Confederate language) who let slip that housing policy was like the “nigger in the woodpile”. To be fair to him, there is a dearth of suitable words to describe a misgiving…..with the exceptions of adjectives such as suspicious, awry, doubtful, dubious, suspect, iffy, fishy, shady, questionable, odd, irregular, unconvincing, debatable, untrustworthy and vague.

4. Patrick Mercer who asserted that “being called a black bastard was part of army life” and who also drew attention to the many “idle and useless” ethnic minority soldiers who “used racism as a cover for misdemeanours”.

5. We must listen to some of the “very legitimate views” of BNP voters on immigration and crime according to Tory Shadow Cohesion Minister, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.

Vote for your favourite in the comments…