Mr President, up to now there has been almost unanimity about our attitude towards the evils of xenophobia and racism. I think what we have to do now is address ourselves to the practical problem of what to do about combatting these evils.

There are some encouraging signs. When Mr Le Pen decided he would visit Scotland not long ago, we organized a complete block against him by all the political parties in Scotland: the Scottish National Party, the Liberal Party, the Labour Party - with, I think, Mr Ford, who is in this Chamber as well - were all together on the platform. What is even more significant than the politicians getting together, however, was that the hotel owners of Scotland cancelled the bookings of that group because they were prepared to give up the profits from that group's visit to stand four-square with the people of Scotland who were saying no to racism. That is an example of what can be done with common action.

Let me give you some more encouraging statistics. In the European elections, when I contested the elections, I had against me an anti-English candidate - an ethnic minority candidate - for the first time. I was disappointed that this happened. In the event 0.1% of the electorate of northeast Scotland supported him. So, I say, we can face down these people if we take common action. I would certainly support the call from Mrs Dancona and Mr Oostlander that we should, in a spirit of complementarity, vote a budget line to take active steps against this. This is the only way in which we will be able to combat these evils which threaten the peace and concord of Europe.

(Applause)