The candidate standing in Rossendale and Darwen worries that in small towns in “Britain struggle to maintain their identity against a tide” and is pictured here with some blacked up faces. A UKIP candidate? No it is Labour’s Will Straw, who defends the local tradition of the Britannia Coconut Dancers, who wear coconuts tied to their hands and knees, whilst performing to celebrate the arrival of spring. Guido does not for one second think Will is racist.

However there is a double standard operating, would Will give others the same treatment in similar circumstances? Take the attitude of the political website LeftFootForward.org (proprietor Will Straw), when the Tory MP Philip Davies said:

“Why it is so offensive to black up your face… I have never understood this.”

LeftFootForward called him “sinister” for saying that there was nothing offensive about “blacking up” concluding “what a sad, pathetic little man Mr Davies is.” How times change…