One morning a few months ago I put on a suit and went to Westminster to meet a senior Conservative MP. 'We're all on a journey,' he told me when I asked whether his beliefs had changed, 'all of us.' Then, as an example of the 'quality and range' of the party's new parliamentary candidates, he began to tell me about Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones. I hadn't heard of him.

'You should meet him,' the MP said.

A press officer cut in. 'He's a Devon farmer, who set up an amazing social programme, which Channel 4 did a documentary on, to help underprivileged black kids from inner cities escape to the countryside, so a bit like working farms or city farms . . .'

'It's a great story,' the MP said. 'Came to England aged three from Jamaica. Grew up in sort of real poverty - the back end of Birmingham, big family, kids sleeping three to a bed.' After various false starts, he 'found his niche. Working for the BBC, in fact, as a producer on one of the early cookery programmes. And set up a marketing business . . .'

'Bacon, sausages, chutney - things like that,' the press officer said.

LRB 26 April 2007 | PDF Download