Lord Mohamed Sheikh's speech at Bollywood nights dinner
My Lords, your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen - Good evening, Assalamulakikum, Namaste, Sas Ri Kal, Ya Ali Madda.
I would like to thank Kulveer Ranger for his kind introduction. On behalf of the Conservative Party and the Ethnic Diversity Council of the Party I would like to welcome you to this dinner.
I would like to apologise for the fact that David Cameron is not here tonight. He had to leave for Iraq at short notice and with the problems in Iraq it was felt necessary for him to go. In fact he has been trying to visit Iraq for the past two months and this was the only first opportunity available.
We would like to welcome Oliver Letwin who is representing David Cameron here tonight.
With the popularity of Bollywood we felt it would be appropriate to have the theme of this evening as 'Bollywood Nights'.
This dinner has proved to be extremely popular and has been heavily over subscribed and unfortunately we have been unable to accommodate everyone who wanted to come.
We hope to repeat such an event next year.
I would like to thank you for all your attendance tonight and hope you all enjoy yourselves and have a great evening.
The Conservative Party is now an inclusive party and we represent everyone in the country. We are truly a one nation party.
The Ethnic Diversity Council was established last year and launched at the Party Conference in Blackpool. One of our objectives is to actively engage with members of the ethnic community and get them involved in the affairs of the party.
The ethnic minority communities have been very successful in all walks of life in this country and have contributed very significantly to the advancement and well being of Great Britain.
I am sure you will all agree when I say this country is a land of opportunity and we have been allowed to prosper here.
We are indeed proud to call ourselves British. I believe we are natural Conservatives and our values and attitudes reflect those of the Conservative Party.
There is another good reason why I and some of the other guests in the room belong to the Conservative Party. It is because when we were expelled from Uganda it was a Conservative government under the late Edward Heath who welcomed us here and we have done well in the country.
Whether one comes from Uganda or any other part of the world, this is our home and apart from being successful in business and the professions, we need to be involved in political activities.
We seek an ordered, tolerant and open society. We seek security to know our families will be safe. We seek the dignity of knowing that we are appreciated for our contribution. We seek freedom to trade and create wealth and prosperity.
I believe the country and everyone living here does need the Conservative Party to come to power both locally and nationally.
The Conservative Party has deep rooted connections with the ethnic minorities and in fact in 1895 we had an Indian who became the Conservative Member of Parliament and represented Bethnal Green from 1895 to 1906. His name was Sir Mancherjee Bhownaggree.
It is the desire of the Conservative Party for more women and ethnic minorities are in the House of Commons and there are a number of ethnic candidates who are on our preferred list.
The Ethnic Diversity Council is taking this opportunity to launch our Patrons Club which we have decided to call this the Iris Forum of the Conservative Party and the Chief Patron will be David Cameron.
The Iris Forum will celebrate the many colours, races and religions that shape our new society. The brochures of the Iris Forum are on your table and our President, Ranbir Singh Suri, will talk more about it later and I very much hope that you will considering joining the Forum.
David Cameron has brought a breath of fresh air and has introduced changes which will indeed benefit everyone and the party has rallied behind him.
Personally I am pleased David Cameron has made the environment one of our key priorities as I am passionate about protecting the environment and my maiden speech in the House of Lords was on that very subject.
We all appreciated David's leadership of the Party and look forward to his leadership of our country.
I would now like to introduce the Right Hon Oliver Letwin MP who is the Chairman of the Policy Review and Chairman of the Conservative Research Department. Oliver is representing David Cameron today.