Sundays explore race debate

Race and politics are subjects which receive widespread coverage in this week's Sunday newspapers.

The "chicken tikka time bomb" is how The Observer describes the furore involving the two subjects.

The paper says the sight of some Tories celebrating their refusal to endorse racial harmony during an election campaign "serves as a tart reminder that the argument over Britain's role as a multicultural nation is still not won".

But, says the paper, the offensiveness of the Tory approach to race should not provide too much succour to New Labour - whose government ministers have endorsed racial equality while delivering pitifully little.

The Independent on Sunday takes the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) to task for trying to get parliamentary candidates to sign up to its agreement to keep racism out of the general election - and planning to name those who do not.

Tories such as Michael Portillo and John Gummer - the paper says - are right to accuse the CRE of blackmailing candidates with McCarthyite tactics.

Foot-and-mouth 'pollution'

'Is the foot-and-mouth outbreak under control or not?' is a question posed by many of the Sundays.

The Sunday Telegraph claims farmers' leaders in Wales and Scotland say the disease is still rife.

According to the Independent on Sunday, the pyres being used to burn carcasses are "spewing out more pollutants than all Britain's most dangerous factories combined".

It says the government has admitted no systematic checks are being made on the pollution - and no assessment on the risks to health have been carried out.

Suicidal cricketers

Cricket, according to The Observer, is a dangerous game - not simply because you might be whacked by bat or ball.

The paper claims a study has shown cricketers are almost twice as likely to commit suicide as the average British male - with a suicide rate higher than any other sport.

Hot topic

Finally, back to chicken tikka masala and the man who has put it on the front pages - the foreign secretary Robin Cook.

In the Mail on Sunday, his ex-wife Margaret is wheeled out to examine Mr Cook's own culinary tastes.

She recalls how, as a student in Edinburgh, he turned his nose up at her Indian curry - but later developed a penchant for French cuisine.

Mrs Cook said: "He became so confident that he selected from a menu without bothering to translate - until he discovered he'd swallowed a dish composed of toad".