Race remarks - another Tory bites the dust

...or at least, has been suspended as a candidate:

(The Conservative candidate) in North Ayrshire and Arran, Philip Lardner, has been suspended after describing Ian Smith, former leader of Rhodesia, as a "British hero who came from the Empire and fought for his country". He added: "I am confident Ian Smith was a good man."

He also said that Enoch Powell's predictions about immigration had "in a small way come true".

This is getting quite repetitive. We had Boris' adviser sacked yesterday for a race remark. Now this fellow. It seems that even mentioning Enoch Powell or Ian Smith, if you a Conservative politician, is an occupational hazard which tends to be (rightly) terminal (see Nigel Hastilow, who had to step down as a candidate after remarks about Powell and Reading Councillor Richard Willis who faced pressure to resigning after commenting about Ian Smith).

But all this has come about because of the inherent contradiction of David Cameron's Conservative party. It's OK to think that Ian Smith or Enoch Powell are your heroes but not OK to say it publicly. Complete hypocrisy. As a result, David Cameron is going around furiously playing a marathon game of "splat the rat" - bashing one race remarker and then another one pops up two days later somewhere else.