The hugely-controversial, Home Office-inspired report by the Runnymede Trust on the future of multi-ethnic Britain is a frightening document.

It is not just the contents of the report which is so deeply disturbing but what the report reveals about New Labour's rush to embrace such politically correct nonsense.

To suggest that "British" is some sort of dirty word, synonymous with racist, goes so far into the realms of lunacy it leaves the trust's Left-wing commission with no credibility at all.

The idea that the word Britain is now meaningless and the UK should be redefined as a "community of communities" rather than a nation is beyond rational thinking.

While the report may not yet be official policy, it was initially welcomed by the Home Office.

And even now that Jack Straw has realised the potential for massive political damage, his partial withdrawal of support is unconvincing.

After all, he commissioned the think-tank in the first place.

All of which leaves you and me, the voters, with a real dilemma whenever Tony Blair calls the election.

We shall be faced with an impossible choice.

New Labour is out of touch, arrogant, obsessed with dangerous political correctness and unable to utter a sentence without putting some kind of spin on it.

The Tories, still surrounded by many of their old lags, trying to pretend they are one party, are in reality irretrievably riven by warring factions and quietly hoping we will forget they had 18 years failing to get everything right.

What are we to do? In terms of forming an effective government, the other parties cannot be taken seriously. What sort of democracy is it where the real choice is no choice at all.

For what this think-tank, whose members operate at the heart of the race relations industry, is trying to do is not just rewrite history but impose social engineering on a massive scale.

How else do you describe the call for "a rethinking of the national story and national identity" to reflect the views of Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Irish people?

How else do you describe demands that television franchise holders and other employers appoint specified numbers of black, Asian and other minority staff, regardless of whether they are the most suitable applicants for the jobs?

In Britain today, race relations are developing at a natural pace as we all learn to live peacefully together. Even though there are occasional hiccups, it cannot be any other way.

This bludgeon of a report with more than 100 recommendations is profoundly wrong and misdirected.

It is an attempt to bulldoze a process that can only proceed with sensitivity and mutual respect.

Britain is an increasingly tolerant, multi-cultural society in spite of an insidiously nasty race relations industry.

Ironically, the Runnymede Trust takes its name from the site of one of English history's defining events - the Thames meadow where the final draft of Magna Carta was negotiated in 1215.