Douglas Carswell

Carswell and Curry - but not Mr Angry, please!

Why won't you serve PROPER British food???!" demanded an angry tweet in response to my invitation to this Thursday's curry supper. The evening, hosted by Bernard Jenkin MP in Lawford, is open to everyone and promises to be fun.

What, I reflected, did Mr Angry mean by "proper British food"? Fish and chips? Roast beef with spuds? Chicken and chips? The potato half of all these meals would at one time have been seen as an exotic south American import. Even chicken, I am told, is descended from domesticated jungle fowl.

If we were to only serve up food that originated from Essex this Thursday, I fear we'd be tucking into turnip and nettle stew. Not very appetising.

Stop and think about it, and there are dozens of things we regard as authentically British which must, at one time, have seemed exotic and global.

Marmalade? When first made in Dundee in the 1790s with Spanish oranges it must have been terribly novel. In my constituency, we have lots of authentically Essex bungalows. Yet the word is Bangladeshi.

Tea? It was once a sort of Portuguese-Chinese novelty brew. Tuck the kids up in bed in their pyjamas? A Hindi word for a once very exotic kind of garment.

It seems that my angry tweeter has in 180 degrees wrong. Our country is full of adaptations and innovations from around the world. Not just when it comes to what we eat or what we wear, but what we say and what we think.

And we are all the more successful for it. It is that ability to adapt and innovate, and take the best and the brightest from around the world, which explains why this little island – a mere 81st in world rankings for size – has played such a premier (French word) role in world affairs.

Mr Angry, it turns out, lives many miles away from Essex, and won't be coming. But if you happen to be in our part of Essex this Thursday evening, and like authentically British Curry, do please email [email protected] for a ticket. (Incidentally, if you don't like curry, we have an authentically British alternative that doesn't consist of turnip stew).

I will be talking about why we need to change the way we do politics in Britain – and why sometimes it is truly British to be prepared to change!

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