It is not the British version of the Obama moment, when the election in 2008 of an African American to the White House appeared to mark a significant moment in American history. The magnitude of slavery in US history, the memory of Jim Crow segregation and the depth of racism that black people have had to endure made the election of Barack Obama truly symbolic.
Nevertheless, the possibility that Britain might have a non-white prime minister by the autumn, and the breadth of diversity among the Tory leadership candidates, has provoked much discussion, and not just in Britain. The fact that it is a party of the right rather than of the left that embodies such diversity has particularly captured the attention.
