LIKE millions of Britons, I sent back my census form and, when requested to say which ethnic group I belonged to, I duly ticked the box marked 'British.'

Seeing that I was born here in Blackburn, there is nothing unusual about that. However, in a speech a few days ago the Foreign Secretary said that the British are not a race. What are we to make of Robin Cook's comments?

Does he mean that anyone who says they are proud of being British are racist? Because I am proud of being British, but, as a Christian and a decent human being, I could not possibly be labelled a racist.

So why did Mr Cook make that speech? Could it possibly be because the government, perhaps a matter of weeks away from a general election, does not want anyone to talk about asylum?

Because the record of Jack Straw on this issue is appalling. The number of applications has jumped from 32,500 in 1997 to 76,000 last year. Britain now has more asylum seekers than any other European country and it costs us nearly £1 billion to support them, more than double the amount four years ago.

In a desperate attempt to clear the backlog of cases Jack Straw authorised that 21,000 asylum seekers could stay in Britain whose applications were either never heard or had been refused.

These facts are what the government don't want any debate on. Being worried about the rising asylum seekers is not being racist, for as a member of the campaign team of John Cotton, the Conservative candidate for Blackburn, I know that these concerns are shared by members of the Asian community.

COUN D PEARSON, Rawstorne Street, Blackburn.