One of the ways the twin debates about immigration and Islamic fundamentalism combine in the UK is the practice of arranged/forced marriages. A British Muslim girl, born in the UK and quite Westernized by her teens, can be told by her family that she is going to marry a connexion from Pakistan and there’s nothing really she can do about it at the moment. The household she will then be part of is likely to be much less Westernized, and her children will be brought up that way (some interesting statistics and opinions on the subject from the affected community here.) My friend the novelist Louise Bagshawe, one of the brightest young talents in the UK Tory party and a staunch conservative, has therefore proposed a new Tory policy of making forced marriage illegal. I’d be interested to hear what others think.