The end of the nasty party?

Credit where credit is due: the Conservative leadership is doing its level best to shake off its "nasty party" image and ensure the party becomes more inclusive and representative.

The heckling and racial abuse hurled at Michael Eboda and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown at the Evening Standard's Boris Johnson "love-in" suggests there is still some way to go in some quarters. But the selection of the black businesswoman and lawyer Helen Grant to fight Ann Widdecombe's "safe seat" of Maidstone and Weald can only help the Conservative cause.

I have particular good reason to rejoice in her success. Helen took part in Operation Black Vote's MP-shadowing scheme in 2006, aimed at bringing political parties closer to black and Asian communities. She was twinned with Oliver Letwin, who after the mentoring scheme ended took her on as his adviser. She wrote papers, campaigned on a local and national level and built up her confidence. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Helen Grant is now well placed to become the party's first elected black woman in parliament, and the fourth newly selected BME (black and ethnic minorities) candidate to fight a safe Tory seat. The others are Shaun Baily, Pritti Patel and Wilfred Emmanuel Jones. Three of the four were on the David Cameron's A-list.

What is encouraging about this latest crop of Conservatives is the fact they are much more comfortable with being a "black Tory".

Here, too, the leadership can take some credit. In the past, the machinery of party politics, particularly that of the Tory party, viewed diversity as being a bit like the united colours of Benetton: it looked good, but it didn't mean one jot.

Today, Shaun Baily is encouraged to talk about his inner-city roots - to talk about tackling crime but also about big business. As the Black farmer, Emmanual Jones has turned his race into a successful business brand. And Helen Grant will spare no one's blushes when she talks about her early days as a lawyer and being the only black person in so many offices.

In the past, these would-be politicians were given a choice that was stark as it was debilitating: be either a one-dimensional ethnic minority MP or a multifaceted MP who does not talk about race.

Time will tell whether the party and these individuals can continue the transformation of the party.

The party's Caroline Spelman made her intentions clear when she unequivocally sacked the Tory councillor Nigel Hastilow for refusing to apologise for his use of Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech.

That's relatively easy stuff when compared with challenging the party's dominant view that nearly all immigration is bad, or that multiculturalism is to blame for the radicalisation of some Muslims.

But today, let's wish Helen Grant well. Brought up by a single-parent mum on a working-class estate, she stands at the threshold of making history. If she is successful, she will surely inspire others, too, to be the best they can be.