Read the text carefully and answer the following questions. Your answers should refer to the text, and should also show your knowledge of the British society. 1) 'Chicken masala speech': explain this title 2) What are the arguments of those who think that 'British identity is under siege'? According to your knowledge of British history, how can their point of view be justified? 3) Explain and discuss what the Foreign Secretary means when he says that' It is not their purity that makes the British unique, but the pluralism of their ancestry.' 4) What is the message of the text?

Robin Cook's chicken tikka masala speech
Extracts from a speech by Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, to the Social Market Foundation in London The Guardian, Thursday 19 April 2001 Tonight I want to celebrate Britishness. As Foreign Secretary I see every day the importance of our relations with foreign countries to the strength of our economy, to the security of our nation, to the safety of our people against organised crime, even to the health of our environment. A globalised world demands more foreign contacts than even Britain has experienced in the past. 5~ I also know that we are likely to make our way more successfully in the world if we are secure in our British identity, and confident about its future. (...). Sadly, it has become fashionable for some to argue that British identity is under siege~ perhaps even in a state of terminal decline. The .threat is said to come in three forms. First, the arrival of immigrants who, allegedly, do not share our cultural values and who fail to support -'10 the England cricket team. Few dare to state this case explicitly, but it is the unmistakable subliminal message. Second, our continued membership of the European Union, which is said to be absorbing member states into 'a country called Europe'. Third, the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales