Don Murray is one of the most prolific of the CBC's foreign correspondents, filing hundreds of reports - in French and English - from China, Europe, the Middle East and the Soviet Union. He is currently based in London.

During his 30 years with CBC, Murray has covered a multitude of major stories, including the advent of perestroika and glasnost and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He wrote A Democracy of Despots, a book documenting that collapse and the rebirth of Russia. While in Berlin, he covered the peace agreement ending the war in Bosnia and, in London, covered the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the peace agreement in Northern Ireland. He authored Family Wars, a major feature article for the International Journal paralleling the troubles in Northern Ireland and the war in Bosnia. In recent years he has covered the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Fear the women wearing veils — and while we're at it, beware of Bulgarians.

These, to hear British cabinet ministers in recent days, are twin threats looming over England's green and pleasant land.

The veil kerfuffle was launched by Jack Straw, the government leader in the House of Commons and Britain's former foreign secretary. It worried him, he said, that Muslim women were coming to his constituency office wearing the full veil. It was a barrier to communication; it was a barrier to building bridges in the community.

That unleashed a cascade of comment. Ministers led the way. One stood up to ask whether Britain's version of multiculturalism was now encouraging segregation. Another bellowed that Britain would not be bullied by Muslim fanatics.

In reply, a member of the Muslim Council of Britain talked of blatant Muslim-bashing. The head of the council for racial equality said the debate could lead to riots in the streets. The mayor of London, never shy in the face of controversy, weighed in. Ken Livingstone announced: "This echoes very much the demonology of Nazi Germany."

Livingstone has a particular affection for Nazi comparisons. Just a few months ago he told a reporter, who was Jewish, that he was acting like a Nazi concentration camp guard. The reporter had asked him a question. Livingstone said he felt no need to apologize.

The veil debate has already travelled to the wilder shores of verbal excess.

Barricades against Bulgarians

Meanwhile, they're building the barricades on Britain's beaches. The Bulgarians are about to invade.

For the record, Bulgaria and Rumania will join the European Union in January as members 26 and 27. When the last 10 countries, mostly from Eastern Europe, joined two years ago, Britain said, send us your huddled masses — and we'll put them to work picking our potatoes, fixing our toilets, waiting on tables.

And so they came: Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, more than 600,000 of them at last count, happy to work for Britain's minimum wage of $11 an hour. The government had expected about 15,000 a year.

Faced with latest two countries to join the European club, Britain is changing its policy. The home secretary told the British House of Commons that, unlike two years ago, almost no work permits would be granted for Bulgarians and Romanians. The home secretary is John Reid and he's also the fellow who said the country wouldn't be bullied by Muslim fanatics.

The truths behind the uproar

Now some facts:

Straw, the man who worries about women hiding behind the veil in his office, later revealed that not one woman refused his request to take her veil off when talking to him.

And the head of the Muslim Association of Bradford, which has one of the highest Muslim concentrations in the country, said that less than one per cent of Muslim women there wear the full veil.

As for the Slavic hordes surging through Britain, in announcing the new policy Reid told the British parliament: "This [the existing open door policy] has been a success. Workers from the new member states have filled skills gaps … and have contributed to U.K. growth and prosperity. Studies have found no evidence they have taken jobs away from British workers or undercut wages."

In other words, it's a great success — so we're abandoning it.

Critics quickly pointed out the large holes in the new restrictive measures for Bulgarians and Romanians. Self-employed workers from those countries could still come and work freely in Britain. The British government itself made an exception for agricultural workers because it desperately needs them. And, as of January 1, any Romanian or Bulgarian can simply hop on a plane to visit Britain and then disappear into the black economy.

Second thoughts about multicultural policies?

Why, then, make such a noise about changing the policy and, at the same time, unleash the veil debate? The larger answer seems to be that this British government is having second thoughts about its whole immigration and multiculturalism policy.

Yet just a year ago the British were watching riots in French suburbs started by angry young men of North African origin. Proof of the failure of France's republican model, the British concluded. The republican model stipulates that everyone must integrate; all in France must be French first. Multiculturalism was so much better, the British smugly suggested.

They also shook their heads at the Fortress France approach, which saw the French government refusing work permits to the Slavs who joined the European Union two years ago.

Now ministers seem to be preaching a sort of English republican model for Muslims while they try to block the Slavs at the beaches, or at least the last wave of Slavs. Perhaps they're just listening to their constituents, whipped into a worried frenzy by the country's relentless tabloid press. To read to the tabloids, any outsider — German, French, Slav, asylum seeker, Muslim — is trouble.

There's also a more cynical interpretation. Both men who launched these debates and policy U-turns are positioning themselves. Prime Minister Tony Blair will soon step off the stage. Reid is talked of as a potential contender for his job. Straw has already said he would run for the post of deputy leader.

They both believe that policies against Muslims and Slavs are good politics. The polls say so.

So, keep checking for Bulgarians under the bed. And no veils, please, we're British.