By Dr Phil Edwards-Previously I have defined “racism” in terms of either the empirical observation that races differ from each other, or the simple fact that people tend to prefer their own race over people of a different race.

In either case, enthusiasts of a multicultural, multiracial Britain continue to deny or ignore these basic points, preferring to vilify their opponents as “racists”, “fascists”, “haters” etc, effectively closing down debate, all aided and abetted by a compliant media.

But, inconveniently for them, Nature will out - research by Geoffrey Beattie, former head of psychology at the University of Manchester has found strong evidence of ethnic discrimination in a simulated shortlisting for an academic post.

Professor Beattie showed 96 participants - most of them university students - four equally strong CVs with attached photos, two of non-white and two of white individuals.

Participants were then asked to shortlist two candidates for a post as a lecturer in health psychology.

If the participants had been colour-blind, 25 per cent would have selected two non-white candidates, 25 per cent would have chosen two white candidates, and half would have opted for one of each, assuming a random selection and that the CVs were totally comparable.

However, more than 60 per cent of white participants shortlisted two white candidates, and just 6.3 per cent put forward two non-white candidates.

Non-white participants also betrayed bias, although less strongly: only 4.2 per cent selected two white candidates, while more than 25 per cent chose two non-white candidates.

The study also found that ethnicity affected how long participants spent looking at the strong and weak parts of a CV, it found.

When Professor Beattie repeated the experiment for an administrator post, he found that ethnicity had "no significant effect", perhaps, he suggested, because academic positions are deemed higher status.

Bearing in mind that university students are mainly young, impressionable and the most recent victims of the politically correct brainwashing education system, then the results are encouraging.