Star Parker is a Republican Party activist from Los Angeles who has made it her business to tell America's blacks to quit whining about racism, get off their butts and find work. She gets away with this because she is herself black, a single mother and a former user of some impressively heavy drugs. And she once held up a liquor store.

She doesn't look like a member of the moral majority, that's for sure. Her slinky, ankle-length dresses show off a wasp waist that Oprah would die for; her cherry-red raincoat looks as if it has been borrowed from a visiting cardinal.

"Honey, I'm flashy," she confesses. "I don't do drugs any more, but I'm still stuck in the fast lane.''

Star arrived in Britain last week to address Civitas, a think-tank that believes in free markets and strong families. It's also against abortions. Star has had several of those, but repented after she "found Jesus". Her new book, Uncle Sam's Plantation (WND Books, USA), blames a swollen federal bureaucracy for turning many blacks into the equivalent of slaves - waiting for welfare cheques "on their butts", as she likes to put it. Her solution: slay the monster of Social Security and pay every last cent into retirement accounts owned by the individuals in the system. Dismantle the War on Poverty - and the War on Drugs, too, because big government is kidding itself if it thinks it can stop lazy bums getting high.

I thought it would be fun to introduce Ms Parker to representatives of Britain's race relations industry, to see what she made of them and vice versa. I did warn them that she was a different sort of black activist, but the message didn't sink in, judging by the expressions of the anti-racist functionaries once she warmed to her theme.

First stop: the Greenwich Council for Racial Equality. When I arrive, Star is already sashaying into the coffee room, swinging her hips like a New Orleans chanteuse. The CRE employees look surprised; pleasantly so.

Dev Barrah, a Kenyan Asian who works for the "racist attacks monitoring unit", sits her down for a...