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Good morning. A heartening piece of news caught my eye in Tuesday’s newspaper. It seems that the Spanish government are planning to pass a bill which will fast tract the naturalisation of Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were expelled from Spain five centuries ago. Well better late than never. It was in the reign of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand that - the crusades having ended in disarray bigotry turned its attention on nearer vulnerable religious minorities. Jews in Spain were banished followed shortly by any Muslim who refused to convert to Christianity. A few of the Jews who turned West across the Atlantic ocean prospered in unconventional ways…. their story is told in a fascinating recently published book, Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean. I wonder if any of their descendants will take up the Spanish offer of naturalisation. Three centuries earlier than the Spanish banishment of the Jews, an even worse fate befell the Jewish people in the city of York just a few miles away from this studio. King Richard the first was about to set out on the crusades when a spate of anti-semitic feeling swept through several Northern cities. The whole Jewish population of York estimated to be about 150 men, women and children took refuge in the keep of the royal castle, with the mob outside baying for blood most of the Jews committed suicide. Those who didn’t were burnt to death. That massacre of 1190 has ever since been a stain on the history of a noble city. Two years ago there took place a meeting in York which in its way I believe to be just as symbolic as the actions of the Spanish government. The Archbishop of York introduced a well known speaker to give a prestigious lecture in the city of York, he was Jonathan Sacks the then chief rabbi. The symbolism wasn’t lost on many of the members of the audience as a little of the stain of history was wiped away. Symbolic acts matter because they can indicate a change of heart and mind, but they have to be built upon if real change is to come and in York what is perhaps even more important than that lecture is the annual festival of faith and culture each April when the streets throng with stalls and displays of all religions and none, and where the smallest group from the most marginalised culture is given a respected place. The vibrant variety of contemporary British society is there for all to see. York has come a long way in 800 years.