Philip Hollobone is certainly an old nasty Tory and not one of Dave's friendly hug a hoodie new Tories.
While his comments insensitive, they were not religious hatred. The Burka is traditional dress rather than mandatory in Islam.
The Evening Telegraph piece does read a bit like an election leaflet for Mr Hollobone. They do not seem to have contacted the Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council, Police or Crown Prosecution Service for their comments.
I agree with Gromit in that his choice of wording is insensitive - 'a paper bag' analogy is not going to endear him to many. However I have to agree with Hollobone when he says:
''In the first line of the letter they talk about freedom of speech and then try to have me prosecuted. It shows these people are not interested in freedom of speech and says to me the NREC is not interested in public debate when the first thing it does is seek my prosecution."