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Racism is a terrible sin. Yet it seems, these days, to have the potential to produce political leverage. And politicians are sadly prepared to use it.

Back in July, President Donald Trump was rightly in hot water for tweets concerning four Democratic congresswomen of black or ethnic minority background that they should ‘go back’ to the countries they were from, despite the fact that they are all American citizens, three of whom were actually born in the United States. The House of Representatives passed a motion condemning the President’s words. Trump ducked the criticism by saying that his comments were not racist, but to do with the fact that the radical left-wing politics of these women is against what America stands for as a society. Since then, at the beginning of August, there have been two more mass shootings in the US, in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, at least one of which targeted non-white people. Trump responded by saying ‘hatred has no place in America.’ But is he giving mixed messages?

The EU elections came and went in May.

The Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage, which had only been in existence six weeks, made extra-ordinary gains. But the Liberal Democrats, who have committed themselves to a second referendum hoping to stop our leaving the EU, also drew major support. The conclusion the political commentators rightly came to was that the UK is an increasingly divided country.