Indeed. Particularly amongst those who rule.

Antisemitism has always been there in the U.K. It’s a dormant volcano that is simmering again.

My view: Starmer is too cautious. He is in government but hasn’t taken power. We can’t just “rejoin”’- it’s much more complicated than that) but he should be braver; timidity will be his undoing.

We weren’t allowed to watch ITV so I had to sneak round to a friend’s to watch it - not for the stereotypical jokes but because, like many adolescents I had a mad crush on Francoise Pascal.

Which was unusual - not just because of Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” or National Front marches, but because talk of “sambos” and “Pakis” was common and “Mind Your Language” was v popular on tv (remember that, with its national stereotypes?).

The evil folly of going back there. Tower of Babel 🙄

We were known for being “Radical”. As an adolescent I hated it - when you’re young you want to conform, to not stand out.

And now I am forever grateful for what by parents were and what they believed.

My mother used to say “leave the World a little better than how you found it”.

Still trying.

I grew up in the 1970s. We weren’t allowed to watch Black & White Minstrels, Bernard Manning or ITV.
My father - senior partner in an accounting practice - had an articled clerk from Pakistan a decade earlier (who went on to be wildly successful in Lahore).

But we were outliers in a small place.

I got lucky.

Had a house here since 2000 and the lawyer said “Guy, we Greeks do not believe in Brexit” - if you owned a property here you can get a residence permit. Best thing I ever bought.

With luck, the media are turning too. Sky reporting more antisemitic behaviour today.

TBF, houses in Nairobi suburbs all have very big gardens and security fences. Still, kudos to her for saying.

On a plane from Entebbe to Nairobi, started chatting to the woman next to me. After about 5 minutes she said “you don’t know who I am, do you”.

I didn’t.

It was my next door neighbour.

In the U.K. it was called “the speaking clock”.