‘When that framework is attacked or discredited, society doesn’t become more tolerant: it becomes more fractured. National symbols, such as the flag, serve not to exclude but to unite. They are the visual shorthand for a shared story.’

‘The United Kingdom has not imprisoned a majority of convicted child sex offenders, burglars, or even low-level terrorists for terms as severe as Connolly’s.’

‘Starmer’s failure while in Opposition to defend women’s rights will, I think, be seen by future historians as the beginning of a sea change in British political life.’

‘Increasingly, shops have delayed exit timers on their automatic doors to trap the thieves who steal with impunity otherwise. And in common with the rest of London, the plague of mobile phone theft is unavoidable. Foolish the person who walks around device in hand—it won’t remain there for long.’

‘It was from Plymouth in 1588 that Sir Francis Drake set out to defeat another invading force, that of the Spanish Armada…Perhaps it is too much to hope that it will be from Plymouth once again that a wind of change blows through our land, blasting to smithereens the remnant of any idea that multicultural society has succeeded and that vast numbers of immigrants are an unalloyed good.’

‘That Britain chose to join the EEC in 1975 was a tragedy. That it left the EU with the utmost incompetence in 2016 was a farce caused entirely by the Conservative Party’s inability to resolve the psychological trauma of three decades. In both instances, it is the British people who have suffered and they whose trust in politics to be a force for good has, as a consequence, been destroyed.’