Sometimes applied to people who ared in that rarefied category.

Recently, those of us who regularly contribute to the Leither were asked to come up with what I suppose could be loosely termed a strapline to illustrate where we were coming from in relation to the columns we write.

Having mulled this over for quite some time, I came to realise that most of what I write is almost always preceded by a few glasses of something cheerful, followed by an introspective hour or two trying to make sense of a world on fire. So, looking at things “through a glass darkly” seemed reasonably appropriate. Granted, the phrase was plagiarised by me from a 1961 film directed by Ingmar Bergman. And our esteemed editor further informed me that the phrase was actually taken from Corinthians in the King James version of the bible.

If all of this sounds grossly pretentious, (and it does to me), don’t worry, the column will never delve into the bible (“a cracked book of lies and a thousand twisted pages” as Mike Scott of the Waterboys has it), or try to explain the inner workings of Mr Bergman’s mind. More often than not, it will hopefully be a sober (ahem), look at recent events which may or may not provoke further discussion. Preferably accompanied by the aforementioned cheerful glass. And always remember, it doesn’t matter if you view your glass to be half full or half empty, either way it needs topping up.

And so, to the world on fire.

In recent days, there have been a number of protests outside of hotels across the UK which are currently being used to house asylum seekers. The protests have taken place following a ruling by the High Court in England which granted a temporary injunction to a local council to stop asylum seekers being placed in a hotel in Epping. Some protesters are demanding that all such placements should be stopped and that there should be a mass deportation campaign, while anti-racism campaigners have organised counter protests showing support for refugees and asylum seekers.

As ever, politicians have sought to weigh in on the increasing unrest. And why not? I mean Nigel Farage has built an entire career out of being a powder monkey and turning up to throw petrol on the flames and then claiming that any ensuing chaos and violence has absolutely nothing to do with him. He’s obviously called for similar protests across the country, without ever having come up with a viable solution to the issue at hand.

Oh, unless you count leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, or mass deportations, or getting the Royal Navy to tow small boats back to Calais and engage with the French Navy if need be. This tawdry, small-minded grifter, recently said that he didn’t care if refugees from Afghanistan were killed or tortured under his mass deportation plans, and is rubbing his hands at the thought of turning communities against one another on this issue.

The next leader of the Tory party (unless he defects to Reform which seems more suited to his brand of fascism-lite) Robert Jenrick, turned up at the Epping protests and was photographed in close proximity to a veteran far-right activist. This is the same Jenrick who said in 2022 “I would never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life. And I understand and appreciate our obligation to refugees.”

But hey, Kemi Badenoch is failing to show that she is the right-wing saviour of the Tories so why not start your leadership bid early by showing up to Nigel’s summer street parties and turning on the hypocrisy.

And what of the Labour Government? Well, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has stated that the government is committed to closing all asylum hotels, but that this needs to happen “in a properly managed way.” I’m cynical enough to know that this means that all asylum hotels in the UK will be closed, but probably not until just before the next general election.

There is no denying that the issue of immigration has been slowly coming to the boil in recent years. But the frightening thing is that rather than trying to cool tensions and approach the issue with a view to embedding cohesion and safety in our communities, some politicians are happy to stand back and watch the conflagration for their own ends.

They know who they are and Hell mend them.