I heard on the radio that there has been an election with the result that a member of the extreme right wing, British National Party, is a local councillor. As always, this kind of news makes me nervous and especially aware of ambient racism.
On my way to the studio, the bus driver, an Asian man with a long beard, did a classic piece of bad driving. It's a stretch of road that is rarely uneventful mostly because of some stupid 'traffic-claming' measures. A white woman from the back, called out, can't you read signs? I prickled. I heard an implication of 'you're not one of us' in that. Her comment inspired a white man to start muttering loudly about something that I decided to tune out...
Later on the radio, I heard more of the Home Secretary, David Blunket's racist comments, creating more hostility and fear around asylum seekers.
I also heard a piece about Mecca Cola - an interesting product to rival Coca Cola and Pepsi so that people who want to boycott those icons of American global culture can still choose to drink a version of coke. A percentage of the proceeds will go towards the Palestinian's cause. That part made me sad and more nervous - yet more evidence that there is a commonly understood link between the USA and Israel. I guess both country's governments are acting in disgusting, reactionary and murderous ways towards people they don't consider quite-human - but they are not one and the same... And one of them is a country I have visited (over 15 years ago) and where, for the first time in my life, I felt profoundly safe because 'people like me' were everywhere.