SADLY, the EU referendum result appears to have given many people with racist opinions “permission” to air their prejudices – sometimes violently.

More than 3,000 “hate” crimes were reported to police forces in the second half of June, a rise of 42 per cent. These range from insulting behaviour to arson and reveal a very worrying trait about Britons today.

What happened to our famed national tolerance, our willingness to be part of the rest of the world, our simple humanity? We need to get back to being decent, civilised human beings and forget the personal prejudices. We’re better than that.