WE are living at a time of massive intolerance by various sections of society.

If people simply don’t like something they revert to a ridiculous extreme. Just witness the violent abuse sisters Flo and Joan, who perform a song during the Nationwide TV advert, have been subjected to.

Personally, I find the song quite irritating but that’s about it. Some individuals, though, have posted on Twitter saying that they “need to die” and “deserve to die”. What for? Have they been guilty of genocide or mass poisoning?

If just singing an innocuous little song puts you in the death threat category, there really does seem little hope for society today.

Nationwide has now brought in the police and I would just love them to get a conviction on this one. It’s a fairly safe bet that those concerned are inadequate personalities who wouldn’t dream of confronting anyone in person but see themselves as the Dark Destroyer of Perceived Evil behind the keyboard.

Similarly upsetting was the incident of the students who chanted racist abuse at a fellow student at Nottingham Trent University. While the poor victim locked herself in her room against the verbal onslaught, these deranged individuals vented their intolerance outside her door. Police have now arrested two men.

Whether it’s refusing to wait for anything, even an ambulance on call in the roadway outside your home, or shouting abuse at an overweight person in the street, some think they have the right to over-rule laws, morals and decency to do and say what they want.

When did things change so radically and we lost that famous national tolerance? When did “live and let live” go out of fashion?

However, just to gain some balance here, it was genuinely heart-warming to read about the North London Sainsbury’s store which kept on Yvonne Salomon for four years after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

The store not only allowed her to continue working but adapted her job to suit her capabilities. Now, as this horrible disease has advanced, the 61 year-old has had to quit. But her family remain very grateful to the supermarket for making her struggle “lighter and brighter”, as her son posted online, thanking them because they “supported her like a family”

This is not only uplifting but such a contrast to the death threats and intolerance brigade. So, thank you, Sainsbury’s for still keeping our faith in human nature.