Ask me what I hate. Lots of things. I hate that the Scots pay higher taxes than the English. I hate that so many people still eat animals and abuse and kill them. I hate that the health minister went to football matches and thinks we’ll believe him when he says it was work. I hate that I’m not the same weight I was when I was 17. There are lots of things I hate. How long have you got?

Now give me your list. Tell me about the things you hate, and who. Trump (or Harris). Badenoch (or Starmer). Clarkson (or Lineker). Unionism. Nationalism. That guy in the office. Your wife’s brother. Your brother’s wife. I do not judge you for any of this. It is normal. If you didn’t hate someone, or something, I’d be worried. I’d think there was something wrong with you.

But let’s talk about hate a bit more because some of us, especially some of us with uniforms and name badges, have lost touch with what hate is and how to handle it. Hate, or an intense dislike, is normal, unavoidable, and get more than one person in a room for any reason whatsoever and you’ll discover how true that is. That doesn’t mean the authorities shouldn’t intervene when there’s a risk of a crime being committed – they should. But the recent primacy of hate – or what is seen as hate – as a political, legal and social issue has become a problem and a rebalancing is required.

The latest furore over X is a case in point. You........

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