These were the headlines after an extraordinary night. “Peaceful atmosphere at Sheffield”, “No signs of disorder in Liverpool”, “Anti-immigration protesters outnumbered in Southampton”, “Hate not welcome here, Walthamstow crowds shout”, “Geordies united will never be defeated”. The bad, mad and testosterone-crazed stormtroopers of Britain’s racist right were driven off the streets of towns and cities by the better people who would have none of it. Decency, humanity and the forces of civilisation prevailed by sheer force of numbers.

A month in, Labour faced its first crisis blowing in from a clear blue sky. Who’s in control? That’s the primary test of any government. “I will keep you safe,” Keir Starmer promised early in the day and indeed the “full force of the law” and a “standing army” of 6,000 police did just that, aided by the crowds of citizens praised today by police chiefs. Met police commissioner Mark Rowley cited “The show of unity from communities” that “together defeated the challenges we have seen’’. Let that message go far and wide.

Slapping instant sentences on the violent, their faces and names plastered on screens while warning that hundreds more would follow them into jail helped to do what the state must do, beyond all other duties: safeguard its people. How very close we came to the unspeakable........

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