The promise of sunshine and the arrival of summer at long last does have a knock on, feel good effect, or at least it should. But for some reason the BBC Radio 4 news this morning has been dangling the British National Party, UKIP and problems with Muslims in Birmingham schools, all in different articles and I can't help wondering why. Indeed, the British tabloid press seem to be doing a good deal of them and us headlines (not that I ever read them) and its a curious agenda based on mistrust and bigotry. I live in a very liberal town - currently the only town in the UK with a Green council and standing MP. It also has an ongoing Arts Festival and a vibrant Open House art trail but all year round it has a vibrant performing arts feel about it, can it be that rose tinted glasses are given out at the gate? Or do we just exercise tolerance of difference better than most? I really don't know the answer to that but I do know that today I will tidy my study, organise the PhDs I supervise, and then start organising my own writing for the coming summer, in the safe knowledge that my neighbours will tolerate my being a foreigner on English soil - as the clouds give way, its about seeing the whole of the moon.
