It seems to me that, in a way, Anders Behring Breivik was right when he said he thought himself to be in a war, as there are indeed people in the world who seek to set up the Muslim state he fears. But, rather than all Muslims as he would have us believe, they are a very tiny minority, who, ironically, have views very similar to his. This is a war of intolerance against intolerance, right-wing nutter against right-wing nutter, with ‘normal’, moderate people caught in the middle. The problem is intolerance itself: extreme right-wing xenophobia which, almost ten years ago caused the 9/11 attacks and caused the attacks last week. They are two sides of the same coin, and unless something is done to stem this hatred more innocent people will die.

Of course, people have a right to speak as they will and believe what they whish, but if I started spouting things which are obviously untrue, and might actually harm people, I should be told to shut up. Parties like the BNP, EDL and UKIP, with their manifestos of xenophobia and ‘repatriation’ are part of this problem, helping perpetuate this insane war by preaching segregation and difference. They hide themselves hypocritically behind the freedom of speech, quite unable to back their views up with evidence, while all the time adding fuel to the fire of hatred. Meanwhile we liberals are stuck with Starbucks dilemma, unable to do or say anything while madmen steer us to our doom.

This must change. What Richard Dawkins has done to religion must now be done to extreme right-wing politics; they are, after all, pretty similar. Just as Dawkins, in The God Delusion and other books, laid bare the lack of logic behind religion, so must someone lay bare the lack of logic behind racism or ethnic prejudices. There may be absolutely no evidence for god, but there’s even less for racial differences. More to the point, whereas religion might be a force for good, racism is always destructive and so needs to be exploded once and for all. It’s time these far-right nut jobs were shown their mistakes and made to shut up, before the rest of us suffer even more for their intolerant lunacy.