You can probably tell from my last couple of entries that I haven’t been having the best week. To cheer myself up, this afternoon I took myself on one of my favourite walks along the regents canal. It’s a long, quiet walk across the north of London, through fascinating suburbs like Camden, towards the city centre. It was exactly what I needed. One of the things I noticed, though, was the number of Palestinian flags which have appeared: I saw them all over the place, stuck to lamp posts and fences. I also saw things like “Free Palestine” and “Free Gaza” scrawled everywhere. I don’t know how significant this is: obviously it’s a response to what is happening in the Middle East, but I really hope it’s not a symptom of something more ominous and intolerant.