Lee Anderson is a convenient distraction

If some great challenge or difficulty is looming in the near future, it is human nature to want to change the subject, to busy ourselves with displacement activity to avoid the confrontation. This is perhaps even more true of groups than individuals. Everybody might be aware on some level that a crisis is brewing, but being the first to speak out is hard. Often we prefer calm and superficial harmony to dealing with the truth.

Studied indifference to the elephant in the room has been the order of the day across much of the British political class during the last week or so. Last Wednesday saw extraordinary events in the House of Commons, as long-standing conventions were overturned, allegedly because of threats made to the safety of Labour MPs. Since then we have had an enormous amount of discussion and debate, most of which has actively and specifically avoided the main source of the growing undercurrents of sectarian violence in our politics.