What went wrong? All those decades of trying to craft a tolerant, multicultural society, of trying to create progressive legislation to protect even the weakest in our society, of trying to leave behind centuries of distrust and prejudice… after first Brexit, and then the US election -- all those decades seem almost a figment of the imagination.

What both polls revealed was how thin this film of tolerance actually is: scratch the surface lightly and lo and behold, out flows bigotry, prejudice and defiance. What is revealed is a rejection of the civilising influences of law and tolerance.

Is this the end of tolerance or simply the end of political correctness? The two are not always the same thing: tolerance is accommodation and compassion while political correctness is often paying lip service to certain principles -- but out of fear rather than conviction. And sometimes it’s easy to see how policing this sort of thing results in situations that people deride and resent. Political correctness taken to logical extremes can be quite facist -- as intolerant as the intolerance it claims to be combatting.

Here’s an example: last month the British Gymnastics slapped a two-month ban on Louis Smith because of a video in which he appeared to ‘mock Islam’. Was this altogether appropriate? Should you be punished for what you say about religion in a private conversation? Religion -- all religions -- have absurd facets and I think one should be free to discuss these, to ridicule them too. And to laugh at them. Monty Python’s Life of Brian is an example, a hilarious recounting of a life with many parallels to that of Jesus.

Would Life of Brian -- a hilariously funny film -- have been cleared for release today or would it have faced problems?

Anyhow, Brexit and the election of Trump have brought to the fore people’s resentment of political correctness, but expressed in a complete rejection of the political system and the political class. This rejection of the system and the ‘establishment’ is a bit of a wake up call: it seems most of the country (both countries) doesn’t trust -- or like -- legislators or people who try to steer society towards the path of tolerance and progress. And now these people feel marginalised enough to support the most non-politically correct candidates, the ones with the lynch mob rhetoric, the ones who speak of jailing public servants, the ones who pander to xenophobic anxieties…

So what’s gone wrong with the progressive, liberal version of democracy? And is this because politicians have neglected the people or because people no longer believe in the concept of the ‘greater good’? Whatever it is, and whatever the economic factors that contribute to this sort of selfish, self-righteous worldview, what is clear is that there is still a disconnect between the educated, urban ‘metropolitans’ and the non-metropolitans. And scratch the surface and there it is: bigotry, racism, prejudice.

And on the subject of the deep roots of something like racism, these days I am reading The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which is an astonishing, darkly funny, satirical expose of racism in the US. The book won the Man Booker last month. Beatty is the very first American to win. You can see why… it’s a good story but it’s also humour that is biting political comment. Very topical.

Talk about zeitgeist …

Best wishes