Again, there was not a word of support from anyone. I was left to stew in my own juice. It’s this which I suppose is the most disheartening thing. There is a section of our society that remains awfully polite about such issues and prefers to see such non-­reaction as part of a British desire not to make a fuss or cause embarrassment. They simply don’t get the fact that now it’s all about fear.

Is there anyone who, if they are completely honest, would dare ask a couple of young men to turn down the booming thuds of music that emanate from their car as it waits alongside theirs at the traffic lights? I have been in this situation a number of times over the past month, my car vibrating with close-range noise pollution, but have to confess that I have failed in my remit. And I’ve had political sanction: Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, said recently that the best approach if one came across certain sorts of antisocial behaviour was not to get involved.

Alongside this fear is the sense that the order of things has become so inverted that one will be on shaky ground if one does indeed speak up. Most people, I’ve found, register some degree of outrage at being asked to desist, no matter how politely you do it. You are the rude trouble­maker in their eyes. For some kind of order to be restored, back-up is crucial. Formal authority has more or less left the scene, so what we need is pressure of the good, old-fashioned social sort. Speak up.