Of course to make this point is to provoke an obvious rebuttal: "Ah! But that is exactly what you do deserve. Do you know what white people did — and the British in particular? You travelled around the world and lived in countries and pillaged them, and tried to erase their local cultures." Will Self was at precisely this game on Question Time the week after the census was published when he claimed: "Up to the Suez crisis . . . most people's conception of what being British involved was basically going overseas and subjugating black and brown people and taking their stuff and the fruits of their labours. That was a core part of British identity, was the British empire. Now various members of the political class have tried to revive that idea quite recently without much success."

Leaving aside the claim by Self (currently professor of contemporary thought at Brunel University) that members of the political class had tried to revive the British empire, in this speech you hear the authentic and undisguised voice of revenge. Demonstrating that such an instinct transcends racial or religious boundaries, and can as easily be self-induced as aimed at others, it suggests that Britain must be uniquely punished for the deeds of history.

The repercussions of this argument are striking to consider. For if this is even partially a spur for the recent transformation of our country and its acceptance, then what we are going through is not an accident, not a mere laxness at borders, but a cool and deliberate act of national sabotage.

If this is indeed considered an acceptable motivating factor then I suppose we must ask: who else can be treated in this way? And what is the statute of limitations? The Ottoman Turks ran one of the longest, largest and bloodiest empires in history. Ought we to treat modern Turkey as a country which deserves to be altered completely? Where should we encourage the waves of immigration to come from? Should the Turks also be expected to take this lying down? When, if ever, would a halt be called? Since all countries, peoples, religions and races have done something terrible in their time, and since most races and cultures are not punished in this way, is it wrong to see anti-Western racism as the motive behind all recent justifications?