Second, events on the streets of Lahore can have a bigger impact in some British cities than events in the surrounding English countryside. For Lahore, read Peshawar or Mirpur - the part of Kashmir whence perhaps as many as 600,000 Muslims in Britain originate. Mirpur is at the other end of Pakistan from the north-west province. But it's relatively close to the Indian-held valley of Kashmir. And it is of course touched by the main strategic threat to the latter-namely, that Pakistan becomes engulfed in the Afghanistan conflict.

Third, for Lahore or Peshawar or Mirpur, read Gaza. I received more emails and letters from constituents about events earlier this year than about Iraq at the time of invasion. Most of these were from Muslims. Gaza saw for the first time the mobilisation of young British Muslims on behalf always of the Palestinians and sometimes of Hamas.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Britain is expanding its email list, knocking on the doors of ministers, and trying to elbow aside the pirs - the traditional spiritual leaders of those Muslims whose origins lie in the subcontinent. Will the winners of this struggle be the Brotherhood and its allies, or the pirs, or the majority of British Muslims who are forming their own future, getting on with their lives, and may not want to be led by anyone? Perhaps we'll know in another eight years.