Asa 47-year-old British son of an Indian and an Irish immigrant, let me start with three memories. First, 1988: at Goodison Park, squirming in my seat as my fellow supporters sang “Everton are white” to celebrate being one of the few English football teams not to have any black players at the time. Second, 1999: being asked “why don’t you lot go back to where you come from?” as I got off the bus in Eltham—but, over 20 years on, that was the last time somebody was directly racist to my face. Third and finally, this month, though it could have been last month or the month before, checking my replies on Twitter and finding a swarm of abuse of the kind I’d once thought was consigned to the past.