IF ANYONE had any doubt that we’ve let a genie out of the bottle with the referendum campaign, then what I witnessed Saturday morning, just off Ashley Road, Parkstone, is proof that we have a potential danger unleashed.

Three or four young adults (could have been twenty-somethings) had presumably been followed out of a shop for some misdemeanour by a “foreign-looking” assistant.

They were shouting and swearing at the young woman when I caught the line “You can’t touch us, we’re out of the EU now!”.

If I hadn’t been slowly driving a car I might have been able to photograph or film the perpetrators with my phone.

This incident made me ashamed to be British. Where is all of this leading?

We are where we are after the referendum. However as people start to realise that “Brexit” is not the magic bullet for all their issues I fear that instances like this will escalate, and some people may start to turn to far-right groups such as “Britain First”.

If our Prime Minister has any shred of “One Nation” Conservatism left in him he should rush through measures to tackle this brand of home-grown extremism. You only have to look back to events in Northern Ireland, The Balkans, or even Syria to know how quickly things can get out of hand.

One possible new initiative, which might educate as well as punish racists, is to introduce a punishment of transportation for a fixed period, say a month, to help (under supervision of course) in refugee camps where hopefully they will learn a bit of empathy and humanity.

Prison sentences or fines will not help reduce their anti-social behaviour.

A spell of tough education might.

TONY TRENT

Address supplied

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