Something in our country changed at the weekend. Like cities across the UK, London has seen protests organised by the far right before, but this felt different. Over 100,000 people filled the capital. Tens of thousands of them marched peacefully. But some violently attacked the police officers tasked with keeping Londoners safe. Elon Musk tried to rally protesters against our democracy, telling them to “fight back or you die”.

The scenes we saw didn’t come from nowhere. For far too long, our politicians and pundits have refused to condemn the rising tide of hatred in this country, instead choosing to dabble in dog-whistle politics and dangerous rhetoric themselves.

Now, this toxic form of politics is spilling out on to our streets. Many minority Londoners have expressed fear and millions more in the capital and across the country are horrified. For our leaders, silence is no longer enough. The time has come to stand up and say: this is not who we are. We must unite to take on the reactionary populists and nativists who are exploiting economic concerns, the atomisation of modern life and a growing distrust of political and media institutions – something we have seen in countries across Europe and, of course, in the US.

President Donald Trump and his coterie have perhaps done the most to fan the flames of divisive, far-right politics around the world in recent years. When he came to the UK on........

© The Guardian