One urgent thing the US and the UK can both do to restore their social fabric is to teach civics in the schools and advanced civics at universities.

It is no coincidence that the basic building blocks of democratic society are so weakened in societies that no longer teach civics, and that do not value the humanities, the conceptual space in which civics are supported.

Needless to say, the restoration of civics is unlikely to happen in societies merrily stripping funding of support for all humanities. This is no coincidence.

People whose view of power is authoritarian don’t want to strengthen the democratic support of our society, they want to weaken it. They don’t want informed voters or informed citizens.

People who don’t understand basic civics don’t know their own rights and they don’t defend the rights of others.

And then those rights disappear into the clutch of the authoritarians.

What is happening in America is not a drill, as some of us have been saying since Day 1 of the Trump administration. We said he would escalate if he was permitted. He is escalating.

Things are definitely going to get worse in the three months until the election. I don’t know if they are going to get worse before they get better, but I know they are going to get worse.

If we emerge with any shred of democratic institutions left intact, the first thing we need to do - after putting Betsey De Vos onto her fucking yacht in the middle of the ocean and refusing her right of entry into any civilized country - is restore the teaching of civics.