The dark heart of man

The events at that church in Kenya are shocking, but they are not isolated. As I heard BBC reporters telling how this was unprecedented in Kenya I was thinking what short memories they have.

Did they not watch "The Long Way Down" with Charley and Ewan ? There is a terrible part where they went to visit a school which had been the site of a massacre of children due to tribal rivalries.

And let us not think this is just an African problem. The Balkans shows just how evil man can be, as did Nazi Germany, as has Northern Ireland and more recently with acts of evil by men from England on 7/7.

This capacity for evil seems to be a common potential part of the human condition - I could cite examples from Iraq, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Thailand without really having to think very hard.

We all say it can't happen here, but then hold a minute some people said it could. We must take this possibility seriously and work to create a common nation, not one split into 'Communities'.

It is not like the warnings aren't there, even for the BBC. Many of the terrible events of the past follow power struggles between groups, if we allow that form of instability to build in the UK then we are likely to have similar results.