When we were growing up in the 1960s and 70’s, unlike most Bangladeshi settlers here with modest means, our family and friends would take regular trips across the country – the Lake District, Dorset and a village in Sussex all come to mind because we were invariably the first brown people the locals had seen in real life. I remember we all walked into a busy country pub one evening and suddenly it was silent as everyone stared at us.

Somebody then came over to Mum and asked: “Excuse me miss, is that what they call a sari?”  Mum said indeed it was and explained how it was made. It was always very friendly apart from one visit to the seaside resort Littlehampton. We wandered off in different directions with a plan to regroup at lunchtime in pursuit of fish and chips. But after a few minutes, we heard Mum shouting at the top of her voice.

We quickly ran over to where we heard her and there was a sight we’ll never forget: she was berating a small group of skinheads who had clearly said something racially abusive to her. But Mum, a headmistress, was as confident as they come and with her tongue-lashing had reduced these thugs to quivering wrecks. We got there just in time to deliver the final line of her tirade: “YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE BRITISH EMPIRE!”

Watching the Tommy Robinson followers ooze their hate and vile on the streets of London last weekend made me wonder why we weren’t protesting in equal numbers to theirs, why were Muslims in particular being told to stay at home to be safe and indeed, why were there so few arrests.

In 1978, at the height of Britain’s Paki-bashing shame, the far-right National Front were audaciously parading their filth in areas with strong Asian concentrations like Southall and Brick Lane thinking Asians were a soft touch and wouldn’t fight back.  Little did they know that in community centres and gyms, young brown men were toughening up and in both those areas, they came out on to the streets and took battle because they knew they couldn’t rely on the police to protect their families and communities. With the support of a group called the Anti Nazi League, they fought the NF off their streets and they became safe again.

I would never have imagined that racial bigotry would today attract over 100,000 people to central London, to see thousands picketing hotels for housing migrants, to see our prime minister kowtow to it all and call us an island of strangers.

And to see our flags used as symbols of hate.

If Mum were alive today, I’d encourage her to use that spirit of Littlehampton to put the likes of Farage, Robinson and yes, Starmer, in their place.  As that’s unlikely to happen, it’s on us to stop being quiet.