Last night I had the strangest dream.

I dreamt that the UK had left the European Union, triggering Scotland and then Wales and Ireland to leave the UK.

England was left isolated, adrift in grandiose dreams of empire, like an impoverished aristocrat dreaming of lost riches, of being great once more.

Effectively a one-party nation, now freed from the pesky European Court of Human Rights, I dreamed the Conservatives set about decimating workers’ rights; mass-building on swathes of green belt land, riding rough-shod over the wishes of local people; environmental degradation.... the rich/elite getting ever-richer/more powerful, the poor ever-poorer.

Angry at realising that things are actually no better for them since Brexit, the working poor turned their anger on minority groups, demonising them as the cause of their ills. Violence ensued; ugliness, hatred. Attitudes hardened, stifling democratic debate/dissent. Fear dominated.

In the name of maintaining public order, the Government increased police powers, turning England into what is in effect a police state.

Freedom of thought shrank. Spiritually the nation withered. Fear dominated.

Of course this was only my dream thank the stars. It would never actually happen. Not here, in England. Birthplace of Magna Carta, of democracy itself.

The very thought....

But, a great political thinker once wrote “Democracy always hangs by a thread. Democracy is the struggle for justice against the powerful. Peace without social justice is impossible.”

Let us all most sincerely hope, in the coming months and years, that this thread does indeed not break.

Adrian Colston, Frome Road, Bradford on Avon