Rachel Moore says the riots left an unsettled feeling

Hatred is not British. Watching areas erupt with vile abhorrent behaviour and dehumanising racist views so sickening it’s been unbelievable that people who spout that type of bile still exist. It’s out of step with everything our nation stands for.

Grown men setting fire to hotels where they believe asylum seekers live, throwing bricks, looting shops, children being kept indoors in the summer holiday because their parents are terrified, they will be attacked for the colour of their skin and organisations that help asylum seekers attacked. It was unbearable and incomprehensible. If this is truly what British people think and want, when’s the next ferry or plane out?

Then, on Wednesday, as businesses boarded up their windows fearful of attack and police braced themselves to be on the front line of civil unrest, British decency, tolerance and acceptance triumphed with a quiet but powerful upsurge for right.

In peaceful protest – standing up to wrong, unjust and downright horrible - people took to the streets to show solidarity, revulsion and support those under attack, outnumbering the element of British society no one wants.

It would be naïve not to acknowledge that rioters - previously arrogant or stupid enough to believe they could get away with it when cameras are everywhere - hauled off and handed down prison sentences after Kier Starmer warned they would feel the full force of the law didn’t play a part.

The pathetic sight of a 30-year-old sobbing and calling for his mum in the dock in Sheffield displayed the reality behind these so-called hard men.

Meanwhile, the true spirit of multi-cultural Britain shone through with all parts of communities banding together to clear up the debris and aftermath, while waving union flags for a multi-cultural Team GB in Paris.

Pride in our athletes, whatever the colour of their skin, brings temporary unity as Neanderthals tried to whip up a society riven with hatred.

As Keely Hodgkinson said after winning gold in the 800m

“It’s really nice to know that hopefully [the win] did uplift something and made some want to be proud to be British. I was certainly - waving the flag around regardless of things that have gone on. I just hope it’s a positive future going forward.’’

This week has seen the perfect storm for riots – the summer heat, discontent and a catalyst – the dreadful crime in Southport – fuelled by outdoor drinking.

Let’s hope the storm has passed after the zero-tolerance display of Wednesday night, moving the national mood from despair and fear to hope and strength that Britain won’t be cowed by thick bullies and is a welcoming decent nation.

Too early to mention Christmas?

That Christmas is an animated film for Netflix with music by Suffolk boy Ed Sheeran, with Brian Cox as Santa and big-name voice cast including former Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker and Bill Nighy.

It tells the story of how everything gets turned upside in the town one Christmas.

Curtis, waxes lyrical about everyone’s love for Suffolk. Fantastic. We do love it. But we don’t want to share the secret universally so it’s to overrun with visitors to enjoy.

Working away for the greater good

TV presenter Trisha Goddard’s cancer is back. Like so many people, she doesn’t want to be defined as a cancer sufferer, rather a person living with cancer.

We don’t take time to appreciate how much medical science has progressed to mean that hearing the words: “You have cancer” isn’t the death sentence it once was.

Now so many cancers are treatable and dealing with them is a process – not a pleasant process, of course, but a process that takes people back to success to good health.

This is because of clever scientists – those people working away for the greater good to save lives. Guess what – some of these are people of colour that the rioters would have deported.

But they would fight their way to the front of the queue to benefit from their work. That’s just how stupid they are.

A 'wagtastic and grubby' court case

The grubby court case of England footballer Kyle Walker and his mistress Laurynn Goodman about her financial demands for their two children was, in its detail, wagtastic.

Astroturf for a one-year-old showing signs of football talent and telephone number figures for living expenses.

The judge dismissed her as unreliable and she “failed to make a calm and measured assessment of what she needed and often exaggerated her need to spend money” while Walker had acted with dignity and generosity.

It cannot be overlooked that Walker had cheated on his now-wife and mother of his children, and Goodman’s children with him are his children’s half-siblings.

Any mother would fight for her children to be treated equally to their father’s other children and have the same as their half-siblings have. It’s only fair.

Why should they be treated as second class by a father who earns £160,000 a week and knew exactly what he was doing and doing it in secret.

The money involved might be ridiculously high and Goodman might behave as brash and greedy with undesirable tactics, but she is a mother fighting for her children to be acknowledged and treated fairly. Which mother wouldn’t?