As the founder of a charity that exists to bring communities together, I woke up this morning with feelings I had not experienced since the riots. I felt again that numbing sense of disbelief, that mourning and sadness at accepting the reality followed by that overwhelming desire to find a way to mend what feels broken.
Yesterday was World Down Syndrome Day, a celebration of the lives of people who have Down syndrome. Down syndrome is a genetic condition called a trisomy, where someone is born with an extra copy of chromosome 21 (three instead of the normal two). You may not think that there is a point to celebrating the lives of people with a genetic condition - but you'd be wrong.
The distinction between voluntary involvement and enforced quotas is a very important one. Though well-intentioned, the introduction of quotas can lead to accusations of tokenism, and create resentment and tension amongst the workforce - in particular given the implication that positive discrimination in favour of one group will inevitably result in negative discrimination against another.
Just a few weeks ago, Britain was deep in the doldrums. A stagnant economy, morally and financially bankrupt banks, journalists and politicians and never-ending rain had over months and years slowly sapped the country of its spirit. Even the much-hyped Queen's Jubilee in June, with a somewhat flat river pageant and sometimes unremarkable concert, failed to lift the public mood.
The 2012 London Olympic games were born in the melting pot of multiculturalism. As we were reminded on Friday, the tragedy of 7/7 happened on the day after the announcement of the success of the London bid. The London games arrived in 2005 with the London bombings. Thankfully, we have come a long way since then.
Boris Johnson provoked both glee and outrage when he wrote, in his regular Telegraph column, that the next Director General of the BBC should be a Tory. "Imagine", opined Alastair Campbell "if we had said what Boris said". The difference, of course, is that a Labour politician would never say it. They just did it.