George,

"but I see a rising tide of opinion that looks ugly."

I share this view.

Let us not be hasty in jumping to conclusions, but I harbour a fear that the current economic climate, combined with the current political swing in the UK away from the left, may result in some of the uglier right wingers who have kept their heads below the surface so to speak, coming out of their closets and espousing all sorts of crass perspectives on issues like this.

(Excuse my mixing of metaphors there - unless you like the image of the sea being full of drifting closets each containing a partially submerged right winger all about to wash up on the shore ... I thought not ...)