WE in Scotland often congratulate ourselves on being an open, welcoming and diverse society. It’s certainly true that public statements on issues like racism and immigration from the Scottish political leadership tend to be a welcome antidote to the xenophobia that manifests itself all too often in the Westminster equivalent.

But we have our problems. Social attitude studies show that Scotland is largely the same as the rest of Britain in attitudes to issues like immigration. The poison of bigotry centred on the two biggest football teams just won’t go away and nobody seems to know how to tackle it. And we have racism, though we don’t always want to talk about it.

But in the last few weeks alone the local mainstream media has covered at least five stories of racist abuse in sport, several attacking the consultation on slave-trade connected statues in Edinburgh and some about racism in the community including an attack on a woman wearing a hijab. They are powerful reminders against complacency. Yes, there is condemnation, but that alone has limited persuasive effect.