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The Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life concluded only a fortnight ago that Britain is no longer a Christian country and, inter alia, that maybe membership of its leading institutions, such as the House of Lords, should be restructured to reflect this existential truth.

As far as man-made law goes, either we can have a totally secular legal code which refuses to acknowledge any religion other than its own ~ or perhaps more realistically we can have a more inclusive legal framework which at least recognises the freedom of religious communities to conduct their own transactions in personal law matters as they see fit.

I believe it was Ernst Junger who observed that a sign of a totalitarian state is its demonising one community in particular, so that all the other elements in society live in fear of the same treatment being meted out to them.

It is a crude form of population control.

At one time it was 'the Jews', at another 'the Communists', at another 'the Irish' ~ and now it's the turn of 'the Muslims'.

For anyone who wishes to understand the current political climate and Orwellian newspeak, I recommend the book "Phantom Terror" by Adam Zamoyski which is sub-titled "The Threat of Revolution and the Repression of Liberty 1789-1848".

Although the author does not, in presenting this historical study, make any comparisons to the present state of affairs , the parallels to the current scenario are unmistakeable.

Perhaps what is required is, to use one of Carl Scmitt's terms, a new nomos.