Recently there was a national statistic saying there is now more tolerence and equality in the UK. Some ethnic groups are experiencing less racism it seems, but this doesn’t really paint a true picture of how things are on ground level as other groups are experiencing more racism, more discrimination and more inequity than ever.

The Daily Mail, that great barometer of all things middle-England and pedestrian; carried an article a few months back about a peaceful demonstration in London by Muslims about the attack on their faith by the media. I didn’t read the article because in my view that publication is only good for two things; to use as kindling on these cold nights and the other... well, I wouldn’t even use it for that.

I was sent the photograph from the article by an ex-colleague whom I’d had no contact with for around 20 years. In recent months we’d Facebooked each other and we’d met up at an ex-colleague gathering, where I was the surprise guest. The reason for my surprise guest status was simply that I’ve had no contact whatsoever with anyone from my early work years, choosing instead to stay away from people I had accidentally worked with, in an industry full of right wing views. But I did manage to convey that I was gay, my partner was Asian and we’d been lovingly partnered for 15 years without many raised eyebrows.

When I opened the "round robin" style email it carried the Daily Mail photo of several bearded, placard waving Muslims at the demo in London and a headline about how these people wanted to take over parliament and change the faith of the nation. My ex-colleague had attached the message “fucking hell, this is scary” and others had added “Don’t know what this country’s coming to” etc, etc. I wondered how my ex-colleague had imagined I would take an email like that? Was I likely to agree with the sentiment seeing as my partner was Asian and Muslim?

My response was unemotional and adult; you have to be careful about sending these sort of things because not everyone is going to agree with you. My partner of 15 years is a Muslim, the people I love, family and friends, who are law abiding, caring, professional working people have been spat at and abused in the street for being Asian or Muslims. I concluded with, “Please don’t send me anymore images like this.”

The sender apologised, but I have since received a torrent of abuse from a number of the other people party to the email, the abuse targeted at homosexuals and Muslims alike. These people seem to be hysterical about their hatred of Islam/Muslims/Asians (and why not throw some homophobic abuse in for good measure) yet they know absolutely nothing about any of it. There seems to be an inability for people to think for themselves about things, choosing instead to jump on the bandwagon of racism.

The Polish community may be experiencing less racial hatred and maybe people in the African Caribbean community feel less marginalised, but the Asian community are now being targeted more than ever.