This year is the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War – six long and awful years fighting fascism, hatred, bigotry, division, greed and trying desperately to maintain freedom. There are but few of those who lived, and fought in those terrible days still living, and few who survived the industrial murdering of humans in the concentration camps still living.

Yet the rise of the right, the rise of hatred, greed – be it for land, power or wealth – threatens once more. When governments espouse the separation of differing groups, demonise people because of who they love, whether they are born in that country, their skin colour, what gender they are, whether they are poor, or of a different faith, then everyone suffers.

Divide and rule – it’s a tried and tested form of government – blame the immigrants/Jews/gays/women/blacks/Muslims/those people across the border – whichever group or groups of people are supposedly at fault. It’s control – nothing less. If ‘you’ blame someone else for the ills of the regime, of the inequalities that exist in society then you won’t blame the people calling the shots, or even, dare I say, oneself.

War continues, and the hatred continues – the rich get richer at the expense of those with less, or nothing. Humans don’t learn, history repeats, and repeats – and the blood flows. Again. When men of power claim empathy is weakness, when wealth is might and right, when poverty, or need is a crime, when ‘other’ is wicked, civilisation has failed.

When would you speak up? When would you act? When freedom to speak is gone? When the freedom to be yourself is removed? When your health benefits are no more and you can’t afford to treat your children’s healthcare? When the synagogue burns? When the mosque burns? When your neighbour is taken away? When the ghetto is full? When the extermination squad is at the door?

Civilisation is on its knees. Watch the news. Think – it could be you – it might be you.

80 years on – and we seem to have learned nothing.