IT TAKES a brave person to raise their head above the parapet in the present climate and speak out about the dangers posed by right wing ‘neo-fascists’.

The Dean of York, however, has just done exactly that. The Very Reverend Vivienne Faull used a sermon at York Minster to condemn the recent gathering of right-wing extremists near the cathedral, saying there was ‘evidence of powers being unleashed which will bring with them significant danger, the sort of powers which brought terror and tragedy to Europe.’ Referring to the tragic killing of MP Jo Cox, she added: “I am ashamed of what our nation has become.”

Powerful stuff. The Dean also weighed into the EU Referendum debate, accusing Brexit politicians of being ‘care-less of the truth’.

That is a claim that could perhaps be levelled at both sides. This referendum campaign has not been marked out by the quality of the arguments being made. And there seems little doubt that the vicious nature of the campaign and of the claims being made by both sides - which have too often played on fear - have fuelled divisions in our society.

It took a tragedy of the order of the murder of Jo Cox to bring warring politicians together in a show of unity, however briefly.

The Dean’s hope is that, once we have put the referendum behind us, our fractured nation will somehow manage to find a way to heal itself.

“As the nation prepares to vote on our membership of the EU... and as we move beyond it... let us strive to rebuild the bonds of peace and hope, and therefore to save the soul of our nation,”she said.

And so say all of us.