The Windrush scandal may be the final straw. It is not the unfolding story of Home Office excess in itself which leads you to reach this conclusion but the overall anti-immigration narrative emanating from a Tory government for too long.

Fearful of the threat from UKIP, immigration scare stories fed the Brexit debate, poisoned public discourse and have led to where we are today – a meaner, more inward looking country too often driven by the lowest common denominator. Many Tory Brexiteers are responsible for this. Enthused by a genuinely liberal interpretation of the ‘take back control’ agenda they allied, however inadvertently, with a darker narrative. Cameron gambled recklessly with his referendum, playing fast and loose with the country’s future for Party advantage. He failed. What an epitaph…

How did the Tory Party get here? The origins started with Margaret Thatcher who made the Party ideological. This approach freed it from the complacent, cliquey Tory Left and was arguably beneficial to the country for many years, but has potentially sowed the seeds for its own destruction.

Consensus in the Tory Party is now a dirty word. Leaving the EU completely is consequently its new Corn Laws. The Party is too full of careerists, accused of pursuing the agenda of its ever diminishing right-wing membership for advancement, free from the desire for any real statesmanship. John Major and Michael Heseltine are today derided by their own so-called colleagues. Unthinkable in an earlier age.

The current leader and Prime Minister is deeply unimaginative and frankly not as up to the job as hoped. High expectations have been dashed. She was meant to be moderate and has turned out to be passively extreme. The writings about her political advisers and their outrageous treatment of colleagues in her early PM days simply confirm this.

Speaking to a leading Conservative supporting commentator recently he sadly admitted he would never join the Tory Party today but can’t leave after 40 years of tribalism. Many know how he feels!

The Tories get away with it currently because of the sheer awfulness of the Opposition. For that reason alone, Theresa May will probably survive. When will Labour supporters wake up to this? Politics is simply debased by, at best, the sheer mediocrity on offer from both sides, most of the greatness of the major parties vanquished.

The future? Not the Tory Party as it is except by default – supposedly driven by the rumoured 70k membership, average age 72. Nor extremist Labour. Is a takeover of the ineffectual Liberal Democrats or a new party (watch ‘Renew’ in the local elections in Wandsworth) the answer? Or, ever hopeful, a brave new Tory leader who will rescue the Party and broader political discourse from the abyss?

Man’s inhumanity to man constantly bewilders most of us but you don’t need to be an animal rights fanatic to believe the extent of cruelty to defenceless animals comes a close second in measuring the progress of human civilisation.

The mistreatment of animals is all around us but particularly in second and third world countries. Much of it also involves endangered species which is particularly depressing.

On the upside, education and protection initiatives are also everywhere. Having just returned from a trip to Thailand, if you find yourself there I would strongly recommend a visit to the Wildlife Friends Foundations Thailand (www.wfft.org). Set up by Edwin Wiek in 2001, it campaigns against all forms of animal abuse including illegal pet trades rife in Asia. It rescues and rehabilitates captive wild animals, provides veterinary assistance, widespread education initiatives and looks to repopulate animals in forest areas where they are already extinct or endangered. They currently look after some 600 animals from elephants to bears, gibbons to even a rogue crocodile!

But here is why it has to exist. Elephants are beaten into submission for tourist ride purposes with scars all over their bodies and spines bent under the weight of carrying tourists who are too heavy for them. Bears are drained of their bile with paws being cut off to make bear paw soup. Gibbons, Macaques and other monkeys are drugged to make them suitable for ‘cute’ tourist photos before they are killed or abandoned as they get too large and aggressive for easy captivity. The list of mistreatments and the reasons why are endless and that is before the erosion of their natural habitats is addressed.

We all have a responsibility to protect the environment and the animals that live alongside us. Human beings are incredibly powerful and therefore potentially destructive to even the most majestic beasts. Dealing with animal cruelty is about legislation, tackling corruption, cross-border policing, education and providing safe places for animals to recover from the actions of ignorant humans. This is an issue refreshingly not about Brexit or party politics. Everyone one of us can do our bit even if it is not on the scale of Edwin Wiek and we should do so.