Let's not be instinctual ostriches...

This is overall a very well-considered and structured piece tackling a complex issue.

It does however repeat an all too familiar liberal fallacy: the imaginary or wishfully-thought level playing field. e.g.

"If you’re someone who is against all forms of worship in a public space then fair enough – but don’t single out one group."

It's not even so much a fallacy as a failure to think. WHY NOT single out one group if all groups are not in fact the same...beyond being, in this instance, religious or ideological groups?

Some religious groups are more externally orientated than others. Islam is one such. And after a very brief period of persecution at the start, it became one of the more recognisably aggressive of the 'traditions' with regard to non-adherents. Christianity in contrast took roughly 300 years to really start murdering heretics and unbelievers.

How relevant these peculiarities of the belief system might be to the modern world and British society in particular is at the heart of the complexity of the issue.

If we extend our concern from religion to other forms of delusional ideology, Nelson's Column has been the UK's ground zero for their large gatherings for some time now.

How ought we to compare men praying to a far more diverse group of anti-vaxxers and crackpot conspiracy theorists?

When England beat Germany 5-1 in Munich in 2001 V and I hurried to Trafalgar Square to join the celebrations, which were irreproachably joyous — at least at first — but the longer we stayed the more we noticed a 'sectarian' drift in the proceedings with the singing and chanting addressing certain political matters, foreign and domestic, in strident, often unpleasant tones.

So maybe here you have your level playing field, not between harmless public spirituality, but between discreet groups in society who use Trafalgar square as a microcosm of the whole society around them and demonstrate therein how shouty — and shout-downy — they would really like to be in the wider public context…like governments that use airport security to show us their ideal MO.

We have to match our desire to be tolerant with an appreciation of the composition of certain groups which choose this space to reveal the drift of their political sociability. Crowd management in Trafalgar Square, a few thousand people in one small part of the capital, can be a canary in the coal mine.

It's a performative space and many of the performances are demanding to be critiqued.