Writing on the sub-prime mortgage fiasco and the buy-to-let boom, Jeff Randall quotes Charles MacKay:

"Men go mad in herds, but only recover their senses one by one."

MacKay was writing on the South Sea Bubble, but I think his apophthegm could be extended to other forms of collective madness: the madness that decreed that all cultures are equal; the madness that declared Islam to be a religion of peace, and a religion like any other.

How quickly and easily people were swept along. And how slow and painful - two steps forward and one step back - is the journey back to sanity. Let's hope we get there before it's too late.

Boris Johnson winning the race for London's mayor would be a small but significant step in the right direction. Counting has only just begun, and will not be completed until later this evening. The polls have Boris and Ken neck and neck, but elsewhere, Labour has rightly sustained heavy losses.

Here's hoping that Boris wins, or rather that Ken loses.