Sandwiched between communities secretary John Denham's pledge last week to spend £12m on engaging white, working class people and BNP leader Nick Griffin's appearance this week on BBC1's Question Time, last night's edition of Panorama was timely.
It followed the fortunes - or rather misfortunes - of two undercover Asian reporters who moved on to a white, working-class housing estate in Bristol for eight weeks.
The natives turned out to be rather more than restless; they spewed outright hostility at Tamanna Rahman and Amil Khan, including daily threats, racist abuse and physical attacks.
The assailants were generally young but included teenagers and children. One, just 11 years old, threatened Rahman with a gun (which he didn't have) and then a knife (we never found out).
The programme certainly challenged the view espoused by Trevor Phillips, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, that we are living in more tolerant times.
Presumably, it is housing estates such as the Southmead in Bristol that Denham wishes to engage to counteract the threat of right-wing extremism, though the cynic in me wonders whether this is more about stemming the drift of working-class Labour voters towards the BNP.
That cynicism also questions whether it is worth spending money on these sorts of people, who will be given space to air their grievances and resentment, perhaps unchallenged.
I truly hope my cynicism is misplaced.
But watching Panorama last night, it occurred to me that the myth of the tolerant society was also hurting those organisations that supported the victims of this physical and verbal violence.
One of these is the Bristol-based Support Against Racist Incidents (SARI). But, as Panorama reported, it has had its funding cut by the EHRC (as a result of society becoming more tolerant, I guess).
As an emergency measure, perhaps some of John Denham's £12m could be diverted down Bristol way. If he needs any convincing he could listen to Rahman's remark towards the end of the programme: "I thought Paki bashing was a thing of the past. I was wrong."
Last night's Panorama can be viewed for the next seven days.
Leave a comment