That racism is at work seems clear. Yet, as Bashir Mann pointed out last week in a forceful speech, there is more to it than that. He argued that young men in schemes like Sighthill are 'out of control', and blamed Scotland's system of children's panels for police impotence. And, as Tommy Sheridan noted, the difficulties facing the asylum seekers has been made worse by their concentration in an area of severe deprivation. In such places, as Professor Neil Mc-Keganey and Dr Marina Barnard of Glasgow University have shown, drug abuse is linked with crime and prostitution in a chain of alienation.
Racism is therefore only one of many symptoms of a deeper malaise.
According to the System Three poll in the Herald last week, most Scots give the issue of aslyum seekers a low political salience. They have committed no crime. Their sin, of which Tories convict them with peculiar bitterness, is that they are, in the judgment of the authorities, not fleeing persecution but merely seeking to escape poverty and better themselves. Mr Hague is acquitted of racism, even by his opponents, but the same cannot be said of elements in his party. Economists believe that Europe will not enjoy sustainable economic growth or support its ageing population without adding to its labour force.