Your daughter is welcome here. We have plenty of problems here in the UK, some of those are shared with an increasingly fascist thinking world, but we also have a long history of refusing to accept it. Look back at the eras of punk, two-tone, heavy metal, new wave, you’ll find cultural movements where minorities were embraced for their differences and our shared hatred of being oppressed and divided.

When I grew up, the National Front were openly posting up outside football stadiums trying to recruit young men to turn this country fascist. In many ways, it’s the same thing as is happening now, only they do their recruiting on social media. In some places it was able to fester, but in many others a combination of blacks, gays, punks and the everyman found themselves allied with a common hatred of fascism and we drove them out.

I was a Londoner then, but I agree with the person suggesting Manchester as a safe spot too. I knew Blackburn a little, 30 years ago, and it was a town with some problems, but generally decent people. Maybe not where I would choose were I gay. I think most places have a decent enough group of kind people though, and I would even say to look specifically for the places where the punks and the weirdos hang out, people are safe and welcome among us whoever they are.

You’re not far from me in Manchester which I’m sure you’ve visited. Great gay (home of Gaydio) and music scene too. Manchester punk festival is on soon.