'Why Britishness brings us stability and security in these dangerous times' - West Midland academic Roshan Doug

Last weekend kicked off with headlines all of us dreaded. Missiles, retaliation, urgent press conferences – the latest escalation between Iran and the USA. It all felt – and still feels – dangerously close to something much bigger.

And then Monday morning arrived, as it always does. Pupils and students filing into British classrooms and lecture halls as if the world hadn’t just tilted slightly on its axis. But it had.

If you’ve worked in education as long as I have, you know that a global conflict doesn’t stay ‘over there.’ It turns up in debates. It sits quietly in the eyes of a student whose grandparents live in Tehran or Dubai. It shows up in tense conversations, in parks and at bus stops. World events have a funny way of squeezing themselves into very ordinary British corridors.

That’s why I bang on – probably too often – about home and belonging.