The question can rightly be asked. Just what was the point of the EDL demonstration last weekend? In a perverse sort of way it could be claimed it put the vile crime of ‘grooming’ children back in the public eye.

That could have been done without staging the protest by about 150 members of the EDL on Church Green. You only had to look at some of the posters they were carrying to work out the real motive behind the gathering. It had absolutely nothing to do in any constructive sense with ending the menace.

All it has done is run up an unwanted bill for policing the event, led to five arrests, and inconvenienced a lot of people.

It did clearly show two things. Firstly, that democracy and freedom are alive and well in this land. Even though they may have been spouting messages of hate they were allowed to demonstrate.

Secondly, the overwhelming majority of people showed their feelings – they were opposed to their views, but did not take the bait. The community pulled together and did not rise to provocation. Keighley’s reputation as a fairminded town is intact.

Thanks have to go to the police for their role in containing the situation. Some may say they were only doing their job, but it was much more than that. Bradford Council needs praise as well.

But where do we go from here? Grooming is on the agenda and must stay there. Last week we reported on the signing of a condemnation of the practice by political and community leaders said by us to be a turning point in the campaign. They now need to find a way of convincing the sceptics that their actions will speak louder than words.