ONCE again, Salisbury is awash with visitors. Student language groups with their clipboards and worksheets, talking in every language other than English; coach parties on their day trip from London dashing through the Cathedral in their allotted 30 minutes before heading off to Stonehenge or Bath on their whistle stop tour of the West Country. Families of overseas tourists lingering as they wander the streets with their guidebooks looking for somewhere to eat; Guests from other parts of England, discovering the Cathedral, the museums, Mompesson House, Old Sarum and the city centre, still glowing from accolade as the best town in England in which to live.

Add to this, residents taking advantage of the weekend weather to enjoy the market, street eating and live music; you have a recipe for a bustling, busy, smiling weekend. Hard not to feel privileged to be living here.

That’s not to overlook the more challenging aspects of the city. The blight of the Central Car Park; the incomplete, wholly inadequate and completely obtrusive Ring Road; estates of poorly built crumbling social housing that remind residents daily, that while prosperity has grown for some in a land of increased inequality, they have been left behind and forgotten; woefully inadequate support for those at society’s margins and the absence of free school dinners in the holidays, means even more customers for Trussell Trust’s foodbank and Alabarés charity care.

Every city has a darker side; it is to Salisbury’s credit that it pulled together to recover from its Russian attack, that the national foodbank movement was founded here, that Alabaré is now the largest provider of care and support for homeless Veterans outside London and that we were among the first towns to welcome Syrian refugees.

Spare a thought for the good people of Baltimore; described by its president as ‘a disgusting rat and rodent infested mess’, in which ‘no one would choose to live’. The city and its residents have been caught in the crossfire of a presidential fight against his Democratic opponents. Although there has been a spirited defence of the city, highlighting its efforts at regeneration, its World Trade Centre, national Aquarium and Science Centre, and the damage has been done.

As the Donald Trump knows only too well; those framing the news agenda (however misleading) set it. As Salisbury residents know only too well it sticks.

My son and I are planning a trip to the States; Baltimore wasn’t a place were going to visit, but now I’m wondering… Perhaps we should make a detour to show solidarity with fellow victims of collateral damage, unwarranted suspicion and international anxiety. Salisbury knows only too well the economic cost that Baltimore will now bear; in our case a foreign power did the damage; in theirs, their own president; our hearts surely go out to them.