HOW does one respond to something as horrifying as the tragedy that struck the Promenade des Anglais on Thursday night?

For some people at home and abroad it will offer another chance to stir up fear and bigotry.

“When will we learn? It is only getting worse,” tweeted Donald Trump shortly after news of the Nice attack broke, as the US presidential candidate seized upon the understandable outpouring of anger to promote his agenda of prejudice and intolerance.

What Trump failed to recognise is that his rabble rousing is part of the problem. We need to reject the narrative of an impending clash of civilisations that is being spread by both Islamic State and Western radicals.

Trump and his supporters offer no sensible solution to incidents such as those that claimed the lives of at least 84 men, women and children during the Bastille Day celebrations. There is no magic bullet that will stop random terror attacks on ‘soft’ targets.

The problem is complex and might take years to resolve. It will need a wiser foreign policy than the west has shown towards the Muslim world over the past 50 years.

For Trump it is easier to stir up xenophobia than to remember that for every jihadi there are thousands of Muslims who condemn such attacks. This is not simply a struggle of white, western Europeans against an Islamist threat. Terror attacks have hit Brussels and Paris but also claimed Muslim lives in Baghdad and Istanbul.

Over the past couple of months passionate arguments have raged about Britain’s relationship with Europe and the wider world. Some people believe that greater isolationism will protect us from the terror threat. It will not.

The best reaction is to deny terrorists and rabble rousers the fear they seek.

We need to show patience, restraint and solidarity.