Leading article: Why we need to keep an eye on players' hands

What's in a handshake? A lot, when it's a question of players from two football teams with as deadly a rivalry as Liverpool and Manchester United. Apologies from the former have flowed thick and fast after Luis Suarez refused to extend a hand to Patrice Evra at Old Trafford, which seemed doubly churlish given that Evra has been the victim of racist abuse from Suarez.

Non-members of the football cult may be wondering whether we need to follow these tantrums in such detail. Alas for them, we do. As long as football remains a national religion, the players' lightest gestures on the field will be heavy with significance elsewhere. It is why the campaign to drive racism from the game has broad implications, and why David Cameron is calling a summit on the issue. Whether he knows much about footie is immaterial. He realises that unsporting behaviour has an echo far from Anfield or Old Trafford.