Josh Charters and his fiancée were getting ready for bed on Jan 13 when his Mini Cooper Sport went up in flames. Just outside his front door, the assailant appeared to throw liquid over the car’s windscreen and set it ablaze. It was a scene reminiscent of a gritty TV crime drama, but this was no gangland conspiracy – it was an attack on a local Labour councillor. A month earlier, Shah Bahram was asleep on his sofa when two balaclava-clad men poured petrol on his car and set it alight. As the vehicle became engulfed in flames, the perpetrators...