England’s footballers were unlucky. They played well but didn’t get the result they deserved. So it’s not fucking coming home, although whoever eventually wins the trophy could be thought of having rescued it from a corrupt tournament held in a corrupt country.
One of the very many great things about Test cricket is the
team which plays best invariably wins and if this doesn’t happen then a draw is
the worst result they can reasonably expect. And here we are, England in Pakistan two up
with one to go having played the best cricket and the bravest. Stokes’ captaincy with its all-out aggressive
approach has been met with increasingly tougher examinations and each one has
been passed. No one could or would have
predicted that at the start of the last English summer. I keep thinking ‘it can’t keep happening…’
but it does, the team keeps performing and improving and winning! Surely this goes against everything we know (and
love?) about Test cricket; all-out attack with both bat and ball shouldn’t work
but at the moment it is.
England are getting a lot right at the moment, team
selection has been flexible and sensible which was not the case in the last
months of Silverwood’s leadership. The
players selected are doing the job required.
Ben Stokes is a very, very good captain (making it apparent his
predecessor was barely average on a good day) who will only get better.
England are going to keep playing this way and all the
cricketing nations around the world will be taking notice, they will be coming
up with plans to counter us. The future
is exciting, if still uncertain?
Forced out by Kevin Maxwell
A story of Police discrimination against one of its own
officers who happened to be mixed race and gay. The book could have done with a better edit which
could have made the timeline more accurate chronologically and also weeded out
the repetitions. Also I am aware this is
an autobiography so will be one person’s version of the truth and with this
book I always had the feeling that stuff had been left out. Not just the author’s life away from the
force which is barely touched upon.
I’m conflicted. Was
Kevin Maxwell the victim of homophobic and racist treatment? Yes I believe he was. Are British Police forces institutionally
racist? Yes absolutely. Is the UK institutionally racist? Yes it is.
I found it hard to absorb all the detail (KM isn’t a great
writer…) but will take the authors word for the discrimination he experienced
whilst a Police officer although to me it seems as much about toxic masculinity
as it was race/sex. I think KM himself could
have handled things better at this early stage but that does not excuse what
happened to him. He didn’t have a ‘glass
ceiling’, Maxwell’s ceiling was made of concrete.
The attempts by the Metropolitan Police to silence Maxwell and
the conspiracy that sprung up to fight him is sinister and would be shocking if
we hadn’t seen other well publicised cases on Police wrongdoing in recent
times. KM describes in detail the closing
of ranks, deceit and dishonesty the police force stooped to using against him; withholding
evidence, falsifying evidence, deliberate provocation and leaking to the worst
of British media. The author lays his
evidence out for us and it’s hard to deny that the service trusted to protect
us citizens was utterly corrupt. There
is a warning for all of us; challenge the police and they will come for you,
ignoring the laws they are sworn to uphold.
I suppose I’m a person who wants to trust the Police, (even if I don’t
always agree with what they are doing) so this is an uncomfortable conclusion
to make.
But it has to be said that while Maxwell was fighting the
Police and Depression he also found time to write a detailed blog as well as
make media appearances which doesn’t really sit right for me, again I don’t
think he helped himself.
But fair play to Kevin Maxwell for standing up and for his
positivity in defeat. That’s the really
scary thing, in the end the bastards got away with it.
