No “vive la France” from me, sorry
Yesterday, France won the World Cup and the day before, England lost the third-place play-off match to Belgium after losing a semi-final to Croatia last Wednesday. I had not been following the matches all...
Category: Sport
Good story 1, Facts 0
The other day I came across a story which a lot of people were sharing on my social media feeds since the appalling terrorist attack in Manchester on Monday night. The story, published on...
Let’s be clear: the French swimsuit ban is about hate
In the past couple of weeks several coastal regions of France, including the districts that include Cannes, Nice and Menton, have banned women from wearing the full-body swimsuits known as ‘burkinis’ that are popular...
Why does sport welcome violent men?
It’s not often that I write about sport here, mainly because I pay so little attention to it. I’ve watched only one football match in person (Ipswich v Oxford at Portman Road in 1991...
Rapists to Rio? Are we that desperate?
This past week, a man from Surrey was given a non-custodial sentence for a series of serious sexual assaults against a 12-year-old girl in December 2012. Adam Hulin plied the young girl, whose age...
No, Andy Murray doesn’t deserve a knighthood (yet)
Sir Andy Murray? David Cameron backs knighthood | Sport | guardian.co.uk So, Andy Murray finally won his first Wimbledon title, and Britain’s first men’s singles Wimbledon title since 1936 (as has been widely pointed...
Gold medals won’t cure cancer
As the British team in the London Olympics surpassed its previous gold medal record (its all-time record from 1908 is unbeaten, but that was when the rules were very different from now), politicians started...
Idiots insult troops and poppy
This image, by Willie Vass shows Celtic fans displaying a slogan insulting the poppy appeal and British troops over the centuries. While British troops have actually done a lot of bad things in Ireland,...
British footballers, privacy and gender
Wayne Rooney’s infidelity exposes law’s misogyny | Media | The Guardian This week it was announced that Mr Justice (David) Eady, is being replaced as head of the Queen’s bench jury and non-jury lists,...
Sportsmen as paragons of virtue
I heard the public apology by Tiger Woods last Friday on the BBC London evening news show, and was kind of satisfied when fate had me go through a long stretch of tunnel during...
Egyptian football stupidity
I’ve never made much secret of the fact that I hate football. I have done since I was forced to play it at school as a child, but I equally dislike the acrimonious rivalries,...
Head injury, and disabled and black perspectives on Serena Williams
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Saturday Live, 12/09/2009 This programme features an interview with Jade Bracey, a young woman who suffered a head injury after being hit by a car on her...
Welcome home, Hilary
We’re all rehearsing for the presidency … I always wanted to be commander-in-chief of my one-woman army — Ani DiFranco, Not So Soft Yesterday evening, just before 7pm, a lady called Hilary Lister completed...
If it looks like a bloke …
Last week, a South African female runner who won the gold medal by a very clear margin (albeit because of a surge in the last minute or so) in the World Athletics Championships in...
The torch’s progress
So, the Olympic torch has made its brief visit to London over the weekend, with a trip across London from west (Wembley) to east (Stratford, where it passed by the 2012 building site) and...
So we lost
If anyone’s not heard yet, the England team lost a football match against Croatia last week, which means England won’t be in the Euro 2008 tournament next year. Boo hoo. The manager (Steve McClaren)...