Watching sport on TV. Some reflections on attitudes to landslides and ethnic minorities.

Last night we thought we might go for an after dinner stroll round the village but then it started raining again! Such a rubbish summer!

So we watched the highlights of the day’s stage of the Tour de France live instead of waiting til later and watching it on catch-up. The riders toiled up a load of hills in the Massif Central. Pogacar and Vingegaard put on a final spurt on the final uphill section of the stage, with Vingegaard winning by a centimetre or two. How do they do that? 

I felt rather sorry for Fred Wright who didn’t quite make it to the finish line within the time limit and had to leave the Tour. And then there were those who skidded on wet roads or took corners too fast and then got back on their bikes and rode with seriously grazed knees and elbows and other body parts. How do they do that? 

Afterwards, even though we have largely ignored and avoided the current football fever, we gave in and watched England play The Netherland. Well, Phil watched it and I read my book while keeping half an eye on the screen. And then England won - second goal scored by Ollie Watkins. Great excitement - England is in the final against Spain and Gareth Soutgate is a hero again. 

Here’s something that appeared on the Facebook page of the Campaign to rejoin the EU’

Middle Englad Male

There'll be no more chances after tonight.

It's time for Gareth to get it right.

And if he doesn't, he'll be gone.

And we'll replace him with someone who truly knows what it means to be English. 

Someone who knows what it means to project strength and bare teeth.

Someone who isn't afraid to attack the weak and the vulnerable.

A relentless winner 🩵🙏🇬🇪

It was accompanied by this photo (much as it irks me to post a picture of Farage’:

With Middle England patriotic fervour in full flow, it’s worth considering how many of the England team are from ethnic minorities. (Come to that, I remember, more years ago than I care to admit, using the French football team, La Sélection, as part of a lesson on multi-racial France,)

Here’s a link to an article about Farage and his manipulation of his position as an MEP to make himself known. Quite telling is this section:

“The arrival of the European parliament’s streaming service in 2008 combined with the rise of social media was a gamechanger. Short, punchy clips of Farage haranguing European politicians went viral on social media, getting far more views than the EU’s official channels at that time.

Richard Corbett, a long-serving Labour MEP, recalls initial puzzlement over speeches from Farage and his Ukip team. “They’d get up and start doing a rant about something that had sometimes nothing to do with what was on the agenda, it was completely out of context … but of course, the reason was that it was geared to making a YouTube clip.””

Social media has a lot to answer for. 

And here’s a link to an article by Aditya Chakrabortty about the dangers of disrespecting the views of ethnic minority groups in UK cities. He points out that in this much vaunted landslide victory “this country’s two big parties took their lowest share of votes and seats alike in more than a century”. Cities, he points out are where ethnic minority communities live. Indeed 40% of Londoners are from ethnic minorities. Cities are changing / have changed in other ways too. The big industries that used to define so many cities have largely disappeared - is Sheffield still the city steel, for example?

Food for thought! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!