The Rule of Law

Politically, I am an anarchist, and know enough about it to know that it bears more resemblance to, say, the consensus process Quakers use than 'anarchy' as fantasized by the right. For this reason, while somewhat puzzled that the people of this country aren't noticeably rioting, I see it as in some ways a good sign that we aren't. 

Here's the thing. I don't doubt for an instant that members of the current government have committed crimes. Misconduct in public office, for example, carries a life sentence. Lying by saying in the Commons that you haven't been partying in lockdown when you have, is another one that both Johnson and Sunak should be tried for.

And that's the point: if we don't try them under the law, we're as bad as them. Don't get me wrong, I would find it very difficult to criticize anyone engaged in a glorious revolution in our current circumstances but we need to be able to consistently say that the MPs in question have broken the law. Not everyone else. Even with our weak democracy and weak legal set up we need them to be the ones history will decide are wrong.

I think what I'm saying is that I want to live in a country where public life is governed by the broad 'consensus' of the law, because that's how it goes in a civilized country. The other thing is that the longer this goes on the closer we get to the historic end of the Conservative Party. The kids are alright, and they're the ones who will gloriously vote them out using the ballot box instead of shooting them.

I have a dream which is that there won't be a Conservative candidate in Birmingham Ladywood at the next election. Honestly they might as well not bother because Labour got 79% of the vote at the last election, but if there is one I won't risk splitting the opposition and will vote tactically to keep them out. In the happy event that there isn't a Con candidate I will vote for what I want either True and Fair (unlikely to be a candidate) or Green because the people of this constituency can be relied on not to elect a Reform UK MP. However in the distant past it's had Con and Liberal MPs and Clare Short of blessed memory sat as an independent for a time.

NB Comments are always welcome but I'll not allow any about Corbyn or Starmers centrism and certainly none saying 'Im too left wing to vote Labour and do what realistically has to be done to get the concentration-camps-and-death-penalty party out. This isn't the winning argument you apparently think it is and I'm not wasting my life arguing with twats.

Pictured: the Coronation Chair commissioned in 1297 after we stole the Stone of Scone.

Spirit of Place: The Curse on Birmingham City Football Ground

Unusually for a place where things tend to go in multiples (three cathedrals, five universities, two exhibition/convention centres, and so on) Birmingham only has one football team, unsurprisingly called Birmingham City Football Club*. It had its start in the winter of 1875 when the choir cricket team of Holy Trinity church, Bordesley, formed a team called the Small Heath Alliance to play the new-fangled game of Association Football.

Ultimately they moved to their current ground, named St Andrew's after another nearby church in 1905 and have been doomed ever since. Relegation has tended to be the watchword and the club has been plagued by all sorts of problems, financial and otherwise.

The reason given locally was that some travellers were moved off the ground (picture at the top) to build the first stadium and one of them put a 'gypsy' curse on the land. Of course this is exactly the sort of thing I love.

All sorts of spooky stuff has been tried to get rid of the curse, even hanging crucifixes in the stadium and having the manager pee in the corner of the pitch. An upholsterer who did some work had a priest bless the cloth with holy water in the hope of getting rid of it.

Each time there is a slight upturn in the club's fortunes before everything starts going wrong, and to me this is a sign that it is actually cursed because if you're going to do it they'd better stay cursed but you might as well mess with their head while you're about it. The best part of this trolling is that you'll read that the curse would last a century - this in itself tickles me no end. As if! That curse is going nowhere.

Nonetheless we'll still make fun of Wolves fans. 😂

*Technically there are two other teams, Romulus and Sutton Coldfield town in Birmingham but they're semi-pro.