Onions Does the Business
England’s revival in the Edgbaston test after their poor showing yesterday, would seem to owe a lot to the first two balls of the day, where Graham Onions took two wickets.
Now Onions is from Gateshead and plays for Durham, so like Sir Bobby Robson he is a born-and-bred Geordie. It is also well known that Sir Bobby loved his cricket, was often seen at Test matches and helped fellow Durham player, Steve Harmison, with his attitude to the game. According to Mickey Stewart he was no mean cricketer himself.
So were those first two balls for Sir Bobby?
What Would WG Grace Have Done?
Yesterday, Andrew Strauss had a chance to reduce the Australian team to ten men before a ball was bowled. But in the spirit of fair play, he allowed them to change their wicket-keeper.
What would all those hard and legendary England captains of the past have done?
Farewell Sir Bobby!
It has just been announced that Sir Bobby Robson has died.
He gave everyone a lot of pleasure and I don’t think he ever made an enemy.
How many people can you say that about?
Gary McKinnon and Aung San Suu Kyi
In Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi is being tried on a trumped up charge, that will probably put her out of the limelight and into a dark and brutal prison for ever.
Today, Gary McKinnon has been allowed to be extradited on a fast-track process to the USA, where if found guilty, he will probably be consigned into a dark and brutal prison for ever.
Nobody should be extradited from this country without a full hearing in the British Courts. And if the punishment that is likely to be imposed on conviction, is much higher than that in the UK, then the extradition should not be allowed.
But then Blair signed those rights away! And the United States have not kept their side of the bargain.
Holiday Reading
I rarely read novels and usually take something that educates me, rather than enlightens.
Books I’ve enjoyed on holiday include the following.
- Lise Meitner – Ruth Lewin Sime – A biography of one of the greatest women scientists.
- Bloody Foreigners – Robert Winder – Not what it seems, but a scientifically-correct history of immigration into the UK. Ideal for keeping Germans off sun-beds.
- Moscow 1941 – Rodric Braithwaite – The definitive account of the battle for Moscow in the Second World War.
- The Wages of Destruction – Adam Tooze – An economic history of the Nazis, by a serious Cambridge academic.
- The Password is Courage – John Castle – A wartime biography of Charlie Coward, who rescued hundreds from Auswitz.
- Rosalind Franklin – Brenda Maddox – A biography of the Dark Lady of DNA.
- Buckminster Fuller’s Universe – Lloyd Steven Sieden – A biography of the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century.
- Principia – Isaac Newton – His great work, that laid down many of the scientific truths, which govern our lives.
- The Skeptical Environmentalist – Bjorn Lomberg – This book debunks many of the myths put around by quack scientists and charity doommongers.
- Beyond the Blue Horizon – Alexander Frater – A book following the route of Imperial Airways to Australia.
- Fermat’s Last Theorem – Simon Singh – A great mathematical story.
- The Man who Loved Only Numbers – Paul Hoffman – The remarkable story of Paul Erdos.
- Liberators – Robert Harvey – The brutal story of those that liberated South America from the Spanish and the Portuguese.
- The Subterranean Railway – Christian Wolmar – The story of the London Underground. I actually read this on Salina, which is the last place you’d build one.
- Prisongate – David Ramsbotham – A frank expose of the British penal system.
- Aspirin – Diarmuid Jeffreys – The remarkable story of a wonder drug.
- Engineering Archie – Simon Inglis – How one man designed many of Britain’s football grounds.
The trouble is that I bought most in hardback and eat into my hand-baggage allowance.
But this is only a start list. There are lots more and I’ll add to it in future.
Assisted Suicide
Debbie Purdy has won a case in the House of Lords, which aims to get the law on assisted suicide clarified.
I’m all for complete freedom of personal action and I think that as it is our body, it is our decision what we do with it. And if someone helps us to commit suicide then so be it.
But what would actually happen now, if you helped your lifelong partner to commit suicide. The media is dominated by cases like that of Miss Purdy and others who have or want to go to Dignitas in Switzerland and none of these have resulted in any prosecution. But there are a few cases, although I can’t locate one at present, where the act has taken place in the UK and prosecution has occurred. My memory says that sentences have not been heavy.
I know quite a few judges, because my late wife was a barrister, and talk to them about cases like this and they will say that the reason there are so few prosecutions is that juries will not convict. There was a poll in The Times, which said that 74 % of people are in favour.
So to prosecute will just be a waste of public money, as well as not being the public interest.
But when my time is up, I will not be taking the early exit.
Why?
There is nothing there and even a very poor and painful life is better than no life at all.
Football Starts
I’ll be off to Portman Road to see Ipswich take on Real Valladolid tonight. It’s only a friendly, but it passes an evening.
Whether this season will be any better than the last few, I don’t know, but one has to live in hope.
Since my wife died, football has been very much a crutch, in that in trips to Portman Road, I’ve been very much amongst friends. And when I take the occasional foray to an away match, it’s an opportunity to lose myself in something trivial.
I’ll have to drive to Ipswich though. Guess what! The trains are on strike. But for evening matches they don’t put on a return train to Newmarket, as the last train stops at Bury St. Edmunds.
The Anonymous Widower 