Monthly Archives: May 2016

After my post on West Ham’s final game at Upton Park a couple of weeks ago (https://bernardjporter.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/goodbye-to-boleyn/), I promised to ‘lay off’ football for a while. But having just come across this alternative account of the ‘riot’ before that match, … Continue reading →

I’ve been looking back at the 1975 referendum on British membership of what was then called the ‘Common Market’. (This is for those who weren’t around then.) The circumstances of its being held at all are interesting. The main motive … Continue reading →

I now think my last post may have been a little too rosy. I hadn’t appreciated quite how far the reaction against democracy, in America in particular, and quite explicitly, had gone. Here’s a quote from Jonathan Freedland’s superb long … Continue reading →

What can it mean, all these comedians suddenly rising to prominence in so many of the world’s ‘democracies’? I call them ‘comedians’, but some of them are downright sinister. Berlusconi probably was. Trump certainly is. It’s more difficult to see the … Continue reading →

Corruption has its roots in greed, of course, but is enabled by lack of discipline. In many cases that discipline is self-imposed. People who have the opportunity to be corrupt nonetheless aren’t, because of an inner moral decency, or because … Continue reading →

It’s not taken long for ‘Godwin’s Law’, or ‘playing the Hitler card’, to come into operation. The ‘law’ itself refers mainly to blogs, and runs: ‘As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler … Continue reading →

After Boleyn, I thought it worth recycling this piece, from the LRB Blog, December 2014. I promise to lay off football after this. When I began following West Ham sixty years ago nearly all the team was made up of local … Continue reading →

In my May 6 blog I mentioned an ‘awful woman’ presenting the recent local election results on BBC1 TV, whose commentary was so fixated with Jeremy Corbyn and what the results meant for him, in a continually negative way, as … Continue reading →

As it turned out, it wasn’t the Man United supporters I should have worried about. It was ours who spoiled the day – attacking the Man U bus with bottles as it drove into the ground, with the Club’s co-chairman … Continue reading →

Just off to see West Ham’s final game at the Boleyn Ground. Ben got us tickets, miraculously. (They’re like gold. I’ve already been offered £1000 for mine.) The best birthday present I’ve ever had. My mind goes back to all … Continue reading →