No Deal will be a failure of state, not of the voters

GIVEN how often the story changes this blog could date very quickly. However much of what you will read here I am afraid is true and a sad indictment on both sides of this mess.

If it comes to pass then a ‘No Deal’ Brexit is not the fault of me or 16 odd million remain voters nor the ‘mainstream media’, no Emmanuel Macron or Angela Merkel. It’s a failure of statecraft on both sides of the table.

Having called a referendum, former Prime Minister David Cameron should have instructed the Cabinet Secretary to prepare a briefing paper to outline just what a departure from the EU would actually involve. It may never have seen the light of day but would have hugely informed our clueless political class.

Instead he walked away the next morning in a ‘not my fault, guv’ sort of way, sulking that a majority of voters hadn’t listened to a Prime Minister with a thin majority.

His replacement walked into Downing Street and there on the cabinet table was a blank sheet of paper just with Brexit scrawled at the top.

At no point since June 23 has any Prime Minister defined just what Brexit meant. Hard-working voters on all sides were just told ‘Brexit means Brexit and we’re going to make the best of it’. A more vacuous statement you’ll struggle to find…

The lack of a defined vision has poured into the negotiations, the British side saying here’s what we want and you’ll jolly well agree and the EU pointing out that we can’t keep the benefits if we want to leave the club.

A well-briefed Government would have seen many of the red flags as far back as 2016 – on Northern Ireland, on fishing, on borders, trade etc.

Three and a half years to be proactive and cut through the tape ourselves rather than wait to be handed the scissors.

It would have also allowed room for realpolitik where the Government could have made some bold offers to the European Union and moved the emphasis on Brussels to compromise.

Instead we argued among ourselves, wasted hundreds of hours in Parliament and still to this day think we hold all the cards, we hold none.

Under the current incumbent of Number 10, the Government’s policy seems to be bluster, bullshit and braggadocio – any failure will solely down to the EU and not poor old Boris.

It won’t, there will be no winners from No Deal. 

That includes in the European Union, while it’s perfectly understandable they have stuck firm to the principles of the constitution for member states there is a real stubbornness emerging in recent days.

Barnier et al appear to have a developed a weird form of Stockholm Syndrome where they appear to identify with their captors. He and the bloc do not appear to understand that in leaving Britain has no interest in protecting the member states, it doesn’t have to.

Access is sought to our waters to fish in the same breath as we are being told we cannot access EU member benefits.

Dangerously it also appears Brussels doesn’t think the UK will ever pull the pin on ‘No Deal’ – while the last few years appears to back that judgement it’s a frightening assumption to have.

No side wants to ‘give in’ out of sheer selfish greed. Our Government doesn’t want to concede ground for fear of Farage but is cautious of the impact of leaving without a deal in this Covid climate.

The EU has a deep fear the British will make a success of things and set the bar accordingly to try and ensure that didn’t happen. Success in London could spark itchy feet in Rome, Madrid and Athens. But it also knows Britain on its doorstep would be a welcome trade partner for millions of businesses across the bloc.

Whatever your opinion I do urge you to listen to the excellent Ros Atkins here https://twitter.com/i/status/1336793564165124096 who explains just why sealing the deal is proving somewhat of a challenge.

Williamson the latest ‘useful idiot’ in PM’s increasingly dysfunctional administration

GAVIN Williamson ought to be on the backbenches this morning, either sacked or having resigned over the fiasco that is the A-Level results.

Instead he remains responsible for education in this country, ironic given the fact millions of students want him in detention.

Why? Because no-one resigns from Government anymore apart from the former Chancellor Sajid Javid. Resigning was something you did from Theresa May’s administration and so last year darling.

After all when you can bend the lockdown rules you helped draw up as Dominic Cummings did why should anyone else stand down for their mistakes?

But there is a darker art at work here, that of the ‘useful idiot’. The Prime Minister and his inner circle seem adept at using it to shield themselves from the worst of the headlines, sparing no-one in the process.

Cummings actions over lockdown could have become a debate on the Prime Minister’s judgement at a sticky time for him. What followed was Useful Idiot version 1.0 – Cummings.

The advisor broke all conventions, called a press conference from a trestle table and met the allegations with a mixture of arrogance, denial and contempt. The result, everyone was talking about Cummings, no-one about the PM.

And so onto the A-Levels, by my reckoning there was just over 100 hours between the PM’s ‘robust’ results soundbite and the u-turn. One minute the system for moderating A-Level grades had a gold star, the next it was being hauled before the headteacher.

The PM is becoming increasingly adept at saying something which falls apart within days or at least a week. For the ‘robust A-Level moderation process’ see ‘oven-ready Brexit deal’ and ‘free of COVID-19 by Christmas’. All have required a back tracking or screeching u-turn.

This Brexiteer Government though cannot lose their leader, their maestro, hence the need for human shields to ‘take one for the team’ – the team being the PM himself.

You can have a job in Government but you must be prepared to cop everything when, not if, the wheels come off. Ask Cummings, ask Matt Hancock over PPE, ask Robert Jenrick over planning and lockdown breaking.

Which brings us onto Williamson – Useful Idiot 2.0. He won’t be sacked as the furore, together with his own unpleasant pleasant personality with the media, will mean days and days of negative headlines in his direction, not that of the PM.

I’ve watched him on the breakfast shows this morning and his delivery was robotic with an air of ‘I’ve graced your show with my presence’ not any form of mea culpa.

The line to take is seemingly he discovered all was not well over the weekend with the controversial algorithm, then why not scrap the results first thing yesterday morning, not at 4pm?

Nothing is going smoothly for this Government now; in fact I would go as far to say its in crisis. Think about that, a Government handed an 80 seat majority eight months ago is already in turmoil.

While Coronavirus is not as rampant as in the United States, the Government’s message is all over the place. One minute its going to be cleaned up by Christmas, the next it’s something we’ll have to live with for the foreseeable future.

The country is in a deep recession and unless something changes in the next eight weeks our divorce from the European Union will see us leave with nothing agreed. Far from the ‘oven-ready’ deal millions of hard-working Brexit voters were promised.

A second Scottish referendum looks almost inevitable, while many say the Prime Minister will simply not grant one he will find it hugely difficult if Sturgeon and her pals win a landslide in May in the Scottish Parliament elections having made a new referendum the central pillar of the campaign.

One could suggest Sturgeon demand the Prime Minister listen to the ‘will of the people’……..

When will it end? Will the Prime Minister, a man known for his lack of desire for detail, ever get a grip on this chaotic Government?

Leadership is more than being the country’s cheerleader, its about making the right decisions at the right time for the benefit of all. If you are constantly performing u-turns you will never move forward.

The keys to Downing Street for Labour or indeed any ambitious Tory are on the hook marked ‘competency’. The opposition mustn’t fall into the ‘rich Tories bashing the poor kids’ manta, however true it is.

Show the British people this Government is incompetent, if they can mess up Coronavirus, if they can mess up exam results, what’s next? Brexit?

Why it's time for the Government to get REAL on Coronavirus

ANOTHER day and another mis-step in the Government’s communication strategy on Coronavirus – sending Michael Gove out to communicate the need for youngsters to go back to school and prepare for lessons wasn’t an inspired move.

However it was compounded by Alok Sharma who during the daily briefing suggested 30million vaccines would be ready by September…..if it worked. Well I’d give it my all reporting on cricket for a living…if someone hired me.

At the heart of the mistakes which continue to be made is a communication strategy in which everything is briefed to journalists, no matter what. There is no gatekeeper at the heart of Downing Street controlling the message. As a result confusion reigns.

While this is a crisis not seen for many a year and one which presents challenges on untold fronts, the need for clear communication to a worried and fretful nation has never been more important.

I’m no spin doctor but 15 years in journalism has given me enough insight into the importance of media messaging. It’s why I suggest to people like Lee Cain, Number 10’s Director of Communcations that it’s time the Government got REAL.

R – Rigorous testing, whether its testing centres or the long-awaited antibody test. Rigorous testing needs to be at the heart of the second phase against the virus. Examine the need and prioritise the tests accordingly, the NHS, care homes, teachers and those on the front-line.

The more people in the line of fire who can work the better our chances of fighting this invisible enemy. The more key workers who may have had it unknowingly and MAY be immune the more confident they and we will be in sending our children to school.

E – Encourage. Stop seeking fights with the unions, revise the message going out to the nation and offer encouragement. Tweak the ‘Stay Home’ message.

It would be much better for the PM to say ‘If you can work from home continue to do so.’

Encourage teaching staff that any desire to get lessons going again will be accompanied by testing – see above.

A – Admission. Admit mistakes have been made, admit you haven’t got everything spot on and crucially, admit some things may not return to normal for ‘as long as it takes’.

It’s becoming increasingly impossible for those in power to say ‘I got it wrong’. Yet the anger felt by people listening to the continued defending of mistakes could easily be avoided if admission and how it would be avoided again, was explained.

The Government needs to stop briefing everything and anything. Deal in certainty, take the vaccine for example. There is no need to say it could be ready in September. Speak of the work going on, the efforts being made and say we’ve signed a deal with AstraZeneca to ‘ensure rapid distribution of a successful treatment against COVID-19’. No dates, no circles on calendars which just become targets to meet.

When questioned why no dates are being offered stress the need to ensure the vaccine is effective, ‘the quicker we have the weapon we need the quicker we can defeat this threat’.

Work with pubs, the hospitality trade and sporting bodies on a timetable going forward. If the pubs and restaurants cannot openly safely then cannot open. If sport cannot be played then there’s no harm in taking a break.

The more certainty people feel the greater their confidence, the greater their well-being. We’ve recently marked the 75^th anniversary of VE Day. I guarantee you Churchill never once put a time-frame on when we’d win the war!

L – Lead. Lead the way with co-operation here and abroad. Have no fear in meeting Keir Starmer’s offer to work with the Government, engage with all opposition parties. Instead of alienating MPs like Dr Rosena Allin-Khan for her ‘tone’, the Government should consider a taskforce of MPs from all sides who have gone back to the NHS. They have a privileged insight into life on the front-line after all.

While we have left the EU we still have wonderful neighbours, neighbours who like us are facing this threat, this invisible enemy. Reach out to European leaders, share information, what’s working, what isn’t.

This is not a party political attack, you will note I haven’t once named the Prime Minister or the current party of Government. It’s ideas on the way forward.

Maybe, just maybe its time to get REAL.

Disrespectful dirty Harry has no one to blame for Megxit

“NEVER complain, never explain, and never be heard speaking in public”

The Queen Mother’s often quoted views on being a royal and while public oration can not be avoided in the 21^st century the first two points are surely on page one of the House of Windsor rulebook.

It’s a rulebook the Duke and Duchess of Sussex now appear to want to ignore permanently as they ‘leave’ the Royal Family. Well I say leave, they still want the cash, the taxpayer-funded home and the security afford to members of the Royal Family but none of the engagements and certainly no dealings with those pesky journalists.

I have no doubt Her Royal Highness has had a lot of unfair press which is a sad carry over from the media’s historic obsession with Diana, Princess of Wales. I equally have no doubt some of it stems from the desire in some quarters of my profession to give the Duke a good kicking in response to his loathing of the written media.

But the couple have to take their fair share of the blame, lectures on green living then jetting off on holiday by private jet, the frankly weird behaviour around the birth of their son and the complaints re their privacy during a documentary being made following them around Africa will attract negative headlines.

The Duke appears to have not forgiven the press for their behaviour with his mother. Yet the world has changed, no Royal is now harangued as Diana was, the British people would not accept such a tabloid hounding today.

While keeping the media at a safe distance, his brother and future king of this country has developed something of a relationship and recognises the importance of the press in spreading the message on causes he cares about.

The arrival of his three children has been somewhat of a circus yes but nothing intrusive and generated plenty of column inches for ‘The Firm’. His iron fist when dealing with a legal case over topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge taken from a long lens pap was quick, decisive and won lots of public support.

The Sussex’s have a different strategy, everyone in the media is an enemy, all those working the Royal beat are as bad as each other. It’s a strategy doomed to fail yet after the arrival of Baby Archie the Duke came across brilliantly on TV, poised as per his upbringing but with the ‘oh heck what do I do now’ feeling common with all new fathers!

Being apart from Her Majesty the Queen at Christmas wasn’t the disgraceful snub some would have you believe, new family want a quiet Christmas et al. But it should have been handled much more respectfully because the Duke occupies a place in the heart of many Britons.

What isn’t acceptable is the apparent release of the statement saying they were off without speaking to Her Majesty first. The Queen is ageing, she’s endured a rough year with the Duke of Edinburgh’s ill health, not to mention Prince Andrew.

She stepped in when Diana tragically died, the boys were the centre of her thoughts for months, years after their mother had passed. She’s taken great interest in their lives, welcomed their chosen partners into the family and by all accounts appears to always be there for them both.

Surely she deserved some consultation, a conversation even? This apparent disrespect will do the Duke no favours in whatever lies ahead, for reference check out the terse one paragraph Buckingham Palace released in response to the news. Her Majesty is very much not amused.

I hope the Sussex’s realise they are on the path to destruction currently, their hatred of the media,
their disrespect and their complaining just won’t wash.

If they wish to stand down then do it properly, relinquish it all, cut the ties that so clearly bind and deliver a clean ‘Megxit’. But have some respect for what came before you and for what lies ahead.

The Red Wall has crumbled, now the Tories want to smash it altogether

LABOUR suffered its worst defeat since 1935 on Thursday evening as clear blue water rushed through the red wall, drowning much of what was in its path.

Though the majority wasn’t as much as Tony Blair’s 22 years ago, the early hours of Friday morning felt like Labour’s 1997 landslide as the Tories picked up seat after historic seat.

Blyth Valley – Labour since 1950, Workington – Labour since 1918 apart from three years in the 70s, Rother Valley – Labour for 101 years unbroken, were just three of Labour’s ‘safe’ seats which fell to the Conservatives.

Look beyond the Tory gains and the picture is even more frightening for Labour in its heartlands.

Mike Hill retained his Hartlepool seat for Labour despite losing more than 6,500 votes and has a much-reduced majority of 3,595.

The Brexit Party’s Richard Tice polled more than 10,000 votes, had he stood aside then its fair to say Hartlepool would have gone blue too.

Ed Miliband was returned in Doncaster North by 2,370 votes from the Conservatives – the Brexit Party picked up more than 8,000 votes….

If Labour doesn’t act swiftly and recognise what happened to the party then the ‘red wall’ may well be no more come 2024, the next scheduled General Election.

While shamefully avoiding scrutiny, retaining questionable morals and having the capacity to offend every time he opens his mouth, Boris Johnson delivered an early Christmas present for his party with a remarkable result.

It’s perhaps no surprise the bluster was toned down on Friday afternoon, gone was ‘getting Brexit done’ and more of the pathetic verbal jabs at people who dared not share his view.

Instead there was talk of healing, coming together and the first salvo in what looks a move to the centre ground of British politics.

Becoming a ‘servant of the people’ as he said on Saturday is a very Blair-like comment but northerners want action not words. What they gave on Thursday they won’t think twice about taking away.

Deliver and Johnson can name his own departure date as Prime Minister because unless Labour grab the bull by the horns they will remain out of power.

It’s been nine years since the party was asked to leave Downing Street, nine more and it will equal the 18 years of exile only ended by Blair’s landslide in ‘97.

Jeremy Corbyn has faced two Conservative leaders in less than three years at the polls and lost both times.

But in an apparent sign of things to come, will he depart immediately? No he wishes for a period of reflection.

There is nothing to reflect on, the voters rejected the idea of him as Prime Minister, nothing he can say or do will now change that.

Labour’s manifesto was worthy at its heart, a fairer society is something we should all pursue every day, doing away with the need for foodbanks also.

But refusing to say whether you would authorise the use of Trident to defend our nation against an albeit hypothetical threat, wanting another Brexit referendum when the result of the first hadn’t been enacted and creating an image the wealth creators in this country were somehow immoral is not the action of a future leader.

I’ve met Mr Corbyn three times since he became leader, he’s a decent, honourable man of principle who believes in what he says – nothing he says is because a focus group said it would be idea!

The party needs him to act quickly, stand down and appoint an interim leader. Failure to do so will only accentuate the damage caused on Thursday night.

Labour is at the crossroads, the party which won power for 13 years under a leader many of its members actively despise, now faces a critical decision.

Appoint a continuity Corbyn candidate and the party could face oblivion in 2024 should the PM indeed move into the centre ground.

Understand how and why this landslide happened, why former mining towns so betrayed by Thatcher were willing to reject the party and vote Conservative and redemption could be possible.

A former leader once stressed the need to go ‘forward not back’. As much as it might hurt, its advice Labour ought to take.

Otherwise it may only appeal to the few, not the many. Sorry Jeremy

Brexit is nothing more than a political football now

BREXIT may well be doomed.

Why? Because every single Member of Parliament has failed to learn the lessons of the referendum vote in 2016 when, free of party politics, the electorate delivered the proverbial v-sign to our elected MPs.

A vote to leave the European Union gave Tories and Labour votes the chance to give Westminster a kicking without costing their party the chance to form a Government.

It was the biggest democratic mandate ever given yet those in power at the time and even now have failed to grasp its importance and significance.

The margin of victory was just 1.3million votes, which any Prime Minister ought to have recognised would provoke strong feelings on the losing side.

In delivering Brexit, the British Prime Minister ought to have found a course to take every rational thinking member of this country forward.

A strategy of delivering the outcome the majority won, while ensuring the sensible concerns of remainers were met would have seen far less problems.

But there lies the problem, thanks the unique talents of David Cameron, we only designed half a referendum. People were asked to leave or remain but beyond that it’s been open to interpretation.

Had someone with a brain been in charge in Downing Street, a two-step referendum ought to have been held in the event of a leave vote.

Having asked the people once, asking them which departure gate they wished to leave from was the next sensible move.

Instead all we have is a giant political football. The Prime Minister gets the ball, heads towards the goal of October 31 to cheers from the crowd.

But wait he comes the opposition with a two-footed lunge to steal the ball, to stop a no-deal result to great cheers.

All the while though the match goes into extra,extra,extra,extra time with no sign of a result, MPs enjoy their little victories, we the voters sink our heads further into the our hands.

Why? Because no-one in Parliament wants to blow the final whistle.

Brits are a cautious people, we don’t take bold risks – take a look at our elected Governments in the last century, either the red team or the blue team!

No Deal may deliver a result but it will infuriate large sections of the crowd and if it goes wrong it will only strengthen the EU’s hand should we ever be forced back to the table.

Any extension only provokes the agony, frankly people are bored of this now. The country becomes more and more fractured the longer this goes on, delays are simply tiresome.

Revoking would infuriate hard working Brits who voted in good faith only to be disgustingly branded racist and xenophobic for the past three years.

As far as I can see, any Government now has three routes out but all of them won’t be taken on by 650 selfish career hungry individuals who simply don’t understand how angry this country is.

Firstly, admit defeat and say Parliament won’t back anything so we are going to leave without a deal.

Next is to bring back the withdrawal agreement, accept it despite its litany of flaws and pass it so at least we leave on October 31.

Finally, a Conservative Prime Minister needs to admit the party has failed to deliver on the mandate
given by the people, that no deal would be too big a risk and Article 50 would be revoked to ‘stop the clock’.

It would destroy the party but shed no tears, the Conservatives opened up Pandora’s Box, they’ve never been able to close the lid.

Lyon tames Fortress Edgbaston leaving England in a spin.

WE HAVEN’T been here before, well not since 2005 anyway….

The 251-run mauling by a rampant Australia is the first time since that unforgettable summer that England have lost the First Ashes test of the summer.

We all know how that series ended but there can be little comfort for those seeking comparisons to the heady days of 2005.

This Australian attack is nowhere near as potent with bat or ball as their counterparts were 14 years ago. The problem is neither is the England batting line-up.

For Trescothick, Strauss, Vaughan, Pietersen and Flintoff read Burns, Roy, Root, Denly and Stokes.

In 2005 the line-up came into the series with just one change, Mr Reliable Graham Thorpe made way for Mr Saturday Night Kevin Pietersen.

Yet England came into this game still tinkering with the places and names of those being asked to do what the Three Lions have managed just once in 18 months at home, a score of more than 400.

No matter their attack, any Australian team is capable of the forensic dismantling of a team in the fourth innings and that’s what took place in four hours on the final day at Edgbaston.

Lyon bowled well, Smith resumed his net session against England with two further tons but England’s problems are all of their own making.

The batting order either contains the wrong people or is in the wrong order. Burns has earned a run at the top but Jason Roy played an awful shot which this pack of Aussie hyenas won’t hesitate to remind him of for the next six weeks.

Root simply doesn’t like batting at three, while he scored a 50 in the first innings can England really keep their skipper in a role he just doesn’t want?

Then we come to Joe Denly, an opener batting at four. I don’t see what other, more qualified, people do. It simply looks a matter of time before he is dismissed, he doesn’t have the presence at the crease which says ‘I belong’.

Buttler is too high at five, Stokes is in his ideal spot at six but I worry about YJB, young Jonny Bairstow.

The England keeper seems angry with the world, can’t buy a run with the bat and seems marooned down at seven. Yet at three and without the gloves in Sri Lanka he scored a brilliant test match hundred.

And then there’s Moeen, a player who has batted every position for his country bar 9,10 or 11 but if selected at Lords could well bat at nine behind Chris Woakes.

The time has come for England to decide what they want from one of the nicest guys you could wish to meet. Is he an all-rounder or the spin option? If he is in the team for his spin then he’s judged on that, any runs are a bonus.

It should be clear as day now though Moeen bowls best when he has a spin twin to play with, its up to England to stick or twist.

The problem is Moeen, like a few of this England side, simply can’t buy a run currently against an Australian attack which feasts on out of form batsman.

As for the bowling, I don’t believe Anderson was fit enough to play, no words from the captain will make me change my mind.

The attack is all the same, right arm over the wicket bowlers. A pace injection is needed.

So where do we go from here? To quote the great American football coach Bill Belichick ‘We’re on to Lords’.

My team for what it’s worth: Burns, Roy, Bairstow, Root, Ali, Stokes, Buttler (wk), Woakes, Archer, Broad, Leach.

Take the gloves off Bairstow not as punishment but because of what he is capable of at the top of the order, ease Moeen’s fretful performances with a mate to play with and unleash Jofra Archer.

Because if there is one glimmer of hope for England from the storming of Edgbaston, it’s the Aussie top order.

Bancroft, Smith and Khawaja contributed just 78 runs in six innings between them, Steven Smith scored 286 on his own….

Today will soon be the past, tomorrow will be the future and England return to the place where they became World Champions next Wednesday knowing a gold medal performance is needed to get their Ashes bid back on the right Root.

Why greed is the enemy for sports fans, not Sky

THE CRICKET World Cup is proving rather enjoyable, but it seems not a day can go by without the dreamers whinging that none of the games are on ‘free to air’ television.

Usually the ill-informed then blame Murdoch and Sky even though the apparent Australian anti-christ no longer owns the broadcaster.

I’ve not written anything until now, but I’ve snapped after Jim Maxwell’s comment on Saturday evening that it was ‘disgraceful’ none of the tournament was free to air.

No Jim, what is disgraceful is cricket, like all sports seeks to ‘maximise’ its broadcasting revenues – sell them to the highest bidder at prices beyond the market forces of our licence fee, advertising funding free to air channels.

I don’t know what Sky paid for the rights to the World Cup, but the new deal to show all of England’s matches from 2020 onwards is worth £1.1billion. Can you imagine the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or 5 paying that sort of money?

Sky is a business and of course wants exclusivity but there is nothing to stop rights holders such as the ECB offering one/two packages for just free to air broadcasters. If that reduces Sky’s investment a little then so be it.

However, certain free to air broadcasters will hope that day will never come as quite simply many don’t want to show sports such as cricket.

A one-day came takes eight hours, can you see the BBC clearing their schedules for that long, only Wimbledon gets that privilege.

A test match takes five days, four usually in the modern era. When terrestrial was king, the BBC would leave the test match on Saturday afternoons to go horse racing.

The ultimate snub was Channel 4 who ensured test matches would start at 10.30am so they could clear off and show Hollyoaks and if rain meant a late finish, they’d often draw stumps on the coverage then too.

What do you get with Sky? Uninterrupted coverage which if you are a fan of the sport is all you crave.

Something has got to change, rights holders need to put people before profit and think creatively. Can they offer something to free to air broadcasters while recognising the investment Sky has put into their game.

But can broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV come to the table and offer sports the space they need to breathe? I remain doubtful.

In the last 18 months Sky have been forensically assessing the price they pay for everything, one hopes they don’t take umbrage at this negativity and take their bat and ball home.

Because then cricket, as with many other sports, would be stumped.

Goodbye to the Crying Lady

FAREWELL then to quite simply the worst Prime Minister in recent history. The crying lady’s body language wasn’t one of sadness but of bitterness she’d been evicted.

History will not judge Theresa May kindly, she was crowned as someone who ‘got the job done’, the vicars daughter who would reach out to those ‘just about managing’ and heal a country riven by austerity.

Instead she presided over the worst General Election campaign from a sitting Prime Minister, failed to marginalise the most ideologically-driven Labour leader since Michael Foot and deepened the divisions caused by Brexit.

And when confronted by her unpopularity, when the political winds demanded a change of course or an acknowledgement she could be wrong, she buried her head in the sand.

Politicians of all colours need a keen eye and ear to work inside and outside of the Westminster bubble, she possessed neither.

She called an unnecessary General Election in 2017. Jeremy Corbyn will never appeal to the centre ground of British politics enough to unseat a Conservative Government outright.

She began the campaign 20 points ahead in the opinion polls, yet ended with a loss of a majority which took the Tories more than 20 years to achieve.

During the campaign she was robotic, charmless and frankly boring. Corbyn meanwhile energised the youth, inspired his supporters and displayed his talents at rallies up and down the country.

When the Tory manifesto was scrutinised, instead of laying out the reasons for change, May backtracked insisting ‘nothing has changed’. A Prime Minister who offers the exotic tutti fruiti before racing back to plain vanilla is not someone who has leadership licked.

Confronted with the loss of her majority, May could and should have quit. Instead she sought a deal with the DUP, nothing wrong with that of course except it came with £1billion of cash for Northern Ireland.

The voters were rightly annoyed to see the Magic Money Tree sprout having been told ‘there’s no money left’ for seven years….

Faced with delivering Brexit, the biggest cultural shift our country has demanded in five decades, Mrs May displayed a tin ear of epic proportions.

The result was separated by just 1,269,501 votes. A majority yes but not anything like the 10 per cent difference showed by the Scottish people after their independence referendum.

Delivering the voters mandate therefore required political skill and courage, she lacked both.

Successful British Prime Ministers govern for all, not just those who elected them. Yet when she needed to carry her country with her, Mrs May marginalised everyone who voted remain.

In countless speeches she referred to delivering the wishes of the 17.4million who voted for Brexit. Had she delivered a Brexit for the 65million in this country, including all of Scotland which voted to remain, I dare say she wouldn’t be in this mess today.

We’re screaming out for leadership to carry us all forward as a country, to bring us back together. Because the British people didn’t do anything wrong, they were asked their opinion and gave it, no matter what side of the argument you are on that can never be a bad thing.

When her deal was published, it was rightly panned. It was a compromise she said, yet that wasn’t the binary choice on the ballot paper on June 23, 2016.

Faced with resignations, Mrs May acted tough, ‘My Deal or No Brexit’ she attempted to roar. Leaders can do that when they have the numbers to back the threat up with.

She never did, she presided over two of the biggest Parliamentary defeats in our history as her own party and her DUP partners baulked at backing the withdrawal agreement.

When she sought help from Corbyn, she expected Her Majesty’s official opposition to ride to the rescue in the ‘national interest’.

She didn’t for once think a) her party might be a tad annoyed at her legitimising a man they’ve deemed a threat to national security and b) Corbyn would go along with the talks but stop short of helping.

Labour doesn’t need to help her, Politics 101 tells you when the opponent is sinking never chuck a life raft.

She’s been doomed since a third of her MPs said they had no confidence in her in December, had they waited until the spring the number would have been much higher.

The simple truth is had the men in grey suits acted quicker, had the opposition been much stronger, her time as PM would already be over.

Britain deserves better than this. The question is can anyone out there rise to the challenge?

Why Cold Feet leaves you with a warm glow

I'VE been binge-watching Cold Feet recently, series six was done in two nights on DVD and series seven and eight were polished off on my Sky Q box in the same time-frame.

While I am sad I will now have to wait for a new series, I'm also trying to understand how something which was part of my teenage years can still attract me so much in my mid-30s.

Because the genius of creator Mike Bullen has seen the characters age as we fans have yet somehow the magic which pulled you in in the 90s still has appeal in the '10s.

David is bumbling, Pete still has a kind heart, Adam is still a lothario while Jen is gloriously unpredictable and Karen is somehow the glue attempting to hold not just the gang together but also her soaring career and her family.

Yes the youngsters in the 1990s are now the teenagers and Matthew, Olivia, Ellie, Adam and Chloe all have major roles alongside their parents.

Indeed, the teenage pregnancy and abortion storyline between Matthew and Olivia was so beautifully portrayed I'm amazed it didn't get more attention.

Two young people very much in love find out they will be parents and ultimately decide on an abortion. But instead of it just happening, you're taken into the clinic and see the very raw emotion such a decision is bound to provoke.

It shows such a decision isn't easy, no matter how 'right' it might be for the individuals and huge credit to the actors and writers for bringing it all out on screen.

The same can be said for Jen's breast cancer storyline. I won't spoil the details of episode six as it's beautifully written and performed but if Faye Ripley hasn't won the hearts and given women with breast cancer the ability to fight this awful illness then I don't know what will.

It would be easy to see Cold Feet as a drama but the sheer levels of comedy render that impossible. It's the perfect mix of fine writing, talented actors of all ages and the absolute connection to everyday life.

Watch it for yourself, nothing in the plot is implausible. Death, depression, financial trouble, teenage pregnancy, strain on marriage and illness. All delivered in a down to earth manner.

The famous five could easily be living in your neighbourhood, you could easily work with one of them.

It's that that makes it popular. I know the Adam/Karen relationship is dividing opinion but friends do get together. Let it develop and let's see what series nine brings.

Bravo Mr Bullen, best wishes to all the cast and crew.

December will see the end of May, the weak and wobbly Prime Minister

THE END of the year will bring an end to Theresa May's time as Prime Minister with an epitaph similar to her predecessor, nothing of note.

Why? Because leading the negotiations on Brexit has shown Mrs May up for the hapless leader the nation got a preview of last year but which has been on full cinematic release for most of 2018.

Never before has a Prime Minister been entrusted with something only to deliver an outcome which is going to anger everyone. To my cost I don't have many leave voters in my circle of friends but I would love to know what they think about the farce that is Brexit.

Because let's spell it out, Chequers will not work, the EU will never countenance something which keeps us in the Customs Union but ignores the other pillars such as Freedom of Movement.

There is nothing she can do on the Irish border problem, put one up and risk opening a box which none of us thought had been cemented shut or go without and find the EU giving you another reason to trash your 'deal'.

A 'hard Brexit' where we break free, renounce everything and 'take back control' will not get the support it needs in Parliament with Labour vowing to oppose it.

Leaving us with 'No Deal' - would a Conservative Prime Minister truly push the button on something which could shred our economy to ribbons and plunge us back into a very deep recession.

Everywhere she turns there is a problem not of her own making but equally she's not helped herself in recent weeks. Humiliated in Salzburg, Mrs May came out fighting and urged the EU to get something sorted.

Fine....except for in Brussels where EU chiefs looked around for the 25th different way of saying 'You want to leave, its not for us to make suggestions how you exit.'

And now she wants to extend the post Brexit transition......We're being laughed at and the EU's patience is wearing.

President Macron of France has already relabelled Brexit as a 'political problem' and Mrs May could have the rug pulled out from under her if Michel Barnier et al decide to plan for No Deal.

Politics has need a game changing moment for two years to end this frankly hideous battle of the losers in May vs Corbyn.

Maybe some in the Tories need to tap their leader on the shoulder and say Au Revoir.

Because Brexit means naff all at the moment, the ship is sinking and now is the time for a leader to step up and guide this country back to calmer waters.

Free to air vs Pay TV – A mismatch of the day

TIGER Woods roared back the years last night and almost pulled off a Major victory, remarkable for a golfer who has virtually been rebuilt in the last five years.

What do you mean you didn’t see it? Didn’t you watch it all on Facebook then on the streaming site Eleven Sports? No of course you didn’t because sports fans want TV broadcasts not to be huddled round their laptops.

The debate over free to air versus Pay TV has raged for more than decade in most sports and for almost three decades in football.

Sky Sports swiping of the new Premier League in 1992 did indeed herald ‘A Whole New Ball Game’ for football fans on the pitch and in front of their television sets.

Nothing much has changed, challengers have come and gone while BT Sport now appear to be on the pitch for good.

Not a single match since then has been free for all to enjoy, why should Sky give something away when the price they pay is so high?

Cricket has long fretted over the departure of the game almost completely to Sky in this country while golf bosses in the US were so determined this weekend’s PGA Championship wouldn’t get wall to wall coverage on Sky Sports dedicated golf channel they sold the rights to a fledgling streaming service.

But the rules of the game appear to be ‘boo Sky for pricing the beloved BBC/ITV out of the market’ when in truth it’s the attitude of our major terrestrial broadcasters to sport in the last 30 years which created the corporate giant Sky has become today.

Back in 1988, you got one English top flight match a week plus Match of the Day, very little Football League and barely anything below that. Now it’s at least four top flight games, multiple offerings from the Football League while the National League is covered in depth by BT Sport.

Sky’s investment made that possible, turned average players into millionaires and spawned the cash cow that is the Premier League. But equally it’s the Premier League who seek pound after extra pound when they sell the ‘Greatest League in the World’.

Surely one of the packages could be made available to a terrestrial broadcaster? After all CBS in the
US show games from the National Football League on Sunday afternoon while NBC take over in prime time.

The same goes for cricket, the ECB could make a package solely available for terrestrial viewers but choose to chase cash from Sky et al.

And then what about the terrestrial broadcasters themselves? While live sport starts at a specific time, its conclusion isn’t always fixed which gives the BBC its annual Wimbledon headache.

Remember the BBC and Channel 4 often went horse racing on Saturday afternoons during the test match, Channel 4 ended coverage of delayed test matches to show Hollyoaks and The Simpsons while last year’s BBC coverage of the US PGA Championship was done so cheaply it was a wonder we even saw the winning putt.

The only way this mismatch of the day can be resolved is if those at the top of these sports put people before vast profit and any new terrestrial kids on the block can commit to coverage as good as Pay TV provides now.

Not easy when budgets are squeezed and pressure to sell adverts is at its height.

So the next time someone with sport complains about the lack of free to air coverage ask yourself, what are they doing to achieve the right result?

How to solve a problem like Brexit - the speech Mrs May could make

IN 2016 British voters took an historic decision; a majority of voters asked us, their Government, to execute their wish to leave the European Union.

It was unprecedented, it was a shock but it was also something this Government had simply not prepared for. For that, as your Prime Minister, I am sorry.

We didn’t recognise the anger you felt, the frustration with not getting a GP’s appointment, the inability to get on the housing ladder or your opinions on immigration.

We let those who promised you the earth and delivered little dominate the discussion while we offered nothing but scare tactics.

We called for unity to deliver Brexit but didn’t recognise the anger felt by those who wish to remain.

We didn’t listen, but we will learn.

The past two years has been riven with arguments, fall outs and scenes which have done little to re-establish trust in Parliament and elected MPs.

We now stand on the cliff edge, it is clear we will struggle to achieve a deal which will achieve what those who voted for us to leave wanted - a clean break with the European Union.

As Prime Minister I believe anything short of this would betray all those who voted in the
referendum, it would not deliver what Leave voters wanted and would never be accepted by remain supporters.

Therefore, as we asked for the people’s opinion on our relationship with the European Union we should now ask whether we should leave with no deal or remain.

I will ask Parliament to legislate for a vote this autumn; should it be approved then the choice will be simple, to leave or remain.

If your wish is to leave, your Government will exit the European Union on March 29 next year with no deal for the reasons I have stated above.

We will achieve the aims of a majority of voters who asked us to leave the European Union but we risk a period of economic uncertainty as we attempt to forge a new path in the world.

We will use the remaining months of our membership to put steps in place to ensure on day one of Britain’s Brexit, our banks will open, our supermarkets will be stocked and our flights will take off.

However, should you vote to remain, I give you my assurance it will not lead to further integration such as Schengen and there will be no debate or referendum on joining the Euro.

We will seek to reform the EU from within, proposing legislation to retain freedom of movement both in and out of our country but ensuring each of the member states can control immigration to benefit their individual economies.

We will seek to deliver better outcomes for our farmers, our fishermen and all those who find their daily work burdened by EU red tape.

We will oppose further attempts at integration with the threat of a further referendum. One which will be unambiguous, legally binding and require a super majority of 55-45 per cent.

Should it be needed, this result will be definitive and mean any further Conservative Government will not make the mistakes of the past and will deliver the clean break requested.

Let me be clear, a vote to remain would not be a continuation of the status-quo but an invitation to reform a deeply flawed institution.

Brexit has divided this nation for two years, it has put further strain on an already fractious union and has all but paralysed your Government.

The time for talking is over, now it is time to make that leap one way or another.

Britain deserves better, let us deliver together.

Don't 'get over' grief, learn to live with it

I'VE thought long and hard about writing this blog, because part of me believes some things can be left off the internet.

But today would have been my mum's 75th birthday and knowing her, we'd have thrown an awfully nice affair with the family she cherished and friends she adored.

Instead I will join my dad by her grave, something we have done on June 14 ever since she was given her wings on that February morning and rose to the heavens.

It's a lie to say we 'want' to be there, neither of us want this bloody heartache which still remains nearly 28 months on. But at the same time, I'm thankful she is out of the pain and the suffering brought on by the dementia which dimmed the bulbs of one of the shining lights in my life.

And that is the paradox of grief, you don't want the pain but you don't want the suffering to continue, consoling yourself that wherever their spirit has wandered off to, it's a land of immortality where pain and illness are not on the menu.

I'd only lost grandparents before, somehow that grief was bearable because hey they are older than you so it rings true they will be leaving this earth before you.

But I've struggled since February 23 2016, when my mum was taken from me, with the emotional void in my head and heart. It makes no sense, I have a wonderful dad and a wife I love and treasure who has given me a beautiful son who I am devoted to.

I've encountered insomnia, I've felt a rage at within me at times that if I unleashed would cause something serious damage and even guilt I wasn't there at the very end.

I can't accept it on some days, seeing her grandson achieving so much and feeling bitter she isn't around in person to share his adventures.

Yet on the good days, as well as remembering the many joyous times, rational thought sweeps in but this only explains parts of the last two years. My faith tells me God came for her and my mum, who fought many battles over the years, knew we'd be OK in the long run and took His hand to live among the immortals.

Hopefully this will illustrate why we shouldn't 'get over it and move on' - we can't and we shouldn't.

All I ever heard about grief was 'it gets easier'. That's crap.

Nothing about losing someone so important 'gets easier', you learn to try and cope with it, from getting through those painful first moments, through the next hour, day, week, month and ultimately year.

You can be surrounded by all the love in the world but they can't fully understand the emotional turmoil grief can cause. It's a cruel and private loneliness at times.

To anyone who has suffered a loss, may those who have departed sleep well and live on in your hearts forever.

Grieve how you want, not how others tell you.

Happy Birthday Mum xx

Why press freedom matters….if we respect the power we have

YESTERDAY was not a victory for journalism, it should be nothing more than a relief our industry has dodged a bullet which could have claimed us all.

Section 40 of the Data Protection Bill will probably not mean a great deal to many people but could have had dire consequences for print journalism in this country.

Labour had proposed an amendment which would have seen newspapers like the one I work for have to pay both sides of a libel bill, no matter if we won the case or how frivolous the complaint was.

We could have avoided that, by signing up to a state regulator IMPRESS set up by former F1 boss Max Moseley and funded by private benefactors.

So would we like to shoot ourselves in the head or shoot ourselves in the foot? Either way the gun was loaded in favour of those with something to hide.

The nationals may, in time, have reluctantly signed up knowing they had the money to cut through the issues.

But I work for a local family publisher, any money we do make in a tough marketplace is reinvested
in our product.

The rise of the internet and social media means people’s needs are changing and the days of picking up the local paper for all your news are gone. We have had to adapt and keep up and we are doing our best.

This amendment would have meant bad news for local journalism, so often the first port of call for people’s stories of heartache, betrayal and the quest for truth.

But on a national level it would have heavily influenced investigative journalism with editors having to think hard before green lighting a scoop which may have taken months to prepare for fear of costing the company millions.

Think of the disgraceful Rotherham sex abuse scandal, MPs expenses, Cambridge Analytica, Lance Armstrong’s doping and even the Stephen Lawrence case.

Some of those huge stories may never have seen the light has these measures been put in place.

Journalism is a privilege, you have a seat at many important moments and often are rewarded with many special memories to treasure.

But with such power comes a responsibility to print the truth, to do so ethically and to always put people first.

Bad apples at the top forgot about their readers when they hacked phones and printed sheer lies in the desperate bid for sales.

A line was crossed but the solutions imposed since are a one size fits all answer to a cancer which many of us had no knowledge of until the scandal broke.

Change is needed and of course journalism should be regulated, but it should always be free to expose those who have genuinely done wrong.

Is there a solution which will please everyone? I hope so because I believe in my industry, I believe there will be a place for journalism in the future.

What form it takes is unknown thanks to the digital world we live in but one thing will never change.

We don’t exist without the support of our readers, that’s something we all need to remember.

Luckless May must end this farce

THE SPEECH which would relaunch her authority as Prime Minister will now be remembered as the beginning of the end for Theresa May.

Forget the coughing and spluttering, the intervention from the 'comedian' and the letters failing down, the Prime Minister floundered in the last chance saloon.

The promise of 2016 has descended into the  farce of 2017. A Prime Minister who asked for a majority to deliver Brexit and was told by voters "Errrrr, nah!"

A Prime Minister who had the chance to finish off the Labour Party instead energised them with an appalling and robotic campaign that made millions turn their backs on the Tories.

A Prime Minister so fearful of the future she won't sack her Foreign Secretary despite Boris's frequent undermining of her authority.

And as today showed, a Prime Minister who left the human touch until it was too late.

How different could the election have been had Mrs May spoken of her diabetes on the campaign trail? Of her and Phillip's pain and not being able to have children.

The message would have resonated and given a real human side to a woman cruelly labelled the 'Maybot'.

Stymied by Brexit and leading a party which looks knackered and in need of a break, Mrs May is reaching for the Strepsils at a time her party needs a six pack of Red Bull.

And so to Manchester where she would tell her party to stop obsessing about leadership and get on with the job. She needed some luck, something she ran out of a long time ago...

Instead of triumphalism we got turgid, joy was replaced by pain. Leadership again was lacking.

Visually, Labour's conference looked like the party of Government. The Tories have just finished a four day wake.

Her husband raced to her side to hug her after Mrs May had finally finished her speech.

I sincerely hope at some point on the journey home he has turned to his wife and asked: "Is it really worth all this?"

Because at the moment the job she has craved all her political career is doing its best to grind her into the dust.

The falling letters behind her provided a powerful visual metaphor.

Where's the F'in leadership this country desperately needs? 

Where's my country gone?

THE CRAZY people behind South Park dreamt up an episode in 2016 entitled ‘Where’s my Country Gone?’ which ripped into illegal immigration, the rise of the alt-right and the problems of political correctness.

Like most things on South Park you laugh (yes I am that juvenile!) but move on. But increasingly I now am asking myself, ‘Where has my country gone’.

The Britain of 2017 looks increasingly unfamiliar to me. Gone is compassion, replaced with hate and vengefulness. Tolerance and decency are packing their bags and heading for the airport while democracy is now a dirty word.

We’ve learned today any ‘unskilled’ EU migrants will be told to shove off post March 2019 in the latest horrid chapter from the Book of Brexit.

Let me declare I voted to remain but also respect democracy so understand we are leaving. But does it have to be like this?

Why are we lecturing the EU? Why are we closing our borders to people who genuinely want to come here to work? Why are we trying to revive the days of Empire?

Most EU migrants who come to the UK do so to get a job, settle down and raise a family. It’s the opposite to what a large portion of Brits do, retire to a foreign land.

One group pays into the country in taxes, National Insurance contributions and to the overall economy. The other does the square root of bugger all – sorry folks but you know which is which….

Surely instead of throwing a maternity until full of babies out in a sea of bath water, we could have just tightened up our immigration policies? Why are we taking such drastic steps?

Immigration is not a dirty word, we live in a world where freedom of movement is a real privilege. But equally we cannot expect other countries to house British people retiring to a life in the sun if we aren’t prepared to accept hard-working natives from their land.

That’s not fair. But then again, those in charge of the agenda in 2017 UK don’t do fairness, they do hectoring, lectures and abuse.

As Paul Dacre’s Daily Mail opined in June, those who oppose Brexit are ‘enemies of the people’, ‘saboteurs’ and don’t respect democracy.

It’s a mantra repeated by Conservative and Labour MPs who dream of nothing more than a Britain free from the EU and will do anything to secure that exit.

From Boris Johnson’s lies (£350million for the NHS) to Gisela Stuart running away from the people of Edgbaston, the Brexiteers lied their way to glory. If it had happened in any other country we’d be the first to call it corrupt….

But time and time again if Brexit is threatened the dark murmurings begin and let’s face it, the Prime Minister is being held hostage in Downing Street by rampant Brexiteers with the warning to deliver our exit or else.

What has happened to my country??

Row over statues and bells should sound the alarm for democracy

UPSET about statues celebrating the confederacy? Think Admiral Nelson should be removed from Trafalgar Square? Weeping over Big Ben falling silent?

Then you are playing into the hands of the politicians who are monopolising ‘silly season’ to hide what is really going on from you, dear voter.

In case you aren’t aware of ‘silly season’ it’s the period of the summer where politics and politicians are often on holiday leaving news editors bereft of good stories.

Normally the gap is filled with what women politicians are wearing on the beach and the occasional shot of David Cameron in just some shorts. Google it if you dare!

This summer though we have had protests in the US over statues which laud those who oppressed black people in the United States of America.

One woman died in Charlottesville when rival protestors clashed and no matter what the Tangerine Toddler says, the only fault lies with the moron whose actions led to her life being lost.

Are these statues right? No of course not, but they are just what they are, relics of the past.

By fanning the flames of these protests, the Tangerine Toddler is diverting the attention away from
the chaos which is the White House.

An administration where none of the key players have survived, a President who has been drawn into the propaganda being peddled by North Korea while unable to get any policy through a Congress which is stacked in his party’s favour.

No wonder he wants to fan the flames of the left v right protests over these statues.

Meanwhile over here in good ol Blighty we were all supposed to feel jolly said that Big Ben will no longer announce the time on the hour every hour for four years.

The chief Brexit propaganda outlet the Daily Fail went to town and demanded it didn’t go ahead and how it would hurt us Brits not to hear Big Ben every day.

Erm….the work is needed and why should those poor folks going up there to do it be left tone deaf?

Oh and by the way, New Year’s Eve at 11.59.59pm we won’t be ringing in 2018 in silence as the big daft tower will be in working order!

Yet the days of headlines generated seemed to suggest a national crisis. Have you ever thought it was designed to distract you from a Government divided over Brexit with a policy which now seems to be ‘can we keep everything we had but still leave’.

Those in power know Brexit will finish them; should they succeed and pull Britain away from the comfort of life among the 27 nations in Europe our economy will sink to its knees gasping for air.

Should they fail to deliver they risk never being trusted on anything again.

Either way the Tories and Trump know they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Don’t succumb to the silly season, keep what matters at the forefront of your minds.

Grenfell......Why?

ONE week on from one of the worst non terrorist tragedies I have ever seen, I can’t get past the first question…..Why?

Why did it happen? Why in Britain in 2017 can a place of solace, a place to rest your head, a place to laugh, a place to cry, a place to call home go up in flames so quickly and cause so much death and destruction?

Why did one brave firefighter feel the need to write on his shirt ‘We did our best, I promise’ when once again they ran towards the gates of hell as others fled.

And most importantly why on earth have our politicians gone ahead with a public inquiry when criminal proceedings MUST be explored first.

Profit was almost certainly put before the people of Grenfell, those who took such decisions must answer for them in a court of law.

I cannot for a second imagine the desperation of those trapped inside, their final moments and the realisation there was no exit when they needed it the most.

Nor can I imagine the pain of Grenfell, from those who lost everything in the disaster to those who have lost loved ones and may never be able to lay them properly to rest.

Death doesn’t discriminate, it doesn’t take names, it just reaches in and causes pain and devastation to all those in its path.

All of us with a heart will be haunted by the images of that tower as it burned, but we should all have a burning shame that we aren’t as well forward as we thought we were.

Britain is full of wonderfully created buildings, from the historic to the modern, from churches to libraries, football stadiums to supermarkets.

We place our trust in those who designed and built them that they did their job and these venues would keep us reasonably safe.

Yet the victims of Grenfell were betrayed in the place which held their secrets, a place they could express all emotions, cast off the shackles society can place on people and truly be themselves.

It was the place they called home which killed them, how in god’s name am I even writing that sentence in 2017?

For crying out loud, we put a man on the moon, we’ve stood up to the most dangerous threat posed to the free world in the Nazis and we have made medical advances which mean a diagnosis now doesn’t necessarily mean death.

But on this night, we couldn’t keep people safe in their own damned homes and watched as a community was ripped to shreds with some choosing to leap to certain death than await the inevitable.

My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragedy, we can’t bring the fallen back but together as a nation we can help a community begin to heal.

Grenfell is a monument now, a symbol of how Britain failed the basic function of the state, to keep its people safe.

It must never happen again.

In praise of the Special One

JOSE Mourinho is already a success at Manchester United, but don't tell that to some who want him to fail.

It's been strange to watch how the Special One has been covered this season, almost through a prism of him constantly being under pressure.

What did we expect? A league title in his first season? The Red Devils don't have the squad for that just now.

But at a trophy hungry club, Mourinho has already plonked the League Cup on the sideboard and realistically should add the Europa League to the cabinet by the end of May.

All the while keeping in touch in the league, a difficult task for English clubs who often struggle with the Thursday night to weekend turnaround required.

The draw with Manchester City on Thursday keeps United well in touch with a Liverpool side attempting  to treat triumph and disaster the same each week.

Yes they have drawn too many games but United have dominated many of those stalemates without reward. 

If just four of those games had ended in victory for Mourinho's men United would be joint second and four points off the top.

Of course he has spent a lot of money, but which Premier League manager isn't afraid of waiving the chequebook in a cash rich league? 

And the excuses and bizarre comments such as claiming Middlesbrough would beat them? Come on everyone, we are dealing with the master of deflecting attention here.

Remember Mourinho was the man who named Barcelona's team 24 hours before a game. The result? Everyone was talking about Jose the next day not the challenge awaiting Chelsea....

The spectre of Sir Alex still looms at Old Trafford at a club which went 26 years without a league title and arguably without the continued success the Govan guv'nor delivered.

A period of change was almost certain, but had Moyes or LVG put a trophy on the table in year one they would be there now.

Mourinho has brought himself time with the League Cup but knows the owners want Champions League football.

Should he achieve that then it will be a job well done in his first year. The expectation level will rise again at Old Trafford I am sure.

But if anyone can meet the challenge it's the Special One. 

By the way, any chance of a smile Jose?