Bayliss holds key to withstanding Aussie media’s Ashes onslaught

If England’s cricketers suspect there is an Australian conspiracy to undermine them at every step, they might also conceivably wonder if they are being paranoid. They are not.

Like many touring teams in Australia in the past, they are now facing a co-ordinated campaign to distract, embarrass and upset them.

To understand the true intensity of the Australian media’s assault on touring teams, you really need to be in Australia, as I was during the British & Irish Lions tour in 2001.

The media barrage aimed at the Lions was relentless. Any hint of weakness or discord in the tourists’ camp was seized on and ruthlessly taken advantage of.

The last thing they needed was provocation, but when mild-mannered Austin Healey called Wallaby lock Justin Harrison a ‘plank’ in a newspaper column, the Aussie media war machine went into overdrive.

The Lions won the first Test in Brisbane but fell to a 2-1 series defeat, Harrison stealing a late line-out in Sydney to deny Martin Johnson’s side a chance of victory.

The Australian media regard themselves as an extension of their team(s). They try to attack sporting tourists – particularly the Poms – from all angles. If that affects events on the pitch all the better.

England’s embarrassment was maximised following Jonny Bairstow’s friendly headbutt on Cameron Bancroft. Perhaps the distraction will weaken the tourists’ performance, even if it felt like Steve Smith was pushing things a bit far with his tears of laughter sitting alongside Bancroft.

The good news for England? Their coach Trevor Bayliss is an Australian who instinctively understands how the Aussies do this. He should therefore be more than capable of preparing his players to deal with it. He has always exuded a calm authority – he must now be calm and authoritative, and take pressure off his team.

Can Bayliss now focus his players’ minds on what counts: events on the pitch in the second Test in Adelaide? Or will they let Bairstow’s Perth headbutt, media accusations of general thuggery, or Ben Stokes’s proximity in New Zealand distract them?

It won’t be easy but there are some encouraging signs for England. They competed well for most of the first Test. Even Glenn McGrath admitted a 10-wicket victory did not fairly reflect the way England scrapped at the Gabba.

Attention is focused on Alastair Cook’s form, but Mark Stoneman, Joe Root, James Vince, Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali and Bairstow all batted well in Brisbane. If one or two of them can produce big scores in Adelaide, and day-night bowling conditions favour James Anderson and Stuart Broad, England can put Australia under pressure.

Bayliss’s challenge is to block out all the distractions and get his player focused on cricket, focused on their strengths, and committed to a plan to beat Australia. Even then they may not be good enough, but it would be a shame if off-field ‘scandal’ derails the tour.

Bayliss may yet prove England’s greatest asset; if not in overcoming that media onslaught, at least in rationalising it, understanding it and ignoring it.

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RIP Graham Taylor

Graham Taylor, Holland v England, October 1993, pre-match team talk:

“In life, there’s so many opportunities, and they’re always round about us, but there’s too many people in life that never see them. Then there are those people who see the opportunities … but they don’t want to grasp them. Then there’s the other people that generally are life’s winners … They see the opportunities, they go looking for them, and when they see them they grasp them. And that’s what you’re facing now on the football field isn’t it? Go and take the opportunity, it’s there for you, and wring every little bit out of it.”

Watch “The Impossible Job” on YouTube

Football gold on YouTube

A small selection of excellent football videos on YouTube, in no particular order (aside from the first one, which is obviously the funniest thing ever).

How the f*ck have you kicked that over here?
Then Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp loses his shit during an interview with Sky Sports.

I’m a f*cking football manager
Harry Redknapp loses his shit. Again.

Iceland were … how you say? Ze Underdog
Steve McClaren is confident that England are going to take care of Iceland at Euro 2016. For a few seconds. Keep dominating!

Massive underdogs
As referenced above, McClaren also developed a faux Dutch accent soon after taking over at Dutch side FC Twente, causing much lolling on Twitter.

UN-BELIEVABLE!
Gary Neville achieved notoriety with his EMF-inspired commentary on a Fernando Torres goal that clinched Chelsea’s win Champions League win against Barcelona in 2012:

UN-BELIEVABLE – part deux
Here is the original.

What sort of thing is happening here? (Long-form video warning)
If you’ve never seen the documentary ‘The Impossible Job’, about Graham Taylor’s ill-starred reign as England coach, here it is. It’s a treat, partly because Taylor is clearly a lovely man, and partly (unfortunately) because he was falling apart under the strain of the job. It’s 49minutes well spent, whenever you can manage it. (It’s not called Impossible Dream, but sincere thanks to whoever uploaded it).

Maradona warms up
Maradona is a true legend. Unlike John Sitton.

Sitton inside so strong
He’s so right: When it pops out, you’ve got to be crafty. He’s wasting his breath on some of them. Still not a legend, though.

Recoba’s rockets
Back to Italy to enjoy Alvaro Recoba’s explosive debut for Inter Milan back in 1997. His new team were losing at home to Brescia and even Ronaldo couldn’t find a way through. Enter the Uruguayan with a left foot like a traction engine. And another!

Good lad!
Brian Clough v Don Revie. Say no more.

On me ‘ead son
Let’s finish with Martin Palermo scoring a header for Boca Juniors from about 40 yards back in 2009. Incidentally he missed three penalties for Argentina in a Copa America match in 1999, but the video isn’t all that. Thanks for watching. Goodbye.

The increasingly bad idea of Brexit

If Brexit felt like a bad idea before the EU referendum in June, it feels like a truly terrible idea five months later.

Brexiteers can often be heard insisting we must all ‘roll our sleeves up and make the best of it’, which begs the question: make the best of what? There is no clarity on what Brexit means, and no guarantee if it’s even legally or constitutionally possible.

Self-satisfied editorials in Eurosceptic newspapers tell us the good economic news keeps on coming while ignoring the obvious point made below by Private Eye: the ill-effects of Brexit are mainly yet to be felt because – breaking news – it hasn’t happened yet.

Worryingly, TV news reporters sent to Brexit-voting provincial towns now find people who genuinely believe the UK has already left the EU.

If that is the level of engagement and political understanding we are dealing with, surely even the most ardent Eurosceptic would have to wonder if the referendum was such a good idea after all. Many in the media also carelessly refer to living in ‘post-Brexit’ UK, when we are only post-referendum, and the fun is only just starting.

Economic education
Like many who’ve taken some interest in Brexit, I’ve read more about the dismal science of economics in the past six months than ever before.

Here is what I have discovered: no-one fully understands the complexities of international trade and economics* – but free trade is good, and uncertainty is bad. It is not condescending or patronising to say Brexit voters failed to understand the economic dangers. It is just a fact. And the dangers are worse than we thought back in June.

The evidence of the past few months demonstrates that Brexit will certainly be a lose-lose situation. Voluntarily extricating ourselves from the single market, or ‘internal market’, is an act of spectacularly stupid self-harm.

According to a new study, economic uncertainty has already led to £65billion worth of investment being abandoned. Much unseen damage is being done, combined with the more obvious stuff like the plummeting pound.

Meanwhile Boris Johnson tells a Czech newspaper we will ‘probably’ come out of the customs union, while threatening Italy on Prosecco sales if we are not allowed to stay in the single market. (Incidentally, they don’t care.)

Bizarrely, the Conservative Party have now become the anti-business party. Take a moment to let that sink in. The Conservative Party are setting the UK on a course overwhelmingly likely to lead to profound economic depression.

A couple of months back, Prime Minister Theresa May told Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn he is a laughing stock – maybe he is – but it is May’s party who have made the UK a laughing stock across the world. People on the outside looking in are scratching their heads, wondering how we could have got ourselves into such a ludicrous mess.

UK citizens are already significantly poorer. Tesco fell out with supplier Unilever over price hikes last month, with Marmite grabbing the headlines. The Post Office increased prices of overseas deliveries due to the weakened pound. Apple quietly raised prices of all their computers. Spending power of overseas travellers, or UK nationals living abroad, has also been significantly hit. And price rises across the board will really begin to bite next year.

Brexiteers insist Britain will flourish economically when we leave the EU. Really? Leaving aside the time it will take to negotiate new trade deals (which will not begin until we leave) it’s worth remembering we live in an economy so vibrant and healthy that the Government has recently been forced to step in to bail out failing private train operators.

There is paralysis over airport expansion – it has taken over a decade to get back to square one, with the recommendation of a third runway at Heathrow. Internet speeds (vital to a vibrant modern economy) are so woefully slow, the regulator publically accuses the network provider Openreach of huge under-investment.

The furore over HS2, the forgotten scandal of Wembley Stadium, now the ongoing saga at the ex-Olympic Stadium. There is plenty of evidence the UK is poorly equipped to go it alone and become a champion of free trade – especially as our European friends may well be keen to make an example of us.

Perhaps understandably, a lot of people are bored of the issue already. Something else, like Donald Trump, will always come along. Unfortunately Brexit isn’t going anywhere fast. Many people who voted for it thought they could stop immigration by ticking a box. They were wrong: and unless we are careful, they will also make themselves much, much poorer in the process.

Vote Leave’s collapse
Has a political movement ever won such a momentous victory, then fallen apart so swiftly? Johnson thought he was being terribly clever and strategic in backing Brexit, believing it was his golden chance to become PM, and has seen the whole thing blow up in his face. He gambled the country’s economic future in trying to further his own career. Unfortunately for everyone else, he lost. Shouldn’t this be a criminal offence, along with high treason?

Nigel Farage – who nearly lost the referendum for the Leave side, if you believe their campaign director Dominic Cummings – is a constant irritant in the media despite doing nothing more than criticising those actually attempting to grapple with this rapidly developing political crisis.

Michael Gove is contrite: he admits he made a mistake in challenging for the leadership. Too late to save his reputation. Meanwhile, the likes of pro-Brexit MEP Daniel Hannan can be found on Twitter demonstrating an embarrassing lack of knowledge of international trade.

Sanity prevails at High Court
The recent High Court ruling against the Government which compels them to consult Parliament before triggering Article 50 was a glimmer of hope for Remainers. Theresa May assured the Tory party conference that the idea she lacked power to invoke A50 without Parliamentary consent was ‘an insult to the intelligence of the British people’. Apparently not.

It is a fantastic irony. Brexiteers so keen for the UK to regain ‘sovereignty’, and for British courts to have the final say on constitutional matters were furious that a British court handed down a ruling they didn’t happen to like.

Since June, Remain voters had felt as if the lunatics had taken over the asylum. Unless the Government wins the appeal at the Supreme Court – which seems unlikely given even many senior Brexiteers are advising the Government to drop the appeal – Parliament will have the chance to hold the Government to account on the terms of Brexit.

As a Remainer, that’s all I ask for. I don’t believe Brexit should be blocked, or stopped. But we need to be careful about the path we choose, and limit the economic damage as much as possible. Exponents of hard, economically disastrous Brexit must not be allowed to dictate the terms.

Straight after the vote in June, I feared it might lead to a domino effect and the collapse of the European Union. I now suspect the opposite. Which other European Union member state would be so phenomenally stupid as to get into the same mess that we find ourselves? Post-Brexit Britain remains a long way off, but our problems are only just beginning.

*International finance is an endless mystery; October’s sterling flash crash was mainly notable because no-one actually knows why it happened. Some blamed automated software monitoring negative media headlines about the UK currency. This seems incredibly dangerous, and would open a separate debate about computer automation, but seemed to pass more or less unquestioned.

Nottingham Forest FC: history makers

Many years ago, too far back for most young football fans to remember, Nottingham Forest Football Club achieved something remarkable.

It was an unlikely story in which an unfancied Midlands club with little regard for reputation shocked some of the game’s greats. It was a spectacular feat, unlikely ever to be repeated.

Wait a second. Before you go, this isn’t another version of the Brian Clough/Peter Taylor European-Cup-double legend. It is a tribute to Frank Clark’s Nottingham Forest squad of 1994-95.

Following Clough’s departure after 18 years in the job, they won promotion back to the top flight at the first attempt. The 94-95 vintage then embarked on a season-long rampage of swashbuckling counterattacking football that laid waste to some of the finest teams in the country.

They finished third in that 1994-95 Premier League. It is difficult to imagine a promoted team ever doing it again. What odds on Hull City, Burnley or Middlesbrough securing a top-three finish this season?

Clark’s first summer as manager saw some world-class players move on. Roy Keane signed for Manchester United, Nigel Clough went to Liverpool, and the rebuilding work began.

A physically imposing striker called Stan Collymore arrived from Southend United along with Colin Cooper from Millwall, Des Lyttle from Swansea and Wales international midfielder David Phillips from Norwich City.

By the start of that 1994-95 Premier League season, Holland international Bryan Roy had joined from Foggia for £2.65million. Fresh from the 1994 World Cup, Roy had previously been a left-winger, but believed his talents would be better used as a central striker. Clarke agreed.

The team had taken shape: Mark Crossley; Des Lyttle, Steve Chettle, Colin Cooper, Stuart Pearce; Steve Stone, David Phillips, Scot Gemmill, Ian Woan; Stan Collymore, Bryan Roy.

Centre-backs Cooper and Chettle were a formidable partnership and won everything in the air. Lyttle at right-back was one of the team’s most effective and consistent performers. Crossley was a widely underrated goalkeeper.

Phillips was an accomplished operator in central midfield (62 career caps for Wales is testament to that) while Gemmill never stopped running – although he may have lacked the guile and range of passing of Norwegian Lars Bohinen, signed by Clark in 1993, another option in central midfield.

In attack, Collymore’s ludicrous talent – pace, strength, skill and a willingness (even enthusiasm) to attempt the impossible – was complemented by Roy’s silky first touch and rocket of a left foot, developed at Ajax’s academy under Johan Cruyff. And of course there was Jason Lee, unfairly and mercilessly tormented by Frank Skinner and David Baddiel on Fantasy Football League.

On the left wing, Ian Woan’s left foot was not un-rocket-like, while on the right Steve Stone consistently displayed the dynamic and unfussy wing play that eventually led to a call from England manager Terry Venables.

Underpinning all this and leading from left-back was England captain Stuart Pearce. A thunder-thighed, fist-pumping punk rocker who never shied away from a tackle and struck powerful, swerving free-kicks as sweetly as anyone.

Watching Forest away from home in the Pearce era was a treat, because the ticket price was justified before kick-off. Pearce’s pre-match fist-pumping, chest-thumping call to action for the travelling fans was a fixture of every away match.

The season was littered with eye-catching performances and victories: 4-1 away against Tottenham at White Hart Lane, 2-1 against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

It wasn’t until October and a brush with the dreadfully-nicknamed strike partnership of SAS (Alan Shearer And Chris Sutton) that Forest were beaten, by the team that would become champions, Blackburn Rovers.

One result in particular stands out. In 1995 I was working a weekend job in McDonald’s and will never forget my brother dropping in with a couple of mates to buy a cheeseburger and tell me Forest had beaten Sheffield Wednesday 7-1 at Hillsborough. It was April Fool’s Day.

Clark’s Forest peaked that day. Pearce smashed in a trademark free-kick, but Bohinen’s curling finish with the outside of his right boot for the seventh was perhaps the pick of the goals. Forest poured forward at every opportunity – every player comfortable on the ball, hungry for goals.

Forest’s attacking was irresistible, cutting through the Wednesday defence like a hot knife through a McFlurry. By the end, the Sheffield Wednesday fans could only stand and applaud.

As the season wore on, with Blackburn and Manchester United duking it out for the title, teams often knew exactly how the season’s surprise package intended to play – but there didn’t seem to be much they could do about it.

The football was arguably similar to Leicester City’s title-winning side of 2015-16. Defend deep with a highly organised back four and aerially superior centre-backs, and counterattack with pace and precision.

Clough’s departure had left a void. Clark had played for Clough in those glory days. The new manager was as measured and unassuming as Clough had been brash, confident and even arrogant.

But Forest’s achievement that season – keeping the ball on the floor, playing attractive, passing football, attacking with flair – all the while respecting the opposition and (mostly) winning – was the greatest possible tribute to Clough. It was fun to watch, too.

The Nazi Gold Train: a legend we all want to believe

It sounded more like a Hollywood blockbuster than a news story.

A deathbed confession by a former Nazi soldier. An armoured train hidden in a secret network of World War Two tunnels. Tonnes of stolen gold treasure and priceless works of art, lost for 70 years. Treasure hunters descending on a sleepy town hoping to claim their share of the loot. It might sound like Quentin Tarantino’s latest pitch to Harvey Weinstein, but in fact, it was the most fascinating news story of last year.

In August 2015 two men, Piotr Koper and Andreas Richter, paid a visit to the Mayor’s office in Wałbrzych – a former coalmining town in southwest Poland. They claimed information from a dying German man had led them to the exact location of the mythical ‘Nazi Gold Train’: loaded with stolen gold and treasure and hidden by Nazi soldiers in what was then Waldenburg, Germany, as Russia’s Red Army swept across Europe from the East in 1945. Lawyers representing the men made a simple demand: 10 per cent of whatever was on board.

The story spread quickly: NAZI GOLD TRAIN FOUND. Nobody could deny it made an eye-catching headline – especially after Poland’s deputy culture minister Piotr Żuchowski fuelled enthusiasm by announcing he was ‘99 per cent sure’ the train existed.

International TV news crews, journalists and hundreds of amateur treasure hunters armed with shovels and metal detectors descended on this sleepy Polish town of 120,000 people. It was a 21^st Century gold rush.

But with no evidence aside from one inconclusive radar image, the first news reports only produced more questions: Were the men telling the truth? If the train exists, what could be on it? How is it possible to hide an entire train? Did a visionary employee in the local tourism office cook up the entire story … ?

Local legend supported Koper and Richter’s claim. The myth of a hidden Nazi Gold Train had reverberated around the city for decades. Ex-miner Tadeusz Słowikowski popularized the story in the 1970s and has spent 40 years searching for the train he’s convinced is hidden in the region.

The Germans did build a network of tunnels in the Wałbrzych area during the Second World War. ‘Project Riese’ consisted of seven underground structures in the Owl Mountains: thousands of prisoners of war died during their construction. One Riese project is directly beneath the picturesque Kziaz Castle, seized by the Nazis in 1941 and apparently ear-marked as a future residence for Adolf Hitler.

The exact purpose of Project Riese is a matter for debate. But the extensive underground network would have allowed the Germans to hide a train. Once the treasure-laden train was in place, the track was ripped up and the open end of the tunnel concealed with dynamite. Or so the theory goes.

A vast array of art and treasure looted by the Nazis during the Second World War remains lost – that is not in doubt. The greatest missing treasure of them all is the Amber Room, presented by King Frederick William of Prussia to Peter the Great of Russia in 1717 – described as ‘priceless’ or ‘worth about $380million’ depending on which report you read. Stolen from a palace near St Petersburg in 1941, it was transported to Germany and never seen again.

After the Gold Train story surfaced last year it took on a life of its own. Treasure hunters were warned the train was likely to be booby-trapped or even contain Xyklon B, poison gas used by Nazis in WW2 concentration camps. On behalf of the Kremlin, a lawyer declared anything looted from wartime Russia must be ‘passed back to the Russian side’. The Polish government disagreed, insisting they would own anything that was found. One report said that instead of claiming their 10 per cent bounty, Koper and Richter might instead face prosecution.

Journalists and TV crews returned to Wałbrzych in force in December 2015 to hear the findings of two separate research projects carried out since August. Perhaps the whole thing was too good to be true. Professor Janusz Madej from the Academy of Mining in Kraków announced they had found no evidence of a train. A hidden tunnel, perhaps, but no evidence of a train – at least not where Koper and Richter claimed. But Koper remained defiant. “I am convinced we will prove its existence,” he told reporters from across the world. “We need a bit more time … we need to excavate.”

Impact on the city

Train or no train, Wałbrzych’s tourism and marketing departments were quick to respond to the opportunity. Gold Train t-shirts, imitation gold bars, Gold Train chocolates and local ‘Gold Train’ tours have all been created and marketed. A stream of offers from TV and film companies has flowed to City Hall: Discovery Channel agreed a deal to film the surveys by Polish scientists.

“All of a sudden we have been given a gift,” Wałbrzych Mayor Roman Szełemej told me back in December. “We had already been working to change the city’s image: dark, dirty, full of unemployment and other unwelcome results of the abrupt closure of the whole economy here.”

Coalmines had been the foundation of the region’s financial health and were closed decades ago. The recent stereotype of Wałbrzych, says the Mayor, has been deprivation and economic depression. But the Gold Train myth has given fresh impetus to his PR project. Szełemej terms the attention focused on the city since August 2015 ‘a kind of avalanche’.

“Of course, having a few tonnes of gold could probably solve some of my problems,” he jokes. “But seriously, it’s very interesting, it gives energy to people working on it. It’s something new, it’s revitalizing my staff. Why not?”

It seems to be in the city’s best interests to perpetuate the story because it’s obviously having a positive effect. Anna Żabska, Director of Stara Kopalnia (a former coalmine converted into a thriving museum and cultural center) agrees the effect on the city has been profound – not just in attracting visitors but for local morale

“It’s been very good for people who live in Wałbrzych,” Żabska says. “Now we don’t have to explain to anyone where we are from. We are proud of the city. We’ve had a traumatic history, and the reputation of the region was unattractive. But this is a new chapter. In a way, it’s made us famous.”

Treasure hunters

A current joke in Wałbrzych says it’s now impossible to buy a shovel in the city because treasure-hunting tourists have snapped them all up.

On a freezing, steel grey December day I visited the site specified by Koper and Richter – a stretch of train track close to the city known as ‘Kilometre 65’. The embankment next to the track does look large enough to house a tunnel and a train – that is the extent of my scientific research. There’s now precious little evidence of the huge global news story centred on this nondescript spot for the past several months.

Trees have been cleared from an area roughly the size of a football field to allow the detailed radar research. Ragged police tape sags from the trees surrounding the clearing. Apart from the steady stream of traffic on the busy road nearby, there is nobody in sight.

The lack of security suggests local authorities are satisfied that no unofficial treasure hunter would have the persistence or the necessary equipment to dig deep enough to discover what lies beneath.

Until Mayor Szełemej decides to excavate, this particular mystery will remain unsolved. Szełemej tells me any digging will have to wait until spring: “There is no rush.”

Neither is there a train, if you believe Professor Madej and his team of scientists from Kraków. But even if nothing is found at Kilometre 65, considering the extensive network of Nazi-built tunnels in the area and the myth which has existed in the city since the end of the Second World War, the book will not be closed.

It’s plausible such a train exists in or near Wałbrzych. Koper and Richter, the original treasure hunters who sparked a modern-day gold rush with nothing more than a blurry radar image and a convincing story, would doubtless agree and will not easily give up their search.

If it generates interest in the region and boosts the local economy, Wałbrzych’s hoteliers, restaurant owners and the people at City Hall will hardly be complaining, either. Like the Mayor they will ask: Why not?

For sheer drama, for a fascinating legend, for echoes from the increasingly romanticized Second World War, it’s a perfect story and one many of us want to believe. At the moment, it’s just a little short on evidence. But we’ve not heard the last of the Nazi Gold Train.

Leave campaign’s NHS leaflets crossed the line into pure deception

The Vote Leave campaign was fuelled by lies of all kinds, but their unauthorised use of the NHS logo crossed a line into blatant deception. They did not earn a legitimate mandate to alter the course of our history.

Back in March, you may remember seeing an NHS leaflet which spelt out in emotional language why voting Leave in June’s referendum could boost the National Health Service.

Except for one small problem: it wasn’t an NHS leaflet. It was produced and distributed by the Vote Leave campaign using the NHS logo in the top-right corner, just like official NHS literature. In other words, it was straightforward deception.

The Department of Health told the Leave campaign to stop using the logo, but the damage was done. How many leaflets were distributed? How many voters went to the polls on 23rd June genuinely believing the NHS actively supported the Leave campaign? 

The level of the referendum debate was depressingly, relentlessly low and as Michael Gove has shown there are dirty tricks in any political campaign. But a distinction should be made between misdirection, or massaging statistics, and deception.

The fake leaflets call into question the legitimacy and even legality of the vote. Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings told the Treasury select committee in April that ‘accuracy is snake oil for pussies’. Are we really allowing these people to shape our future? People who openly sneer at the need for accuracy and honesty in politics?

How many voters swallowed the inaccurate claim about £350million a week supposedly sent to the EU? How many Leave voters already feel cheated by the Leave campaign’s lies?

“I’m starting to feel like I’ve been played,” said a Leave-voting Question Time audience member last Thursday. “I shouldn’t have put my trust in someone like Nigel Farage.”

In the history of British politics, have campaign promises ever been so swiftly disowned? Hours after the result was announced Farage said the £350million claim was “a mistake”.

Iain Duncan-Smith chipped in by pathetically remarking that Leave campaign commitments, made to millions of voters across the UK, had suddenly become “a range of possibilities”. No wonder people feel like they’ve been played.

“Get over it – you lost,” say the Leave crowd. But this is not a game of playground football. It’s not the fairness of the vote that must be challenged, it’s the means by which it was achieved.

Political journalists are now focused on the battle for power in the main political parties, how the next Tory administration will be formed, and what form Brexit may take. But we need to stop and ask: have we arrived at this point by fair means? The answer is an emphatic “No”.

If the result remains unchallenged then a bunch of liars and chancers have determined the UK’s future. Boris Johnson never believed in Brexit. It was a campaign built entirely on deceit. Last Monday, Nigel Farage became the latest rat to leave the sinking Brexit ship.

For some people the campaign is ancient history. Not me. We have a great country, and we deserved a great debate. We didn’t get one. With a 52/48 result either way, the protests and recriminations and legal challenges will inevitably rumble on for many years.

If the Leave campaign had narrowly lost the vote, rest assured they would now be battling on, refusing to accept defeat. That is exactly what the Remain camp must do.

Farage insisted a 52/48 win for Remain would be unfinished business. A decision of this magnitude – that will impact not only the UK but Europe and the wider world for generations – must not be taken on the basis of Vote Leave’s lies. Especially in view of those fake, misleading NHS leaflets, this is unfinished business.

 

Oppose Brexit: write to your MP

Are you opposed to Brexit? Email your MP to ensure your voice is heard. It’s not too late to stop this – if everyone who opposes Brexit takes action now.

Feel free to cut and paste or borrow from text below. Google your MP’s email address – it will take two minutes.

“Dear ______,

I am writing to inform you that I do not believe last week’s referendum result is a legitimate mandate for the UK’s departure from the European Union.

As Ken Clarke has pointed out, this was a small majority on a broad question after a bad-tempered and ill-informed debate.

I see no justification for a 52-48 result leading to the massive and long-term damage – social, economic, and political – that will result from trying to extricate ourselves from the EU.

Indeed, Nigel Farage himself said that a 52-48 win for Remain would be ‘unfinished business’.

From my personal point of view, this is not over, and I will be doing everything I can to ensure the UK remains in the European Union.

I am interested to know your views on this issue, and what can be done to represent the many people like me in your constituency and across the UK who voted Remain.

I would be grateful if you could also bring my concerns to the relevant government minister.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,”

Anti-Brexit March in London on Saturday

Dear Leave voters: how are you feeling now?

Did you Vote Leave in last week’s Referendum on Europe?

Then you must be thrilled that we have replaced several months of pre-referendum uncertainty with several years, at least, of post-referendum uncertainty.

You must be delighted that the likes of Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, far-right leaders around Europe and the gangster Vladimir Putin are all celebrating the result.

You must be heartened by the Leave vote leading directly to a rise in racist crime and xenophobic abuse, not just in the UK but around Europe.

You must be pleased that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove went quiet – why? Because they don’t know what to do. They never expected to win the vote – their campaign was only ever intended to make political capital for themselves.

You must be in awe that Nigel Farage insulted the entire European Parliament on Tuesday – the same people with whom we must delicately negotiate the terms of our potential exit from the EU.

You must be reassured that Farage immediately distanced himself from his campaign promise that leaving Europe will mean £350million more every week for the NHS – or that Iain Duncan-Smith now calls the lies they told you ‘a series of possibilities’.

You must be impressed that information on the Vote Leave website has been deleted – because the campaign promises they made were lies.

You must be equally impressed the Leave campaign clearly have no plan for leaving the EU. Nothing. Zero. No idea on practicalities, costs, economic dangers or anything else.

You must be excited that Credit Suisse has already described the UK economy as in ‘the early throes of recession’.

You must be over the moon that supermarkets are warning cheap groceries will be a thing of the past, due to the long-term weakening of our currency.

You must be proud that as a country, we have allowed a petty Tory squabble to jeopardise the future of the entire European Union.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the victory – now and in the future.

Wayne Rooney: England’s Undroppable?

On the limited evidence of last night’s painful Portugal encounter, EURO 2016 is set to be another festival of football to which England will add … not much.

The hurt (50 years of it now) will endure and apparently, if you read today’s papers, it will all be Wayne Rooney’s fault.

Rooney is the captain and obviously an important player for England. Is he good enough, or important enough, or in-form-enough to force Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and Dele Alli into unfamiliar positions, as he did at Wembley last night? Not in a million years.

Which incidentally is how many years of hurt England fans will suffer unless their manager(s) learn from the mistakes of past tournaments.

Current incumbent Roy Hodgson insisted earlier this week that formations do not win football matches, players do.

Reputation, experience and a captain’s armband don’t win football matches either – but why else is Rooney considered an automatic selection?

Hodgson is potentially in danger of squandering a young, exciting group of players by mis-using England’s record goal-scorer. Bold squad selections like Marcus Rashford will be rendered pointless if the whole team effort is hampered by Rooney on last night’s form at the tip of the midfield diamond.

Planning and continuity are important. But adaptability and flexibility in selection are equally important. Managers must pick on form and select a team that best fits the desired system. No-one should be undroppable.

It’s the kind of problem which makes management so difficult. Hodgson must be loyal to his captain, but his first loyalty is to the team, not one player.

The Rooney-related howls from across the media show there was a serious problem with the way he was deployed against Portugal, and the knock-on effect it had across the pitch.

It’s lunacy to put Alli on the left. It’s equally mad for the likes of Vardy and Kane to be neutralised by playing in wide positions when they both prosper through the middle.

Dropping Rooney would arguably represent a break with the past – the unhappy, Sven Goran-Eriksson-stained era of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard both trying – and miserably failing – to play lead guitar in central midfield.

The era in which the big names were selected just because, well, they just were. “Wayne Rooney must play because he is Wayne Rooney.”

If we fail without Rooney, fine – Hodgson would be criticised. But if England use him like that in France, they look extremely likely to fail with him. (He might, of course, simply move up front. When Fabio Capello took the England reins, he told Rooney if he wanted to score more he should stand closer to the goal. Cue a hot streak and Capello being hailed as a football genius …)

But back to next week, and England v Russia in Marseille. Alli of Tottenham – the best English midfielder since Paul Gascoigne, according to Sir Alex Ferguson – should play at No 10, in the advanced midfield role taken up by Rooney last night. His mobility, dynamism and creativity should be the focal point of the team.

There is a question mark about Alli’s temperament. But isn’t there a bigger question mark about Rooney’s failure to produce at major tournaments in the past? He’s had plenty of chances, and since 2004 he’s been disappointing. Why should that change now?

Of course, all this talk of attacking formations and “let’s just run at ’em’ gameplans causes us to forget that tournaments are won, first and foremost, by good organisation and defence. England’s defence is on the shaky side and they’ll get picked off by the better teams.

Twenty-three teams will leave UEFA EURO 2016 as losers and England are overwhelmingly likely to be one of them. The years of hurt will continue, but the manner of our inevitable, eventual disappointment is still to be decided.

It could be so much fun. No-one should be undroppable. Here’s hoping Hodgson agrees.