Unrest in England: where did it all go wrong?

Despite the claims of two girls on BBC news that “It’s the government’s fault, whoever they are”, the trouble on the streets of  England’s cities this week had a much more complicated back story than that, arising from a multitude of different factors.

To start with, the situation seemed quite simple- friends of Mark Duggan, who was shot by police in North London on August 4th, were left feeling angry and cheated by the inquiry into the actions of the officers involved. They took to the streets of Tottenham two days later in what was, to begin with at least, a peaceful protest against what they perceived as a cover up and a whitewash. The chief matter of contention was the claim by the officers that Duggan was armed, and shot at them first. For some reason- as with so many things in this story, numerous explanations abound- the protest started to turn ugly. Missiles were thrown at police officers in attendance, vehicles were set alight and shops were damaged.

Reasons to love sport #4 (Reasons to hate sport #2)

The names of two cricketers, England batsman Ian Bell and India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, were plastered all over the news last week after a moment of sportsmanship/weakness (depending on whether you were backing England or India). The edited highlights of the events can be seen here and doubtless hundreds of other places online.

In short, the last ball before the tea break, Bell’s batting partner Eoin Morgan hit a ball out towards the boundary rope, contact with which means 4 runs to England and the end of play for a 20 minute break. Praveen Kumar, one of the less unathletic Indian fielders, dived to stop the ball, got his hand to it, flicked it away from the rope hoping to prevent said 4 runs. The ball ricocheted onto his shin and Kumar’s momentum took him beyond the boundary rope. At this point, Bell and Morgan are completing a third run and Bell, seeing Kumar’s intervention, believes the ball reached the rope (as, it has to be pointed out, does Kumar himself). Bell turns to Morgan, says ’4′ and starts walking off the pitch, the umpire gives the bowler his sweater back and it seems to everyone that it is tea time. Then the drama starts.