Generalism

I’ve just finished watching CCTV footage from the UEFA cup final on the BBC news site and I just can’t believe what I’m seeing.

Some days I like to think that we’ve moved on as a species; people in space, landings on the moon, scientific discoveries in abundance. Never in the history of human consciousness have we been more enlightened. And then you see those scenes.

I wish that people in positions of authority would come down hard on this behaviour. Not “30 arrests were made” hard, but “ban the game” hard, “ban all attendees” hard, “ban football completely” hard. It’s all a joke these days anyway. Did you see the top two teams in the Scottish Premiership at the weekend? 30 points ahead of the third place team. THIRTY POINTS. When the leaders were only in the 80s, this is just plain farcical.

And it’s not even the few spoiling it for the many; there are a LOT of people swarming the police in those clips. The “30 people arrested” would have struggled just to cover those kicking and stamping on the policeman on the floor. What about the other hundreds running around throwing bricks at anyone and anything?

Okay I’m done. I can’t say I’m feeling any better, but at least there’s now another voice out there pleading for a zero-tolerance approach. The trouble is I’m sure we’ve been here before.