I’m not sure how much football, bk8 login or ‘soccer’ as Americans call it, gets to see at home in his Californian mansion, but I hope he was watching last night, along with the rest of our nation.
Pictured: David Blunkett is a member of the House of Lords
I’m saddened that England lost the game, of course, and I assume he is, too.
But mostly I’m glad because it was an occasion when the whole country came together.Because in many important ways, regardless of the result, we still won.
A nation made up of so many creeds, colours and cultures was united behind a team that represents the very best of the nation.
Did it matter that Bukayo Saka’s surname is Nigerian, or that Jordan Pickford’s is Anglo Saxon? That Jack Grealish was once eligible to play for bk8 login the Republic of Ireland or that Marcus Rashford’s grandmother was from Saint Kitts?
Mostly I’m glad because last night’s match was an occasion when the whole country came together
Of course not.
What counted was the talent and togetherness with which these young men represented their country and the thrill they brought to the rapt millions at home.
If Harry and Meghan (who speak of ‘unconscious bias’ and racism) did watch the game at home in Montecito they might have learned something about what tolerance looks like.And it’s not just the football I’m talking about.
England – and Britain as a whole – is rightly known the world over for the friendly way it greets newcomers and accepts them as part of national life.
The most remarkable thing about the recent elevation of Rishi Sunak, a man with Asian heritage, as Prime Minister was how unremarkable it really was.
Prejudice remains a serious problem and I’m not downplaying that.But today we are aware of it, we are talking about it and we are making progress.
Did it matter that Bukayo Saka’s (pictured) surname is Nigerian, or that Jordan Pickford’s is Anglo Saxon? Of course not
The contrast with America is particularly telling.It was the US, not the UK, which allowed vicious segregationist and anti-black ‘Jim Crow’ laws to persist well into the post-war years.
It was in America that the Ku Klux Klan flourished. It is American politics that are poisoned by a deep current of prejudice, not ours.It is in the US that young black men are at such risk of death at the hands of the police, and it was in the city of Minneapolis that George Floyd was killed – a white officer’s knee on his throat.
What, then, to make of the extraordinary claims made by Harry and Meghan in their Netflix documentary series?
In some ways I would prefer to say nothing.But the allegations of innate racism levelled at the country and bk8 review Royal Family are so toxic they demand a response.
The claims that British people and our Royal Family are rootedly racist are not merely a distortion of the truth, but runs the risk of fostering division and self-doubt.There are many people who really are victims of prejudice, but they don’t include Harry and Meghan.
So what can explain these repeated assertions?
The Sussexes have so far been paid an estimated $50 million (£41 m) for the six-part Netflix series.And however false it might be, racism is an eye-catching charge to level, as the continuing furore shows
Americans love to project their own world view on to others. What, then, could be more natural than to assume that their own record of persecuting Africans and Native Americans is something we in Britain – that all of us in the wealthy West – share with our US cousins?
I’m in no doubt Harry and Meghan believe the things they say on camera.For all their many differences, both have grown up into privileged and somewhat narrow worlds
Except that, for the most part, we don’t.
The truth is that America has its own toxic relationship with race and skin colour because of the brutality of its own recent past.
On the whole, other nations neither share that unfortunate history, nor do they suffer the prejudice that still runs through daily life today in the US.
Britain abolished slavery in 1833 – too late, you might reasonably say – then spent the next decades attempting to stamp it out around the world through the actions of the Royal Navy.Yet it was not until 1863 that slaves were emancipated in America, and for many that was more in theory than reality.
Millions of former slaves and their families remained shackled by prejudice, poverty and vicious local laws, particularly in the southern states, for the best part of a century afterwards.
Somehow these facts failed to make their way on to the screen.
I’m in no doubt Harry and Meghan believe the things they say on camera.For all their many differences, both have grown up into privileged and somewhat narrow worlds.
Particularly as an adult, 188bet ทางเข้า Meghan has been surrounded by the indulgent egotism of Hollywood, while Harry, aside from his time in the Army, has led a somewhat cloistered life.
No one is pretending that Britain is some sort of paradise (although in comparison with some other benighted corners of the world, it might seem that way).Or that there isn’t work to be done to stamp out lingering prejudice.
Racial abuse is much less apparent in football grounds than in former times, but the game – and wider British life – certainly does have a problem with anonymous hate poured out online.
My own club, Sheffield Wednesday, is managed by Darren Moore, w88 login one of all-too-few black and minority ethnic managers.
We need more.Football knows it must improve. The country knows it must improve.
Despite what Harry and Meghan have to say, however, the nation has been moving in the right direction for many years.
While, unlike most major British cities, Sheffield remains overwhelmingly white, Wednesday has players from a bewildering diversity of backgrounds – and they are much loved.
I’m pleased to say that the Blunkett family sponsors young midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, a player of Nigerian descent who was born in Germany then made his way up through the English junior system.
Today’s world of professional football is an extraordinary tapestry of different, sizes, backgrounds, languages and cultures, and there isn’t a true supporter in Britain who doesn’t recognise the strength it has brought the game.
So I wasn’t dwelling on Netflix last night and nor was Britain.
The millions who tuned in to watch and listen were too busy cheering, and sometimes sighing, drinking up the joy of togetherness, whatever the result.
Because there on the screens in front of us, and sitting by our side, and in the diverse multitudes, colours and creeds watching eagerly in pubs, bars and restaurants, was living proof of modern Britain.
We were worried about French danger men Mbappe and Giroud, not racism.The last thing on our minds was Harry and Meghan’s criticisms of British society.