Mihir Bose's Blog, page 11

Don’t build false hopes that Boris is heading for a fall

Asian Lite The really intriguing question is whether Boris Johnson can truly change the political map of this country. The Conservative party has always had a great capacity to reinvent itself. Before the war it had a fair measure of working class support as demonstrated in the 1935 election. And this, remember, is Labour’s worst […]

We used just to watch the game

British Journalim Review A veteran sports writer on racialist football fans — and how sponsors and managers have become the story On July 12,1979, on the first day of the first Test between India and England at Edgbaston, David Gower scored a sublime hundred – he went on the next day to remain not out […]

Irish Times – The Outsiders by Philip Ther

SPECIAL: Will 2019 be a repeat of February 1974?

Asian Lite The ability of the British electorate to surprise us all should not be underestimated. My first election in 1970 saw even as the polls closed, pollsters predicting Labour sailing to victory only for its boat to crash when the results came out, the Tories were surprised in the first election of 1974, Labour […]

All-white football stadiums – letter to The Times

The Times Sir, Gregor Robertson’s analysis of the great contradiction of English football, multi-racial teams playing in nearly all-white stadiums, struck a chord with me (“Why are terraces so white? Fear of racial abuse still turns fans away”, The Game, Oct 28). When I started reporting on football for The Sunday Times in the 1970s […]

ELECTION 2019: Will Asian Leave Voters Desert Labour?

Asian Lite Britain is going to poll again. Will Labour be able to even get near the cake table? In other words, Corbyn get to No 10. Winning an election, or even becoming the largest party, which looks the best it can do, will depend on how its Leaver voters, particularly in the north, react […]

Cultural attitudes of the royal family – Times letter

The Times Sir, Your front-page picture (Oct 16) of the Duchess of Cambridge in her salwar kameez on her way to lunch with Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, shows how the cultural attitudes of the royal family and its courtiers have changed for the better. When Stafford Cripps went to meet Gandhi in […]

Boris Brings Miseries To British Politics

Asian Lite The Conservatives seem intent on fighting an election on the basis of People versus Parliament, which has echoes of previous left-wing ideas. The Brexiteers have always seen their victory as a peasants’ revolt against the Westminster clique but this goes much further. As for the judiciary the prime minister has subverted it in […]

Paying the price for slavery – is saying sorry not enough?

BBC Radio Ulster – Sunday Sequence Some countries and institutions have apologised for their role in the transatlantic slave trade. Is it time to leave the past behind or is regret and recompense still important? And what about the modern slavery of the 21st Century? Are we guilty of apologising for the past but ignoring […]

MIHIR BOSE ON PRITI POINTS: Who is more British? Moeen Ali or Ben Stokes?

Asian Lite Now Priti Points for Britishness! Who is more British? Take two England cricketers Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali. They are great friends. Looking at them you would think Stokes is British born, Ali is the immigrant. Not so. Ali is a grandson of an immigrant, his grandfather having come from what is now […]