Fight against racism is too important to be derailed by tabloid sound bites

The problem with race these days is that the whole subject too often gets reduced to a tabloid presentation with the result that Roy Hodgson, a cultivated man of wide culture and sensitivity, ends up by being absurdly labelled as racist. We can all accept that Roy Hodgson made a mistake in repeating an old NASA joke about the monkey in his half time talk as an illustration to remind English players that they should get Andros Townsend involved in the play as often as possible.

Unlike my generation, which is also Hodgson’s generation, most of the English squad are, probably, not all that familiar with NASA and its space activities, let alone know what a big part it played in our lives. For us the first man in space and first man to walk on the moon are events we shall always remember.