A good letter in today’s @IrishTimes on the double think of Irish soccer supporters and media who are campaigning to boycott a match against Israel but happy to attend a match against Qatar.
Yesterday, Ireland played a football match against Qatar, a country that jails people for being gay, that has never in its history permitted a free election, and where women must obtain permission from male guardians to marry, work, and travel. An estimated 6,500 migrant workers died during construction projects for Qatar's 2022 World Cup. But the only protest staged at yesterday's match was over a fixture four months away, against Israel, the only democratic country in the region, and the only one that respects legal equality for women and gays.
If the cause had really been about human rights, protests would have been held against Qatar as well. But in Ireland, the so-called "humanitarian" outrage arrives, reliably and exclusively, the instant the offending flag is Israeli. We are asked to believe that this is a matter of principle, and we are expected not to notice that the "principle" applies only to the world's only Jewish state.
It is exhausting to keep pointing out something this obvious. But the selectivity is the whole story here, and no amount of righteous noise, and no number of tennis balls from the stands, will turn it into anything else. https://t.co/zHytPOJIxA
Genuinely there should be a rule against lorries overtaking each other when there’s about 0.2mph in it. Watching them crawl past each other for the next three miles while blocking the outside lane is mind blowing.. If it’s going to take longer than boiling a kettle, pack it in 🫠
Mikel Arteta has spent over £1 billion at Arsenal. They have played horrible football all season, relying on set pieces and going missing in the final. The fact that they are top of the Premier League is embarrassing for England.
Arsenal will still win the league. But to park the bus at Wembley like that with 10 men behind the ball is shocking. They have World Class players who are capable of playing higher up the pitch and attacking. Terrible anti football tactics from Arteta today