He took me to the Sussex County Ground and piqued my interest with the macabre intelligence that Fred Titmus was a great pace bowler despite having lost half his foot in a water skiing accident. He took me to Lord’s – and even to the Oval, where in the skeletal shadow of void gasometers we watched Viv Richards swat balls as if they were somnolent flies.
Cricket belonged to the paternal; it was amiable, unfocused, solipsistic. I blame my own father – but then I would, wouldn’t I? During my childhood he may have been absent when it came to bath times, meal times and indeed just about any practical childcare, yet when it came to ball sports he was massively present. It would’ve been hard enough if he were unburdened, but he was clutching two plastic bins of urinary beer. “Oof!” he exclaimed and half-fell into the lap of an amiable, snowy-haired pipe smoker who was listening to the Channel Four match commentary on a rental earphone The very fat man regained his seat and his composure.
He supped his beer and there was an audible sigh of relief from the other overweight, middle-aged men sitting nearby. A few rows down, towards the front of the Lock Stand, younger, leaner, drunker fellows started up a chant: “Super Freddie! Super Freddie..!” but it soon died out and we were all left, staring at the rain which fell leadenly from a pewter sky. No wise British government should welcome the alienation of the Protestant majority. Yet, if he chose, Tony Blair could easily prevent the situation from deteriorating further. All he has to do is return to the principles of the Good Friday Agreement, which he negotiated.Under that Agreement, disarmament was a precondition for entry into government. No organisation that retained its guns would be allowed to function as a political party. This is not only the right solution for Ulster; it is the only solution for any civilised country.
Unless and until Tony Blair is prepared to stand by those basic democratic values, things will only get worse
More from Bruce Anderson. A very fat man, the waistband of his nicotine-coloured trousers tightly cinched about his paunch, was struggling to get over the row of tip-tilt seats. But no one should be complacent about the fact that despair is leading some otherwise decent people into misjudgement and violence.The situation in Ulster is dangerous. Any Ulster Protestant who thinks that he can win over world opinion by asserting the Orange Order’s right to march proves that he knows nothing about the outside world. Ulster Unionists will tell you that theirs is the only country in Europe where the majority is incapable of using the ballot box to make sure that its views prevail in government.That is the background to the weekend’s riots.
Many Protestants have come to feel that it is time to stand up and fight back This was not only morally wrong; it was tactically absurd. They believe that their political rights have come under attack, first by the IRA, and then by successive British governments who continuously disregard their views. They have not only lost confidence in their political leaders, but in the political process itself. Why should the same not apply to the Prods?Their grievances are genuine. Although they should not have done it, one point is worth making.
Had the rioters been Catholics, condemnation would have been interspersed with caveats about the need to examine underlying grievances. Now, that demand has been dropped; Gerry Adams did not like it. To many Protestants, it seems as if, despite the £26m bank robbery and the McCartney murder, Adams is controlling the agenda.A lot of ordinary Ulster Prods now believe that the British government has lost all interest in moral fundamentals and that its sole concern is to avoid renewed IRA violence That is why some people have now resorted to violence. There has been an insignificant degree of disarmament and no disbanding. The IRA is still a paramilitary organisation, enforcing political control over many Catholic urban areas in Northern Ireland, while financing itself by crime.Not only that: Tony Blair seems determined to bring Sinn Fein back into government as quickly as possible, on almost any terms.