Kettle and Hyslop

Martin Kettle wrote an odd article in the Guardian a few days ago. He appeared to blame much of the present malaise in UK politics at the door of Ian Hyslop. His main thrust was that the drip drip drip effect of satirical comment had demeaned the position of those we elect to rule over us. It had made their job almost impossible and that the scorn and derision of the public was a bad thing. 

His somewhat partial view neglected to closely examine several other more important elements.

The expenses scandal exposed a culture of greed and arrogance. The attempts to stifle debate and cover up the extent of the sleaze also reflected very badly on all MPs. Too many kept quiet even if they did not buy into the cash and carry culture themselves. The tiny handful who have been sent to jail can consider themselves unlucky. Equally appalling sinners walked away scot free (Blair - his expenses records were destroyed ‘by mistake’ as he left office) or paid back large sums of money for items they had obtained falsely (Gove - £7000 for expensive furniture). Others stood down at the last election to avoid the wrath of the electorate (MacKay and Kirkbride, the Wintertons). Loads more played the housing market and got away with making small fortunes ‘because it was in the rules.’ It may have been in the rules - but it was wrong - and in their heart of hearts, most knew it was. McNulty had a second home 8 miles from his first one. Maude had one 300 metres from his first. The Balls Cooper combo used the rules to build their wealth. And so on and on. Hundreds of them. The squeaky clean were in a distinctive minority. The sinners were not the tiny number claimed by Kettle.

The revolving door between ministries (including officials) and major industries is little short of corruption. Justify if you can the colossal overspends on defence projects and look at the way the companies involved employ ex Ministers and senior civil servants. Dip your bread. Now they want to do the same to health.

The grovelling before King Rupert by both major parties has been exposed recently and shows how far corruption has spread across our major institutions. The Met police look to the media for those little ‘extras’ which help make living in London so much more bearable.

Our system stinks. The present incumbents contain too many tarred with sleaze to do anything about it. Every time Gove or Maude bang on about looters they should be told to look in the mirror. Listening to McNulty on Radio 4 talking about asbo’s was a reminder of just what brass balls these people have. 

The media are supine and compliant. They do not challenge. They do not caption MPs appearing on Newsnight for example with a list of their outside interests. They do not point up the sheer humbuggery of so many of them when they bang on about Laura Norder. They do not spell out the effect the cuts are having on ordinary decent folk while the bankers with the help of their chums in Westminster waltz off with even bigger bonuses.

So what is a poor boy to do? In the words of the old American trade unionist Joe Hill, “don’t mourn, organise.”

IPCC or not IPCC

Yet again the so-called ‘independent’ police complaints commission has done its duty - by the men in blue. Yet again the complaint has been partly upheld but has fallen outside the time limit for criminal action. Bless. Fancy that, it just took soooo long to establish the facts. 

Do they take us for fools? Video footage of a man with cerebral palsy being dragged from his wheelchair and clubbed with a baton appalled most but left those familiar with the Met unsurprised. Why has it taken 8 months to find out that something was wrong? Do they not have access to the same footage as the rest of us?

Or are they as pathetic as the supine Press Complaints bunch, “Whitewash is our middle name.” 

Whether it is the death of Ian Tomlinson or Jean Charles Jimenez (plus many others who ‘die in custody’) no-one gets charged. That is the nub of it in a nutshell. People die in police custody or as the result of police actions - and no-one gets charged. It is wrong.

Independent my arse. Should be renamed “I’m Partial Clearing Coppers.”

Blair on behaviour

It truly is the silly season. M’Lord Blair has come out of his box to pontificate on all things riotous. This is a man eminently qualified to talk about behaviour. Remember how he had us all rolling in the aisles with his dodgy dossier? The way he lied to take us into war? And his creepy freeloading holidays with Berlusconi? Also the way his expenses record (allegedly massive) was mysteriously destroyed just as he left office - with no mention of the property empire he built up whilst an MP? Cash for Honours? Denigration of the BBC over the death of Dr Kelly? And not forgetting the way he gave George W a sore throat by being so far up his backside. 

Yes. When Blair speaks about behaviour the nation needs to listen - and do the opposite.

Prison overcrowding

It seems the penny is beginning to drop. Continuing to lock up thousands of looters and rioters will put a huge strain on the Prison Service. It is a serious problem as so many of our politicians are so keen to tell us. 

There is a solution. Lock them up in the Houses of Parliament. They would be in superb company.

There could be the Michael Gove wing for offences around £7,000; the Hazel Blears Wing for those around the £13,000 mark; and the Winterton wing for all the married couples way over £20,000. This would unfortunately get very crowded - not with looters - but with hypocritical, self-serving lowlifes masquerading as public servants. Are you listening Cooper/Balls? Then there is the House of Lords...

All those hardened criminals who ‘robbed’ £3-50 could be put up on the benches - it is all they are going to get if their housing is removed. 

Cameron: PR and yet more PR

The ability to put a favourable gloss on a problem; to present the best possible image and to appear in control when the evidence is contradictory are all the hallmarks of a PR approach to an issue. Some would call it spin and spinning. In a serious situation it looks shallow and reveals the spinner for what they are - smooth talking, vacuous and lacking comprehension. Cameron to a T.

Examine the location of Cameron’s  ‘fightback’ speech. In his leafy constituency of Witney, in a youth club, in front of several youngsters rounded up by Cameron’s minders. Why not Tottenham? Why not Hackney? Too risky mate - they may get bolshy and that would look bad on the news. Among the more ridiculous of his targets were Health and Safety rules! Another was Human Rights. Yeah right. Nothing about Bankers, spiv financiers, Murdoch or greedy MPs.

Just as in the Murdoch Hacking farrago, Cameron has been behind the plot. He has lost his vaunted touch for saying the right thing and establishing a tone (like his mentor Tony Blair). 

He looks just what he is - an ex PR man who has risen way above his ability. He has been described as a second-hand Jaguar salesman from the Home Counties. Would you buy a car from him?

What does ‘hug a hoodie’ Cameron actually believe in? 

As the child said, pointing at a politician, “Mummy, what is that man for?”

Oborne tells it like it is.

Continuing the theme established over the last couple of blogs. Peter Oborne wrote a very effective and perceptive article in The Telegraph today.

“David Cameron, Ed Miliband and the entire British political class came together yesterday to denounce the rioters. They were of course right to say that the actions of these looters, arsonists and muggers were abhorrent and criminal, and that the police should be given more support.

But there was also something very phony and hypocritical about all the shock and outrage expressed in parliament. MPs spoke about the week’s dreadful events as if they were nothing to do with them.

I cannot accept that this is the case. Indeed, I believe that the criminality in our streets cannot be dissociated from the moral disintegration in the highest ranks of modern British society. The last two decades have seen a terrifying decline in standards among the British governing elite. It has become acceptable for our politicians to lie and to cheat. An almost universal culture of selfishness and greed has grown up.

It is not just the feral youth of Tottenham who have forgotten they have duties as well as rights. So have the feral rich of Chelsea and Kensington. A few years ago, my wife and I went to a dinner party in a large house in west London. A security guard prowled along the street outside, and there was much talk of the “north-south divide”, which I took literally for a while until I realised that my hosts were facetiously referring to the difference between those who lived north and south of Kensington High Street.

Most of the people in this very expensive street were every bit as deracinated and cut off from the rest of Britain as the young, unemployed men and women who have caused such terrible damage over the last few days. For them, the repellent Financial Times magazine How to Spend It is a bible. I’d guess that few of them bother to pay British tax if they can avoid it, and that fewer still feel the sense of obligation to society that only a few decades ago came naturally to the wealthy and better off.

Yet we celebrate people who live empty lives like this. A few weeks ago, I noticed an item in a newspaper saying that the business tycoon Sir Richard Branson was thinking of moving his headquarters to Switzerland. This move was represented as a potential blow to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, because it meant less tax revenue.

I couldn’t help thinking that in a sane and decent world such a move would be a blow to Sir Richard, not the Chancellor. People would note that a prominent and wealthy businessman was avoiding British tax and think less of him. Instead, he has a knighthood and is widely feted. The same is true of the brilliant retailer Sir Philip Green. Sir Philip’s businesses could never survive but for Britain’s famous social and political stability, our transport system to shift his goods and our schools to educate his workers.

Yet Sir Philip, who a few years ago sent an extraordinary £1 billion dividend offshore, seems to have little intention of paying for much of this. Why does nobody get angry or hold him culpable? I know that he employs expensive tax lawyers and that everything he does is legal, but he surely faces ethical and moral questions just as much as does a young thug who breaks into one of Sir Philip’s shops and steals from it?

Our politicians – standing sanctimoniously on their hind legs in the Commons yesterday – are just as bad. They have shown themselves prepared to ignore common decency and, in some cases, to break the law. David Cameron is happy to have some of the worst offenders in his Cabinet. Take the example of Francis Maude, who is charged with tackling public sector waste – which trade unions say is a euphemism for waging war on low‑paid workers. Yet Mr Maude made tens of thousands of pounds by breaching the spirit, though not the law, surrounding MPs’ allowances.

A great deal has been made over the past few days of the greed of the rioters for consumer goods, not least by Rotherham MP Denis MacShane who accurately remarked, “What the looters wanted was for a few minutes to enter the world of Sloane Street consumption.” This from a man who notoriously claimed £5,900 for eight laptops. Of course, as an MP he obtained these laptops legally through his expenses.

Yesterday, the veteran Labour MP Gerald Kaufman asked the Prime Minister to consider how these rioters can be “reclaimed” by society. Yes, this is indeed the same Gerald Kaufman who submitted a claim for three months’ expenses totalling £14,301.60, which included £8,865 for a Bang & Olufsen television.

Or take the Salford MP Hazel Blears, who has been loudly calling for draconian action against the looters. I find it very hard to make any kind of ethical distinction between Blears’s expense cheating and tax avoidance, and the straight robbery carried out by the looters.

The Prime Minister showed no sign that he understood that something stank about yesterday’s Commons debate. He spoke of morality, but only as something which applies to the very poor: “We will restore a stronger sense of morality and responsibility – in every town, in every street and in every estate.” He appeared not to grasp that this should apply to the rich and powerful as well.

The tragic truth is that Mr Cameron is himself guilty of failing this test. It is scarcely six weeks since he jauntily turned up at the News International summer party, even though the media group was at the time subject to not one but two police investigations. Even more notoriously, he awarded a senior Downing Street job to the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, even though he knew at the time that Coulson had resigned after criminal acts were committed under his editorship. The Prime Minister excused his wretched judgment by proclaiming that “everybody deserves a second chance”. It was very telling yesterday that he did not talk of second chances as he pledged exemplary punishment for the rioters and looters.

These double standards from Downing Street are symptomatic of widespread double standards at the very top of our society. It should be stressed that most people (including, I know, Telegraph readers) continue to believe in honesty, decency, hard work, and putting back into society at least as much as they take out.

But there are those who do not. Certainly, the so-called feral youth seem oblivious to decency and morality. But so are the venal rich and powerful – too many of our bankers, footballers, wealthy businessmen and politicians.

Of course, most of them are smart and wealthy enough to make sure that they obey the law. That cannot be said of the sad young men and women, without hope or aspiration, who have caused such mayhem and chaos over the past few days. But the rioters have this defence: they are just following the example set by senior and respected figures in society. Let’s bear in mind that many of the youths in our inner cities have never been trained in decent values. All they have ever known is barbarism. Our politicians and bankers, in sharp contrast, tend to have been to good schools and universities and to have been given every opportunity in life.

Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain. If we are ever to confront the problems which have been exposed in the past week, it is essential to bear in mind that they do not only exist in inner-city housing estates.

The culture of greed and impunity we are witnessing on our TV screens stretches right up into corporate boardrooms and the Cabinet. It embraces the police and large parts of our media. It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs a moral reformation." Peter Oborne 12/8/11

Gove is a hypocritical toerag - and so are Cameron, Johnson and Osborne!

Judge them by their deeds - not their words. A letter in today’s Guardian by Jon Bloomfield made the following very telling point about Michael Gove. He had quite a ding-dong with Harriet Harman on Newsnight  and expressed disgust at her ‘relativising’ the issues involved in the recent riots and looting. This is the same Michael Gove who in the expenses scandal had to repay £7000 for posh furniture bought illegally. He paid back the money and continued with his job. Would he welcome all those who stole designer trainers and laptops to act as he did and return them? Would he prefer them to do as he did or should he belatedly own up to his own white collar theft and step down from hypocrisy central?

And what about our dear chums, Osborne, Cameron and Johnson? All former members of the notorious Bullingdon Club. They liked to trash restaurants and generally create mayhem on a regular basis. However there was a significant difference between them and the low life who have looted and burned. They had money - loads of money. So they paid off their victims and silenced criticism with wodges of cash. Something that is not available to the great majority of the citizenry in the UK.

To hear them pontificating is an exercise in satire almost beyond comprehension. ‘Only Connect’ is a great piece of advice. Pity they are immune to connecting, remote as they are, in their comfortable towers.

Hypocritical bastards.

The 4 ‘R’s : Respect, Responsibility, Rioting and Rupert.

Britain is a deeply depressing place to wake up in. The morning news is dominated again by more tales of youngsters, some reported to be as young as 9, 10 or 11, being out on the streets in the small hours looting and burning. This is invariably followed by a spokesbod who waffles on about ‘supporting the police’ (Theresa May) or ‘the need for respect’ (Boris Johnson.

How has it come to this?

Some clues could be found in the behaviour and actions of our so-called betters. As role models they are singularly awful. Take Bankers and Financiers. Please. Having brought the financial systems of the world to near meltdown they have continued on their merry way paying each other huge bonuses. They exemplify the ‘greed is good’ approach first spouted by Gordon Gecko in the film ‘Wall Street.’ 

How have they got away with this? Simple. Each major political party relies on huge cash handouts from such as these. Many of our senior politicians are deeply tarnished by an association with high finance and speculation which borders on corruption. 

Our MPs showed their own greed gene was alive and well with the Expenses Scandal. Apart from a few scapegoats, the vast majority walked away scot free. Doesn’t stop them  having the brass neck to lecture the rest of us on how to behave.

The extent of the abuse and cover up in the Catholic church removed any moral authority from that institution. Wrangles about homosexuality and women priests have affected other faiths. 

The recent revelations about the Murdoch press (and others) paying police officers for juicy information coincided with reports of their senior officers enjoying dinners and close contact with Murdoch management - at the same time they were investigating them! Not to mention all the cosy little chats off the record with our politicians. "Anything else we can do for you Rupert?" 

We have the super rich taking out super injunctions because they can. We have a society which in great swathes is beholden to the daily doings of the Premier League. This is another institution whose values reflect the malignancy of Murdoch. One of the saddest aspects of this is the way that the young in Britain are encouraged to watch but not participate. Big football is associated with big drinking and laddish behaviour. Blood and circuses.

London has one of the biggest differentials between the poor and the ultra rich anywhere on earth. The UK is not far behind. In such an unequal society crime thrives. Stir the pot with a good dose of 'cuts' and expect trouble.

Respect? For what? For corrupt and venal institutions? 

Responsibility? Why? Why should we take responsibility when our leaders do not? 

To paraphrase ‘The Life of Brian’ - “what have the bankers/financiers/speculators/premiershit/politicians ever done for us?”

And those 9, 10 and 11 year olds? They are the children of Thatcher’s children.

The Met, the Riots and our leaders.

What a year! A Royal wedding with pre-emptive arrests from the Met. No lefty troublemakers there. Then several demonstrations and strikes against the cuts. Bankers still claiming massive bonuses. Hackwatch exploded with the Milly Dowler story. (Are News International paying all these youths to take the heat off them - just a thought?) And then ‘rioting’ or ‘theft and looting’ turn up to add to ward off any chance of boredom. 

Judging by the reports coming from the front line wherever rioters/looters are hitting it appears that many are along for the ride. Among those arrested are some mature citizens who have adopted Fagin’s mantle with ease and pleasure. Allocating which shops to rob and where to park the nights gains demands a degree of organisation. Thanks to Blackberry and its encoded messaging service this is very easy in 2011.

As for the Met? What a terrible year for the nation’s premier force. Bribery, corruption and incompetence. Images of heavily clad coppers standing by as buildings burn and shops are ransacked do not go down well with the citizenry. It is all very well killing unarmed and innocent men but when it comes to tackling an angry mob of mainly schoolchildren - now that is a different level altogether squire. 

Citizens would not have been impressed by the garbage spouted by Theresa May on the Today programme this morning. Last night was the third night that the Met had lost control of the streets and her principal response was to see what the police thought about things. 
Out    

of    

her    

depth.  

Meanwhile PR Dave was on his way (after putting on his undies outside his trousers) to save the western world from the barbarian hordes. What power these young hooligans must feel after a lifetime of being ignored and sacrificed to the great god cuts. Politicians scurrying hither and yon to appear to be in control of events. The huff and puffometer has gone into meltdown.

What a delight it was among the general despair to hear lightweight Clegg and giant ego Boris get a rough time from concerned Londoners. 

Communities are starting to organise themselves to defend their neighbourhoods. Many will recognise some of the youngsters involved and tell them to piss off back home double quick. 

How many of the parents know where the fruit of their loins were last night? Do they care or are they out of their depth too?

Meanwhile the financial sector is in meltdown. The spivs and sharks otherwise known as brokers, bankers and financiers are pooping themselves. 

It may even cost them a bonus or two.

Torture In Our Name

A couple of days ago it emerged that ten groups including Liberty, Reprieve and Amnesty International, were withdrawing from the Inquiry into British complicity in torture and rendition under Sir Peter Gibson. Their reasons were very clear. The government were not going to be transparent and were putting barriers in the way of justice. 

Sir Malcolm HuffandPuff was wheeled on to defend the Inquiry and express disdain for the naivety of the organisations. Yet another establishment stooge who has sold his soul to the security set up in our country. He is one of many. 

The more that is learned about NewLabour and its attitude towards security and the so-called ‘war on terror’ the more awful they appear. (Man of) Straw, Millionaire Blunkett, Bliar and Milibean senior were all up to their eyeballs in sophistry and deceit. The latest revelations in the Guardian, ‘Secret Policy on Overseas Torture’ (5/8/11) clarify just how complicit they were. 

“Intelligence officers were instructed not to carry out any action "which it is known" would result in torture. However, they could proceed when they foresaw "a real possibility their actions will result in an individual's mistreatment" as long as they first sought assurances from the overseas agency.

Even when such assurances were judged to be worthless, officers could be given permission to proceed despite the real possibility that they would committing a crime and that a prisoner or prisoners would be tortured.

"When, not withstanding any caveats or prior assurances, there is still considered to be a real possibility of mistreatment and therefore there is considered to be a risk that the agencies' actions could be judged to be unlawful, the actions may not be taken without authority at a senior level. In some cases, ministers may need to be consulted," (My emphasis).

In another nugget, “The importance of the information being sought must be balanced against “the level of mistreatment anticipated” - the degree to which the prisoner or prisoners will suffer.” (ibid) 

It was even acknowledged that for the policy to become known it would provoke more folks into becoming jihaddists. That is why there has been so much wriggling and weaselling on Newsnight and similar programmes over the last couple of years. It explains why Milibean senior fought tooth and nail to keep this issue out of the courts. It was also acknowledged that evidence so gained could not be used in a court in the UK but it could be used in other ways to inform government decision-making. 

There are a large group of unempathetic citizens who feel that torture is perfectly acceptable. They see it as a necessary tool to defeat those who wish us ill. They are wrong. Torture is never acceptable. 

Cameron promised transparency when he set up the Inquiry. He sadly like so many before him, has listened to the siren songs of the security services, which is why the human rights organisations have withdrawn their co-operation. 

The pictures of Mubarak in his cage in the Egyptian court must have heartened people across the middle east. There are many in the west who would love to see Blair, Straw et al in the dock too. 

The Tea Party? It’s a load of Koch!

Watching the shenanigans across the pond is salutary. It is a lesson in what can happen when the very rich and powerful ride roughshod over the democratic process. 

Many people will know about the Tea Party movement which has reduced one of the founding fathers fundamental planks from ‘No Taxation without representation’ to simply ‘No Taxation.’ The consequences for the poor seem to be off the radar of this short-sighted and gullible group of citizens. 

The Tea Party movement portrays itself as honest decent folk sticking up for the little people. But their claims do not bear close scrutiny. Behind the scenes there are some very powerful (and extremely rich and deeply unsavoury) people. As George Monbiot made clear yesterday.

“So who or what is Americans for Prosperity? It was founded and is funded by Charles and David Koch. They run what they call "the biggest company you've never heard of", and between them they are worth $43bn. Koch Industries is a massive oil, gas, minerals, timber and chemicals company. In the past 15 years the brothers have poured at least $85m into lobby groups arguing for lower taxes for the rich and weaker regulations for industry. The groups and politicians the Kochs fund also lobby to destroy collective bargaining, to stop laws reducing carbon emissions, to stymie healthcare reform and to hobble attempts to control the banks. During the 2010 election cycle, AFP spent $45m supporting its favoured candidates.

But the Kochs' greatest political triumph is the creation of the Tea Party movement.” Guardian 2/8/11

They have pulled off the masterstroke of getting hundreds of thousands onto the streets to campaign for the ultra-rich while believing they were in fact supporting ‘middle America.’

The effect of all this on the world economy is very worrying. There is a movement from the ultra-rich, whether they be corporations or individuals to do as they damn well please. They have been described as feral beasts beyond normal controls. While we have supine, scared or corrupt politicians across the globe, very little will change. 

Koch!

Abuse and the Catholic church: Chapter XXX

In a letter in today’s Independent, Philip Gilligan shows yet again just how intransigent the Catholic church still is when it comes to dealing with child abuse. 

“In November 2001, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales committed the Church to implementing the recommendations of the Nolan Committee, including recommendation 78 that: "If a bishop, priest or deacon is convicted of a criminal offence against children and is sentenced to serve a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more, then it would normally be right to initiate the process of laicisation. Failure to do so would need to be justified. Initiation of the process of laicisation may also be appropriate in other circumstances."

However, it was clear by 2010 that almost two-thirds of priests relevantly convicted and sentenced had been allowed by the Church to retain their clerical status as priests. Thus third parties, including victims of abuse, were required by the Church to see these men as ongoing recipients of the sacred power which the Church teaches is communicated by the sacrament of Holy Orders; as alter Christus (another Christ).

Published church sources suggested that only six clergy had been laicised because of offences against children between 2001 and 2009, while, in September 2010, Channel 4 News reported that only eight (36 per cent) of 22 priests identified in England and Wales as having been convicted of sexual offences against children, sentenced to serve sentences of 12 months or more and as serving all or part of their prison sentences, since November 2001, had actually been laicised.” The Independent 2/8/11

There must be many decent catholics who despair at the continuing cover-up. 

But what are they doing about it? The time for hand-wringing is long past.

England v India, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Sunday July 31st 2011

An Indian supporter dropped his car keys into the urinal in the gents toilet shortly before the start of the third days play at Trent Bridge. He considered it an ill omen. How right he was. 

43 behind with 9 wickets standing at the start of play, England were in a perilous position. Thanks to a combination of superlative batting from Ian Bell (aided and abetted by Kevin Peterson, Eoin Morgan and Matthew Prior) and some very flat performances from the Indians the situation was transformed. In the last session of play over 180 runs were scored; over 400 in the day. All this from a team in deep trouble. 

India are currently ranked number one in the world at test match level. They did not play like the number one team. For long passages of play they were content to meander along and wait for something to happen. They did not seize their opportunities. 

The day will be remembered for the kerfuffle just before the tea interval. It was the last ball of the session. Kumar attempted to stop a shot from Morgan on the boundary. In doing so he clattered into the rope and gave every indication the ball had gone for 4. He casually lobbed the ball back towards the square. By this time the umpire had handed the bowler his cap and everything looked over.....but it wasn’t. The ball had not gone for 4. Bell had set off for the pavillion prematurely. A quiet enquiry put the umpires on the spot. Calling for a replay they established the facts. Bell’s brilliant innings was over. Both batsmen were prevented from leaving the field while umpteen reviews took place. The crowd grew hostile as news filtered through via the radios many fans wore. After what seemed a long time the decision came up on the giant screen that Ian Bell was out, run out. Pandemonium.  

Good sense and the ‘spirit of cricket’ prevailed over the tea interval and the appeal was withdrawn by the Indian skipper thereby allowing Bell to continue his innings. The authorities as usual were behind the action. The umpires and the Indian team took the field after the break to a storm of booing and calls of ‘cheat.’ Only a few seconds later that chorus was stopped in an instant when the figure of Bell emerged to re-commence his innings. An hour too late, at the drinks interval, the crowd were informed of what had gone on.

It seemed to affect Bell as he was not as fluent afterwards. He added a further 22 runs.  It inspired England though as they flogged the Indian bowling to all parts. By close of play a lead of 374 runs had been established. Far beyond the hopes of even the most ardent England supporter. 

Fantastic cricket and wonderful theatre. 

The keys in the urinal were right. India had a terrible day on the field. They had a brilliant one off it.