25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester
home to some of the most harrowing and despicable crimes to have ever been committed
on the shores of the UK in its history; the names of Fred and Rosemary West
have been etched into the memories of this nations citizens in the same way
that those of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson after the brutal murder of
toddler James Bugler in 1993. High profile crimes, well documented that shocked
a nation. The unlawful killing’s gripped a nation and will always serve a
timely reminder to everyone that bad things occur in life day after day without
discovery until sadly it’s too late for the victims. All that can ever occur is
a tribute to their memory and a hope that society learns from the mistakes of
the past as we all move forward.
In all walks of life checks are
taken to try eradicate any such errors occurring. The case of the tragic death
of Baby P and the failings of Haringey Council in their duty to protect such an
innocent little boy who ultimately paid for the mistakes of others with his
life serves as a timely reminder that despite certain checks being put in place
mistakes can still occur with such tragic consequences. As a timeline in
history if just one thing could have been done differently the lives of the
innocent victims could possibly have been spared and those in the wrong brought
to justice before such tragic endings.
As human beings we have to hold
our hands up and admit that mistakes are always going to be a part of everyday
life. As human beings we have to learn from our mistakes no matter how tiny or irrelevant
they may seem and be held duty bound to overcome them, to learn from the
mistakes we make and to try eradicate the possibility that they could ever
happen again especially when certain mistakes have held such tragic endings to
so many innocent parties. The timely reminder that no one is ever perfect but
moving forward as a society we hope that such tragic outcomes become a thing of
the past and that in the future we can all grow as people and as a society to
try and prevent such things happening.
As a father of a disabled child
who has cerebral palsy I could justifiably be angry at the world and begin to
point fingers in every direction at mistakes that were made during a
complicated pregnancy. Had I been born in the USA I might have felt compelled
to take on the trend at suing those at fault for the mistakes that had been
made that had lead to my first born being left with a disability. The Doctor
that did the first examination on the day of my daughter’s birth has been
disqualified from medicine over another incident. Having never been qualified
in anything medical I told the female Doctor in question upon arrival at the
hospital that my partner was in labour albeit a painless one. She dismissed it
totally out of hand. The period of three or four hours that passed before a
midwife agreed with me and my partner was taken down to theatre could well have
been critical in trying to ascertain where things went wrong and if they could
have been avoided. Does this change anything in the here and now? Is there any
point in screaming and shouting and trying to ascertain whether things could
have been done differently or who’s to blame throughout everything? For me personally
and I say this hand on heart as a father to a disabled child, I’m not worried about
any of it. Perhaps I should be? Perhaps I should be knocking down doors and
pointing my finger in anger and kicking a hornet’s nest looking to stir up
trouble. Lord knows I’ve done it in the past surrounding my football club. So
if I would do it for Pompey why wouldn’t I do it for my own flesh and blood?
Simple answer, foresight and
hindsight are two wonderful gifts and cruxes at the same time. We can all say
at one stage of our lives if only people had listened, I told you this would
happen and on the opposite side of the fence we can hold our hands up and say I
wish we’d have listened. Does it do any good in the long term? Of course it doesn’t.
If we pay too much attention to the past and the finer and inner details of it
all we can and some people do, literally end up driving ourselves around the
bend with self punishment. As a nation we carry many tortured souls a lot of
which are because of an environment in which advertising teaches us all that we
should aspire to certain things that for the average man and woman on the
street will long remain out of reach to them unless they get into debt trying
to chase the so called dream. Statistics will relay year after year the amount
of deaths attributed to alcohol abuse, to smoking and every other vice you can
think of. How many statistics have ever been attributed to deaths from a financial
point of view where people have tried to live beyond their means and have in
the end simply caved in and given up any hope that they ever had? Society dictates
that we will always as people always want something that someone else has and
try to aspire to it by means that are fair or foul. It’s now in our very DNA.
Advertising companies are paid millions every year to try sell us a dream that
for many won’t ever become a reality. It remains a sad fact of life.
As human beings we all need a
form of escapism in our lives. Something that as a person we can hold onto that
makes a difference when everything else in our lives seems to be going amiss.
With the financial troubles in the UK and other European countries such as
Spain, Greece, Ireland etc being so well documented and front pages news day
after day, it comes as no surprise that the new generation no longer seek
solace in the comfort of a church in front of a God that many no longer believe
in, but in front of a new generation of society made demy-gods who play out
weekly all our hopes and aspirations as people in the name of the game most call
football worldwide.
Come Saturday afternoon all the
weeks frustrations are played out over the course of 90 minutes of football.
Everything that has gone wrong during the week can either be eradicated by the
end result or heightened to a feeling of even worse despair if your team loses.
Every team will record their own
share of victories and losses over a season that’s part of the course of being
a fan. What happens though when your club finds itself in financial difficulties
and the fans become victims of the lack of control exercised from the very
outset by those who are supposed to be in charge of such finer details? Where
should the fingers begin to be point at for those who allowed such mistakes to
happen? Not just once or twice, but time and time again? Who is culpable in
such instances? When heads should start to role who will be the person who
rolls the first dice and who will stand behind them in support of the masses
and start to scream and shout at the mistakes that have been made and ultimately
affected so many people? Why should thousands of innocent people be caught up
in the inefficiency or so few who are in the minority? Where is the fairness
and justice when ordinary fans looking for 90 minutes of escapism get caught up
in things beyond their means and the finger of blame is pointed at their door
by fans of rival clubs? Where should we be pointing our fingers back as
fans?!?!? …..
Never one to have ever shied away
from controversy in the past I won’t start tomorrow any differently. There are
those in the game that should be held culpable. Part II of this blog will
outline begin to outline who is ultimately responsible for the demise of the
English game and where blame if any should be shouldered by those in authority
and why…
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