Everyone moved slowly into the day; and eventually we mustered enough enthusiasm to get up to the bike shop to have security tags put on the bikes. I'd no great plans as the forecast was not encouraging for the PM, so we stood awhile and chatted with Neill - about renaming Dundas St. There's been activists in Glasgow sticking up alternative street names there, celebrating black icons, and it seems fitting that Edinburgh should reexamine its history and consider addressing some of it. Perhaps include the numeber of female statues whilst we're at it? (Famously Edinburgh has as many statues to animals as it does women) I know it's not quite in the same league as pandemic or racism, but these things are all intertwinned.

As an aside, this week has been as depressing as any I can remember. I'm a white middle class country boy - who had one black kid and his sister join his exclusively white high school in 2nd year. I've played cricket for a lot of my youth - a game in this country that brings West Indians and sub continental Asians together with the natives and it was only really when I went to college in the East Midlands that I began to grasp the context of race in Britain. This was also quite hard on the heels of the miners stirke and in the midst of Thatcher's Britain so there was a lot of antipathy to the government and I can clearly remember Brixton and Toxteth. I also remember my time in Hong Kong which to an extent echoes the experiences of Nanzy19 on her recent blip. Whilst my colleagues were happy to indulge in post colonial 'banter', I actually went and played football with my local mates, not against them as a lot of my workmates did. Subtle but huge difference. To this day, I still keep in regualr contact with a couple of the guys, whereas I have no contact with the white guys bar one. It's sobering to realise that although there has been improvements, there have also been significant loses in the form of the rise of the far right, aided by Farage and certain factions of the Tory party. Equality has also not been helped by Labour's inability to address anti semetism, either. There's work to be done. For me it's educating my children and ensuring I challenge my friends and colleagues whenever they deviate from the accepted line. And educating me, too. I'm scrolling past loads of links on social media, and stopping every so often to read or watch. It's been helpful to watch the OJ Storyville recently on BBC iplayer and it's examination of the LAPD. I've got NWA and Ice Cube albums, I've listened to Public Enemy, but the OJ trial I largely missed as I was in Hong Kong - whilst I got the jist of it, the nuances were lost on me until recently. So however right on I think I might be, I'm actually pretty ignorant in a lot of it. I'm reminded of a Housemartins song. Five Get Over Excited. Which lampoons people who adopt the bits they want of black culture (Motown for example) and pass it off as acceptable and cool and somehow ..token?

More broadly - I despared on twitter that it didn't take long for Donald Trump to regain his crown of most ridiculous world leader crown from Boris Johnson after barely a week. 

As the sun continued to shine, we took wurselves off to Wardie and kicked a football about in the blazing heat. 
Home for Spanish bean stew and a Tom migraine (?) - a sad thought to think he's inherited this from me. I hope he grows out of it as quickly as it's appeared (2 in 2 months) but my experience would indicate otherwise.... We'll see.