If you have an interest in biographies, I can thoroughly recommend Boris Johnson’s book on Churchill.
As a great fan of the greatest ever Englishman I already knew much about his life before I read the book a couple of years ago. Churchill had many successes and failures, attributes and flaws – and Boris acknowledged them all brilliantly.
Churchill’s quotes and one-liners for part of the heritage of being an Englishman. The first two seem particularly apt for journalists.
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
“A lady came up to me one day and said ‘Sir! You are drunk’, to which I replied ‘I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly.”
My personal favourite: “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential”.
Of course most greyhound folk only remember Winston for his disparaging quote, describing greyhound racing ‘as animated roulette’.
The feeling was not widely held in the family, his daughter Sarah owned runners at Wimbledon and kept one as a pet.
What isn’t acknowledged by doggie folk, is that in Britain’s darkest days, Churchill saw the value of greyhound racing by keeping it going – albeit in a more restricted basis – throughout World War II.
In fact, I can’t help draw a number of comparisons between the Coronavirus and WWII I am NOT trying to compare the two in any kind of scale – six years and 50 million dead, compared to a global flu, but I do believe greyhound racing has a role to play.
Harry Findlay summed up the opportunity in an excellent piece we ran on Sunday. I agree 100% with him. My point is, I don’t want to hear soppy arguments of ‘should we really be racing when people are dying?’
Listening to Government strategy, it is clear that they believe that widespread restriction on movement will be with us for weeks and months.
It also seems to me, that Boris’ – possibly in a lesson learned from Winston – is determined to keep morale high, and that will include providing entertainment.
We are far hungrier for stimulation than our countrymen were eight decades ago. There are only so many times in a day when you can look at your phone for ‘any other kind of news for God’s sake’, or ‘any kind of sport – period’
Without any kind of entertainment, Winston knew and Boris almost certainly agrees – you risk the public going rogue.
‘Sod it, I’d rather risk it than be stuck like this. Let’s go and have a few beers’
Now no one is claiming that taking your dogs racing is any kind of humanitarian issue, but I do believe it has a low risk benefit in a crisis.
It won’t be easy for kennel staff or their dogs, but a walk in the park compared to 1939-45 with black-outs, food rationing (staff and dogs) and reduced public transport.
In 1940, they cancelled the Derby and ran it as a GRA graded sweepstake. Even though many of the runners would have been among the Derby favourites, history has never judged GR Archduke as a legitimate winner. The next four Derbys were cancelled.
But it is perhaps worth noting that even when the War was over, greyhound racing’s popularity soared way beyond anything seen prior to 1939.
In 1939 attendances were 25 million, by the end of 1945 they had doubled. And they continued to rise – 1947/48 were the pinnacle of greyhound racing popularity until Government introduced draconian restrictions on race fixtures and massive tote taxes in 1948.
So let’s seize the day and do it with a clear conscience.
It is what Winston would have suggested.
Just been reading some geeky stuff about c-tactile afferent fibres. Do not skip to the next story!!!
Seriously, it is fascinating stuff and concerns some comparatively recent research, much of which has been carried out by Liverpool’s John Moores University.
Basically, we all have two types of touch fibres. The ones that we might feel if we put our hand on something hot, and a second group of slower acting fibres. Research has shown that they have a very important role in well being and are more sophisticated than was generally imagined.
For a start, they are optimally stimulated by stroking at between 3-5 centimetres per second. In a research setting scientists have discovered that that is the speed that mothers around the world will unknowingly always stroke their children.
Because the fibres are connected to the emotional area of the brain they set off a chemical reaction which includes lowering the stress hormone cortisol, increasing the level of (‘the love hormone’) oxytocin, reducing heart rate and blood pressure. Basically, stimulating the c-tactile afferent fibres makes us feel happy and contented.
But here is the interesting bit. Not only are animals also affected by the stroking, but the effect works for both the giver and receiver of the stroking.
Which is a long winded way of saying, stroking a pet is now scientifically proven to be genuinely beneficial for your, and their, physical and mental wellbeing.
What better reason would you need to own a retired greyhound?
I realise that many of you will have seen this. But for those who haven’t. Here is another clip of a greyhound remembering what a terrible time it had during its racing career. Not!
