Grand Prix disgrace

I'm doing fine. However I'm a bit wrapped up in my book at the moment, and so I'm afraid I'll have to resort to short bulletins, or borrow from other sources. (What's new?) Good news and bad news this weekend as far as I'm concerned. Good - Bristol City escaped relegation from the Championship, and, the bad - Formula 1 Grand Prix took place in Bahrain despite the violent suppression of the Shiite majority by the ruling Sunni élite. All the local majority want is to be given the vote, and yet civil rights campaigners are arrested and shot in their "Arab Spring" and the doctors who treated them banged up in jail after sham trials.

Bernie Ecclestone, Jean Todt and their millionaire pals claim that F1 is merely a sport and nothing to do with politics. They show a strangely short memory of history and a blinkered view of reality. They seem to have forgotten the part that the cricket and rugby boycotts played in bringing apartheid to an end in South Africa. I'm proud of the lead that David Sheppard gave. Of course sport and politics are intimately bound up. Why were we so keen to land the Olympics? And so annoyed at not hosting the World Cup? Because they're a source of prestige and, we hope, income for the country. And that's exactly why the Bahraini government wanted to stage the Grand Prix again - in spite of their grisly human rights record. The one good thing is that it seems to have backfired in their face somewhat, as the world has suddenly become aware of the unrest and human rights abuses in their country to a degree which wouldn't otherwise have happened. No one can be under the illusion that life is back to normal now - and hopefully no one will forget, and even more it is to be hoped that the Formula 1 circus won't return there next year, unless they have put their civil rights' house in order.

I know it's a gesture which made no difference except to me, but I boycotted the BBC broadcast race highlights and I don't even know the results order. Probably they were contracted to broadcast it, but personally I think they should have starved the race of the oxygen of publicity. I admit my boycott was silly but still it was satisfying in a sedentary way.

It's only a game

Personally, I was disappointed: Bristol City 0, Crawley Town 1, in the FA Cup. There's a posse of us at church who follow sports, and so my old interest in Bristol City was rekindled. Well, it had to be different from the local favourites, Swindon, Oxford and Reading. This season has been quite interesting, as they sank to the bottom of the table - until Derek McInnes was appointed as their new manager, and their fortunes began to change. Now they're up to 6 off the bottom in a steady but not meteoric rise. So being beaten by the well-endowed and precocious Crawley from two divisions lower is a bit disappointing - compounded, of course, by Swindon's flukey win over Wigan. But there - as my wife annoyingly but accurately says: "It's only a game." Wasn't it Liverpool's Bill Shankly who said that football was more than a matter of life and death? Pretty silly, but it's certainly big business.

As clearly are the Olympic Games. I have a feeling I for one will be over-saturated with the pre-Games hype. We had it on Songs of Praise yesterday; David Cameron bigged it his New Year message - as one of the two hopes for relieving a year of economic gloom; today he dragged the cabinet down to an Olympic venue for a meeting. I admit they are the big ones, but still they only games. Sorry!

Weekend observations

I've just had the pleasure of watching Bristol City winning at Ashton Gate against West Brom. You don't often get to see their matches on TV. To be honest I'm not a fanatic, but Bristol City comes as near to being 'my team' as any. Bristol was my home. I watched them play Liverpool when I was at school, I imagine in the FA or League Cup. They lost, I think. They've been slipping recently, but hopefully this is the start of the recovery.

To be honest, it was a bit of a relief after all that rather tedious curling, which seems to have dominated the Winter Olympics coverage. It's very slow-moving massive marbles on ice. I think we have to watch a lot of it, because Britain's reckoned to have at least a chance of a medal. At least we have one gold - good for Amy Williams in the incredibly scary skeleton tobogganing! A shame it contributes to the jibe that Team GB is good only at sedentary, or in this case lying-down sports (rather like me, come to think of it!) - but credit where it's due.

Another party on Saturday night in honour of our friend Maureen. We must have been enjoying it, because we didn't get home till way past my bedtime. Well, there were a lot of friends there.

An eventful week ahead: the Director of Public Prosecutions is due to issue his guidelines on assisted suicide, and no doubt the media will be full of it - again. Then we have our local MNDA meeting - about gardening. And the next day - oh no, I can't tell you about that yet. Sorry.