Spectator EU referendum debate

At the end of last month the Spectator magazine hosted an EU referendum debate featuring former Labour leadership contenders Chuka Ummana and Liz Kendall, along with Lib Dem MP and former deputy PM Nick Clegg for the remain side. Whilst MEPs Daniel Hannan(Tory) and Nigel Farage(UKIP), and Labour Eurosceptic MP Kate Hoey batted for the Brexiters.  Andrew Neil was the host.

Even though I am a moderate Brexiter, I definitely agree that Hannan, Farage and Hoey won the debate.  The Remainers kept using fear tactics such as the loss of trade and the loss of social chapter and environment protection policies that came out of the EU. Trade is based on satisfying need, if the EU countries need UK goods and services then those countries will still buy those goods and services regardless. As for the social chapter policies, these can be legislated post-Brexit.

Ummana made the disingenuous statement that the USA and Australia has higher immigration than the UK, this was promptly dealt with by Farage who reminded Chuka that the US and Australia are substantially larger than the UK.

Hannan was the standout debater. Kendall was the best of the Remainers and Clegg managed to make strategy gamers sound articulate(I'm a strategy gamer BTW). Even though Hoey was the weakest of the Brexiters, she grasped the facts better than all of the Remainers put together.

The main problem for the Remain side was that they could not put a positive case for remaining inside the EU.  This is kind of depressing as it should be based on the intellectual argument rather than fear.

Nick Blackwell and the debate about boxing

The sport of boxing gave us a sad reminder of why it is such a dangerous yet compelling sport this week with the injuries to Nick Blackwell.  He was fighting Chris Eubank Jr, son of former world super middleweight champion Chris Eubank Sr, for the British middleweight title. As the clip below shows, Eubank Sr even climbed in the ring to ask his son not to continue with headshots on Blackwell, maybe he was thinking about the injuries he caused to Michael Watson back in the 1980s.

More importantly he was asking why the referee did not stop the bout when it was clear that Blackwell was not able to defend himself. Elsewhere, I read this article about the bout in the Spectator and came across this particular quote by the writer Simon Barnes -

But when deaths and serious injuries happen in sports like eventing, it’s because things have gone horribly wrong. When they happen in boxing it’s because things have gone horribly right. Two powerful and highly trained athletes are trying to hit each other’s brains.

What he said is true but what Barnes fails to mention is that boxers choose to take up the sport, either as a profession or pastime, voluntarily.  Of course, unfortunately, incident's like this will always happen, but that is part of the attraction of the sport to some.  Wrapping people up in cotton wool helps no one.

As someone who practices boxing as a hobby my thoughts are with Nick Blackwell, and I wish him a speedy recovery.