Dead man walking - Gianni Infantino.

 The latest revelation about the president of FIFA - will be his undoing. The Daily Telegraph, has revealed he had an affair with a woman, much younger than him - when he was the head of UEFA. Apparently there is a record of the transaction some years ago. She had to sign a - non disclosure agreement. Playing - away from home by having an affair doesn’t look good. She received a six figure sum of money and the cost of her MBA. And the affair took place sometime between 2009 and 2016. Infantino, strongly denies the allegations. Next year in March his election comes up for renewal, it’s therefore unlikely he will receive sufficient support by the members of FIFA for another 4 years. 

Simon Levy.

 Mr Levy, from Tottenham, in north London - was found guilty at The Old Bailey on Friday for the murder of two women - Sheryl Williams and Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo. He will be sentenced at a later date.There was clearly systemic failures in the way in which the Metropolitan police conducted their enquiries? The fatuous statement - this will never happen again - is made too often to carry any weight. The problem essentially is - the police have no ability or intention of investigate these crimes. Police officers want a quiet life - they are not interested in investigating serious crimes. They basically want to get down the pub and have a few drinks with their mates and watch the football. There is absolutely no inclination to work hard and diligently to solve crimes. There is a lack of resolution and determination by the police to change this atmosphere. This systemic problem goes right up to the commissioner. 

Hunter Biden.

 On Newsnight on Friday evening we had a fascinating interview with Hunter Biden (56) the son of the previous president Joe Biden. Hunter, has had a very turbulent personal history of drug and alcohol abuse, which brought him close to death. He said that after his brother Beau died from brain cancer in May 2015 - he went off the rails. Needless to say this had a devastating effect on the Biden family and in particular Hunter who was - very close to his brother. In talking about the travails of his own personal story he explained that his father - “always left the door open”. The president famously pardoned his son from life long prosecution as his final act as president. Joe Biden, has bone cancer and is extremely unwell and will die within the next few years. 

Working with mothers and their new babies.

 One of the foremost child and adult psychoanalysts, not only in Britain, but across the world was Dr Donald Winnicott (1896-1971). He worked for many years after qualifying as a paediatrician at the Paddington Green Children’s Hospital from 1923. He was a formidable clinician and teacher and also broadcast a series of talks for mothers with their babies. In WW2 he was asked by the BBC to do some talks for new mothers. They were entitled: The Ordinary Devoted Mother and Her baby. Although not being a father himself, he had a natural emotional connection to both mothers and their babies. As a consequence, he coined the term the ‘good enough mother’. This was emblematic of his natural intuition. He ran a group for mothers and their young babies with a Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN). Many years later my consultant psychiatrist in child and family psychotherapy - asked me to take over his group, that he took over from Dr Winnicott, some years previously. So I have an interesting connection with Dr Winnicott. I ran the weekly group with a CPN for about 5 years, before leaving the NHS in Easter 1995 to work in private practice. 

 

The origins of the ideas unpinning woke.

  I suggest the aetiology of the term - woke started to gain momentum post 1968 and the political awakening across Europe and America. The street riots in Paris and the intoxicating feeling of - power and insurrection was palpable. I have a friend who was in Paris during these exciting times - when revolution was in the air. Young people were breaking free from the Bourgeois attitudes of their - stuffy and repressive and repressed parents. Moreover the - birth control pill has just come onto the market - just it time to be liberated sexually. New norms and values were being forged. The Marxist ideology of alienation and anomie were endemic. It was a heady time to be young and active in student politics. The individual was now king, not complying to spurious goals - parents set for you. The - state was the opposition, the individual perception of reality now dominated - gone was corporate interests underpinning our society. We were now free in an existential way - not in a Bourgeois way. Mrs Thatcher summed this when she explained ‘there is no such thing as society’. We now lived in a - relatively world not an absolute one. 

When the - rubber hits the road.

 In Thetford, a small county town in Norfolk - there are street protests over the last few nights. And guess what all the hullabaloo is about - and you guess correctly - the opposition to asylum seekers in their local communities. These young alone men - it’s always men between about 18-30 are housed in - multiple housing occupancy (MHO). A number of police officers have been injured and one was bitten very badly. The men and women of Thetford are angry and fed up, saying ‘these houses, should be used by us, not foreign men’. So Andy Burnham, this where the - rubber hits the road. People feel the state isn’t on their side and working - for them and seeing asylum seekers getting into housing is - where the straw brakes the camels back. Welcome to reality. 

Liar, liar pants on fire.

 This saying came to life in about 1841 and is - particularly applicable to a case in the public eye at the moment about the black academic - Professor Jason Arday (41) of Jesus College, Cambridge University. The university on Wednesday decided to introduce a fresh investigation into serious claims of - plagiarism and not having the educational qualifications he claims to have. Moreover he has decided to resign his position as professor of sociology of education at Jesus College, forthwith. He made a statement last night saying to the effect - this whole farrago has caused him and his family great distress and has taken a psychological toll upon him and his family - in addition he also asserted there is a racist element to these accusations. Needless to say the university rejected these claims and reiterated its determination to - get to the bottom of the case. In the Old Testament, in the King James version it’s say explicitly in Numbers 32:23 ‘be sure your sin will find you out’. 

I always had this statement at the back of my mind and as a direct consequence - it saved me from the endemic rampant racism and corruption in the Metropolitan Police - where I served in Soho from May 1960 to September 1963.