We awoke yesterday morning to the news that the huge heath fire fire in Susses at Dunwich Heath was still burning and every resource was being used to contain it. The location of the fire quite near to the coast meant that the fire was constantly fanned by seaside breezes – on the other hand, I assume that the water-bearing helicopters could replenish their supplies quite readily. The impact of this fire on the native flora and fauna is tremendous and the fire itself could take some months to completely extinguish if it creeps underground. Fire chiefs think it may take as long as 36 hours for the fire to be brought under control. Wildlife managers said it was likely to take ‘more than a decade’ for the habitat, which is home to rare species including the nightjars and the Dartford warbler, to recover. Dunwich Heath was previously identified as a high-risk area for wildfires and has suffered blazes in the past. Only last month, the local authority and the National Trust (NT) launched a campaign urging people to exercise care while visiting. The other huge bit of news to hit the headlines yesterday was the news of the European response  to the plans of FIFA to spin off and sell commercial rights of the World Cup to a private company run by one of Trump’s relatives.  European nations have agreed to boycott the World Cup if Gianni Infantino goes ahead with selling off part of the tournament to private investors. UEFA nations were due to hold an emergency meeting virtually this week to discuss their opposition to FIFA’s attempt to launch a new commercial company with external investment, a source said. FIFA confirmed on Tuesday Infantino wants to launch a subsidiary worth $20bn (£15bn) and sell off more than 20% of the new FIFA Forward Enterprise by raising $4.2bn (£3.16bn). The plans and way they have emerged provoked renewed fury within UEFA at how Infantino is running FIFA. It is understood the Football Association was completely unaware of the plans before the rushed announcement by FIFA. Relationships between UEFA and FIFA have been bad for some time and whilst the number of European nations within UUFA exceeds 50, the number who make up FIFA is over 200. So it is quite possible that FIFA might press ahead with their controversial plans without the European footballing nations but the World Cup as a whole would become a nonsense. One is left with the feeling that holding the World Cup in America was one of the worst things that could happen to the game as the whole event is now subject to massive commercialisation. One ‘innovation’ which has gone down very badly is the introduction of ‘hydration’ breaks half way through each half, approximately 22 minutes into each half. Whilst these breaks are theoretically introduced to enhance player safety, it is being noted that the breaks made the game of association football more like American football with four quarters instead  of two halves. Advertisers were relishing the opportunities provided by these commercial breaks and the situation was compounded when managers and trainers came onto the pitch to discuss strategy and tactics face-to-face with their players during the break. Analysts noted that goals often ensured immediately after a break and the whole innovation was breaking the dynamic of the game of football as we have to know it around the world.

In the morning, I attended my first meeting of the U3A Philosophy  group and we held our meeting in the training room of one of our local supermarkets. There were about nine of us altogether, split almost equally between men and women but many of us had a background in education, training or the health service. The meeting proved to be high enjoyable and although we started off on the topic of ‘The philosopher Michael Sandel and the Morality of the Market’ we drifted off topic quite a lot into what proved to be very interesting discussions. The collective view around which we achieved a consensus quite early was that the basis of ‘the good life’ was not a slavish adherence to the norms and ethics of the market place but a smaller, more community based approach to living in which there was a much more equal exchange of goods and services. Almost inevitably, our own life experiences coloured the nature of own own individual contributions but what as so enjoyable was finding out that many of my fellow group members had left school and ‘worked their way’ up their various professions without the benefit of a university education. Unfortunately, I will miss the next meeting of the month which is held on the last Friday of each month as I shall be away in Yorkshire but I indicated to the convenor how much I had enjoyed the experience of this morning and I would look forward to future meetings of the group. Eventually, I will need to suggest and to introduce a topic of my own and this may be several meetings ahead but on the spur of the moment I would opt for a broad topic such as ‘What constitutes the nature of Evidence‘ and into this I could bring a discussion of the nature of scientific evidence and the regard (or rather lack of it) which abounds in so much of our political and social life. I took the opportunity to buy some things that are not available in my usual supermarket and then returned home to cook myself a light lunch of some boiled eggs followed by some fruit. This evening, my American friend and I are going to share a meal of some fresh hake, quickly pan fried and served on a bed of salad which is fast and easy to prepare but a nice treat for us at the end of the week. My friend was going off to a swimming session to which she was being re-introduced after a gap of some years so no doubt we can enjoy recounting our various experiences of the morning to each other. Not many people realise that Spain has laid claim to a couple of enclaves on the North African post, surrounded by modern day Morocco. Ceuta and Melilla represent the European Union’s only land border with Africa. Spanish authorities have increased security around the enclaves in recent years through increased surveillance, barrier reinforcement, and improved bilateral relations with Morocco, but people continue to attempt to cross. The number of migrants who entered Ceuta yesterday has risen to 60,000, as 34 confirmed dead. That is equivalent to 70% of the city’s regular population.  The apparent temporary collapse of the territory’s border has led to a wave of condemnation by European leaders.  So we think that we have problems with the ingress of boat crossings across the English Channel!