An online petition calling for the lifetime ban of racist abusers from all football matches in England is nearing one million names.
With over 840,000 signatures and counting, the petition is rapidly gaining traction.
The petition has been set up in the wake of the aftermath of the Euro 2020 final on Sunday evening, where, despite a triumphant run by a team that captured the hearts of the nation and brought so many people together after a tough 15 months, Gareth Southgate’s squad couldn’t quite clinch the win to bring home England’s first international victory since 1966.
The Three Lions’ game subsequently ran through extra time to be taken down to penalties, with youngsters Bukayo Saka, 19, Marcus Rashford, 23, and Jadon Sancho, 21, all sadly missing – leaving Italy with a 3-2 victory.
The agonising loss unfortunately brought with it abhorrent and inexcusable racist discrimination targeted at Saka, Rashford and Sancho on social media.
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It was confirmed yesterday that police were investigating the “racist and offensive” messages.
The FA said it “strongly condemns” the abuse, labelling it as “disgusting” and adding in a statement that: “
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We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behaviour is not welcome in following the team [and] we will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible.”
“We stand with our players,” the England team also said on Twitter yesterday.
We’re disgusted that some of our squad – who have given everything for the shirt this summer – have been subjected to discriminatory abuse online after tonight’s game.
The abuse was condemned in statements made by a number of leaders, public figures, and industry names including Prince William The Duke of Cambridge, leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, and most-notably, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel – the latter of whom has been accused of “stoking the fire at the beginning of the tournament” and subsequently “pretending to be disgusted” in the wake of the abuse by England defender Tyrone Mings in a now-viral tweet yesterday.
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The FA has implored the government and social media companies to “act quickly and bring in the appropriate legislation so this abuse has real life consequences” – but now, supporters have taken matters into their own hands with a petition.
The Change.org petition – which is entitled ‘Ban racists for life from all football matches in England’, and is aimed at Boris Johnson and Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden – was set up by anti-racism campaigner Shaista Aziz and her friends under the name of the Three Hijabis.
Created at 8am on the Monday morning after the final, the petition had already amassed over 300,000 signatures within eight hours of being launched.
It looks set to surpass the one million mark later today.
The Three Lions couldn’t quite clinch the win in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday / Credit: Twitter (@England)
The petition reads: “As multi-racial football fans, we finally feel represented by this anti-racist and inclusive England team [and] we could not be more proud or inspired by our magnificent team and by their talent, bravery, leadership and love for all.
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“Gareth Southgate’s England team plays for ALL of us.
“Their vision is an inclusive vision and this matters more than ever – it’s why we feel proud of this team and why they’re so cherished and loved by many of us [and] there should be no room for racists and bigotry in football or society.
“We are calling for the Football Association and the government to work together now to ban all those who have carried out racist abuse, online or offline, from all football matches in England for life.
“Our England team stood up for all of us – now we must stand up for them.”
A Manchester-based runner has broken an ultramarathon record by running across the desert
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester has a growing obsession with running and endurance events, in particular, did you hear about a locally based runner who’s set the record for legging it across a literal desert?
That’s some ‘Hardest Geezer’ stuff right there.
Yes, whether it’s the likes of the Great MCR Run and October Half, the fully fledged Manchester Marathon, or dare we say it, an extra hard ultra, the region seems to be absolutely chock-full of runners and events these days.
That being said, despite being inspired by countless individuals over the past few years, the feat that has impressed us most this year is the incredible achievement by one man: Alex Welch from Wilmslow.
We’re pretty sure this is the bloke The Pretenders must have been talking about.
Based right here in 0161, by day Alex Welch is employed as a senior cyber security sales specialist at a major European IT services company, SCC, over in Stretford.
However, by both day and night for a full working week late last month, the 29-year-old swapped his computers for a very sturdy pair of running trainers; trail shoes, to be specific, as he trekked across the Namib Desert in Africa.
Stretching more than 2,000 kilometres in total, spanning the reaches of Angola, Namibia and parts of South Africa, the talented distance runner ran approximately 12.5% of that entire landmass over the course of five days.
Broken up into five stages – 50km, 50k, 42k and 22k, as well as a truly brutal 92k day to finish – not only did the indefinable Cheshire-born bloke reach the finish line, but he did so in record time.
Let’s be honest, anyone challenging themselves with the course is clearly an absolute machine, but as seen above and now fully verified, Alex here did so in 24 hours and 27 minutes.
Taking just over a day to complete the entire thing, Alex led every beating everyone else in every single stage and ended up surpassing legendary American ultra runner and now race director Adam Kimble’s time from 2018 by almost 40 whole minutes. Utterly staggering stuff.
Signing up as an official OOSH-sponsored athlete for the event, having only just podiumed at the Ice Ultra round the Arctic Circle back in February, AND the Mountain Ultra across Kyrgyzstan this past June, he’s quite literally ‘endured blistering cold and scorching desert’ (one for Shrek 2 fans, there).
Commenting on the unbelievable achievement, the local lad said: “Namibia was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The heat was on another level, and every stage demanded absolute focus. To come away with the win – and a course record – is overwhelming.
“After the Arctic and Kyrgyzstan, this was the challenge I had been building towards all season. I’m grateful for everyone who has supported me, particularly my colleagues at SCC who have backed me every step of the way.”
Well done, Alex – we’re off to have a lie down because we’re tired just thinking about what you’ve just done, so hope you’ve at least got a few weeks of relaxation and victory pints lined up. That’s how we toasted our taste of an ultra, anyway…
8 million Brits are predicted to write their Christmas cards using AI this year, new research finds
Emily Sergeant
Millions of Brits are predicted to use AI to help them write their Christmas cards this year.
According to some new Royal Mail research, AI is most likely to be used for researching gifts (19%), festive party ideas (13%), and decoration inspiration (13%) throughout this festive season, but in what is a revelation many will find surprising – and even alarming – it’ll even be used for the timeless tradition of sending Christmas cards.
2,000 UK adults who celebrate Christmas were surveyed by the postal service early last month on how they plan to make use of technology this festive season.
The new research found that 11% of respondents will be using AI to help write the messages for their Christmas cards, which works out to be around eight million people.
It’s the under-55s who are driving the trend, as you can probably imagine – with 57% of this age group planning to lean on AI for guidance, compared to just 14% of those over 55.
Oh, and you’ll want to keep an extra eye on the Christmas cards that come from the men in your life too, as men are 67% more likely than women to use AI to help them.
Eight million Brits are predicted to write their Christmas cards using AI this year / Credit: KoolShooters
Although it may be largely frowned upon, it’s fairly easy to see why people are turning to tech to find the right words, as the Royal Mail’s research found that nearly one in five (19%) Brits say they don’t know what to write in cards, and this figure rises even further to 31% when it comes to 18-24-year-olds.
Despite the use of AI as a helping hand, three quarters of Brits (74%) do still think it’s important to keep the tradition of sending handwritten Christmas cards alive.
“AI is becoming part of everyday life for many people,” says technology journalist and broadcaster, Georgie Barrat. “So it’s natural we’ll see it used during the festive season. When it comes to writing cards, it can help you go beyond a simple ‘Merry Christmas’ and choose words that feel more unique.
“Often, people know what they want to say – they just need a little help expressing it.”
Richard Travers, who is the Managing Director of Letters at Royal Mail, concluded: “No matter what you include in your card, or how you choose to write your message, cards are truly a way of spreading festive cheer.”
Emily Sergeant -
13th July 2021 
