They take it as given that the tip-off about a chemical bomb on the premises was wrong, and that this should have been obvious beforehand.

More from John Rentoul. The Taliban are back. Less than five years after British and American troops drove them out of Afghanistan, they are launching increasingly audacious attacks, including an ambush of British troops in Helmand province last weekend. Non-white Londoners are entitled, therefore, to feel concerned about the way the police conducted the operation. The idea of being shot by mistake by an officer breaking into one’s house at 4am can hardly be waved aside as a regrettable piece of bad luck. Nor do we know how credible the intelligence was on which the operation was based, although the release of the two brothers without charge suggests it was dud.

But when you hear someone use the word “gay” instead of homosexual or a more obviously scornful epithet, you register a different image. The speaker is of liberal persuasion, probably aware of social decorum, attentive to others’ sensibilities and mindful of the susceptibility of minority groups to stereotypes and labels.. It is reasonable to believe both that the police are incompetent and that the raid on a house in Forest Gate was completely justified. Both of these would have to be beliefs rather than assertions, though, because few people yet have a clear idea of precisely what happened in that house in east London where a young man was shot in the shoulder nine days ago.

We do not know for sure that the raid was badly handled, although recent history and the fact that 250 officers were deployed do not inspire confidence. “You have to say we’ve got the best supporters here,” he enthused “There’s no one else like us.”. “Nigger.” You know the second you hear it that the person saying it is a bigot, an ignorant white racist, head full of prejudices and probably a card-carrying member of some far-right political group with a fondness for Nazi memorabilia. An estimated 50,000 England fans are in Germany, and most were in the stadium yesterday.

In fact, they dominated the occasion: their customised flags of St George showed that they’d come to Frankfurt from everywhere to bask in sunshine every bit as bright as here and witness the fulfilment of their dreams. A stirring sight for many, not least the former England striker Ian Wright, a patriotic member of the BBC’s pundit team. The defeat of Paraguay was not a dazzling victory but good enough. If our hopes are disappointed, it won’t be for want of support from the stands.

After all the anticipation and offering up of prayers to Metatarsal, God of Toes, we’re off. And there is every sign that they are popular if – unlike the fuel duty increases – their purpose is explained.”The old clich?s that tax is the price you pay for civilisation,” says Andrew Sims of the New Economics Foundation “Green ones are what we will have to pay for survival.”. Differential pricing did much to get lead out of petrol, for example, but the toxic metal was only removed completely by regulation. But equally it is hard to see how the environmental crisis can be tackled without them.