Spare a thought

Terror: Speaking with European partners on viloent

I thought I should spare a thought tonight for my colleague Matthew Collins. Not for him a night in Cardiff watching his beloved Crystal Palace in the League Cup semi-final, nor indeed a night at home in his large replica shirt watching and screaming incoherently at the “Eagles” on TV.

“Poor” Matthew’s been on the road for the last ten days plugging his book and then returned straight home to a series of conferences he agreed to speak at long before Palace’s shock win against Manchester United up at Old Trafford in the last round of the League Cup.

Yesterday Matthew addressed an international meeting in London of people from government bodies from the UK, Norway and Sweden on the theme of far-right extremism-six months on from the Oslo terror attacks.

Today Matthew was at Kings College London as a guest speaker at the International Centre For The Study Of Radicalisation (ICSR).

The meeting was “packed to the rafters” to hear Matthew debate with Jamie Bartlett from DEMOS on the issues surrounding the rise (and fall) of the English Defence League (EDL) and how best to address them.

Although the two do not entirely agree, the lively meeting belied Matthew’s inner turmoil: Shortly before midday, as his thoughts turned to the big game in Cardiff tonight, news came through from our office that Matthew was needed in Brussels, leaving on a train just before the game was due to be aired on television.

He’s been asking for text message updates of the game, but as yet I have not had the heart to send him one..

ICSR: But is he dreaming of Wembley?