Finished this now, been doing an odd chapter or 2 at work when there is no deliveries to do.
Couple of chapters that stand out. 1 tells the story of how the Met commissioner set up a sting to catch corrupt coppers. More to do with getting some positive publicity at the time as there was various enquiries going on in the background 1 of which was the Steven Lawrence enquiry.
Anyway he gave the go ahead and his detectives borrowed 80kg of hash from the evidence locker to plant in a flat that they had hired. The word was then put out and the corrupt officers took the bait and went to 'raid' this flat with the intention of selling it on for their own profit.
The CPS had noted they were worried about such a large amount of drugs being lost but they were assured it would be under surveillance 24 hours a day and there was no risk.
They arrested the officers and they were successfully prosecuted and 54kg of hash was put back in to the evidence locker. The rest has never been found.
The other chapter is a short one that shows how common racism was in the Met back in the day. A lot of the detectives, most accused of some form of corruption, went on a yearly masonic football holiday to Spain or the likes. The group was called the Walthamstow Overseas Geographical Society or W.O.G.S for short.
I'm reading a hoor of a lot since I kicked capitalism in the erse, and I'll be looking at this when the reading Himalaya sinks a bit:
https://booksfromscotland.com/2020/0...in-the-making/ Soul and jazz soundtrack frpm the boy too.
I recently picked up on Anthony Cartwright, and his Iron Towns is a fitba novel set in the post-Thatcher West Midlands Rust Belt, with flashbacks to the 1964 European Cup final, THAT Panenka penalty v West Germany in 76, Zizou's tribute to it in 2006, and Pirlo doing likewise I'm nae sure when. I got it on eBay for next to nothing.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30127626-iron-towns
I'm reading the How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions? by recently deceased (RIP) Aberdonian Marxist historian Neil Davidson. A great read from a great man and along with Bob Cooney belying the perception that we're all inbred, cap doffing reactionaries up here.
With bookshops ‘non-essential retail’, a non-Amazon fix is possible here. Good discounts, which is very handy on new titles, and Hive gives support to independent local bookshops.
http://newsletters.hive.co.uk/q/13Yr...DYcy2nGBoMh/wv
Currently reading the sublime The Duchess Of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff’s follow-up to 84 Charing Cross Road, the best collection of letters I’ve read in a long long time (Proper Mannies’ paperback), and Mike Brearley On Cricket (e-book).
I'm reading Eric Hobsbawm's essays on Latin America 'Viva la Revolucion', Julian Cope's Head On / Repossessed, The Groucho Marx Letters and Volker Kutscher's 'Marlow'.
From Brearley's chapter on commentators:
"In October 2007, nominated by Doug Insole to succeed him, I became President of the MCC for a year. One of the pleasant duties of the role is to invite speakers to monthly dinners for members during the winter. My first two speakers were Matthew Engel and Vic Marks. I should have liked to take credit for this being a statement of political intent (to start with Marx and Engels), or if not intent, ironical provocation, but if so the credit is to my unconscious only."
Proper Mannies' writin.